Reading Maimonides' Philosophy in 19th Century Germany: The Guide to Religious Reform

375 Pages·2012·4.057 MB·English

by  George Y. Kohler (auth.)

Reading Maimonides’ Philosophy
in 19th Century Germany
Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Philosophy
Editor:
Reinier Munk, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Editorial Board:
Resianne Fontaine, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Robert Gibbs, University of Toronto, Canada
Steven Harvey, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Warren Zev Harvey, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Albert van der Heide, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Arthur Hyman, Yeshiva University, New York, U.S.A.
David Novak, University of Toronto, Canada
Kenneth Seeskin, North Western University, Illinois, U.S.A.
Colette Sirat, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifi que (CNRS), France
VOLUME 15
For further volumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/5662
George Y. Kohler
Reading Maimonides’
Philosophy in 19th Century
Germany
The Guide to Religious Reform
George Y. Kohler
Department for Jewish Thought
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Beer Sheva, Israel
ISBN 978-94-007-4034-1 ISBN 978-94-007-4035-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-4035-8
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012936660
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Acknowledgments
Many people have contributed to the successful publication of this book and to the
forming of the theological thoughts expressed in this study. I would like to thank
Neil Hendel for teaching me a rationalist approach to Orthodox Judaism, and my
teacher Prof. Daniel J. Lasker for convincing me to take up studies at the department
for Jewish Thought at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Of my other teachers
at the department it was fi rst of all Prof. Yaakov Blidstein whose brilliancy and
personal example shaped my own approach to Judaism – as an academic subject as
well as a religious conviction.
Several scholars have read earlier versions of parts of this book and their com-
ments have helped improving the quality of this study. Among them are Michael A.
Meyer, David Novak, Lawrence Kaplan and Görge K. Hasselhoff.
Special thanks go to my doctoral advisers, Prof. Haim Kreisel (BGU) and
Prof. Gideon Freudenthal (TAU). Since this book is an extended version of my dis-
sertation, accepted at Ben Gurion University in 2010, both Haim and Gideon have a
tremendous share in its accomplishment.
I would like to thank Prof. Reinier Munk for considering my manuscript for the
prestigious Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Philosophy and all the people at Springer
for their cooperation and openness to all my requests and wishes. In addition, many
other people have helped me preparing the manuscript, among them especially
Robert Klein, Sara Fine and Andre Kahane.
And ultimately I want to thank my wife, Dr. Noa-Sophie Kohler. Without her
I would not have been able to write this book – in fact there is hardly any idea in the
chapters of this study that she did not share with me, commented on, or that she has
not improved for clarity and truth.
v

Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 1
I ................................................................................................................. 1
II ................................................................................................................ 10
III ............................................................................................................... 16
IV .............................................................................................................. 24
V ................................................................................................................ 26
VI .............................................................................................................. 28
Part I Maimonides: The Guide for the Reform Movement in Germany
2 The Beginnings ........................................................................................ 35
Samson R. Hirsch and Simon Scheyer ..................................................... 49
3 The First Reform Rabbis ........................................................................ 57
Abraham Geiger ........................................................................................ 66
Heinrich Graetz ......................................................................................... 75
Moritz Eisler and Leopold Stein ............................................................... 81
4 The Rabbinical Seminaries .................................................................... 87
Manuel Joel ............................................................................................... 89
David Kaufmann ....................................................................................... 96
Anti-Aristotelianism ................................................................................. 101
Philipp Bloch, Wolf Mischel and Israel Finkelscherer ............................. 104
The Baden Prayerbook .............................................................................. 109
Religious Schoolbook and the Jewish Catechism ..................................... 113
The Moses ben Maimon Volumes ............................................................. 119
Felix Perles, Wilhelm Bacher and Adolf Biach ........................................ 122
5 The Return to Philosophy ....................................................................... 129
David Neumark ......................................................................................... 130
Hermann Cohen ........................................................................................ 136
Benzion Kellermann ................................................................................. 149
vii
viii Contents
Part II Specifi c Problems in the Reception of Maimonides’ Philosophy
in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Germany
6 Divine Attributes – The Ethical Concept of God ................................. 157
Manuel Joel ............................................................................................... 159
Abraham Geiger and Moritz Eisler ........................................................... 161
David Kaufmann ....................................................................................... 162
Hermann Cohen’s Ethics of Maimonides .................................................. 167
Benzion Kellermann ................................................................................. 179
Hermann Cohen’s Religion of Reason ...................................................... 183
7 The Law ................................................................................................... 187
The Reform Approach to the Law ............................................................ 190
Simon Scheyer’s Translation of the Guide................................................ 193
Maimonides’ Reasons for the Commandments ........................................ 198
The Frankfurt Conference and Leopold Stein .......................................... 201
Moritz Eisler ............................................................................................. 205
Abraham Geiger ........................................................................................ 206
Heinrich Graetz ......................................................................................... 209
David Joel ................................................................................................. 215
The Sabians ............................................................................................... 216
Leo Bardowicz, Wilhelm Bacher, and Ludwig Pick ................................. 221
Hermann Cohen’s Return to Universalism ............................................... 223
Maimonides in the Religion of Reason ..................................................... 226
Cohen on Guide III, 31–32 ....................................................................... 229
Cohen on the Commandments Between Man and God ............................ 238
Cohen on the Future of the Torah ............................................................. 241
8 Maimonides and Kant ............................................................................ 249
Salomon Maimon ...................................................................................... 254
Manuel Joel ............................................................................................... 256
Adolf Schmiedl ......................................................................................... 263
Moritz Eisler ............................................................................................. 264
David Kaufmann ....................................................................................... 269
Wolf Mischel ............................................................................................. 273
Israel Friedländer ...................................................................................... 278
David Neumark ......................................................................................... 279
Julius Guttmann ........................................................................................ 281
Moritz Steckelmacher ............................................................................... 285
Hermann Cohen ........................................................................................ 286
Benzion Kellermann ................................................................................. 296
Max Freudenthal and Philipp Bloch ......................................................... 303
Epilogue: The Year 1924 .......................................................................... 306
Contents ix
9 “Rambam or Maimonides” .................................................................... 309
Samson Raphael Hirsch ............................................................................ 311
Israel Deutsch and J. Bukofzer ................................................................. 314
Josef Gugenheimer .................................................................................... 317
The Berlin Orthodox Seminary and Ignatz Münz ..................................... 319
David Hoffmann........................................................................................ 323
Simon Eppenstein ..................................................................................... 327
Joseph Wohlgemuth .................................................................................. 329
Israel Friedländer ...................................................................................... 332
Arnold Klein ............................................................................................. 334
Appendix: The Debate Between Julius Guttmann and Leo Strauss ......... 337
10 Conclusions .............................................................................................. 343
Primary German Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century
Sources on Maimonides’ Guide ...................................................................... 349
Bibliography .................................................................................................... 355
Modern Secondary Literature ................................................................... 355
Selected Hebrew Literature ....................................................................... 363
Author Index.................................................................................................... 365
Subject Index ................................................................................................... 369
Index of Chapters ............................................................................................ 373