Moses Mendelssohn to Judaism and Jewish Culture Cover Image

Moses Mendelssohn a judaizm i kultura żydowska
Moses Mendelssohn to Judaism and Jewish Culture

Author(s): Krzysztof Pilarczyk, Robert Dublański
Subject(s): Jewish studies, Theology and Religion, History of Judaism
Published by: Gdańskie Seminarium Duchowne, Kuria Metropolitalna Gdańska
Keywords: Moses Mendelssohn; Enlightenment; Judaism; Jews; the Bible; German philosophy

Summary/Abstract: The second half of the eighteenth century brought a significant change in the history of the Jews and their religion – Judaism. The new Jewish elite, influenced by European currents of the Enlightenment, began to question the paradigms of Jewish religious and social life, exposing values such as tolerance, equality and religious freedom. They sought to equate civil rights of Jews and rejection of tradition shaped by rabbinic Judaism. They came to the fore as the rationalist currents. These trends have given rise to a new culture called the Jewish Haskalah, which in the initial phase found its center in Berlin, and for its forerunner and leader was Moses Mendelssohn, the famous Jewish philosopher of the Enlightenment period “pre-Kantian” called “Jewish Socrates.” On his relationship to Judaism and Jewish culture have an impact: (1) acquired in his youth, religious formation and intellectual, (2) peer pressure, demanding a paradigm shift in education language of the Jews and the inner of this need, (3) the desire to strive to maintain a Jewish religious identity through reinterpretation tradition of using tools Enlightenment philosophy. The authors of article describe these three factors, characterizing thus the initial phase of the Jewish Haskalah.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 38
  • Page Range: 75-87
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Polish