Q&A: Spinoza’s Conception in the Context of Reading His Thought
Spinoza’s Conception in the Context of Reading His Thought
Question
What is Spinoza’s conception of what God is? Can one read his thought in the sense of “eat the fruit and discard the peel,” or is it considered heretical literature?
Answer
There is a Wikipedia entry, and you can look there. In a nutshell, he identifies God with the totality of reality; that is, God is not an additional object but reality as a whole. Although many have engaged in intricate analysis of his thought, in my view this is simply atheism. We all understand that all of reality is something that exists, so what difference does it make whether you identify that with God, or call it Yankele, or do not call it anything at all?
One may read anything one thinks is important. See details here:
https://mikyab.net/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%A8-%D7%94%D7%97%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%92%D7%91%D7%99-%D7%A2%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%A8%D7%99-%D7%94%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%94
Discussion on Answer
An important reference:
In the Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin, Rabbi Akiva says: “Also one who reads external books, such as the books of Ben Sira and the books of Ben La’anah. But the books of the heretics, and all books written from then onward—one who reads them is like one who reads a letter. What is the reason? ‘And furthermore, my son, beware, etc.’ They were given for contemplation, not for toil.”
I seem to remember commentators explaining that only those books were forbidden because there had been a question whether they should be included among the holy writings of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh). And specifically that kind of reading was forbidden.
I once saw an article by Rabbi S.Z. Havlin that mentioned the above passage with this interpretation.
Quite a number of medieval authorities (Rishonim) already noted that the prohibition on reading external books applies only to Greek literature such as Homer, and not to philosophical works of various kinds. But that is not relevant to our discussion, because regarding the reading of heretical materials and sexual materials there is “do not stray after,” and that is a different prohibition from the prohibition of external books.
Thank you. A nice answer.