I first visited Israel in December 2018. They say travel changes people. However, I never imagined that a journey after turning 40, past the age of no confusion, would deliver such unprecedented impact. The catalyst for this trip was an invitation from the founder of a Japanese drone startup. During the day, I interacted with numerous startup stakeholders. The drone technology was truly remarkable. There were also companies specializing in autonomous driving, security, and AI. Israeli startups boldly challenging the frontiers with cutting-edge science and technology. I could not help but be stunned by the gap with Japan.

　However, when I stepped away from business to observe Israel's daily life, another face emerged. Israel as a Jewish society, where religion forms the core of life. The strict dietary laws need no explanation. What surprised me was the rigorous adherence to laws regarding the Sabbath.

　The Sabbath regulations set forth in the Tanakh (what Christians refer to as the Old Testament) are detailed and comprehensive. Strictly observing these in modern society is extremely difficult. Nevertheless, on Friday evenings, all business activities cease without exception. Public transportation stops. Even elevators halt. This is because during the Sabbath period, machines are also forbidden to work. ※However, modern cities like Tel Aviv have numerous high-rise buildings. In such cases, measures are taken such as switching elevators to automatic operation before the Sabbath begins.

    The Mysterious Coexistence of Religion and Science
　Israel leads the world in rational advanced sciences like drones and autonomous driving, while simultaneously continuing to observe laws (Halakha) established over 2,000 years ago in the Tanakh and accepting the inconveniences of the Sabbath. I could not help but feel puzzled by this strange coexistence of religion and science. Rather than feeling discomfort with what I witnessed, it might be more accurate to say I was surprised by the complete absence of a framework within myself to explain this phenomenon.

　The catalyst for writing this column stems from the "three sources of discomfort" I mentioned in my previous column. One is my discomfort with the phrase "rule by law" that a certain country's prime minister gleefully repeats. Another is the discomfort I touched upon earlier regarding the "strange coexistence of religion and science" in Israel. And the third is my discomfort with why we call Jewish people "Jews" but do not call Christians "Christ-ians." This time, I will write about the second source of discomfort. The protagonist is Spinoza, a Sephardic Jew born in the Netherlands.

    The Tanakh and Science
　Like the Greeks and Romans, Jews have long held deep interest in science. The Tanakh, the sacred text of Jewish law (Halakha), contains numerous laws related to science. For example, Leviticus 19:35-36. Here, the use of correct weights and measures is emphasized, establishing standards for fair trade. Also, Genesis 6:14-16 describes specific methods for building the ark that saved Noah from the flood. It instructs to build the vessel from gopher wood and coat it inside and out with tar. The dimensions of the ark are also specifically described.

For the people of ancient Israel, who played a role in Mediterranean trade, ships must have held special significance. These construction techniques surely aided them greatly. They prospered through Mediterranean trade and developed various financial technologies necessary for commercial transactions (foreign exchange, settlement, investment and financing, etc.).

　However, it would naturally have been impossible to continue governing all aspects of an increasingly complex society with only the basic laws described in the Tanakh regarding science. When new technologies created new problems, how should the law be applied? Such issues arose frequently, not limited to scientific matters. When served unfamiliar food in foreign lands, was it permissible to eat according to kosher laws? Regarding such matters, Jewish society developed interpretations centered around rabbis (scholars of religious law). The fruits of these efforts to read between the lines of the Tanakh were accumulated through legal Q&A exchanges (responsa) in Jewish society. These were then compiled by religious law scholars into the Talmud.

　※Incidentally, this accumulation of legal interpretation continues today. When coronavirus swept the world, the greatest concern of Jews worldwide was whether COVID vaccines were legal according to religious law. Many religious law scholars emphasized the preservation of health and the saving of life (pikuach nefesh), judging vaccine administration to be legal under religious law. This is considered one of the factors behind Israel's extremely rapid vaccine rollout.

