Was the Marquis calling Frederick II a bad protestant? i'm not saying he'd mind, but it doesn't seem very politic.
Yes. It was said in a spirit of camaraderie, the way two epikorsim might joke to one another in a friendly spirit, not that I would know.
Oh, that Frederick. He may not have minded when his friend the Marquis called him a bad Protestant, but eventually the Marquis did step over the line. According to the old Britannica (as borrowed by Wikipedia), "Frederick was bitterly offended by his marrying a Berlin actress."
I really love those non-sequiters that occasionally peek through the stuffiness of the Brittanica.
Maybe I should make this my email signature...
lol
Why did the Marquis call Mendelsohn "a bad jew" - does this not shatter the conception that although controversial even in his lifetime, Mendelsohn wasn't personally regarded by frumme yidden as a "bad jew", just a dangerously misguided yet still frum Jew (although sadly Reform quickly developed for the worst in the coming years after Mendelsohn's death).
Not really. This was said in an irreverent, joking manner. There was certainly a perception among the 'philosophes' that they were dangerous to religion. But among them was a cross section of types. There were out and out scoffers like Voltaire, but also truly religious types. From an Orthopractic perspective, Mendelssohn was indeed truly religious. I am sure if he read that note between in which he was called a "bad Jew" he would have been saddened at that perception. Besides, obviously an 18th century Marquis who knew what 'real' traditional Jews were like, would have thought that a modern Jew was a bad Jew, from the perspective of Judaism. Indeed, one of the big controversies in Mendelssohn's life concerned the fact that his philosopher friends honestly could not fathom why he believed Judaism was true, and so he was challenged to convert to Christianity, or publicly explain why not.
(I say 'Orthopractic,' because there is indeed room to question his Orthodoxy. He defined Judaism as revealed legislation, not revealed beliefs. Furthermore, unlike all other Jews, he was an 18th century philosophe. But that doesn't mean that he believed Judaism consisted solely of the halakhic portion of Shas and the Posekim.)
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