Moses Mendelssohn: Sage of Modernity

248 Pages·2010·1.433 MB·English

by  Shmuel Feiner

MOSES MENDELSSOHN

Moses Mendelssohn
Sage of Modernity
SHMUEL FEINER
Translated from the Hebrew
by Anthony Berris
New Haven and London
Frontispiece: A fictitious meeting of, from left, Moses Mendelssohn, Gotthold
Ephraim Lessing, and Johann Caspar Lavater; engraving after a painting by
Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, 1856. akg-images.
Copyright © 2010 by Shmuel Feiner. Translation copyright © 2010 by
Anthony Berris. Hebrew edition copyright © 2005 by the Zalman Shazar Center,
Jerusalem, Israel. First published in Hebrew as part of the biographies series
Outstanding Minds and Creative Personalities in Jewish Histories. Chief Editor:
Anita Shapira. Editorial Board Members: Avraham Grossman, Moshe Idel,
Yosef Kaplan, Zvi Yekutiel.
Published by arrangement with the Zalman Shazar Center. All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations,
in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S.
Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written
permission from the publishers.
Set in Janson Oldstyle type by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Feiner, Shmuel.
[Mosheh Mendelson. English]
Moses Mendelssohn : sage of modernity / Shmuel Feiner ;
translated from the Hebrew by Anthony Berris.
p.(cid:11)cm. — (Jewish lives)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-16175-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Mendelssohn, Moses,
1729–1786. 2. Philosophers—Germany—Berlin—Biography.
3. Jews—Germany—Berlin—Biography. I. Title.
B2693.F4513 2010
193—dc22
[B](cid:11)(cid:11)2010020778
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10(cid:2) 9(cid:2) 8(cid:2) 7(cid:2) 6(cid:2) 5(cid:2) 4(cid:2) 3(cid:2) 2(cid:2) 1
You must surely know what small part the members
of my faith have in all the freedoms of this country. The civic
oppression to which we are subject due to deep-rooted
prejudice lies like a deadweight on the wings of the spirit
and prevents any attempt to fly to the heights attained
by those who were born free.
—Moses Mendelssohn, 1762
I shall not deny that in my religion I have discerned
additions and distortions made by Man which, alas, dull its
splendor. What lover of truth can pride himself in that he
found his entire religion pure of harmful man-made laws? We
all seek the truth, we know the deleterious folly of hypocrisy
and superstition, and hope we shall possess the ability to rid
ourselves of it without damage to the true and the good.
But I am truly convinced that the essence of my
religion is immovable.
—Moses Mendelssohn, 1770
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CONTENTS
1. A Stroll Down Unter den Linden, 1
2. From Dessau to Berlin: An Unpredicted Career, 17
3. Cultural Conversion: The Three Formative Years, 35
4. War and Peace, Love and Family, Fame
and Frustration, 56
5. Affront and Sickness: The Lavater Affair, 83
6. Dreams, Nightmares, and Struggles for
Religious Tolerance, 107
7. Jerusalem: The Road to Civic Happiness, 153
8. Specters: The Last Two Years, 187
Chronology, 217
Select Bibliography, 223
Index, 227
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1
A Stroll Down Unter den Linden
IN THE early evenings and on Sundays and holidays during
the eighteenth century, many Berliners would take a pleasant
stroll through the hunting grounds of the Tiergarten and down
the linden-lined boulevard of Unter den Linden, which led to
the royal palace. In the last decades of the century, the residents
of the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia and numerous visitors
to the city—who came to gain a firsthand impression of one
of Europe’s nascent cities of culture—could see Jews mingling
with the other strollers in the city’s parks and along its boule-
vards. The presence of many members of Berlin’s Jewish com-
munity, which numbered some three thousand souls, in public
places and in cultural sites—particularly theaters and concert
halls—was characteristic of life in the vibrant city. Wealthy
Jews, successful merchants and entrepreneurs, promenaded
with their wives and daughters in fashionable attire, elegant
coiffures, and ostentatious wigs, their fluent German and their
1