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Baruch Spinoza's Relation To Jewish Philosophical Thought and To Judaism PDF
Baruch Spinoza's Relation To Jewish Philosophical Thought and To Judaism PDF
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BARUCH SPINOZA'S RELATION TO JEWISH
PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT AND TO JUDAISM
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412 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
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SPINOZA'S RELATION TO JEWISH THOUGHT-WAXMAN 413
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414 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
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SPINOZA'S RELATION TO JEWISH THOUGHT-WAXMAN 415
II
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416 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
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SPINOZA'S RELATION TO JEWISH THOUGHT-WAXMAN 417
" Winrliv) -itysb v blt sn "D;I -I'nr z Dmw n Ll 1PD' luo-lbD ny QY OzDln nrIn
]D l=t nID -IDD '-I -1DD lon l:'inn' ::lz-D -n:-n 'rn Pnl .-rni nltsV) Hb ImDD
Wmn OtyrnD nnnl btw It3D'"ib mnI m-tin nbt 'D1l ..... .nD nz-1n -ity DLolvts;
nni nn -it D i nN -nm I I ll'ty ni. More Nebukim, part 11, ch. 22.
The last statement is rather questionable, as the assertion is of a
Neo-Platonic character and not Aristotelian. Shem Tob ibn Falkera,
the commentator, remarks ad locum: 'tw 'loD'ni nD mlpD nrtN 'ny, Ht1
int mn13 tH lltySs U-lnt ztw Htt pyIW mln nI' nD ntnnn.
"I do not know where and in what place Aristotle stated that the
direct emanation from God must be one simple intelligence and nothing
else." But it is known that the Mediaeval Jewish philosophers did not
distinguish between Aristotelian ideas proper, and Neo-Platonic ideas
which were ascribed to Aristotle by the Arabs.
M2 NDYblni 'm, nnN nyP a yr i1 nnC ny1n 4in blsyo C Deond -et -inh i-i
1? lzn'n'l ,n 'ty ;D nols 91un D'pluDz 1Yn 1? l. ,1n on 1n 'DwinnDn O'bvnDn le
I17 ',npt 1'] Ityo nbyn, lann;lt -nnl ,ljtlpo Inxi-i; n ;1'n nt liXi -'npon
MTo 1'r ? ,NbiD' 1r IItrn't ,D'nyD H.1 ,14. H C'YtiD I1 11Ci-i '13tn In"nMtw
byIsn <D in-Tlnnn z IDn lby : iN ,n-nn nyn y7s9' Hb nnN nyn zys InlD?.
More Nebukim, Part II, Ch. 14. Cf. also Ch. 18 Second Method.
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418 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
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SPINOZA'S RELATION TO JEWISH THOUGNT-WAXMAN 419
is ------ UtN ny-i Nbrn timnIi N "Ilb N lvt rl nyllin ^y nirpm I'Dm' QN Q3DNl
nn'y,r ' mnlnl nlrwn ,i lnN n I mn 6l ,ln , '1,D' nD' Ni Minn ny-rn.
Ibid., Ch. 25.
I6 13D mrnm 1 i N aomWm urir -r,In KYD O'W'W nilvm -inr' own O i nln M 1]
NM13 in nli 'ptU an1 lDYy1 m n Kc l m yOWn, pIN IW lDnnI 'O Miyrr. Milhamot
Vi, 1, 18.
17 ODrtN tnt 1172 . ,iin Nt nyI -n l"m InN niri n 'rin N v li D m rtIl
nyr nm'7n twpin' 'lK.l m1zZ1 6in D1- D9Nt1 inN NK'r,1 lnzDn Ort) AnNdoa 4DNi4.
-rnlr. Or Adonai III, 4, p. 66b.
18 0l N mnn OmW Dlnl -lrnN mnyrr 90 i 1DW rynl In -inn, l'on ', ||r -inN' i
nyr -ln,= PI'Y1 'llw7 rI'rrv W9KN-'KVN1 ? ?J lmnN Olny '7 DaK 1z tDD ,mrll,rln2
n3D m^. Ibid., 68b.
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420 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
'9 =i'n ,i,rnn -r: ,y -'rn nl'Y:n m- n' :D1 nY1i ,nNr lrnnInmD wil nrl1i
-r'Dn py n',Dn ,y, ',n? n?1',. Ibid., 69a.
