Research On Simone Luzzatto’s View Of Reason Of State

Since the 17 th century,Venetian Jewish society has faced both internal and external difficulties.On the one hand,the Jews were caught up in theft and bribery,anti-Semitic sentiment was high in Venice,and the lending industry on which the Jews depended was at risk of being replaced by Christianity.On the other hand,the crisis of Kabbalism,Messianic movement and rabbinical Judaism within the Jewish community also made the development of Jewish culture face difficulties.At the same time,the classical political tradition of following justice and kindness no longer meets the needs of realistic political activities.Influenced by this,the theory of state rationality arose in Italy,which requires the ruler to take the national interests as the standard to break through the traditional moral actions.Later,it became the political code of conduct for many city-states in Italy at that time.Under the influence and inspiration of the theory of state rationality and the flourishing mercantilist trend of thought at that time,the 17 th century Venetian rabbi Simone Luzzatto tried to solve the problems faced by the Jewish society through the reinterpretation of state rationality.He believed that the state ruler should rely on the "biblical" religious rationality,break through the shackles of political tradition and superstition,and realize the state rule with pious religious rationality.He should take advantage of the commercial and trade characteristics of the Jews,safeguard the national interests with economic functions,and save the political and economic crisis of Venice.The Jews themselves needed to re-embrace rational science and culture.Luzzatto’s idea of national reason and Jewish people,although it failed to get Venice off the hook in the end,eased the anti-Semitic sentiment in Venice and contributed to the readjusting of Jews in Britain to some extent.For Jews,Luzzatto’s return to religious rationality and his advocacy of learning scientific culture provided an ideological reference for Jews to integrate into the mainstream society after entering modern times.