Congregation Or Zarua Adult Education Class with Marc Ashley May 2022//Iyar 5782 "Abominable Heresies and Monstrous Acts": Spinoza's Jewish Roots and Legacy

"Blessing of the Heretics" from a Land of Israel siddur in the Cairo Genizah:

May there be no hope for apostates,
And may You quickly uproot the arrogant government in our day,
And may the Christians and heretics instantly perish.
"May they be erased from the book of life, and may they not be written with the righteous" (Psalm 69:29). Blessed are You, God, Who humbles the arrogant.

Order of Ferdinand and Isabella expelling Jews from Spain (March 31, 1492)

We have been informed that within our kingdom there are evil Christians who have converted to Judaism and who have thereby betrayed our holy Catholic faith. This most unfortunate development has been brought about as a result of the contact between Jews and Christians. . . . We have decided that no further opportunities should be given for additional damage to our holy faith. . . . Thus, we hereby order the expulsion of all Jews, both male and female, and of all ages, who live in our kingdom and in all the areas in our possession, whether such Jews have been born here or not. . . These Jews are to depart from our kingdoms and from all the areas in our possession by the end of July, together with their Jewish sons and daughters, their Jewish servants and their Jewish relatives. . . . Nor shall Jews be permitted to pass through our kingdoms and through all the areas in our possession en route to any destination. Jews shall not be permitted in any manner whatsoever to be present in any of our kingdoms and in any of the areas in our possession.

Description of Talmud Torah synagogue by Dutch Christian visitor (1630s)

The Portuguese have a fairly large place for which they have put together two houses. Below, you enter a hall or large bare vestibule containing a water basin that can be turned on with a tap; upon it you will find a towel, for the Jews wash their hands before they enter the church. On either side there are stairways by which you reach their church; the women, who are separated from the men and cannot be seen by them, are seated high up in a gallery. At one end of the church there is a large wooden cupboard with two doors; it contains many precious things, among them the Books of Moses wrapped in rare embroidered cloths. Their teachers stand on a raised platform some three feet higher than the other congregants. The men don white shawls over their hats which hang down over their shoulders and trunk and each holds a book in his hand, all of which are in Hebrew.

Excommunication writ against Baruch Spinoza (July 27, 1656//6th of Av 5416)

The Senhores [gentlemen] of the ma'amad [lay governing board of the Portuguese-Jewish community of Amsterdam] made it known to you that they have been aware for some time of the evil opinions and acts of Baruch de Spinoza, and that they have endeavored by various means and promises to turn him from his evil ways. But being unable to effect any remedy, and, on the contrary, each day receiving more information about the abominable heresies that he practiced and taught, and about the monstrous acts that he performed, and having many trustworthy witnesses who have reported and testified on all of this in the presence of the said Spinoza, who has been found guilty; after all of this has been examined in the presence of the rabbis, they [the members of the ma'amad] have decided, with the rabbis' consent, that the said Spinoza should be banned and separated from the Nation of Israel, as they now put him under cheirem with the following cheirem:

With the judgment of the angels and with that of the righteous, we put under cheirem, ostracize, and curse and damn Baruch de Spinoza, with the consent of God, Blessed be He, and with the consent of this entire holy congregation, before these holy scrolls, with the 613 commandments that are written in them, with the cheirem that Joshua put upon Jericho, with the curse with which Elisha cursed the youths, and with all the curses that are written in the Torah. Cursed be he by day, and cursed be he by night; cursed be he when he lies down, and cursed be he when he rises up; cursed be he when he goes out, and cursed be he when he comes in. The Lord will not forgive him; the fury and zeal of the Lord will burn against this man, and bring upon him all the curses that are written in this book of Torah. And may the Lord erase his name from under the heavens. Any may the Lord separate him for injury from all of the tribes of Israel, with all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of Torah.

But you who cleave to the Lord your God, all of you are alive this day.

We order that nobody should communicate with him orally or in writing, nor show him any favor, nor be with him under the same roof, nor come within four cubits of him, nor read anything composed or written by him.

Isaac Orobio de Castro, A Philosophical Disputation (1684)

I have studied the works of the evil man Spinoza for many years. Not only do I know that they pave the way for atheism, I have readily detected that atheism already lies firmly hidden in these very works. I thought that these works would inflict extensive damage on merely a few people or on no one, since the unlearned would have neither understood nor grasped the unsound and immoral logical consequences that are drawn from them; the learned, unless they allowed themselves to be willfully deceived, would have rejected the words at once as false and unlikely; only by those who hate the truth and who find new theories, however false and impious, agreeable, who would have revelated their own perverse intention by other means even without Spinoza's writings, would they have been accepted.

Now, however, I know that my belief was mistaken. Not only a few completely unlettered members of the public, who pretend to understand Spinoza's doctrines in order to appear clever and erudite, rush headlong into atheism, to which they were already devoted earlier, even a few learned persons are unfortunately affected by the same abominable scourge.

