Manuel Joël (or ''Joel''; October 19, 1826 – November 3, 1890) was a German

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and preacher.

Biography

Manuel Joël was born in Birnbaum (Międzychód),

Grand Duchy of Posen The Grand Duchy of Posen (; ) was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, created from Prussian Partition, territories annexed by Prussia after the Partitions of Poland, and formally established following the Congress of Vienna in 1815. On 9 February 1 ...

. His older brother was the rabbi and scholar

David Joël David Heymann Joël (; 12 January 1815 – 7 September 1882) was a German rabbi and scholar of Jewish philosophy and mysticism. Biography David Joël was born in 1815 to Liebchen () and Rabbi Heimann Joël in Inowrazław, Province of Posen (then ...

. After teaching for several years at the Breslau rabbinical seminary, founded by

Zecharias Frankel Zecharias Frankel (30 September 1801 – 13 February 1875) was a Bohemian-German rabbi and a historian who studied the historical development of Judaism. He was born in Prague and died in Breslau. He was the founder and the most eminent member o ...

, in 1863 he became the successor of

Abraham Geiger Abraham Geiger (Hebrew: ''ʼAvrāhām Gayger''; 24 May 181023 October 1874) was a German rabbi and scholar who is considered the founding father of Reform Judaism and the academic field of Quranic studies. Emphasizing Judaism's constant developm ...

in the rabbinate of Breslau. He made important contributions to the history of the school of Aqiba as well as to the history of

Jewish philosophy Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until the modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconc ...

, his essays on

Ibn Gabirol Solomon ibn Gabirol or Solomon ben Judah (, ; , ) was an 11th-century Jewish poet and philosopher in the Neo-Platonic tradition in Al-Andalus. He published over a hundred poems, as well as works of biblical exegesis, philosophy, ethics and satire ...

and

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

being of permanent worth. But his most influential work was connected with the relations between Jewish philosophy and the medieval

scholasticism Scholasticism was a medieval European philosophical movement or methodology that was the predominant education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. It is known for employing logically precise analyses and reconciling classical philosophy and Ca ...

. He showed how

Albertus Magnus Albertus Magnus ( 1200 – 15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great, Albert of Swabia, Albert von Bollstadt, or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop, considered one of the great ...

derived some of his ideas from Maimonides and how Spinoza was indebted to the same writer, as well as to

Hasdai Crescas Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas (; ; c. 1340 in Barcelona – 1410/11 in Zaragoza) was a Spanish-Jewish philosopher and a renowned halakhist (teacher of Jewish law). Along with Maimonides ("Rambam"), Gersonides ("Ralbag"), and Joseph Albo, he is k ...

. These essays were collected in two volumes of ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie'' (1876), while another two volumes of ''Blicke in die Religionsgeschichte'' (1880-1883) threw much light on the development of religious thought in the early centuries of the

Christian era The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used when designating years in the Gregorian and Julian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means "in the year of the Lord" but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", tak ...

. Equally renowned were Joel's pulpit addresses. Though he was no orator, his appeal to the reason was effective, and in their published form his three volumes of Predigten (issued posthumously) found many readers. Joël was the chief rabbi of the reform Jewish congregation when the New Synagogue was completed in 1872. He died in 1890 in Breslau.

References

Secondary literature

* George Y. Kohler, “Manuel Joel in Defense of the Talmud – Liberal Responses to Religious Antisemitism in Nineteen-Century Germany”, ''

Hebrew Union College Annual The ''Hebrew Union College Annual'' (HUCA) is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of Jewish studies. It was established in 1924 and is published by the Hebrew Union College. The editors-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also kn ...

'' 79, (2008/2010), p. 141-163 * Görge K. Hasselhoff "Manuel Joel and the Neo-Maimonidean Discovery of Kant", in: James T. Robinson (ed.) The Cultures of Maimonideanism, Brill (2009)

External links

Digitized works by Manuel Joel
at the

Leo Baeck Institute, New York The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking J ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joel, Manuel 1826 births 1890 deaths People from Międzychód 19th-century German rabbis Jewish philosophers People from the Grand Duchy of Posen Spinoza scholars German Reform rabbis