Modern Jewish Thought

Part 1: General Themes (30 points)
Part 2: Short Texts and particular themes (40 points)
Part 3: Text Analysis (30 points)
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Part 1: answer only 2 of the following 3 questions. (15 points for each answer)
[approx. 0.5 a page +, max. 270 words for each question. Here your answer should be concise
as possible]
How did Spinoza use critical examination of the Bible to undermine religious political authority,
and what kind of understanding of Judaism comes out from this examination?
In what ways Spinoza’s Metaphysics (in ETHICA) challenges traditional religious concept of
God, and in what ways his concept of God is still similar to the traditional one?
Explain Leibniz’s distinction between Necessary Truths and Contingent Truths and why his
version of rationalism can be a more convenient philosophical frame for religious thinking.
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Part 2: (20 points for each answer)
[approx. 0.75 a page +, max. 500 words, for each answer]
1. Read the following paragraph and answer the questions below:
“ I come now to a far more important objection that has been raised against me, and which has
chiefly caused me to write this work. Once more, without refuting my arguments, one has
opposed to them the sacred authority of the Mosaic religion which I profess. What are the laws
of Moses but a system of religious government, of the power and right of religion […] This
objection cuts me to the heart […] “
Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem, section II
a) What is Mendelssohn’s political argument that was objected and what is the objection?
b) What is Mendelssohn’s answer to this objection? (as part of your answer do address
Mendelssohn’s distinction between revealed religion and revealed legislation).
2. Read the following paragraphs (divided to sections) and answer the questions below:
[1] “ The Torah [=Pentateuch] commences with seven mighty Hebrew words, which are
translated as, “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.” What does this verse indicate?
[…] true believers, they all recognized the Torah as a demand made upon man to serve God,
the implication of this for man being the acceptance of the Yoke of Heaven as embodied in the
Yoke of the Torah and the mitzvot— commandments […] What does the sidra [=section in the
Pentateuch] of Bereishit [=Genesis] add to that demand, and what does it contribute to its
realization?
[2] What is the meaning of the seven Hebrew words translated as “In the beginning God
created heaven and earth”? Is this information about an event that took place at a certain
specific time? If so, why does it state בראשית ,which, translated literally, means “in the
beginning of” The beginning of what? The beginning of time? We are immediately confronted
with one of the greatest of problems, possibly the greatest of all, in metaphysical thought: the
problem of time and the concept of the beginning of time, or—in the more comprehensive sense
—the concept of the beginning of reality. Is one able to give this meaning within the categories
of human thought? All philosophical attempts to grapple with this, from ancient times to the
present, result in antinomies […]
The second Hebrew word too, “created”—what does it mean? The human categories are:
made, built, formed, shaped; we are not familiar with the category of “created” within our reality
and in the world with which we are familiar […] This concept, too, is not rational […]
There is no doubt that “created” expresses a relationship between God and the world—but what
is the nature of that relationship, which we are unable to understand, let alone visualize? Thus
we see that the first two words do not supply man with any information on any event.
[3] The first verse in the Torah presents the great principle of faith: the world is not God — as
opposed to any other outlook which exists in human culture: as opposed to paganism, whose
gods belong to the world and are to be found in the world; as opposed to Christianity, which at
first blush received from Judaism the concept of the transcendent God, but immediately attired it
in a human form which existed in the world; and as opposed to atheism, for which the world is
the totality of being, or, in other words, that it is God. As opposed to all of these, the Torah says,
“In the beginning, God created heaven and earth”; the world is not God, and God is not in the
world — God is beyond the world, beyond any reality to which man’s concepts are bound, and
beyond the needs and the interests which stem from man’s existence in the world. “
Yeshayahu Leibowitz, On the first verses of Genesis
a. On Section [2]: how is Kantian critical theoretical philosophy reflected in these
paragraphs?
b. On Section [1] and [3]: How Leibowitz’ conclusion in section [3] about the meaning of the
first verse of Bereishit answers the question raised in the end of section [1]?
c. How Leibowitz’ understanding of the role of praxis in Judaism is reflected in these
paragraphs?
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Part 3:
[approx. 1+ page, max. 1000 words]
Read Leibowitz’ “Religious Praxis: The Meaning of Halakhah” (on moodle) and
1. Summarize the article by writing its main claims concerning the role of Praxis in Judaism
(each claim should be written generally and concisely: a short list of general points).
2. Choose one of the other philosophers that we discussed in our course and show at least
one similarity point between his ideas and Leibowitz’s ideas and one point of difference.