What Intellectual Goyim Have Thought Of Us All Along

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

                        Immanuel Kant: (1724-1804)

                       When Western Philosophy immerged.  

                     Immanuel Kant made his thoughts known.  

This is a lesson to  me about the Goyisheh mind of the Past and more about how our Jewish religion was perceived by others.

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher and Enlightenment leader whose work significantly impacted modern Western philosophy and anti-Semitism. His systematic writings on Jews, ethics, aesthetics, epistemology, and metaphysics sparked dramatic changes in these fields. Kant's famous phrase Sapere aude, meaning "Dare to know", made him a pioneer of the Enlightenment, which emphasized human reason as the standard for actions.

I might add that Jews moved from Rome to Germany earlier.  In the 10th century, Jews lived in Speyer,  Worms, Mainz, Magdeburg, Ratisbon, Cologne,  Augsburg, Metz. 

                         Jew in Worms, Rhineland (Germany)
                                                  

They would study the Torah together.  Most lived in the Rhineland, where an intense intellectual life developed by the11th century under Franco-Jewish influence.  Conditions were generally notunfavorable, though the persecution recorded in 1012 was probably notunique. "Prominent medieval rabbis from the Rhineland include Gershom ben Judah and his disciple Rashi's teacher, Simon bar Isaac. While Rashi was from nearby Champagne, France, he was influenced by and connected to the Rhineland community through his teachers, and the Rhineland cities like Mainz, Cologne, and Worms were major centers of Jewish life and learning. Other figures like Rabbeinu Gershom Me'or HaGolah were based in Mainz, establishing the intellectual foundations that would later be expanded upon by his followers, including those in the Rhineland. " 

                 Jews of 13th Century forced to wear such costumes

 Then the Crusaders came in 1096 who slaughtered Jewsalong the way in Europe and in Jerusalem along with the Arabs.   Jews had to put up with a lot; which is why they moved to Eastern Europe.  

  In my opinion, Kant did not dare to use reasoning himself when it came to the Jewish religion. I'd say he felt left out of a group he admired, on one hand,but was jealous of on the other hand.  So he had to pick faults beyondreason, especially in comparing it, Moses' teachings of over 3,000 yearsago, to  his adulthood which was in the 1740-1804 period. G-d, the Supreme Being, was only recently worshipped as being polytheistic, and Kant's          G-d  came along in Jesus, worshipped only in the past 2,000 years.  

Only the Biblical G-d in Torah proved sufficiently dynamic and vital to survive for this long of past 3,000 years. It's extraordinary purity, power, and unique by a virtue of G-d's non-mythological character with having no body, no kindred, and no humanneeds makes Him unique in Judaism.   

                                  Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant's relationship with Jews and Judaism was complex, marked by mutual respect in personal interactions with some Jewish Enlightenment thinkers, but also by systematic philosophical critique of Judaism as a religion and expressions of ethnic prejudice (anti-Semitic statements) in his private correspondence and published works. His idea of  "religion" did not fit what he understood of Judaism. 

His idea of "G-d" must have been quite different.  "Kant believes that Christianity, because of its idealized, spiritualized ethical teachings based on pure love, approaches this ideal of ethical religion more than any other historical religion. In contrast, following *Spinoza, he views Judaism as a mere national-political entity, contending that it fails to satisfy the essential criteria of religion in that it fails to inculcate the inner appropriation of morals, demanding only external obedience to statutes and laws. Interpreting Jewish messianism as nothing more than a national-political experience, Kant maintains that Judaism is concerned only with things of this world, and lacks any formulation of the concept of immortality.

               Moses and 10 Commandments that rock the world, the first of 613 that were given to the Israelites (our ancestors).  A federal judge ordered several Texas school districts to remove Ten Commandments displays from classrooms by December 1, 2025, following a lawsuit filed by multifaith and nonreligious families. The ruling is a response to a new Texas law (Senate Bill 10) that required public schools to post the Ten Commandments, but the judge determined this violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. They are unpopular with many people today.  

Now, this is ridiculous considering that Moses lived 3,000 years ago and introduced the idea (after Abraham, of course) of one G-d; one source.  These slaves knew of Abraham and what he thought-but that was about 400 years after Moses came and said he's free them.  Look where we Jews are today;  in the USA (1776-2025) there are more Reformed Jews-backing away from the rules the Orthodox still follow, which have kept us following Judaism for the past 3,000 years one way or another.  I think it's amazing that our Israelite ancestors (followed Moses' teachings at all, and if you look back in the Bible, can see the events that caused them to do so, which all lead to G-d planning it all.  

Kant's negative view of Judaism, however, in no way interfered with his congenial relations with the Jewish community or with individual Jews, such as Moses *Mendelssohn. Nor did it deter many emancipated Jews from becoming attracted to Kantian philosophy. In Kant's lifetime Markus *Herz, Lazarus *Bendavid, and Solomon *Maimon were among his staunch supporters, and later, in the neo-Kantian revival, Hermann *Cohen and Ernst *Cassirer were numbered among his ardent followers. Kant also exercised an appreciable influence on Moritz *Lazarus, and a less pronounced, though significant, influence on Solomon *Formstecher, Solomon *Steinheim, and Franz *Rosenzweig. These Hellenistic Jews were hearing these arguments and what did they hear from their rabbis to dispel these theories?  

Kant was Influenced by: Arthur Schopenhauer, Karl Marx, Edmund Husserl, Charles Sanders Peirce, David Hilbert, A.W. von Schlegel in his philosophy.   

Resource:

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kant-immanuel-x00b0#google_vignette