Between Jewish Law and State Law: Rethinking Hermann Cohen's Critique of Spinoza

Abstract

This paper focuses on one criticism of Spinoza’s Tractatus TheologicoPoliticus articulated by Hermann Cohen between 1910 and 1918. Spinoza appears to claim that Jews were required by their religion to hate other nations or peoples. But for Cohen, this is a pernicious misrepresentation: the Talmud not only puts the condemnation of hatred on par with the most basic ethical prohibitions, it even bans all hatred as “groundless.” Condemnation of hatred is as fundamental to Judaism as its counterpart, the command to “love ones neighbor.”