I think I've finally worked out, sans judgments, how to consider the transition from Moses to Felix. And it's all with the help of postcolonialism! Obviously at this time, there was no way to properly meld Germanness and Jewishness. But what happens when the dominate culture is actually seen as superior, rather than just a simple commonality? What I mean is, there was an inability to reconcile Kant with the Talmud. One had to merge victorious. If you're raised in an environment that has such a strong reaction to Jewish tradition (Abraham, Felix's vater), then assimilation will reach an apotheosis. Then you can make a value judgment, because Jews without any semblance of Jewishness isn't something most of us want. Reform Judaism remains Jewish because of its strong reaction to the Talmud, all the while maintaining dialogue with it. Unlike Leo Zunz, Reform does not dismiss rabbinical texts outright.
To segue:
Secular Judaism/Jewishness maintains itself by engaging with rabbinical tradition; that is, the binary of rabbinics/secularism maintains its very existence. Secularism exists outside and alongside rabbinics. What is literature if not aggadah? What are Jews if not Karaites?
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