Baruch Spinoza Heretic, Lens Grinder

SPECIAL ARTICLE Baruch Spinoza Heretic, Lens Grinder Steven Nadler, PhD n July 27, 1656, the following text was read in Hebrew in front of the ark of the Por- tuguese-Jewish synagogue on the Houtgracht in the Vlooienburg quarter of Amster- dam where the Sephardic Jews (as well as their poorer Ashkenazic neighbors) tended to reside: O The Lords of the Ma’amad, having long known But you that cleave unto the Lord your God of the evil opinions and acts of Baruch de Spi- are alive every one of you this day. noza, they have endeavored by various means and promises, to turn him from his evil ways. The document concludes with the But having failed to make him mend his wicked warning that ways, and, on the contrary, daily receiving more no one should communicate with him, nei- and more serious information about the abomi- ther in writing, nor accord him any favor nor nable heresies which he practiced and taught stay with him under the same roof nor come and about his monstrous deeds, and having for within four cubits in his vicinity; nor shall he this numerous trustworthy witnesses who have read any treatise composed or written by him. deposed and born witness to this effect in the presence of the said Espinoza, they became con- A Portuguese version was later entered into vinced of the truth of this matter; and after all the community’s record books.1 of this has been investigated in the presence of the honorable chachamim they have de- Through this proclamation, a cided, with their consent, that the said Espi- cherem—a ban or excommunication— noza should be excommunicated and ex- was pronounced on the 23-year-old Ba- pelled from the people of Israel. By decree of ruch de Spinoza by the parnassim sitting the angels and by the command of the holy on the community’s lay governing board men, we excommunicate, expel, curse, and in 1656. It was the harshest writ of ex- damn Baruch de Espinoza, with the consent of communication ever issued by the com- God, Blessed be He, and with the consent of munity; it was never rescinded. We do not the entire holy congregation, and in front of know for sure what his “monstrous deeds” these holy scrolls with the 613 precepts which and “abominable heresies” were alleged to are written therein; cursing him with the excommunication with which Joshua banned have been, but an educated guess comes Jericho and with the curse which Elisha cursed quite easily. No doubt he was giving ut- the boys and with all the castigations that are terance to just those ideas that would soon written in the Book of the Law. Cursed be he appear in his philosophical treatises. In his by day and cursed be he by night; cursed be philosophical masterpiece, the Ethics, and he when he lies down and cursed be he when in the scandalous Theological-Political he rises up. Cursed be he when he goes out and Treatise, Spinoza denied the immortality cursed be he when he comes in. The Lord will of the soul; rejected the notion of a provi- not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord dential God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and Jacob; and claimed that the Law was and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out neither literally given by God nor any his name from under heaven. And the Lord longer binding on Jews. Can there be shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes any mystery as to why one of history’s of Israel, according to all the curses of the cov- boldest and most radical thinkers was enant that are written in this book of the law. sanctioned by an orthodox Jewish community? To all appearances, Spinoza was From the Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin at Madison. content finally to have an excuse for (REPRINTED) ARCH OPHTHALMOL / VOL 118, OCT 2000 WWW.ARCHOPHTHALMOL.COM 1425 ©2000 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 10/02/2021 departing from the community and minimum, and his friends pro- was not particularly noted among his leaving Judaism behind; his faith vided a good deal of financial help. contemporaries for his theoretical and religious commitment were, The work on lenses, then, more contributions to the science. He did, by this point, gone. Within a few likely arose not primarily out of pe- however, have a well-recognized tal- years, he left Amsterdam alto- cuniary need but from scientific pur- ent for practical optics, as well as a gether, although there is little evi- suit. Spinoza, with his general en- passion for microscopic and tele- dence to support the claim often thusiasm for the new mechanistic scopic observation. Over time, he found in biographical sketches that science and