The Great Intra-Jewish Dispute of the 18th Century, and the Mystical Polymath at Its Heart

The quarrels between Hasidim and Mitnagdim, Reform and Orthodox, Zionists and anti-Zionists all pitted Jews against one another, divided communities, and at times grew ferocious. But none may have been quite so intense, or so far-reaching, as that between two of the 18th century’s most prominent rabbis: Jacob Emden and Jonathan Eybeschutz. These two men weren’t simply towering talmudic scholars, but experts on kabbalah keenly interested in new scientific advances and other ideas coming from the non-Jewish world. Maoz Kahana goes so far as to compare the polymathic Eybeschutz to Leonardo da Vinci.