    Spinoza Born in the Netherlands During the Northern Renaissance
　Let us shift our focus to the medieval period. Medieval European society was a world ruled by laws established by Christian kings and churches. Within this context, for Jews managed as subjects of kings, how to protect religious law and Jewish communities was an extremely serious problem. During this era, Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal were converging in the Netherlands through various routes. In Christian society, Protestantism rose in opposition to Catholicism. The Dutch East India Company was established as the world's first joint-stock company, and Europe was swept up in colonial startup investment. Furthermore, the Renaissance movement that had been active in Italy spread throughout Europe, and the Northern Renaissance flourished.

In such times, Dutch Jewish society appeared terribly rigid to one young Jewish man. He parted ways with religious law scholars who engaged endlessly in nitpicking Talmudic interpretative debates and challenged himself to redefine everything. This was Spinoza. He too was a descendant of a family that had been expelled from Portugal generations earlier and had come to the Netherlands.

Spinoza directly criticized existing Judaism and religious law scholars, and in turn criticized Christianity as well. He sought to reconstruct the relationship between God and faith in the Renaissance era. This generated new philosophy regarding the relationship between religion and science, becoming one driving force that opened the horizon of Western modernization. As a price for this, Spinoza was excommunicated from Jewish society. However, he is said to have been completely unperturbed by this.

    Spinoza's Critique of Judaism
I understand the core of Spinoza's critique of Judaism and his philosophy to be the redefinition of the relationship between God and nature. As I stated in my previous column, Judaism defined God as a concept superior to nature. Their God created the entire world including heaven and earth during the seven days of creation. Therefore, their God can dominate and control nature, being a concept superior to nature. "Something" that exists above and apart from nature. This is the God of Abraham.

Why was such a concept incorporated into Judaism? The Mediterranean region during the pre-Christian era when Judaism emerged was dominated by polytheistic nations (Greece and Rome) based on nature worship. The people of ancient Israel constructed their God as a superior concept to their gods - the "one true God." They defined their nation, territory, and people by claiming to have concluded a contract (the Ten Commandments) with this one God, with territorial rights to the land (Israel) at its core. They sought to assert the legitimacy of their nation and law through non-military means against hegemonic states that imposed their law on others through overwhelming military force. This is my hypothesis.

In contrast to Judaism, which defined God as superior to nature, Spinoza believed there was no hierarchy - that God and nature were completely identical. He established the concept of "God or Nature" (English: God is Nature. Latin: Deus sive Natura). He considered God to be the only substance in the world, with everything existing as "attributes" or "modes" of this substance (nature). Therefore, he believed that true divine law exists within nature itself. To explain this way of thinking, he poses the following question in his work "Theological-Political Treatise":

"How were Adam and Eve able to eat from the tree of knowledge?"

　As I mentioned in my previous column, in the Tanakh, Adam and Eve made the first contract with God. To live in eternal paradise (Eden), they needed to observe only one contract (thou shalt not eat from the tree of knowledge) (Genesis 2:16-17). However, they ate from the tree of knowledge and were expelled from paradise. This is a famous biblical episode known by many people even in Japan, which has little connection to Judaism or Christianity. If I were to interpret and present the meaning of Spinoza's question in my own way, it would be this:

"Can a rule (law) that mere humans like Adam and Eve could break
really be called true divine law?"

　Spinoza's thinking does not contradict Judaism, Christianity, or Islam in the least regarding God being the one and absolute existence. (Therefore, understanding Spinoza as an atheist is wrong). However, if the one true God truly established divine law, would it not be impossible for mere humans to break it? If God created human beings themselves, should humans not inherently be unable to go against divine law? Yet Adam and Eve were able to transgress. If so, might the truth (divine law) that God wanted to show them have been something entirely different? Perhaps Adam and Eve (that is, humans) simply lacked the ability to correctly perceive and understand divine law. This is what Spinoza thought.

