Great Jewish Thinkers: Maimonides, Spinoza, Mendelssohn

Edward Breuer Hebrew College [email protected] Spring 2014

Great Jewish Thinkers: Maimonides, Spinoza, Mendelssohn JTHT 525

The greatest Jewish thinkers, like the great thinkers of other religious traditions, distinguished themselves by their ability to re-examine and re-interpret received ideas and texts in profound and far-reaching ways. For medieval and modern Jews, this feature of religious life was a means of rendering ancient traditions meaningful to societies and cultural contexts far removed from their biblical and rabbinic origins. Through careful and selected readings of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise, and Mendelssohn’s Jerusalem, this course will examine the ways in which these outstanding Jewish read and interpreted classical Jewish texts.

Course Syllabus and Readings

Unit 1 February 3 – February 9

Jewish Thought, Jewish Philosophy: Some Introductory Perspectives

Unit 2 February 10 – February 16

Understanding Maimonides’ Milieu: The Cultural and Religious Background of Medieval Jewish Philosophy

Unit 3 February 17 – March 4 [two week unit]

Jewish Philosophy as an Esoteric Endeavor: The Audience and Method of the Guide

Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed [page references are to Pines edition] Epistle Dedicatory and Introduction, pp. 2-20 Part I, chapter 34, pp. 72-79 Part I, chapter 71, pp. 175-176 Part II, chapter 29, pp. 346-347

Secondary Reading [in coursepack]: Leo Strauss, “The Literary Character of the Guide of the Perplexed.” In Essays on Maimonides. Ed. Salo Baron (1941) 37- 91.

Unit 4 March 5 – March 18 [two week unit]

The (True) Nature of Prophecy

Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed Part II, chapters 32 to 42, pp. 360-390

Secondary Reading [in coursepack]: Lawrence Kaplan, “Maimonides on the Miraculous Element in Prophecy.” Harvard Theological Review 70 (1977) 233-56.

Unit 5 March 19 – March 25

The Problem of Evil and the Promise of Providence

Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed Part III, chapter 10, pp. 439-440 Part III, chapter 12, pp. 441-448 Part III, chapters 17-18, pp. 464-477

Unit 6 March 26 – April 1

Spinoza and His Times

Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise Preface

Unit 7 April 2 – April 8

The (True) Nature of Prophecy

Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise Chapter 1 - 3

Unit 8 April 9 – April 23 [unit extended over two weeks due to Passover]

On the Authority of Divine Law and Scripture Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise Chapters 4 - 5, 7 - 9, 12

Unit 9 April 24 – April 29

Of Faith and Reason

Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise Chapters 13 - 15

Unit 10 April 30 – May 6

Mendelssohn and German-Jewry on the Eve of the Modern Period

Unit 11 May 7 – May 14

Enlightenment Universalism and Jewish Political Agenda

Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem Part I, pp. 70-75 Part II, pp. 77-104, 126-139

Unit 12 May 15 – May 23

Jewish Law, Jewish History, Jewish Particularism

Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem Part II, pp. 84-139 [focusing on 95-97, 104-125, 135-139

Secondary Reading [in coursepack]: [in coursepack]: Edward Breuer, “Politics, Tradition, History: Rabbinic Judaism and the Eighteenth-Century Struggle for Civil Equality,” Harvard Theological Review 85 (1992) 357- 83.