[Avodah] Chillul HaShem & Goyim

[rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]

RZS:
> The chilul Hashem issue that the Rosh raises is that since the Moslems
> take blasphemy against their religion very seriously, if we were to be
> lenient with this blasphemer against *our* religion they would conclude
> that we don't take it so seriously.

I'm not sure how accurate the following story is, but here goes:

A professor at YU claimed that Spinoza was put in Cheirem due to Pressure
from local non-Jews who would not tolerate his blasphemy and expected
the Jews to be in solidarity with their concerns.

If true, this strongly supports Zev's thesis that non-Jews (whether
Dutch Reform or Moslems) pressured us Jews to be zealous about certain
forms of blasphemy - even when it was an "internal" matter

[Note: The reason I have doubts re: the Spinoza story is that AFAIK
never saw this claim anywhere else]

KT
RRW
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