 

□The Pythagorean theorem is divine law.
　Conversely, Spinoza also believed that there certainly exist immutable rules (divine laws) in the world that humans absolutely cannot violate. He uses the Pythagorean theorem as an example. The sum of the squares of the two sides forming a right angle in a triangle equals the square of the hypotenuse. This is an immutable theorem and truth that humans cannot break or falsify - absolute truth, namely divine law (rule).

　In other words, since nature and God are one (God or Nature), the behavior of nature itself is the manifestation of divine law. Therefore, making efforts to correctly explore and understand the behavior of nature (science) is the true act for understanding divine law. This is one aspect of Spinoza's philosophy.

　It is difficult to objectively measure how directly Spinoza's view of nature influenced the pursuit of science in Western modernization. However, for example, Einstein, who left numerous miraculous achievements beginning with the theory of relativity, stated to the effect that "the Bible is nothing but moldy, antiquated papyrus, and I believe in Spinoza's God." This is a well-known story. He too was Jewish.

　I had understood that Western Enlightenment developed science by dismissing religion as superstition and denying it. However, this is probably wrong. Surely, for many Western people, exploring natural truth (science) is a religious act to understand divine law. And this Spinozan view of science seems to be passed down through generations among some of the secular intellectual class in present-day Israel. This might be one answer to the discomfort I felt in Israel.

　However, when interpreting Spinoza's philosophy this way, new questions naturally arise. Let us return once more to the example of Adam and Eve. Based on Spinoza's concept of "God or Nature," Adam and Eve (that is, humans) are also one attribute (mode) of God. The two who followed their desires and will honestly and ate from the tree of knowledge. If they too are one form (mode) of God, then their choice and action (eating from the tree of knowledge) would also be a manifestation of divine will. So, are all human actions following desire and will affirmed as manifestations of divine will? Can human society survive without any restraint (governance)?

    What Governs People is "Reason" and "Human Law"
Regarding this question, if we seek an answer from Spinoza's philosophy, Spinoza believed that being bound (governed) by carnal desires and greed for money is what essentially makes people unfree. He considered being rational to be the truly free way of human existence that expresses divine will. Do not let yourself be governed by desire. Govern yourself through reason. This is true divine will and the form of a free human being. This is what Spinoza believed.

　Spinoza's philosophy also extends to examining social governance structures. Spinoza considered governing oneself through reason to be the ultimate divine will imposed on humans. However, he simultaneously did not believe that all humans could achieve this. Therefore, "human law" is necessary in addition to divine law, and people should observe it. This is probably influenced by the intellectualism of ancient Greek philosophy during the Renaissance.

　Moreover, when the Age of Exploration began, Western people needed to trade with those not under the governance of Abraham's God. In the Netherlands, where strengthening national wealth and countering Spain was an urgent task, practical considerations took priority.

　In this context, Spinoza believed that absolute truth (divine law) and contracts between humans (human law) could coexist. Interestingly, Spinoza mentions trade agreements between the Dutch and Japanese as an example of these "contracts with humans." Since they were concluding agreements with Japanese who were heathens, even if Dutch merchants (Christians and Jews) complied with laws shown by the ultimate heathens, the Japanese (limiting trade to Dejima, prohibiting missionary activities, prohibiting religious ceremonies), as long as they governed themselves rationally, they would not have betrayed God. This is what Spinoza believed.

The Rise of Monetary Economy and Spinoza's Philosophy
　The era when Spinoza lived was the early Age of Exploration. Spain plundered vast amounts of silver from South America and strengthened its national power by distributing it. The Netherlands imported large quantities of silver from Japan to counter Spain. This was an era without mechanisms like central banks to control money supply. The balance between money and the real economy was severely disrupted. Enormous excess liquidity emerged. In my understanding, this era saw the world experience full-scale monetary inflation for the first time in history. Commerce and trade, which could easily profit from price differences, flourished. Meanwhile, traditional industries (such as agriculture) vulnerable to price fluctuations suffered severe damage. Social scrapping and building accelerated.