mathematical physics, earned praise for his expertise in lens he was forced into exile, either by was interested in the latest detailed and instrument construction from the rabbis or the city magistrates. explanations of the microphenom- some notable experts. Huygens, writ- By the time his extant correspon- ena of biology and chemistry and the ing to his brother from Paris in 1667 dence begins, in 1661, he is living ever-improving observations of the (when Spinoza was living in Voor- in Rijnsburg, not far from Leiden, macrophenomena of astronomy, as burg, near The Hague), noted that the Netherlands, and he is engaged well as in the principles of optics that “the [lenses] that the Jew of Voor- in the grinding of lenses. allowed for such discoveries. He burg has in his microscopes have an In the back of the house in wrote to his friend Henry Olden- admirable polish.”5(p155) A month which Spinoza lodged in Rijns- burg in 1665 with evident delight later, still using the somewhat con- burg, owned by a chemist-surgeon about some new instruments he had temptuous epithet—occasionally re- named Herman Homan, was a room heard about from the Dutch scien- placed in his letters by “our Israel- in which Spinoza set up his lens- tist and mathematician Christiaan ite”—he wrote that “the Jew of grinding equipment. (A visitor to Ri- Huygens: Voorburg finishes [achevoit] his little jnsburg today will find in the Spi- lenses by means of the instrument nozahuis a recreation of the room He has told me wonderful things about and this renders them very excel- and its equipment.) It was a craft he these microscopes, and also about cer- lent.”5(p158) By the early 1670s, Spino- must have begun working on while tain telescopes, made in Italy, with which za’s reputation is sufficiently wide- they could observe eclipses of Jupiter spread that the German philosopher still in Amsterdam, for by the time caused by the interposition of its satel- he settled in Rijnsburg he was fairly lites, and also a certain shadow on Sat- Leibniz called him “an outstanding skilled at it and ready to get to work. urn, which looked as if it were caused optician, a maker of rather famous As early as the fall of 1661, he was by a ring.3(p394) peeptubes,” and told him directly that known for making not just lenses, but also telescopes and micro- Spinoza himself did little signifi- among your other achievements which scopes.2 cant original work in the physical or fame has spread abroad I understand is your remarkable skill in optics... Ishall Spinoza may initially have mathematical sciences. He had a solid not easily find someone who can judge taken up the production of lenses grasp of optical theory and of the better in this field of studies.4(p193),6 and instruments to support him- then-current physics of light, and was self. When he was forced to break competent enough to engage in so- Even Theodore Kerckrinck, an old completely all relations with the Jew- phisticated discussion with corre- colleague from Franciscus Van den ish community, and therefore could spondents over fine points in the Enden’s school, where he learned not carry on with the family’s im- mathematics of refraction. Writing in Latin, and now an established and porting business, he had to seek his 1666 to the mathematician Jo- skilled physician, lauded Spinoza’s living by other means. But the firm hannes Hudde, who had an interest handiwork: Bento y Gabriel Despinoza was not in the cutting and polishing of lenses, bringing in very much income from Spinoza offered a geometrical argu- I own a first-class microscope made by that Benedictus Spinoza, that noble 1655 onward anyway, certainly not ment for why he believed that, when mathematician and philosopher, which enough to cover the debts he inher- it came down to focal length and the enables me to see the lymphatic vascu- ited from his late father, and Spi- diameter of the optic tube, convex/ lar bundles....Well, this that I have noza could not have felt his forced plane lenses were preferable to con- clearly discovered by means of my mar- exit from the business to be much vex/concave lenses.3(p209) Moreover, he velous instrument, is itself still more of a pressing loss. Moreover, from insisted, not only do convex/plane marvelous.7 the opening paragraphs of his early lenses require less “labor and ex- Treatise on the Emendation of the In- pense” to produce, but the rays pass- Spinoza seems to have taken a tellect, it is clear that Spinoza had in- ing through convex/concave lenses, hands-on approach to the grinding dependent, philosophical reasons for because they are not all directed to of glass.

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