2i6 Kant: A Biographywrote that he was "always the first in my room and the last to leave."^105 In
1779, von Zedlitz took a course on psychology with Herz, and again he did
not miss any session. When Kraus was in Berlin in 1779, he also got to
know von Zedlitz well. The secretary of the high minister wrote to Kant:
"in the reflection of these two we get to know your light."^106 Kant was now
famous in Berlin. Everyone, it appears, expected great things from him.
He clearly had some weight. But the reflection of Kant's light was some¬
what distorted. Kant's views had changed, and what von Zedlitz saw was
an earlier Kant, not the Kant of the Critique of Pure Reason.
Kant always had close friends among his colleagues.^107 Funk and Kypke
were important to him during his earlier years as a Magister but not later.
While Funk died long before Kant became professor, Kypke drifted into
the life more characteristic of a small farmer than of a scholar. He became
a stranger. Kant had occasion more than once to disapprove of Kypke's
conduct. Thus in 1777 Kypke, governmental inspector of the synagogue
beginning in 1755, caused a controversy that quickly led to the elimina¬
tion of that office. Early in that year the Jewish community moved the place
of Kypke's reserved seat in the synagogue. Considering the new location
less dignified, he was not amused, and he therefore submitted on April 5,
1777, a letter of complaint to the Royal Ministry of State in which he also
aired other misgivings. The most important complaint centered on the
Alenu prayer, which was offensive to some Christians. This prayer included
the phrase "for they bow down and prostrate themselves before what is vain
and futile and pray to a god who cannot help," which some took to mean
Christians. To remove the possibility of insult, the use of the phrase was
forbidden by a royal edict dating back to 1703, and one of the duties of the
governmental inspector of the synagague was to see to it that the phrase
was not spoken. Kypke claimed that the prayer was not spoken loudly enough
but merely "muttered," implying that the Jews actually were saying the of¬
fensive phrase. He also complained that they did not inform him in a
timely manner of the psalms that would be read in upcoming services,
making it impossible for him to object to them. Reprimands and perhaps
more serious punishment were in order — or so Kypke felt. The Jewish
community defended itself and submitted a testimonial by Mendelssohn,
namely, the "Thoughts on Jewish Prayers, Especially on the ''Alenu Prayer.'"
Mendelssohn argued convincingly that the prayer was much older than
Christianity and therefore could not have been directed at Christians. The
testimonial caused more dispute and some intemperate rejoinders by Kypke,
but it ultimately resulted in the elimination of his position in 1778.^108