　And "money" became an increasingly decisive presence in society. Money came to govern humans far more powerfully than the kings, churches, or even God that had previously ruled Western Christian society. This is because the law (rules) by which money governs humans is extremely simple and clear.

"Make me (money) grow more and more."

　This was the only law (rule) that money imposed on humans. To multiply money, the Western world engaged in colonial acquisition competition. Money governed people in a sense superior to God. Why? Because the world's first joint-stock company gave birth to the concept of "legal persons." The Tanakh and New Testament had provided various wisdom for governing humans (natural persons). However, there were no provisions for legal persons. The God of Abraham created natural persons, but never anticipated that these natural persons (humans) would create conceptual contracting entities like corporate legal persons.

　Therefore, when joint-stock companies emerged in the Netherlands, there were no answers in the Bible regarding how these legal persons should be governed. So people summarized the relationship between legal persons and natural persons into two categories. One was "employees" as production factor inputs for generating profits. The other was natural persons called "members (shareholders)" who govern the legal person. And these members (shareholders) became faithful slaves to money.

    Spinoza refused to the end to let his philosophy be governed by money
In such times, Spinoza continued to refuse to allow his philosophy to be governed by money until the very end. Spinoza's parents were gem merchants. When his father died, Spinoza inherited the business along with his brother. However, they soon had to liquidate the company. When they inherited the business, there were already substantial debts, and they were forced to choose between inheriting the debts or liquidating the business, choosing liquidation. In the midst of this, he was also caught up in financial disputes among relatives. From these experiences, the emptiness of being manipulated by money may have become deeply ingrained. However, the details are unclear.

　Even when Jewish society offered to provide him with livelihood if he would stop his criticism of Judaism, Spinoza would not acquiesce. Even when friends worried about his impoverished life and arranged university positions for him, he consistently declined. He maintained minimal economic independence as a lens craftsman while pursuing his philosophy. This is how it is recorded.

　The lives of great figures tend to be exaggerated. Whether Spinoza truly supported himself as a lens craftsman, or whether he pursued philosophy in comfort using whatever wealth remained from business succession (achieving what we might now call "mini-FIRE"), is not really clear.

However, Spinoza taught that being dominated by various desires is human unfreedom, and that one must overcome this and govern oneself through reason. He was a "person of practice" who demonstrated his philosophy through his own life. This is how I perceive him.

The books he left during his lifetime were very few, including "Theological-Political Treatise." The Theological-Political Treatise was published anonymously and was soon banned. His philosophical masterpiece "Ethics" was published after his death. Though he left few works, Spinoza had a major influence on subsequent Western philosophy.

    Is Spinoza an anti-Semite?
　Spinoza remains a very difficult figure to handle and evaluate even today, with divided opinions. His evaluation in Jewish society is particularly harsh overall. There is criticism that Spinoza's critique of Judaism became part of modern anti-Semitic theory and triggered irreparable disasters for the Jewish people. In contemporary Dutch Jewish society, debates frequently arise about whether to revoke Spinoza's excommunication and restore his honor. However, such deliberations always end in rejection.

　I do not believe Spinoza was an anti-Semite. I have heard that the word "Israel" carries the meaning of "wrestling with God." This comes from the wrestling between God and Jacob in Genesis 32. This wrestling continued through the night, and through this, God recognized Jacob. He told him to call himself "Israel" from then on.

　Spinoza did not simply accept existing concepts, great forces, friction and conflict, but fought against them. If existing solutions were inadequate, he would create his own. He continued to burn his soul to establish his own philosophy, ending his 44-year life. To me, his life appears to be the very embodiment of the way of life of a proud Sephardic Jew who always valued placing himself within practice. His cause of death was tuberculosis. Tuberculosis, along with plague, was another epidemic that continued to torment the world.