With all of the current discussion about critical scholarship and skeptical views on belief in God, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at founding father of Haskala, Moses Mendelssohn. He is perhaps one of the most enigmatic people in the History of the Jewish people. Did he personify "good" or "evil"? I think he is a victim of history and I don't believe we will ever really know the absolute truth. He is vilified by some and justified by others. His views could easily be seen as a precurser to the philosophy of Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch’s Torah Im Derech Eretz (TIDE). But the reality is that the Reform movement attributes its own beginnings to him.
Mendelssohn was born in the early 1700's and was educated in the traditional Jewish way. He was a strong advocate of the Enlightenment, himself acquiring a wide knowledge of math and philosophy and a strong command of the German language. He attributed his hunchback to the day and night study of Jewish Philosophy. The Rambam, he would claim, gave him his hump, but he loved him nevertheless.
He was greatly respected and admired by the German secular world, nevertheless he remained a staunchly, observant Jew. Because of the great respect he garnered in the non Jewish, Christian world he was constantly being asked to renounce Judaism. He not only did NOT do that but resolved to strengthen his own people.
His devotion to Halacha was absolute. He stated unequivocally the Torah was not subject to the whim of subtle reasoning and cannot therefore release us from the rigid obedience to Halacha. He did believe, however, that this fact did not prevent us from seeking self improvement which he defined as a sort of assimilation into general society while remaining 100% loyal to the Torah. I find this to be almost the mission statement of Torah Im Derech Eretz.
One of the biggest deficiencies he perceived was the inability of the Jewish people to speak the German language properly which delayed their assimilation and acceptance into society which that enabled. To improve that situation he wrote the "Biur" which was a translation of the Torah into perfect German. This, he hoped would serve as a "textbook" of the German language.
However, the Biur was roundly condemned by many of the Gedolei Hador of that time, like R. Yechezkal Landau (The Noda Beyehuda). There were even threats of Cherem for anyone who used the Biur, even though there was nothing heretical in it whatsoever. The grounds for the rejection was fear of rejection of the Torah through assimilation by learning to speak German too well (the very thing that Mendelssohn was trying to accomplish L'Shma). This may be the very first occurrence of the clash between two Hashkafos: RW and MO. It is interesting to note a parallel to bans in our own time.
However, Mendelssohn was probably just ahead of his time. The philosophy of "A Jew in the home and a man (Mentch) in the street" was taken by his followers to mean rejection of Halacha when it interfered with societal acceptance. Rav Hirsch’s TIDE has virtually the same message but by the time he established it, the Reform movement generated by Haskala was a clearly defined enemy and he was better equipped to deal with it. If I am not mistaken TIDE was designed to counteract Reform.
It was the fashion of the day to gather in the "salons" of prominent people and argue and debate various philosophies. Mendelssohn was a very popular "invitee" to such parlors and attracted lots of young Jewish intellectuals who became disciples. These disciples were ill prepared to handle his ideas about combining assimilation with loyalty to the Torah and because of his actions his disciples embraced the enlightenment and rejected the inviolability of the Shulchan Aruch. These people became the founding fathers of the Reform movement.
In the end, it's hard to say if Mendelssohn was a hero or villain. It is said that none of his descendants remained Jewish, all converting to Christianity. This was the case with his famous grandson, composer Felix Mendelssohn. To point to his descendants as apostates is not a legitimate criticsm because no one can be responsible for the actions of their later generations. It is also a fact that none of the descendants of the male line of R. Akiva Eiger are religious today, either.
There is no doubt that he was the impetus behind Abraham Geiger and Israel Jacobson, who are two of the founding fathers of the Reform movement. But neither should there be any doubt that his motivation and philosophy was the same or similar to that of R. Shimshon Raphael Hirsch. So once again, was Mendelssohn a villain responsible for the origin of the Reform movement or was he a Shimshon Raphael Hirsch who was just ahead of his time? Probably both.
How should history judge Mendelssohn? In my view...L’kaf Zechus.
