The Origins of Jewish Secularization in Eighteenth-century Europe

by Feiner, Shmuel; Naor, Chaya

• ISBN13: 9780812242737
• ISBN10: 0812242734
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-24
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

Summary

Throughout the eighteenth century, an ever-sharper distinction emerged between Jews of the old order and those who were self-consciously of a new world. As aspirations for liberation clashed with adherence to tradition, as national, ethnic, cultural, and other alternatives emerged and a long, circuitous search for identity began, it was no longer evident that the definition of Jewishness would be based on the beliefs and practices surrounding the study of the Torah. InThe Origins of Jewish Secularization in Eighteenth-Century EuropeShmuel Feiner reconstructs this evolution by listening to the voices of those who participated in the process and by deciphering its cultural codes and meanings. On the one hand, a great majority of observant Jews still accepted the authority of the Talmud and the leadership of the rabbis; on the other there was a gradually more conspicuous minority of "Epicureans" and "freethinkers." As the ground shifted, each individual was marked according to his or her place on the spectrum between faith and heresy, between devoutness and permissiveness or indifference. Building on his award-winningJewish Enlightenment, Feiner unfolds the story of critics of religion, mostly Ashkenazic Jews, who did not take active part in the secular intellectual revival known as the Haskalah. In open or concealed rebellion, Feiner's subjects lived primarily in the cities of western and central Europe-Altona-Hamburg, Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Breslau, and Prague. They participated as "fashionable" Jews adopting the habits and clothing of the surrounding Gentile society. Several also adopted the deist worldview of Enlightenment Europe, rejecting faith in revelation, the authority of Scripture, and the obligation to observe the commandments. Peering into the synagogue, observing individuals in the coffeehouse or strolling the boulevards, and peeking into the bedroom, Feiner recovers forgotten critics of religion from both the margins and the center of Jewish discourse. His is a pioneering work on the origins of one of the most significant transformations of modern Jewish history.

Author Biography

Shmuel Feiner is Professor of Modern Jewish History at Bar-Ilan University and Chairman of the Jerusalem Leo Baeck Institute. Among his many books is The Jewish Enlightenment, winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award in History, also published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Introduction: Sins and Doubts	p. 1
Suspicions Arise	p. 3
Religion under Attack	p. 10
Early Jewish Skepticism	p. 16
Acculturation and Rebellion	p. 21
Secularization Terminology	p. 23
Liberty and Heresy, 1700-1760
Pleasures and Liberation from Religious Supervision	p. 29
Insulting the Angels of God	p. 33
Physical Gratifications	p. 38
Temptations of Fashion and Passion	p. 48
Life à la Mode: Temptations of the City	p. 48
Temptations of Eros	p. 52
Hedonism and Abandoning God	p. 58
The Mystical Sect: Subversive Sabbateans	p. 64
A New Torah to Permit the Forbidden: From Hayon to Eybeschutz	p. 66
"I Will Trample on All the Laws": Antinomianism and Libertinism	p. 73
The Rationalist Sect: Neo-Karaites and Deists	p. 84
Freethinkers and the Threat of Reason	p. 85
The Fool Says in His Heart That There Is No God: Skepticism and Jewish Identity	p. 91
A New World, 1760-80
Providence Is Tested: Secularization on the Rise in the 1760s	p. 103
Warning Bells Toll in Europe	p. 103
To Remove the Shackles of the Commandments: Indifference and Laxity	p. 105
Counterreaction: The Early Maskilim	p. 114
The Supremacy of Nature: Deists on the Margins	p. 119
A Generation without Religion: The 1770s	p. 119
From the Second Spinoza to the Biological Epicurean	p. 125
Religious Skeptics: The "Primitive Ebrew" and the Blasphemer	p. 133
The Emergence of the New World	p. 142
For We Are All Made of Flesh: Fashionable Jews in Amsterdam and Hamburg	p. 143
The Autonomous Individual: Fanny's and Henriette's Hairstyles	p. 151
The Overturned World, 1780-90
Scandals and Rebellions	p. 163
Religious Tolerance and Skepticism in Europe	p. 163
The Sect of the Wicked Reveals Its Face	p. 167
Trash Heap of the Ceremonial Laws: The Heterodox in Breslau and Berlin	p. 173
Replacing Mosaic Laws with Laws of Freedom	p. 180
The Sect of Germans Grows Stronger in Prussia	p. 181
A Peep into Jewish Life in London	p. 185
How to Reply to an Epicurean: Fears of Conservatives from Virginia to Lithuania	p. 190
Anxieties and Confrontations, 1790-1800
On the Decline of Judaism: The Last Decade	p. 205
Between Linitz and London: Irreligion and the Mysteries of Religion	p. 205
Between Observance and Laxity: Rifts and Tensions	p. 215
Epicureans on the Offensive: Provocations and Conflicts	p. 220
Soon Our Faith Will Be Lost: Deists and Believers	p. 229
Falsifications of the Rabbis: Deistic Texts	p. 230
Transgressions Have Become Permissible: The Counter-War of the Congregation of Believers	p. 241
Summary: Free Jews and the Origins of Secularization	p. 251
Notes	p. 265
Bibliography	p. 293
Index	p. 317
Acknowledgments	p. 329
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