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Jerusalem, or On Religious Power and Judaism

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Mendelssohn's double argument, made under public pressure to convert: no church or state may coerce conscience, and Judaism, rightly understood, never claimed to — it is revealed legislation, a law for one people, not a creed imposed on reason. The book became a founding document both of religious liberty and of modern Jewish thought.

The state gives orders and coerces; religion teaches and persuades. The state prescribes laws; religion, commandments. The state has physical power and uses it where necessary; the power of religion is love and beneficence.

Brothers, if you care for true piety, let us not feign agreement where diversity is evidently the plan and purpose of Providence.

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