Hegel entry of Jewish Encyclopedia
Transcript of Hegel entry of Jewish Encyclopedia
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8/10/2019 Hegel entry of Jewish Encyclopedia
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efez
egrel
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
316
a Palestinian, but it is more probable that he lived
in Kairwan. He wasthe author ofa work, nowlost,
in which, as its name Seferha-Mizwot indicates,
the 613 commandments were enumerated (see COM
MANDMENTS, THE 613). Unlike his predecessors
in this field , Hefez, besides an enumeration of the
laws, gave, in brief, reasons for their existence.
He was thus, perhaps, the first in the field of the
Ta'ame ha-Mizwot, which afterward hadsomany
exponents. Moreover, the Sefer ha-Mizwot con
tained not only the Biblical ordinances, b utalsotheir
Talmudic-rabbinical amplifications and interpreta
tions. Hefez
gave
what
maybe
described as a brief
summary of Biblical, Talmudic, and geonic litera
ture, including also formulas for prayer. The book
was highly esteemed by the Spanish and German-
French authorities, and the decisions of its author,
who was referred to as Gaon, Resh Kallah,
and Alluf, had such authority that even Maimon
ides acknowledged himself under obligation to him
(comp. his responsum in Pe 'er ha-Dor, No.140).
Hefezwas a grammarian and a philosopher as well
as ahalakist,and, what is very remarkable, he man
aged to express h is philological and philosophical
opinions even inhis Sefer ha-Mizwot. Jonah ibn
Janah, Judah ibn Balaam, Solomon Parhon, and
Tanhum Yerushalmi quote grammatical as well as
lexicographical remarks from
Hefez's
Sefer ha-
Mizwot. To judge from these quotations, Hefez
not only explained the Biblical verses of a legisla
tive nature which he had quoted in his enumeration
of the 613 laws, but also at times referred to pas
sages from Scriptural books other than those of the
Pentateuch;even post-Biblical literaturewasdrawn
upon for the interpretation of Biblical passages.
Hefez was a philosopher of authority, as a quota
tion from his work in Judah b. Barzillai's commen
tary to the Sefer Yezirah indicates (pp. 55-56).
As Kaufmann has already noted, Bahya ben Joseph
ibnPakuda'sproof of the existence of God from the
combination of the four elements, notwithstanding
their opposing natures ( Hobot ha-Lebabot, i. 6),
is derived from the Sefer ha-Mizwot of Hefez.
Bahya's teaching concerning the unity of God and
the anthropomorphism of the Scriptures may prob
ably also be traced back to Hefez, whose work is
quoted by Bahya in the introduction to his book
(comp. Kaufmann in Judah b. Barzillai's Commen
tary , p. 335). The tosafists, like the other German-
French authors,
quote legal decisions
from the works
of Hefez, while assumingtheauthor of them to have
beenR.Hananeel. It hasbeenclearly dem onstrated,
however, that not Hananeel, but Hefez, was the
author of the work. The misunderstanding arose
through a false interpretation of the abbreviation
n'D(
}*Sn D)
as
SxjJn
'D- W hether the book
Hefez is any other than the Sefer ha-Mizwot is
still in doubt; it is possible that the bookHefez
may mean the book by Hefez, and therefore the
Sefer ha-Mizwot. If both refer to the same book,
the Sefer ha-Miz wot musthave been avoluminous
codex, as the quotations from the book Hefez
cover all departments of Jewish
lawritual
law,
civil law, etc.
On the
other
hand, Rapoport's
claim,
whichmakesHefeztheauthoralsoofthe Mik:?o'ot
(see HANANEEL
B.
HUSHIEL), has been proved to be
without foundation. Nor was
Hefez
the author
of
the We-Hizhir.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Berliner,Migdal Hananel,pp. 17-30
man part); Bloch,
inR. E. J.v.
37-40: Benjacob,
Ozar
Sefarim; Ftirst, inOrient, Lit.x. 110-111; L. Levyso
x
247-350; Reifmann,
ib.
xii.
