Please join us on Monday, February 26th at 5pm via Zoom for a presentation by:

Zachary Taylor

PhD Candidate, Religious Ethics

University of Chicago Divinity School

The Universal and Particular: Spinoza vs. Mendelssohn on the Natural Law and “Ceremonies”

Numerous scholars have commented on how, in his Jerusalem, Moses Mendelssohn reckons with the Spinozist critique of Judaism articulated in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. In the Tractatus, Spinoza calls into question several fundamental aspects of Judaism as interpreted and practiced in his day—for example, the revelatory status of the Hebrew Bible, the nature of God’s covenant with Israel, the point and purpose of ritual practices required by the Mosaic Law (what Spinoza calls caeremoniae, or “ceremonies”), and the traditional authorship of biblical texts. While Jerusalem by no means constitutes a point-by-point response to Spinoza, Mendelssohn clearly has in mind both Spinoza’s fate as an excommunicated Jew and the critique leveled in the Tractatus. In this paper, I will focus on the differences in how Spinoza and Mendelssohn understand the function and relevance of “ceremonies” in Judaism. In particular, I query why, despite both thinkers’ commitment to the metaphysics of natural law, Spinoza’s interpretation of the natural law excludes the possibility of Jewish particularity vis-à-vis “ceremonies,” while Mendelssohn’s interpretation reserves a place within Judaism for what he calls the ceremonial law (Zeremonialgesetz).

I contend that three key points of contrast explain why Spinoza and Mendelssohn hold such different positions on the status of ceremonies despite their shared commitment to natural law metaphysics: (i) their antithetical interpretations of God’s election of Israel; (ii) Mendelssohn’s worry about idolatry compared with Spinoza’s worry about superstition and how ceremonies relate to their respective concerns; and (iii) Mendelssohn’s intersubjective epistemology compared with Spinoza’s individualist one. With these points of contrast in view, we can better understand why Mendelssohn rejects Spinoza’s repudiation of ceremonies and affords them such a central role in Judaism. Concomitantly, this comparative analysis will also accentuate how, despite his commitment to the universality of the natural law, Mendelssohn nevertheless strives to affirm Jewish particularity.

The paper, to be read in advance of the workshop, can be accessed here (password: ceremonies): ZTaylor Jewish Studies Workshop Paper 2024

The Zoom link for the workshop has been sent via email to the Jewish Studies Workshop list.