[Avodah] Chillul HaShem & Goyim

[Daniel Eidensohn]

rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
> 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.
>>
>>     
>> 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.
>>     

    George Saver wrote:
    <http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/spinoza-12903>
    "Thus the Sephardim were relatively recent refugees who had to keep
    in the good graces of the authorities of the Dutch Netherlands. . .
    . Spinoza, and before him Uriel da Costa, had broken the official
    pledge the Sephardim had made to the Dutch government upon their
    arrival in the Netherlands that they would not tolerate the presence
    of atheists or "godless men" in their midst. The Sephardim had to
    conform to Dutch tradition and become, as it were, more Dutch than
    their Dutch hosts or else run the risk of being ruined economically
    or perhaps even expelled. In essence, therefore, Spinoza's
    excommunication was based on economic and political rather than on
    religious factors. . . ."

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