617;
Eapoport,
Toledot
Biananel,pp. 30-33; idem,inKobak'sJeschurun,
65;
idem.
In Wamhetms
Kebuzat Ifakamim,
pp. 53-
8. S. ' L. G.
HEFKER:
Ownerless property, rendered so
either by the formal renunciation of the owner, or
by an act of the court (Git. 36b), or by the death of
a proselyte who has leftnoJewish heirs (B. B. 149a;
Maimonides, Yad, Zekiyyah,i. 6).Property found
in seas, rivers, or deserts is also supposed to be own
erless,and comesunderthecategory ofhefker (Shul-
han 'Aruk,Hoshen Mishpat, 273, 12, 274, Isserles'
gloss; comp. B. K. 81a, the ten institutions estab
lishedby Joshua;seeTAKKANAH). In all thesecases
property of this kind is acquired by the firs t who
cares to takepossession of it. The renunciationof
ownership in property, whether movable or immov
able, in order to be valid mustbemade in the pres
ence of three men (Ned. 45a). The formula of such
a renunciation is very
simple:
This my property
shall be
hefljer.
If no one takes possession of the
property during the first three days, the previous
owner may retract his original statement, but not
after that, althoughhe canalways acquire possession
of it in the same manner as any one else (Ned. 44a;
comp. R.Nissim
ad loc;
Ya d, Nedarim, ii. 17;
Hoshen Mishpat, 273, 9). The renunciation is valid
only when made in general terms, not when it
is declared hefker only to a certain class and not to
another class, as when one declares it hefker for the
poor and not for the rich (Peah vi.1; Yer.Peahvi.
1; B. M. 30b; comp. No da ' Biyehuda, series ii.,
to Yoreh De'ah,154). As to whether property is
legally hefker if one or two individuals have been
specifically excepted by the owner, compare
Na-
halat Zebi
to Hoshen Mishpat, 20, 1.
With a few exceptions, the manner of acquiring
is the same in case of hefker as in other cases (see
ALIENATIONAND ACQUISITION). W hile usufructu ary
possession for aperiod of timeissufficienttoestablish
a claim to real estate when the claim is that it was
sold or given away (see
HAZAKAH),
such possession
is not sufficient in the case of hefker, where posses
sion must consist of actual acquisition of the object
(B. B. 54a). Pain ting one portion of a wall in a
house, or plowing a field with the intention of
taking possession of it, is sufficient ( Yad, Ne
darim, ii.; Hoshen Mishpat;,275). All thepoor-laws
that pertain to land are disregarded in thecase of
hefker property. If, however, the previous owner
takes possession of it again, he is obliged to observe
all those laws, except that of separating the tithes
( ma'aser :Ned.44a; Yad, Mattenot' Aniyim,v.
24). One whohas acquiredpossessionofanownerless
ox need not make restitution for the injuries theox
had committed before he acquired it (B. If. 13b;
Hoshen Mishpat, 406, 2, 3). See INHERITANCE;
POOR LAWS; PROSELYTES.
s. s.
J. H.
G.
HEGE L, GEORG WILHELM FRIED-
RICH
: German philosopher; born at Stuttgart
1770; died at Berlin 1831. After studying at the ,
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8/10/2019 Hegel entry of Jewish Encyclopedia
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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
fefez
Hegel
Tubingen
he became tutor at Bern
(1801)
and
essor (1805) of philosophy at Jena. In 1808 he
Nuremberg;
in
professor at Heidelberg; and in
1818,
professor
Hegel may be said to have been the founder of a
ater half of the nineteenthcentury;even now,
England and America. His system has been de
ibed as logical idealism. According to him,
is actual
or real is the manifestation of spirit
mind; metaphysics iscoincident withlogic,which
develops the creative self-movement
H is
of spirit as a dialectic and necessary
process. God is this self-unfolding
History, spirit, and in the course of the self-
realizing, free process of unfolding,
ion leaps into being. The world is a develop
The influence of Hegel's system was especially
ion of a philosophy of history. From his point
ew history is a dialectic process, through which
, is revealed and realized. This absolute is the
imited and as such, in the fate of the various na
ifyings of certain particular phases of the dia
history
as
the
Supreme Judge.
