SunStar
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January 18, 2021
BORN in Holland on November 24, 1632, Baruch or Benedict Spinoza had an unhappy childhood. Since his parents, even after Christian baptism, remained faithful Jews, Spinoza’s family was humiliated being called “marranos” (literally, dirty pigs). Earlier, the Spinoza clan got expelled from Portugal and Spain, again for being Jewish.
Settling in the more tolerant Dutch capital of Amsterdam did not give them peace of mind. The Jews in the Netherlands excommunicated Baruch Spinoza for questioning the Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament). For Spinoza argued, how could Moses be the writer of the Pentateuch when the closing chapter in the Book of Joshua states that Moses died before he could enter the Promised Land. ....