Enlightened Chains, pg. 12

so that it could be read directly in the every day vernacular rather than only in the Hebrew tongue. Religious leaders, it seems, were concerned that being able to read Hebrew scripture in German would lead to an abandonment of Hebrew scholarship. This alone seems to have been enough to have earned Mendelssohn the enmity of many of his Jewish contemporaries.

However, Mendelssohn remained an adherent to Jewish religious teachings throughout his life. His writings extensively defended the role of the miraculous in faith and the possibility of revelation as a means of understanding the universe. However, he was insistent that revelation could not contradict with reason. In fact, reason was a natural means of pursuing the reality of God and divine providence. The lack of proof concerning the human soul and afterlife did not, for him, provide proof that it did not exist. Instead, it simply showed the limits of human reason.

One of Mendelssohn’s most important works, Jerusalem, is, in fact, a defense of Judaism, including those mystical aspects that are beyond the ability of reason to refute. This work, more than any other, gave birth to Reformed Judaism as a means of modernizing the Jewish religion and setting it within his contemporary society. He urged Jews to move into civil society, so long as civil society defended their ability to maintain their religious observances. His commitment was to remain firmly within both the world of reason and the world of Jewish faith. It is this dual commitment that marks a major deviation from the uneasy truce between reason and faith held by Spinoza.

Mendelssohn developed a close relationship with Gotthold Lessing, and the latter is believed to have based the main character of his play Nathan the Wise on his mentor. Mendelssohn was not the only influence upon Lessing, though. Initially he was

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