This
of history has since become funda
al in the theology of some of the leaders of the
sh Reform movement. It has been made the
on. Furthermore, it has helped to enlarge and
dify the concept of revelation. Applying these
HIRSCH
especially) have discovered in that
story also the principle of development, a succes
of fuller growths, of more complete realizations
form and apprehension of the particular spirit or
Hegel was also the first seriously to develop a
losophy of religion. In his lectures on this sub
ject
he treats
firstof
the
concept of re-
H is ligion, then of the positive religion,
and finally of the absolute religion.
R eligion.
Religion is defined as thinking the
Absolute, or
think ing consciousness
God ; but this thinking is distinct from philoso
far as it
is not
in the form of
pure
thought,
ut in that of feeling and imaginative representa
n (
Vorstellung
).
The Godhead reveals Himself
rough man. Religion, in the main, is knowledge
God,and of the relation of man to God. There
re idea, religion operates w ith symbols, which are
forms of empirical existence, but not
the
specu
tive content. Yet th is content of highest specu
lative tru th is the essential, and is expressed in the
absolute religion. Through the
cultus
(worship)
the Godhead enters the innermost parts
( das In-
nere
)
of His worshipers and becomes real in their
self-consciousness.
Religion
thus is the
knowledge
ofthe divinespirit [in Himself] throughthemedium
of the
finite
mind. This distinction between sym
bol and content,as wellas the conception of religion
as the
free
apprehension, in an ever fuller degree,
of the divine through the
finite
(human) mind, was
utilized by Samuel Hirsch
in his
rejection of the view
that Judaism is Law, and that the ceremonies, re
garded by him as mere symbols, are divinely com
manded, unchangeable institutions. The idea (or
Lehre
)
is the essential. This idea realizes itself,
imperfectly at first, in symbol, but with its fuller
unfolding the symbols become inadequate to con
vey the knowledge of God. It
was
in this way that
Hegel's philosophy of religion
became
of importance
for modern Jewish thought.
Hegel himself, when treating of positive or defi
nite
( bestimmte )
religion, dealt with Judaism as
only
one
of the temporary phases through which the
knowledge of
God
passed in
the
course
Hegel s of its evolution
into the
absolute
relig-
View of
ionChristianity.
He divides
be-
Judaism. stimmte Religion
into (a)na tural re
ligions and(b)thereligion of spiritual
[
geistigen
]
individuality. In
the
firstgroup are
included, besides the lowest, called by him the im
mediate religions, or religions of magic, the Ori
entalreligionstheChinese religion of measure ;
the Brahman religion of fantasy ; the Buddhis
tic religion of inwardness ( Insichsein ). Mid
way between this group and the second he places
Zoroastrianism, which he denominates the religion
of
good,
or of light , and the Syrian religion, des
ignated as the religion of pain . In the second
group
he
enumerates the
religion of sublimity
(Judaism), the
religion of beauty
(the Greek),
and the religion of utility
( Zweckmassigkeit ),
or
of
intellect
(the Roman).
In thus characterizing Judaism, Hegel practically
restates, in the difficult, almost
unintelligible,
tech
nical phraseology of
his own system,
the opinion
com
mon to all Christian theologians since Pau l. The
unity (of God) as apprehended by Judaism is al
together transcendental. God is indeed known as
Non-World,
Non-Nature ; but He is merely
cognized as the Master, the Law giver. Israel
is the particular people of this particular God.
Israel is under the
Law;
yea, Israel
isjforever
indis-
solubly bound up with a particular land (Palestine).
The influence of Hegel is discernible in the wri
tings
of Samson Raphael Hirsch,
who
turned
Hegel's
system to good account in defense of
H is
Orthodoxy.
