LEO STRAUSS ON THE BORDERS OF JUDAISM, PHILOSOPHY, AND HISTORY SUNY series in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss Kenneth Hart Green, editor LEO STRAUSS ON THE BORDERS OF JUDAISM, PHILOSOPHY, AND HISTORY (cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4) Jeffrey A. Bernstein Cover art: oil painting by Giorgio di Chirico entitled Turin Spring (1914). Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2015 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production, Diane Ganeles Marketing, Fran Keneston Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bernstein, Jeffrey Alan, author. Leo Strauss on the borders of Judaism, philosophy, and history / Jeffrey A. Bern- stein. pages cm. — (SUNY series in the thought and legacy of Leo Strauss) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-5651-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4384-5653-9 (e-book) 1. Strauss, Leo. 2. Jewish philosophy. 3. Judaism and politics. I. Title. BM755.S75B47 2015 181'.06—dc23 2014027592 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To my parents—Judith and Stephen Bernstein To my children—Zachary and Nathaniel Bernstein To my wife—Ingrid Rasmussen Jerusalem and Athens one and all CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xv Introduction xvii Part I. On the Way to Jerusalem and Athens Chapter One: The Theological-Political Problem, Strauss’s Critique of Modern “Jewish Philosophy,” and the Legacy of Kant 3 Chapter Two: Strauss’s Maimonides 33 Part II. Jerusalem and Athens in Deed Chapter Three: Philosophy as a Platonic Dialogue, or Jerusalem and Athens in Jerusalem 63 Chapter Four: The Theological-Political Significance of “What Is Political Philosophy?” 89 Part III. Conclusion Chapter Five: The Transmission of Philosophy as a Way of Life: Maimonides Viewed Through a Spinozan Lens 135 Notes 165 Bibliography 207 Index 223 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A book is a thing about which it can justifiably be said, “You didn’t build that on your own.” This does not, to my mind, amount to a refusal to take credit or responsibility for the contents in this vol- ume. It is, rather, an admission that writing and thinking, while in one sense irreducible to context, nonetheless happens as a response to other irreducible individuals. I have many such individuals to thank for their help throughout the process of conceiving, thinking, and composing this book. I wasn’t originally going to write a book on Strauss. My dis- sertation (written during my years at Vanderbilt University) was on Spinoza, Schelling, and Heidegger on the question of human free- dom. Coming to the conclusion that the question of human freedom requires taking a stance on the question of what Karl Löwith referred to as meaning in history, my project mutated into one involving Spi- noza, Kant, and Schelling (my interest in Heidegger having waned somewhat over the years) on the question of a nonteleological con- ception of history. That many of these “chapters” came out in article form indicated to me that I was ambivalent about the project. That ambivalence can be articulated as follows: if I was writing a book about Spinoza, Kant, and Schelling and I knew that Spinoza would “win,” why was I writing a book about Spinoza, Kant and Schelling? While my initial project stalled, my interest in freedom, history, and, ultimately, the order that history seemed to imply, did not. Continu- ing to think long and deeply about these issues led me to undertake the project, the results of which you are about to read. Simply stated, Strauss is the only philosopher I could think of who uses the entire history of philosophy as a lens through which to illustrate order and freedom as modes of the human soul. This would be the most basic ix