Edward Breuer HebrewCollege

ring 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 1February 3 – February 9

Jewish Thought, Jewish Philosophy: Some Introductory Perspectives

Unit 2February 10 – February 16

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

Unit 3February 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 4March 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 5March 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 6March 26 – April 1

Spinoza and His Times

Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise

Preface

Unit 7April 2 – April 8

The (True) Nature of Prophecy

Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise

Chapter 1 - 3

Unit 8April 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 9April 24 – April 29

Of Faith and Reason

Spinoza, Theologico-Political Treatise

Chapters 13 - 15

Unit 10April 30 – May 6

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

Unit 11May 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 12May 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.