Samuel Hirsch, on the
Influence
other
hand, was induced to write his
on Jewish
Religionsphilosophie der Juden
by
Thinkers, the desire to show that his master
Hegel had misunderstood Judaism.
He showed that the central thought in Hegel's sys
tem, that man is God's image and that through him
the divine is realized ou earth, is fundamental also
to Judaism. The universal implications of the
God-consciousness, vindicated by Hegel for Chris-
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8/10/2019 Hegel entry of Jewish Encyclopedia
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Hegesippus
Heidenheim
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
318
tianity alone,
were
certainly
before
that
Jewish,
in the
dialectic process
through,
which the God-conscious
nessfin llyrose to the climactic harmonizing ofNa
ture and God (the transcendental andthenatural) in
the absolute religion (Christianity). The Jewish
God-idea is not barrenly transcendental. The an
tithesis between God and non-God is overcome in
the concept of Man (not merely one God-Man) as
combining the divine and the na tural (see GOD).
The theory of Hegel that Judaism is Law, that
its motive is fear, that the holiness and wisdom of
God as cognized by it are attributes merely of the
sublime, unapproachable Sovereign, andassuch are
beyond the reach of man, as well as the other view
that Judaism is definitively Palestinian, is contrary
to the facts of Jewish history. Even the Bible
shows tha t religion as reflected by it had progressed
beyondthis stage. The Hegelian method of regard
ing man and mind as under the law of growth, and
God, not as a fact, but as a force, prepared the way
for modern theories of evolution and the science of
comparative religion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY :Hegel s Werke,especiallyVorlesungen Uber
die Philosophie der Religion, Berlin,1833; Samuel Hirsch,
Die ReligionsphilosopMe der Juden, Leipsic, 1843;Pflei-
derer,Gesch. der ReligionsphilosopMe, Berlin,1883; Pun
ier,Gesch. der ReligionsphilosopMe,Brunswick,1880,1883;
Windelband,History
of
Philosophy (transl.), New York,
1898; Zeller,Gesch. der Deutsclien Philosophic seit Leib
nitz,2d ed., Munich, 1875.
E. G. H.
H EG ES IPP TJ S: 1. One of the earliest writers
of the ChristianChurch;lived at Rome, whither he
had gone about 150 from Palestine or Syria, by
way of Corinth; died about 189. According to
Eusebius,hewasbybirtha Jew; and though this is
only an induction on
the
part of
Eusebius,
it may be
accepted as true. He wrote, in five
books/a
work
entitled
tr
trrop.vrjuara Wivre, or TLevrs ^vfypapfiara,
a h istorical apology for C hristianity, in which he at
tempts to provethetruthandcontinuity/of Christian
doctrine in the apostolic churches and /alsothe suc
cession of bishops. It was indirectly aimed against
Gnosticism and heresies in general.
Of
Jewish he
retical sects
he
mentions seven (Eusebius, His t.
Eccl. iv. 21): Essenes, Galileans, Hemerobaptists,
Masbotheans, Samaritans, Sadducees, and Pharisees.
He cites the apocryphalgospelsof the Hebrews and
of the Syrians, Jewish traditions, and Judaeo-Chris-
tian literary productions. He is thus an important
authority for Jewish heresies and for the earliest
history of the Christian Church.
Only fragments
of the YTrouvr/fiara have been
preservedin
the
Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius and (one ex
tract)inPhotius, Bibliotheca, p.232.
BIBLIOGRAPHY : Hilgenleld, in
Zeitsch rift fUr
Wissenschaft-
liche Theologie,1878, p. 304; idem,Ketzergesch.pp. 30, 84;
Harnack, Gesch.
der
Altchristlichen Litteratur, i. 483;
idem,
Chronologie der Altchristlichen Litteratur,
i. 180
et
seq.;
Holtzmann,
Lehrbuch der Neutestamentlichen The
ologie, p.
