Background
Rosenzwelg., Franz was born on December 25, 1886 in Kassel, Germany.
translator Religious existentialist
Rosenzwelg., Franz was born on December 25, 1886 in Kassel, Germany.
1905 14, Philosophy, History and Classics in various universities.
1920, Cofounder, Freies Jüdisches Lehrhaus. 1922-1929, taught from home after serious illness. Ordained rabbi by Leo Baeck.
Nearly converted to Christianity, but changed his mind after experiencing Orthodox Yom Kippur service in Berlin, 1913. Experiences in First World War led to renunciation of an academic career.
Rosenzweig was a precursor of existentialism. However, his attachment to Judaism was influenced by the neo-Kantian. Hermann Cohen. There is a correlation between Rosenzweig's views and Heidegger’s Being and Time. Rosenzweig’s chef d’oeuvre, The Star of Redemption (1921) was, however, regarded as of primarily Jewish interest until about fifty years after Rosenzweig's death. In it, and influenced by the later Schelling, Rosenzweig opposed German idealist philosophy, and emphasised the immediate presence of God. For Rosenzweig revelation is not an historical event but God’s continuous verbal relationship with humanity. Following Kant, Rosenzweig distinguished universal laws(Gesetzen)and ‘commandments’, born out of love. Later he held halakhah to be a channel for the commandments. Rosenzweig’s anti-idealism resembled Buber's, but they differed in attitude to halakhah. Rosenzweig held that whereas Christianity was bound by history, Judaism’s unfolding relationship of God, humanity and world was biologically determined. He was influenced in this view both by the religious medieval Jewish philosopher Judah Halevi, and the modern evolutionary determinist Charles Darwin.