Philosophy and the Jewish Question: Mendelssohn, Rosenzweig, and Beyond

Notes

n o t e s introduction: mendelssohn and rosenzweig beyond 1800 1. After indicating that the poem was composed in 1800 by placing the date after the poem’s title, Rosenzweig includes the date 1909 on a second line followed by a colon and then, on the following line, the verse is quoted. The date 1909 is the year Rosenzweig began work on the Hegel book. Following the verse, after skipping a line, the year 1919, the year of the book’s completion, is followed by a colon and then another verse from the poem, this time expressing the brevity of life and the impossibility of seeing into the future of a whole people’s life (‘‘But the years of the peoples, / These what mortal man’s eye has seen? [Doch die Jahre der Völker / Sah ein stirbliches Auge sie?]’’). For the text of Hegel und der Staat, I rely upon the one-volume facsimile edition in Rosenzweig 1962. Translations from Hegel und der Staat, hereafter Hegel-Staat, are mine throughout. The translation of the verses is taken from Hölderlin 1998: 45, 47. 2. For Rosenzweig’s reflections on this famous quotation from the preface to Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, see Hegel-Staat 2:79–82. 3. Rosenzweig recurs frequently in Hegel-Staat to the theme of Hegel’s ‘‘Vereinigung mit der Zeit.’’ See, for example, Hegel-Staat 1:99ff.; 2:82. ‘‘Vereinigung ’’ is a key Hegelian term, recurring frequently in the early theological writings. 4. I will discuss the significance of 1800 in greater detail in Chapter 3. Paul W. Franks and Michael L. Morgan have laid the foundations for a proper understanding of 1800 in Rosenzweig’s thinking in their introductory essays in Franz Rosenzweig, Philosophical and Theological Writings (Rosenzweig 2000, see esp. pp. 39–43). As they put it, 1800 marks the moment when ‘‘the world and history are prepared for fulfillment but are unfulfillable by themselves. Hence, revelation is both necessary and possible’’ (41). 5. I have relied on the German text in Rosenzweig 1976 and, for translations throughout, the Barbara Galli version in Rosenzweig 2005. All quotations from 325 326 Notes The Star of Redemption offer a page reference to the translation followed by a page reference to the German text. 6. There are now three important editions available of the German text. The first, published in 1983, is the Jubiläumsausgabe volume prepared by Alexander Altmann, band 8 in Mendelssohn 1971–90. Although Altmann’s introduction and notes remain an invaluable resource, problems with the text of the German exist. More reliable are the texts found in David Martyn’s edition in Mendelssohn 2001 and in Michael Albrecht’s edition in Mendelssohn 2005. I will use the Arkush translation in Mendelssohn 1983, with page references to the translation followed by section and page reference to the 1783 German edition (indicated in the header of the Altmann edition and in the outside margin of the Albrecht edition). 7. Batnitzky 2000: 33–40. 8. The essay, published originally in 1929, is collected in Zweistromland: Kleinere Schriften zu Glauben und Denken (Rosenzweig 1984: 801–16). It is translated in Buber and Rosenzweig 1994: 99–113. 9. Rosenzweig 1984, Zweistromland: 804. 10. Buber and Rosenzweig 1994: 102. 11. Ex 3:14 in Mendelssohn, Das Zweite Buch Moses; reprinted in band 16 of the Gesammelte Schriften Jubiläumsausgabe (Mendelssohn 1971–90, hereafter JubA). I have slightly altered the English translation offered in Buber and Rosenzweig 1994: 102. 12. Du in this context is more commonly translated as Thou. I and Thou is, of course, familiar as the title of Buber’s most well-known book. On Jacobi and those who later used his ‘‘I-you’’ motif, see Buber’s ‘‘The History of the Dialogical Principle’’ in Buber 2002: 250–52. Rosenzweig reveals his knowledge of Jacobi at many points throughout his writings. Paul W. Franks points out one such place in a note to his and Michael L. Morgan’s translation of Rosenzweig’s ‘‘The New Thinking’’ (Rosenzweig 2000: 118n18). 13. References will be to the English translation of George di Giovanni in Jacobi 1994: 173–251; hereafter Spinoza-Letters. When citing Spinoza-Letters, I will provide the pagination to the English translation followed by the original pagination as provided in the translation. The German text of the first edition of Spinoza-Letters (1785), with an apparatus criticus indicating changes made in the second (1789) and third (1819) editions, is presented in...