The Haskalah and Jewish emancipation

Overview

Recall questions on Moses Mendelssohn, revealed legislation, the Lavater affair and the Biur, the Maskilim and secular Jewish culture, emancipation and civil liberties, the rise of Reform and Progressive Judaism, the challenge of science, and whether the period brought pluralism or fragmentation.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Who was Moses Mendelssohn, and why is he regarded as the founder of the Haskalah?

   Model answer

   Mendelssohn lived from 1729 to 1786. He was born in Dessau, followed his teacher to Berlin as a poor student, and became a successful merchant and one of the most admired philosophers in Germany, so much so that he was widely called the Jewish Socrates. He wrote on aesthetics and on the immortality of the soul in a work that became a European bestseller, and on the relation of religion and state in a book defending Judaism. He is regarded as the founder of the Jewish Enlightenment because he demonstrated in his own person that a fully observant Jew could take part in European intellectual life at the highest level, and because his projects, above all his German translation of the Torah, were designed to make that possible for others.

2. 2

   What did Mendelssohn argue about G-d's existence, about truth and about reason?

   Model answer

   He held that the fundamental religious truths, that G-d exists, that G-d governs the world providentially and that the soul is immortal, are truths of reason available to any thinking person of any nation, and are not the private possession of a revealed religion. It follows that no one is damned for lacking a particular revelation, and that reason and religion cannot genuinely conflict. He defended these positions with philosophical argument rather than by appeal to scripture. The position had a further consequence he intended: if the essential truths are universal, Judaism has no need to convert anyone, and its distinctiveness must lie elsewhere.

3. 3

   How did Mendelssohn defend Judaism, and what did he mean by calling it revealed legislation?

   Model answer

   He argued that Judaism does not consist of revealed doctrines that must be believed on authority, because its doctrines are the universal truths of reason; what was revealed at Sinai was a body of law binding on the Jewish people. Judaism therefore asks for a way of acting rather than for assent to propositions it could not justify rationally. He drew two conclusions from this. First, Judaism is fully compatible with enlightened reason and Jews need not choose between the two. Second, because coercion belongs to the state and not to religion, no religious body should have power to compel belief or to expel members, a principle he applied to the synagogue's power of excommunication as well as to the churches. He insisted at the same time that the law remained binding and that Jews should not abandon it.

4. 4

   What was the Lavater affair, and why did it matter?

   Model answer

   In 1769 a Swiss clergyman publicly dedicated a book to Mendelssohn and challenged him either to refute the arguments for Christianity or to convert. It was an attempt to force a public choice on the most respected Jew in Germany. Mendelssohn replied with restraint, declining to attack another religion, noting that Judaism does not seek converts and therefore has no interest in polemic, and pointing out the position of a man from a barely tolerated minority invited to debate the majority faith in public. The episode damaged his health but greatly increased his standing, and it pushed him towards writing directly in defence of Judaism.

5. 5

   What was the Biur, and what was Mendelssohn trying to achieve with it?

   Model answer

   It was a translation of the Torah into elegant High German, printed in Hebrew characters, accompanied by a new Hebrew commentary produced with collaborators. The aim was twofold: to give Jewish readers accurate access to the plain sense of the text, and to give them the German language, since the edition allowed a reader who knew only Hebrew letters to acquire literary German through a text they already knew. It was intended as an instrument of both religious and social modernisation. Some rabbinic authorities opposed it fiercely, precisely because they saw where it led, and it was banned in some communities.

6. 6

   Who were the Maskilim, and what did they promote?

   Model answer

   The Maskilim were the adherents of the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment. They promoted the study of secular subjects alongside Torah, the revival of Hebrew as a literary language, competence in the vernacular of the country, and the reform of Jewish education, founding new schools with a broad curriculum. They published a Hebrew journal that became the movement's platform, wrote poetry, drama and satire, and argued for Jews to enter productive trades and agriculture rather than the narrow range of occupations left to them. One prominent figure urged in a widely circulated pamphlet that secular education was necessary before Torah could be properly learned, which provoked strong rabbinic opposition. In eastern Europe the movement developed later and was sharper, often attacking Hasidism and rabbinic authority directly.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.