.20 bym -nt1D, , I rrYK 31' nr p9D,-D nmb K ]1N-- -' NKnr vD nvW nl
Wo -InN W'K 1^ Nl Km'YD, nW nDW CDK'W NmlN rrv, uillD Oi nlul Diln
-rY by 1, y' in^ 1 Y , 'nw 2I D -I ',m1 ,pnMpvr '96 n9V D -IDn n m l' n9Drnm
ni1mK'n lmn Dy umn ,01VD -inM Kl-r mio btrI un2 nitn nrl rn-- mrnn
M7N 'am NK1t mI.-I Nv NKY25n1 mann m6wl niot I ]' 0'nI 1nY -nvr rIat WKN 0u11
7nN NnW nmD. Ibid.
21 Ibid., p. 70a.
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SPINOZA'S RELATION TO JEWISH THOUGHT-WAXMAN 421
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422 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
23 Q nna nl ony nrnD UnD 'Y ]m nra 9N n1' n nOV ry l 1',t OKN rmm
y'^pt)-DD1?~Y a^1-! ai- y nrnzz n1m,N:ar "S^DN I"n m'^I^y 6D I'ml otvn ;I
n"' 5Nin lNm1m D nD nOn 'vX) fl 55 nyml ,mnn-yn y onmNDlm y'i'. Or Adonai
Tr. 1 sect. 3 ch. 2 p. 22.
24 Nam si esset simplex, esset clara et distincta, et per consequens
vera. De Intellectus Emendatione, Opera Ed. Van Vloten P. 20.
25 Quod certitudinem involvat, hoc est, quod sciat res ita est forma-
liter ut in ipso objective continentur, namely that the understanding
involves certainty, that is that it knows things to exist formally just
as they are contained in it objectively. Ibid. P. 32.
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SPINOZA'S RELATION TO JEWISH THOUGHT-WAXMAN 423
26 Per causam sui intelligo id, cujus esentia involvit existentiam; sive
id, cujus natura non potest concipi nisi existens.
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424 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
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SPINOZA'S RELATION TO JEWISH THOUGHT-WAXMAN 425
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426 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
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SPINOZA'S RELATION TO JEWISH THOUGHT-WAXMAN 427
sophy without which his thesis could not have been proved.
This is done in four steps. In Prop. XV, which says, "What-
ever is, is in God and nothing can exist or be conceived
without God." This means that God is the cause of exist-
ence of all things. Nothing new as yet. God is'causa sui,
other things are possible of existence. But in the note to this
Proposition, he starts to argue against those who say that
matter is finite. We do not know definitely who they are.
It may be Maimonides or Aristotle for that matter, for the
arguments of the protagonists of finitude of matter quoted
there are the Aristotelian arguments, they are even repro-
duced by Crescas who like Spinoza championed the exis-
tence of the infinite.32 He even mentions that he does not
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428 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
since all agree that the intellect of God is eternal, they wil
have to agree that His will or action is eternal. He then
proceeds to prove that the intellect of God is the cause not
only of the existence of things but also of their essence-
his theory of the homonymity between God's intellect and
the human one reminds us of Maimonides (Moreh, I, 56).
It follows (Prop. XVIII) that God is the immanent cause
of things and not the transcendent one, namely, creation
as an external act has been removed. He has already com-
pleted his criticism of Jewish philosophy showing that the
difficulties are insurmountable. He now proceeds to speak
about attributes, developing his view of creation. This
occupies from Prop. XX to XXXII, where he returns
again to the question of God, free will, and necessity, for
as pointed out before this view is the key to his system,
namely, the critical side that there is eternal creation and
necessary, not free at that. Hence Prop. XXXIII, "Things
could not have been produced in any other manner or order
than that in which they were produced." The whole note
to that Prop. is intended against the conceptions of Jewish
philosophy of the Divine will and the possibility of its
change. At the end of this note there is in my opinion a
direct charge against Crescas-not mentioning him by
name-who is the author of the theory referred to by Spi-
noza, which states that God acts in all things for the further-
ing of good. It is he who says that insofar as existence is
good, God in acting as the cause of being is voluntarily
good.34 Spinoza argues that this seems like imposing an end
to God's action to which He looks up. He is, however, not
quite right in his stricture, for the goodness Crescas speaks
of is not external but an inner one, and is God's very
pcsnce.p 35
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SPINOZA S RELATION TO JEWISH THOUGHT-WAXMAN 429
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430 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
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