קאווע שטיבל

These conclusions led Strauss to seek a third alternative, which he found in Lessing. As reported by Jacobi, Lessing was an atheist, but he concealed this fact even from his close friend Mendelssohn. Rather, Lessing presented himself as a defender of traditional Christianity and went so far as to defend Christian mysteries such as the trinity and the incarnation against rationalist critics. Strauss accepted Jacobi’s understanding of Lessing. For Strauss, while as a philosopher Lessing could not believe in God, he recognized the political utility of religious belief for the masses. Without religious belief that legitimated the state’s authority and demanded obedience to the sovereign, people would focus on egoistic pleasure and become politically apathetic, which would erode patriotism and undermine the stability of the state. According to Strauss, Lessing had learned this lesson from the Platonic political tradition, which received its highest expression in the work of medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophers, most notably Maimonides. In Maimonides’ view, revealed truth is religious law, which is at once theological and political and so stipulates a necessary political order. As such, the masses come to believe that obedience to the political order also constitutes obedience to God, which God will reward. But since this revealed law is also a profound divine truth, it can be said to have an inner secret meaning known to philosophers alone, which legitimates the philosophers’ search for truth in the eyes of the masses