MENDELSSOHN'S RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE OF NON-JEWS.

In order to examine Moses Mendelssohn's religious perspective of non-Jews, this essay analyzes his personal, exegetical, and philosophical writings. The author explores to what extent Mendelssohn's universalistic approach toward salvation was rooted in traditional Jewish sources and to what extent it was rooted in his Enlightenment instincts. As both his incorporation of biblical, talmudic, and rabbinic sources and fealty to Jewish law make clear, Mendelssohn felt bound by tradition and did not want to sacrifice this tradition for the sake of his universalistic and philosophic beliefs. Nonetheless, as is shown, despite his best attempts to harmonize tradition with his Enlightenment values, at the very least, Mendelssohn stretched and, at most, deviated from classical Jewish sources to a far greater extent than did any of his religious predecessors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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