Karaites Real and Imagined

Three Cases of Jewish Heresy

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4162718
AutoresMarina Rustow (0000-0003-4510-2388, Emory University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2007
Volumen197
Número1
Páginas35-74
Fecha de publicación2007-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPast & Present (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0031-2746 • E-ISSN: 1477-464X
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/pastj/gtm041
OpenAlexW1974077617
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias citadas17

There is a widespread misperception that Judaism is a religion of praxis rather than belief, in which adhering to behavioural precepts, rather than particular doctrines, renders one a member in good standing.1 But was premodern Judaism nothing but a congeries of rabbinic dictates on how to observe the commandments properly? Was belief really so marginal a consideration in determining the boundaries of the Jewish oecumene? What has prevented much of modern Jewish historiography from focusing on struggles over doctrine? The first modern works on Spinoza are a case in point, insisting that he was excommunicated from the Amsterdam Sephardi community in 1656 for his acts rather than his opinions. But the preface to the writ excommunicating him cites both ‘the abominable heresies which he practiced and taught and ... his monstrous deeds’, a phrase that should probably be read as a hendiadys referring to Spinoza's teaching of doctrine alone.2 The history of the Jews is filled with excommunications for heresy of which Spinoza's was not the first. From late Antiquity on, both rabbinic and lay authorities imposed the ban on men and women whom they accused not only of behavioural infractions but of doctrinal error as well.3

Art · Cousin · Doctrine · Epistemology · Heresy · Judaism · Literature · Nothing · Penitential · Political science · Politics · Ratification · Theology · Writ · Classics · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy · Religious studies · Sephardic Jews and Inquisition Studies