David Ben-Gurion, Let Us Rectify the Injustice (1953)

[T]he Amsterdam community of that time was not the Hebrew nation, the seventeenth century was not the eternity of the eternal people, and the Jews of Amsterdam in 1656 did not have the authority or power to excommunicate the immortal Spinoza forever. . . What Athenian justice could not do to Socrates, the rabbinic court of Amsterdam could not do to Spinoza. Each is the pride of the nation to which he was born, and their endeavors are organic parts of the history of their people's thought. . . . The rectification required is not a religious but rather a cultural-literary one. Hebrew literature is not complete as long as it does not include all the writings of Baruch Spinoza among the great works of the mind produced by the Jewish people.

There is no need to agree with all of Spinoza's ideas and views regarding the critical reading of the Bible, about politics, or about the identity of God and nature and human destiny in order to recognize the genius from Amsterdam as one of the great sons of our people and the most original and profound thinker who emerged in our nation between the redaction of the Bible and the birth of Einstein. Everything Spinoza wrote, both what we like and what we do not, belongs to the spiritual treasury of Judaism and belongs on the bookshelf containing the most honored works produced by the Jewish people.

The Amsterdam community had sufficient reason to banish Spinoza then. Greater and more important reasons require the redemption of Spinoza's heritage from a foreign language. The ban was the product of circumstances that prevailed in a specific and passing time and place. Spinoza the blessed is an immortal born of the eternal people, and we must bring back into our Hebrew language and culture the writings of the most original thinker and most profound philosopher Judaism has produced in the last two thousand years.

Letter by Rabbi Joseph Serfaty to Prof. Yitzchak Melamed (November 28, 2021)

The chakhamim [scholars] and parnassim [officers] of Kahal Kadosh Talmud Torah excommunicated Spinoza and his writings with the severest possible ban, a ban that remains in force for all time and cannot be rescinded. You have devoted your life to the study of Spinoza’s banned works and the development of his ideas. Your request to visit our complex and create a film about this epikores [heretic] in our Synagogue and Yeshiva (Etz Chaim) is incompatible with our centuries-old halakhic, historic and ethical tradition and an unacceptable assault on our identity and heritage. I therefore deny your request and declare you persona non grata in the Portuguese Synagogue complex.

I wish you a meaningful Chanukah.

Response letter from Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo (November 30, 2021)

Shalom.

Yesterday I was overwhelmed by the emails I received showing me the letter from the 28th of November that you sent to Professor Yitzchak Melamed in the USA. In this letter you forbid him to enter the complex of our synagogue . . . to study documents concerning the ban on Spinoza in his efforts to create a film about this philosopher.

It would seem that you may be ignorant of the fact that the famous former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog z"l (1888-1959), has already stated that the ban was only in force halakhically as long as Spinoza was alive. Furthermore, it would seem you are unaware of the story concerning the ban and the many deliberations concerning the real cause of this ban and the very teachings of Spinoza himself.

As for Prof. Melamed, it may be necessary to inform you that he is a deeply religious Jew who was raised in the ultra-Orthodox B'nei Brak in Israel and studied in Yeshivot. Your view that the ban on Spinoza’s works is still in force clearly indicates that you are not familiar with his writings, and are thus completely incapable of expressing an opinion about his philosophy.

As an orthodox rabbi who studied in the ultra-Orthodox Gateshead Yeshiva in England for many years and who has read all of Spinoza’s works, I am of the opinion that Spinoza sometimes deliberately misrepresents Judaism. I am also aware that Spinoza wrote remarkably noble observations about human beings, nature and society which have helped all of us. For all these reasons I strongly object to your terming the professor as a “persona non grata” – an act that is a tremendous insult and chutzpah.

By banning the professor from the complex of the synagogue, and as such, not even allowing him to join a minyan in our synagogue, you have created an enormous chillul Hashem, desecration of God’s name, making Orthodox Judaism a farce in the eyes of the many. You have done all of us, who fight for the honor of Judaism, a great disservice.

Shame on you! You have all the right in the world to disagree with Prof. Melamed, yet it behooves you to invite him to discuss his intentions and the contents of the film, and possibly contribute to his endeavor. I hope the lay leaders of the Portuguese-Spanish Community in Amsterdam will take the necessary steps to undo this great damage.

Judgment of Amsterdam regional Protestant ecclesiastic court (July 28, 1670)

Licentious book publishing, and especially the harmful book entitled Theological-Political Treatise [by Spinoza, published in January 1670], should be dealt with under the old grievances [covered by a 1653 edict regarding bans of heretical works]. . . .

The ecclesiastic court, having heard from its committee various enormous and abominable samples contained in that work, has proclaimed that book to be blasphemous and dangerous.

Baruch Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise ch. 9 (1670) [on 1 Samuel 13:1]

That the text is mutilated cannot be doubted by anyone who has the slightest acquaintance with the Hebrew language.