Editing Jewish philosophy (section)

== Eighteenth and nineteenth-century Jewish philosophy ==
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A new era began in the 18th century with the thought of [[Moses Mendelssohn]]. Mendelssohn has been described as the "'third Moses,' with whom begins a new era in Judaism," just as new eras began with [[Moses|Moses the prophet]] and with [[Moses Maimonides]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=446&letter=M |title=Mendelssohn |publisher=JewishEncyclopedia.com |access-date=2012-10-22}}</ref>  Mendelssohn was a [[German Jew]]ish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, [[Haskalah]] (the Jewish Enlightenment) is indebted. He has been referred to as the father of Reform Judaism, although Reform spokesmen have been "resistant to claim him as their spiritual father".<ref>Wein (1997), p. 44. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=11f9xBbOBBEC&pg=PA44 Google books])</ref> Mendelssohn came to be regarded as a leading cultural figure of his time by both [[German people|Germans]] and Jews. His most significant book was ''[[Jerusalem (Mendelssohn)|Jerusalem oder über religiöse Macht und Judentum]]'' (''Jerusalem''), first published in 1783.

Alongside Mendelssohn, other important Jewish philosophers of the eighteenth century included:
* [[Menachem Mendel Lefin]], anti-Hasidic [[Haskalah]] philosopher.
* [[Salomon Maimon]], Enlightenment philosopher.
* [[Isaac Satanow]], a [[Haskalah]] philosopher.
* [[Naphtali Ullman]], [[Haskalah]] philosopher.<ref>Shmuel Feiner, ''The Jewish Enlightenment'' 72-3</ref>

Important Jewish philosophers of the nineteenth century included:
* [[Elijah Benamozegh]], a [[Sephardic]] rabbi and philosopher.
* [[Hermann Cohen]], a [[neo-Kantian]] Jewish philosopher.
* [[Moses Hess]], a secular Jewish philosopher and one of the founders of [[socialism]].
* [[Samson Raphael Hirsch]], leader of the [[Torah im Derech Eretz]] school of 19th century neo-Orthodoxy.
* [[Samuel Hirsch]], a leader of [[Reform Judaism]].
* [[Nachman Krochmal]], [[Haskalah]] philosopher in [[Galicia (eastern Europe)|Galicia]].
* [[Samuel David Luzzatto]] a [[Sephardic]] rabbi and philosopher.
* [[Karl Marx]], German [[economist]] and Jewish philosopher.

=== Traditionalist attitudes towards philosophy ===
{{main|Haredi Judaism|Hasidic philosophy}}
[[Haredi]] traditionalists who emerged in reaction to the [[Haskalah]] considered the fusion of religion and philosophy as difficult because classical philosophers start with no preconditions for which conclusions they must reach in their investigation, while classical religious believers have a set of religious principles of faith that they hold one must believe. Most Haredim contended that one cannot simultaneously be a philosopher and a true adherent of a revealed religion. In this view, all attempts at synthesis ultimately fail. Rabbi [[Nachman of Breslov]], for example, viewed all philosophy as untrue and heretical.  In this he represents one strand of [[Hasidic]] thought, with creative emphasis on the emotions.

Other exponents of [[Hasidic philosophy|Hasidism]] had a more positive attitude towards philosophy. In the [[Chabad]] writings of [[Schneur Zalman of Liadi]], Hasidut is seen as able to unite all parts of Torah thought, from the schools of philosophy to mysticism, by uncovering the illuminating Divine essence that permeates and transcends all approaches. Interpreting the verse from [[Book of Job|Job]], "from my flesh I see [[HaShem]]", Shneur Zalman explained the inner meaning, or "soul", of the Jewish mystical tradition in intellectual form, by means of analogies drawn from the human realm. As explained and continued by the later leaders of Chabad, this enabled the human mind to grasp concepts of Godliness, and so enable the heart to feel the love and awe of God, emphasised by all the founders of hasidism, in an internal way. This development, the culminating level of the Jewish mystical tradition, in this way bridges philosophy and mysticism, by expressing the transcendent in human terms.