Perhaps Jews in Spinoza's time were less concerned about Spinoza's heresy than about not wanting to find themselves being put in the position of having to say that Christian worship is in fact idolatry and blasphemy to Jews.
THE RADICALISED RABBI is a blog on Judaism and its very useful ideas and the blogger a Secular Koranist and a revolutionary. You don't have to be Jewish to find Jewish ideas very useful in tidying up your thinking and turbo-charging your powers of reasoning to the extent that you can even predict most events and disasters. The West is heading for disaster with its insane policy of Transnational Progressivism, turning our global village into Sodom and Gomorrah attracting the same punishment.
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I think the communities reaction was valid considering the context of the time period. This was at a time when Jews were still traumatized by the Inquisition and still being burned at the stake for being Jewish in neighboring countries. In addition, a significant number of Jews openly denounced their faith and converted to Xtianity, either Catholic or Protestant. Not to mention the Marranos, which often times betrayed the Jewish community. The Jewish community in Amsterdam was traumatized, isolated and vulnerable. Anything that would demonstrate the slightest chutzpah would be not be tolerated. Similar to the anti-religious Kibbutzim in Israel after 1948, which would have enacted this same time of excommunication for someone that was religious due to the recent trauma of the Shoa.
ReplyDeletePantheism is also idolatry which is defined as worshiping anything that is not God. Principle 3 of the 13 Principles of Judaism explains exactly how Jews should conceive of God and they are specifically and explicitly told by the Rambam that Hashem is not material and has no physical form. Therefore to worship anything which has physical form and is visible - even the stars in the sky - is idolatry.
ReplyDeleteNot all Pantheists would agree with your definition of pantheism. Although a debate between Spinoza and Rambam would be worthwhile, my comment reflected the circumstances surrounding the Portuguese community excommunication of Spinoza. Orthodox Judaism time and again resists change and has difficulty adjusting to new concepts. At a time where the Inquisition was still alive, where Jews were second class citizens in Protestant countries, competed for respect from their Ashkenazi neighbors, and this community strongly rejected Lurianic Kabbalah post Shabtai Tzvi, due to the damage caused by Shabtai Tzvi- it’s no wonder the community would put Spinoza in cherem.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear from what Spinoza was saying that he rejected the idea of the Abrahamic God, is it not? If he really thought God could be found in physical things, then he was clearly confusing God with His creation since Jews have already been told by the Rambam's 13 Principles that God has no substance and can never be seen. It makes sense to me that any Jew who has committed any of the 36 capital offences in the Torah would be subject to herem and Spinoza was not only guilty of idolatry, he was inciting others to do the same by publishing his book about pantheism, both of which are capital crimes. The rabbis who excommunicated Spinoza must have been of the view that Spinoza had already attracted two capital offences.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Spinoza rejects the Abrahamic G, he never denied the existence of G. Your understanding of capital punishment through Judaism is incorrect. Further, you are stating that a Jew who does not follow Rambam's 13 principles of faith is liable to capital punishment and that is incorrect. You also do not know how the Rabbi's permitted excommunication. You also seem oblivious to the fact that the Xtians believed Spinoza was a threat to their community. The question modern Rabbi's, historians and philosophers ask is the same point I originally made, the timing of the circumstances were significant of the outcome. Einstein said that his G was the same G of Spinoza, did Einstein get excommunicated?
ReplyDeleteHerem was practised in the time of Spinoza who lived in the Netherlands in the 17th century under a monarchy but not practised in the American Republic in the 20th century whose citizens had their freedom of belief guaranteed by the First Amendment.
ReplyDeletePantheism is idolatry, is it not? If you think God is everywhere and can be seen, then you must think he takes physical form. If you worship that physical form thinking that it is God, then you are guilty of idolatry. If you encourage another to do the same, that is a capital crime. If you encourage a community to do that, that is yet another capital crime.
We already know Christianity is idolatry in that Christians worship a man as the co-equal of Hashem and Catholics even call Mary "mother of God". Why would they object to Spinoza saying God takes physical form when they have confirmed this in the theory and practice of Christianity? You must know what the Trinity says about the co-equal status of Jesus with God and you must also know how they go about pretending to eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus.
I have not stated that not agreeing with the Rambam's 13 Principles of Judaism attracts the death penalty, but if any Jew should regard God as taking physical form, this would logically and necessarily mean Jews would be obliged to worship that physical form, which would be idolatry attracting the death penalty.