Approaches to Modern Judaism,

Author

Raphael; Marc Lee

Year

2020

Publisher

Brown Judaic Studies

Language

English

Pages

ISBN

978-1-94652-793-6

Link

Last Update

17-Jan-2026

Keywords

Religion ; Jewish Studies

Description

In the early 1760s, Moses Mendelssohn wrote to his fiancée, Fromet Guggenheim: "Your amourousness requires me in these letters to transcend all conventional ceremonies. For, just as we needed no marriage brokers for our (engagement), so we need no ceremonies for our correspondence … The heart will answer these instead." And in another place: "Even the kisses that I stole from your lips were mixed with some bitterness, for the approaching separation made me heavy of heart and incapable of enjoying a pure pleasure."¹ In his classic article from 1945, Jacob Katz argued that with these letters, Mendelssohn marked the...