{"id":2292,"date":"2014-05-15T13:20:57","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T13:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/?p=2292"},"modified":"2016-05-02T11:25:43","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T18:25:43","slug":"the-statue-and-the-synagogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/15\/the-statue-and-the-synagogue\/","title":{"rendered":"The Statue and the Synagogue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AMST<\/a>This is what the women saw. \u00a0There are few sanctuaries more beautiful and moving than this 1675\u00a0Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue<\/a> in Amsterdam, and here the women, while separated, were still able to share its beauty. \u00a0In fact, in many ways, they saw more.<\/p>\n

\"AMST<\/a>The service, certainly, but also the outside world for which they prayed. \u00a0It was a hike to get there, of course, but the dignity and faith that infuses the place was more available to them than in many other observant synagogues. \u00a0It’s difficult to describe the peace and beauty of this place, even with a photo. \u00a0Or two. \u00a0The black and white one is a wedding photo taken in the synagogue.<\/p>\n

\"Amsterdam<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AMST<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AMST<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Amsterdam<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So where you ask is the statue? \u00a0Well, he’s right here. \u00a0Baruch Spinoza<\/a>, whose ideas wreaked havoc in religious communities of Europe. \u00a0Here’s what Wikipedia says:<\/p>\n

Philosopher\u00a0Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel<\/a>\u00a0said of all contemporary philosophers, “You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all.”[8]<\/a><\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n

Spinoza’s given name in different languages is\u00a0Hebrew<\/a>:\u00a0\u05d1\u05e8\u05d5\u05da \u05e9\u05e4\u05d9\u05e0\u05d5\u05d6\u05d4\u200e\u00a0Baruch Spinoza,\u00a0Portuguese<\/a>:\u00a0Benedito or Bento de Espinosa\u00a0and\u00a0Latin<\/a>:\u00a0Benedictus de Spinoza; in all these languages, the given name means “the Blessed”. Spinoza was raised in the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam. He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the Divine. The\u00a0Jewish religious authorities<\/a>\u00a0issued a\u00a0cherem<\/a>\u00a0(Hebrew: \u05d7\u05e8\u05dd, a kind of ban, shunning, ostracism, expulsion, or\u00a0excommunication<\/a>) against him, effectively excluding him from Jewish society at age 23. His books were also later put on the Catholic Church’s\u00a0Index of Forbidden Books<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

A powerful figure in Jewish history and history in general, he stands just steps from the Synagogue, there – and not there; a compelling figure of faith — and doubt.<\/p>\n

We are currently sailing through the Kiel Canal,<\/a> an engineering feat that cut northern Europe in half and created a pathway that reduced isolation for many. \u00a0Tonight we stop in Helsingborg, Sweden<\/a> and Friday night, in Copenhagen<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is what the women saw. \u00a0There are few sanctuaries more beautiful and moving than this 1675\u00a0Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, and here the women, while separated, were still able to share its beauty. \u00a0In fact, in many ways, they saw more. The service, certainly, but also the outside world for which they prayed. … Continue reading The Statue and the Synagogue<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,98,97,1,29],"tags":[2667,220,219,2682,1988,2621,2640,2619,2683,3419,44,2684],"class_list":["post-2292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-religion","category-television","category-uncategorized","category-women","tag-amsterdam","tag-jewish","tag-judaism","tag-portuguese-synagogue","tag-religion-observant-judaism","tag-seabourn","tag-seabourn-cruise","tag-seabourn-quest","tag-spanish-portuguese-synagogue","tag-travel","tag-women-2","tag-womens-section"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-AY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2292"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4337,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292\/revisions\/4337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}