Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848

238 } Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany

love between Rudolph and Elisabetha grows primarily through intellectual dia-

logue and Erkenntnis, not confused passion. Rudolph sheds his preconceived

notions about women’s inferior intellect and comes to respect Elisabetha as his

equal. When he becomes sure of the strength of their love, Rudolph exclaims to

Elisabetha: “You are spirit of my spirit!” (Du bist Geist von meinem Geiste!).^161

This ultimate harmonization of love and intellect is consistent with Rudolph’s

evocation, in the course of the two lovers’ growing bond, of Spinoza’s concept

of intellectual love, or happiness achieved through knowledge. In Rudolph’s

reflection, Spinozan intellectual love emerges as a viable, indeed superior, form

of romance:

Is it true that the calmly blissful sanctity of love ends if one wants to think and

know it? That is the same [as saying] that one can only believe in, but not

think and know, God; no, knowledge is God and God is love, and in knowl-

edge devotion and love are no longer exuberant fleeting moments, it [knowl-

edge] is steady and constant. Love no longer hovers unrecognizably and un-

fathomably above life as a supernatural revelation, poured out over it as the

miracle of the Holy Spirit. It is the immanent transfiguration [innewohnende

Verklärung] of every particular point out of which the circle of life, infinite yet

ever closed, is composed.^162

As charming and seductive as algebra, Spinozan intellectual love nevertheless

provides the model for Auerbach’s vision of a new sort of courtship and domes-

tic bond.

If Spinozan philosophy acts as the unlikely medium of romance, Spinoza

also remains the unifying force in Auerbach’s vision of liberal German plural-

ism. As unmistakable as Spinoza’s presence in “Liebe Menschen” is, unlike in

“Deutsche Abende: Wer ist glücklich?,” it remains unspoken. In an intriguing

instance of what we could call self-reflexive silence, however, Auerbach (silently)

remarks on Spinoza’s absence from the text. Rudolph relates his idea to Elisa-

betha of instituting a form of secular worship honoring great intellects of the

past.^163 When Elisabetha asks why he does not pursue the idea, Rudolph replies

that government authorities would not allow many of the most worthy names to

be honored, but he adds that such a ceremony is not really necessary: “Monu-

ments need not stand selfishly [egoistisch] in the open air; they must become

pillars of a great edifice, with no further demands than to help support the vault.

... If the thought, the feeling, the life of a great intellect [eines großen Geistes] in-

fuses the life and spirit of contemporaries and posterity, then he lives for all ages:

every breast he causes to swell, every heart he strengthens praises him, even if

they do not say or know his name.”^164 Rudolph’s general reflection on the virtue