Elijah Benamozegh
The modern Noahide movement was reborn by Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh (1822-1900, Italian of Morrocan origin), Kabbalist, philosopher, liberal scholar whose major work Israel and Humanity summarized his thinking on the topic following correspondence with Aime Palliere (1875-1949), a Catholic who desired to convert to Judaism but whom Rabbi Benamozegh convinced to commit to Noahism. Palliere related his own story in The Forgotten Sanctuary.
Italian rabbi; born at Leghorn in 1822; died there Feb. 6, 1900. His father (Abraham) and mother (Clara), natives of Fez, Morocco, died when Eliyahu was only four years old. The orphan early entered school, where, besides instruction in the elementary sciences, he received tuition in Hebrew, English, and French, excelling in the last-named language. Benamozegh devoted himself later to the study of philosophy and theology, which he endeavored to reconcile with each other.
At the age of twenty-five he entered upon a commercial career, spending all his leisure in study; but his natural tendency toward science and an active religious life soon caused him to abandon the pursuit of wealth. He then began to publish scientific and apologetic works, in which he revealed a great at tachment to the Jewish religion, exhibiting at the same time a broad and liberal mind. His solicitude for Jewish traditions caused him to defend even the much-decried Cabala. Later, Benamozegh was appointed rabbi and professor of theology at the rabbinical school of his native town; and, notwithstanding his multifarious occupations from that time, he continued to defend Jewish traditions by his pen until his death.
Contents
View on NoahidesJudaism_and_Other_Religions
Rabbi Elijah Benamozegh did actually embrace the reading of works of other faiths. Rabbi Elijah Benamozegh (1823-1900) was a preacher and essayist in nineteenth-century Italy, who incorporated the new finding of comparative religion in his Biblical commentaries and who wanted to bring Gentiles, even his Christian contemporaries, back to a true universal Monotheism based on the seven Noahide laws.
In many ways he continues the inclusive-hierarchy model of valuing Jewish monotheism over the trinity and the inclusive-mission model by placing Judaism as the heart of the nations, with the nations following the Noahide laws and the Jews following the commandments. He is most original when he acknowledges the cultural embeddedness of religion and that there is truth in every religion even if their conceptions of monotheism and revelation are deficient. He has theological statements on why Judaism rejects the Trinity, why the New Testament cannot supersede the Sinai revelation, and why Jews accept a progressive revelation in the oral law.
- The idea of the personality of God necessarily implies that of the unity of substance. …Christianity which possesses a trinity of persons while maintaining the unity of God's substance…might best be called tritheism. [1]
- As for those who tell us that Christianity embodies a new revelation, do they not see that if the Christian mysteries were truly a radical innovation, then the entire system of Divine revelation would be overturned?… It could no longer be a question of a unique and perfect Revelation coming, like the material creation, from the sovereign intelligence of God….From the moment that one abandons the notion of a unique revelation -- with the intention of combating Judaism -- there remains only the hypothesis of multiple religions.
- A glance at the pagan mysteries will enable us to understand very clearly the influence of paganism upon the educated class in Israel.[2]
- Through dispersion among gentiles, [Judaism] gathers and incorporates the fragments of truth wherever it finds them scattered.[3]
He finds Christianity wanting on monotheism because it has a trinity, and on revelation because revelation is to be eternal and unique, incapable of being superseded by later revelations. Yet, in his writings, he openly compares and contrasts to Judaism, Christianity, pagan mysteries, Taoism, and Hinduism. He creates a vision of a single world religion with Judaism at the pinnacle and that all religions were needed for the progress of mankind.
Publications
Benamozegh was the author of the following works:
- Emat Mafgia' (The Fear of the Opponent), a refutation of Leon de Modena's attacks upon the Cabala, in 2 vols., Leghorn, 1858;
- Ger Z.edek. (A Righteous Proselyte), critical notes on Targum Onkelos, ib., 1858;
- Ner le-David (Lamp of David), commentary on the Psalms, published together with the text, ib., 1858;
- Em la-Mik.ra (Matrix of Scripture), commentary on the Pentateuch containing critical, philological, archeological, and scientific notes on the dogmas, history, laws, and customs of the ancient peoples, published together with the text under the title Torat Adonai, Leghorn and Paris, 1862-65;
- T.a'am la-Shad (Arguments for Samuel David []), refutation of Samuel David Luzzatto's dialogue on the Cabala, Leghorn, 1863; (6) Mebo Kelali, general introduction to the traditions of Judaism, published in Ha-Lebanon, 1864, pp. 73 et seq.;
- Storia degli Esseni, Florence, 1865;
- Morale Juive et Morale Chre'tienne. Examen Comparatif Suivi de Quelques Re'flexions sur les Principes de l'Islamisme, Paris, 1867;
- Teologia Dogmatica ed Apologetica, Leghorn, 1877;
- Le Crime de la Guerre De'nonce' a` I'Humanite', Paris, 1881 (this work won for its author a medal and honorable mention from the Ligue de la Paix, on the proposition of Jules Simon, Edouard Laboulaye, and Frederic Passy);
- Ya'aneh be-Esh (He Will Answer Through Fire), discussion of cremation according to the Bible and the Talmud, Leghorn, 1886.
Besides writing these works, Benamozegh contributed to many periodicals, his more important articles being: Spinoza et la Kabbala, in Univers Israe'lite, xix. 36 et seq.; La Tradition, ib. xxv. 20 et seq.; Intorno alla Cabbala, in Il Vessilo Israelitica, xli. 3 et seq.; Il Libro di Giobbe, in Educatore, ix. 325 et seq.; Dell' Escatologia, ib. xxv. 203 et seq.
Bibliography
- Lattes, Vita ed Opere di Elia Benamozegh, Leghorn, 1901;
- Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 100;
- De Gubernatis, Dizionario Biografico, p. 125;
- Zeitlin, Bibl. Hebraica, p. 19.S. I. Br.
See also
- Israel and Humanity Translated by Maxwell Uria, in the series Classics of Western Spirituality. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1995.
