Baruch Spinoza's inclination for free thoughts represented by Descartes and his conflicts against Jewish orthodox community cast a shadow upon his relationship with his own family, especially when his father died in 1654. It is said that he was brought to a legal battle against his sister Rebekah, who tried to ‘block his inheritance’ (http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/spinoza.html), and although he could win the court case, he must have acknowledged the situation where he was ‘almost completely cast off by his family’ (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14217a.html). Due to avoid further troubles within the Jewish community, he decided to ‘leave and move in with Franz Van den Enden’ (http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/spinoza.html), who could offer a teaching post in in his own school. During this teaching period, it is said that Spinoza ‘perfected himself in Latin and continued his philosophical investigations by the study of St. Augustine, the Stoics, Scholasticism… , the philosophy of the Renaissance and that of some modern writers, especially of Hobbes’ (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14217a.html).
Ironically, however Spinoza deeply engaged into cultivating from modern philosophical fashions and social thoughts, the community he was surrounded retained its conservative nature, at the least, or presumably even tightened. It is reported that ‘many problems concerning unbelief arose within and around the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam’ (http://books.google.com/books?id=TWCOLdhcwEIC&pg=PA425&lpg=PA425&dq=27+July+1656+spinoza+excommunicated&source=bl&ots=vv2sa-bSqF&sig=sdz0DFvo8-qm8IjxZGLNmIAx5iA&hl=en&ei=J2LfTpSlN-7DmQXapqHwBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFcQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=27%20July%201656%20spinoza%20excommunicated&f=false, p. 425) in around 1655 and it did not take long before these problems took a form of visible and physical action.
On 27 July 1656, the rabbis of the Jewish community in Amsterdam issued the proclamation of the excommunication against Baruch Spinoza. According to the web source above, the proclamation was issued because of ‘the “abominable heresies he practiced and taught”. These heresies were presumably the following: (1) denial of the immortality of the soul, (2) denial of the divinity of the Law, and (3) the view that the God exists only philosophically’ (ibid). Practically, the proclamation prohibited Spinoza to make any kind of communication with other members of the community (http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/spinoza_curse.html) and soon afterward, it extended to expel him from living in Amsterdam.
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| Baruch Spinoza |
For reading the text in full: http://wrex2009.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/the-excommunication-of-benedict-baruch-spinoza/
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