Essay/Term paper: Moses mendelssohn

Essay, term paper, research paper:  History

Moses Mendelssohn lived between the years 1729 and

1786. He was known as the " father of Haskalah " because

of his contributions to the Haskalah movement. Mendelssohn

was a Jewish philosopher, and got much of his education

from his father, the local rabbi, David Frankel. Mendelssohn

studied the philosophy of Maimonides. He had written the "

Principally Leibnia ",as an attack on the national neglect of

native philosophers. Also published by Mendelssohn was the

" Philosophical Conversations " in 1755. Between the years

1756 and 1759, Mendelssohn became known as the "

leading spirit of the Bibiothek " and ran some risk by freely

criticizing the poems of the king of Prussia. In 1762 he won

the prize offered by the Berlin academy for an essay on the

application of mathematical proofs to metaphysics. On

October 1763, the King granted Mendelssohn the privilege

of Protected Jew (Schutz - Jude), which assured his right to

undisturbed residence in Berlin. Mendelssohn devoted his

life to the culture and emancipation of the Jews. He began by

his German translation of the pentateuch and other parts of

the bible. From this, the Jews learned the German language,

German culture, and got a desire for German nationality.

Mendelssohn put forward his plea for tolerance in Jerusalem

" Oder Uben Religios Macht und Judenthum ". Mendelssohn

was a great philosopher, and his contributions to the Jews

were and still are great. Samson Raphael Hirsch lived

between the years 1808 and 1888. He was the leader of

Orthodoxy in Germany in the nine-teenth century. Hirsch

was known as the " Jewish religious thinker ", and the "

founder of Trenniley-Othodixie " (separatist Orthodoxy). He

was the leading spirit in the establishment and of modernized

Orthodox Jewish congregation and school system. The

slogan of the growing " neo-orthodox " group was " torah

combined with wordily wisdom ". They believed in schools

that the Hebrew language, Jewish subjects, secular studies,

and the school curriculum should be taught. Prussia adopted

a law permitting Jews to secede from the general Jewish

community and establish separate religious societies. Hirsch

wrote " Nineteen Letters "," Horeb ", commentaries on the

Pentateuch, Psalms, the Hebrew prayer book, and edited

the monthly " Jeshurun ". Hirsch showed Judaism as a

community based on faith, aiming at the sanctification of life,

the spiritualization of man, and the attainment of an

awareness of G-d's presence on Earth. He rejected biblical

criticism, and the application of scientific methods to the

study of Judaism. Moses Mendelssohn and Samson Raphael

Hirsch were different in that Mendelssohn believed in secular

education,assimilation within your country, and learning the

language of the country ( in his case, it was Germany ) .

Hirsch, on the other hand believed that everything revolves

around your religion, and did not encourage assimilation.

Mendelssohn supported his belief by translating books from

the torah into German, to encourage the learning and use of

the language. Hirsch objected to this and believed that the

torah must be learned in the " lashon hatorah ", the language

of the torah. I agree with Mendelssohn to some degree. I

believe that a certain amount of assimilation is good, and that

learning the torah in the language of your country ( as an aid

to the language of the torah ) is helpful, and may encourage

more learning. I also think that too much assimilation can be

harmful. I think that intermarriage is bad and that just

weakens the Jews. MOSES MENDELSSOHN AND

SAMSON RAFAEL HIRSCH 8-K Jewish History