104;
the literature cited by
Weizsacker,
in Her-
zog-Hauck,
Real-Encyc.
vii. 531.
2. Presumed name of the author of a free Latin
translation, infivebooks, of the
Wars
of the Jews
of Josephus; lived in the second half of the fourth
century. The name is merely a corruption of Jo
sep hus ; it occurs as Joseph us as early as the
fifth century, inEucherius,and as late as the tenth,
in Widerkind of Saxony. In the latter par t of the
Ambrosian manuscript (8th or 9th cent.) the head
ing
Josippi Liber Primus
has been
changed by a
later hand to Egesippi. A Bern manuscriptof
the ninth century has Hegesippus ; whilea Vati
can manuscript of the ninth and tenth centurieshas
Am brosius as the author, though without any
foundation. The text of Josephus is treated very
freely in
Hegesippusmostly
in a shortened form..
Itwasfirst printed at Paris,1510,and hasbeen often
reprinted. It
was
used
by the
author of the Hebrew
Yosippon. SeeJosEPnus, FLAVIUS.
BIBLIOGRAPHY : Schiirer,
Gesch.
i. 73 (and the authorities th
cited),124;Rapoport, in the introduction to Stern'sed. ol
Parhon'sAruk,p. x., Posen, 1844; Zunz, 67.V.p. 159.
G.
HE-HALTJZ (lit. the armed, or the van
guard
):
Hebrew magazine or year-book which
ap
peared irregularly between
1852
and 1889. Its
Ger
man title, Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen uber
JUdische Geschichte, Literatur, und Alterthums-
kunde, indicates the nature of its contents. It was
edited and published by JoshuaHeschel Scnormas
the realization ofaplan mapped outby hisfriendand
teacher Isaac Erter, who had died one year before
the firs t volume appeared. Geiger, A.Krochmal,
J. S. Reggio, M. Dubs, and M. Steinschneider
were
among the contributors to the earlier volumes, the
major portion of which, however, was written by
the editor. The articles in the later volumeswere
written by Schorr exclusively. The dates and
places of publication are as follows: vols, i.-iii.
Lemberg, 1852-56; iv.-vi. Breslau, 1859-61;
vii.-
viii. Frankfort-on-the-Main,
1865-69;
ix.-xi. Prague,
1873-80; xii.-xiii. Vienna, 1887-89.
He-Haluz was the most radical of Hebrew
periodical publications, and Schorr's boldattacks on
the great rabbinical au thorities, and even on the
Talmud, aroused intense opposition. Entire works,
likeA.M.Harmolin's Ha-Holez (Lemberg,1861)
and
Meir Kohn
BISTRITZ'S Bi'ur Tit ha-Yawen
(German title, O. H. Schorr's Talmudische Exe-
gesen, Presburg, 1888), were written to disproveits
statements, and few men were subjected toso much
vindictive criticism and gross personal abuseas its
editor, who was equally unsparing in his counter
attacks. Many of his extreme views on Talmudical
subjects were, however, rejected even by radical
critics (see Geiger,
Jild.
Zeit.
iv.
67-80).
j. P. Wi.
HEIDELBERG: University town in the grand
duchy of Baden, Germany; it has a population of
40,240, including 882 Jews. The community there
dates from
the middle
of
the
thirteenth
century, as is
shown byhistoricalreferences tothepresenceof Jews
in the neighborhood of Heidelberg during the reign
of Ludw ig II . (1253-94). In1300the protected Jew
Anselm lived in the townitself; in1321there were
several othersthere;and in1349Jews were among
those who suffered during the Black Death. How
ever, it is probable that but few were martyred, for
the elector Rupert I. made Heidelberg at that time
a place of refuge for Jew s fleeing from Worms,
Speyer, and other places. From the middle of the
fourteenth century onward Jews were regularly re
ceived in Heidelberg under comparatively favorable
conditions. The
Hochmeister
(rabbi) Lebelang
was granted protection, and permission to open at
Heidelberg or insomeother placein thePalatinatea