Editing Jewish philosophy (section)

== Seventeenth-century Jewish philosophy ==
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With expulsion from Spain came the dissemination of Jewish philosophical investigation throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Northern Europe and the Western Hemisphere. The center-of-mass of Rationalism shifted to France, Italy, Germany, Crete, Sicily and Netherlands.  Expulsion from Spain and the coordinated pogroms of Europe resulted in the cross-pollination of variations on Rationalism incubated within diverse communities.  This period is also marked by the intellectual exchange among leaders of the Christian Reformation and Jewish scholars.  Of particular note is the line of Rationalists who migrated out of Germany, and present-day Italy into Crete, and other areas of the [[Ottoman Empire]] seeking safety and protection from the endless pogroms fomented by the [[House of Habsburg]] and the [[Roman Catholic Church]] against Jews.

Rationalism was incubating in places far from Spain. From stories told by Rabbi [[Elijah Ba'al Shem of Chelm]], German-speaking Jews, descendants of Jews who migrated back to Jerusalem after Charlemagne's invitation was revoked in Germany many centuries earlier, who lived in Jerusalem during the 11th century, were influenced by prevailing [[Mutazilite]] scholars of Jerusalem. A German-speaking Palestinian Jew saved the life of a young German man surnamed "Dolberger". When the knights of the [[First Crusade]] came to besiege Jerusalem, one of Dolberger's family members rescued German-speaking Jews in Palestine and brought them back to the safety of Worms, Germany, to repay the favor.<ref>"Seder ha-Dorot", p. 252, 1878 ed.</ref> Further evidence of German communities in the holy city comes in the form of halakic questions sent from Germany to Jerusalem during the second half of the eleventh century.<ref>Epstein, in "Monatsschrift", xlvii. 344; Jerusalem: Under the Arabs</ref>

All of the foregoing resulted in an explosion of new ideas and philosophic paths.

=== Yosef Shlomo ben Eliyahu Dal Medigo ===
[[Joseph Solomon Delmedigo]] was  a physician and teacher – Baruch Spinoza was a student of his works.<ref>"Blesséd Spinoza: a biography of the philosopher", by Lewis Browne, The Macmillan Company, 1932, University of Wisconsin - Madison</ref>

=== Baruch Spinoza ===
[[File:Spinoza.jpg|thumb|120px|left|[[Baruch Spinoza]]]]
[[Baruch Spinoza]] founded [[Spinozism]], broke with [[Rabbinic Judaism|Rabbinic Jewish]] tradition, and was placed in ''[[Herem (censure)|herem]]'' by the [[Beit Din]] of [[Amsterdam]]. The influence in his work from [[Maimonides]] and [[Leone Ebreo]] is evident. [[Elia del Medigo]] claims to be a student of the works of Spinoza. Some contemporary critics (e.g., Wachter, ''Der Spinozismus im Judenthum'') claimed to detect the influence of the [[Kabbalah]], while others (e.g., [[Gottfried Leibniz|Leibniz]]) regarded Spinozism as a revival of [[Averroism]] – a talmudist manner of referencing to Maimonidean Rationalism. In the centuries that have lapsed since the ''herem'' declaration, scholars{{Who|date=March 2014}} have re-examined the works of Spinoza and find them to reflect a body of work and thinking that is not unlike some contemporary streams of Judaism. For instance, while Spinoza was accused of [[pantheism]], scholars{{Who|date=March 2014}} have come to view his work as advocating [[panentheism]], a valid contemporary view easily accommodated by contemporary Judaism.

=== Tzvi Hirsch ben Yaakov Ashkenazi ===
Rabbi [[Tzvi Ashkenazi|Tzvi Hirsch ben Yaakov Ashkenazi]] was a student of his father, but most notably also a student of his grandfather Rabbi [[Elijah Ba'al Shem of Chelm]].

=== Jacob Emden ===
Rabbi [[Jacob Emden]] was a student of his father Rabbi [[Tzvi Ashkenazi|Tzvi Hirsch ben Yaakov Ashkenazi]] a rabbi in Amsterdam. Emden, a steadfast Talmudist, was a prominent opponent of the [[Sabbateans]] (Messianic Kabbalists who followed Sabbatai Tzvi). Although anti-Maimonidean, Emden should be noted for his critical examination of the Zohar concluding that large parts of it were forged.

=== Other seventeenth-century Jewish philosophers ===
* [[Jacob Abendana]] Sephardic Rabbi and Philosopher.
* [[Isaac Cardoso]].
* [[David Nieto]] Sephardic Rabbi and Philosopher.
* [[Isaac Orobio de Castro]] Sephardic Rabbi and Philosopher.

=== Philosophical criticisms of Kabbalah ===
{{main|Kabbalah}}
Rabbi [[Leon Modena|Leone di Modena]] wrote that if we{{Who|date=March 2014}} were to accept the Kabbalah, then the Christian trinity would indeed be compatible with Judaism, as the Trinity closely resembles the Kabbalistic doctrine of the Sefirot.