GRADE 11 JEWISH HISTORY MINOR ASSIGNMENT

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Recommended: Interpretation of Holy Scriptures according to Spinoza

Part B

Amsterdam was the centre of Jewish life for many years. In the late 1500’s the Marranos and Sephardim (Spanish and Portogese) arrived in Amsterdam, and served as important merchants to the Dutch community. The Jewish community was an orthodox religious community, that was unwilling to accept new ideologies and change. The Jewish community thrived, as they were given many rights that was not given to the Jews in other European countries. This freedom came with rules created by the government that the Jews had to follow and obey. These included, the inability to discuss or preach religion with non-Jews as well as the inability to have romantic relationships a non-Jew.
Spinoza had many radical ideas that were controversial at the time. He believed that God and Nature are one, G-d, is the only substance of the world, and
G-d is everything. He also believed that any holy scripture, when being read literally, is inconsistent with what is already proven true in philosophy from present day. The purpose of scripture is for interpretation not literally but rather through phil...

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