It doesn’t sound like Spinoza to me, for a couple of reasons: one is that I don’t recall him ever using exclamation points in anything I ever read-- he generally wasn’t effusive, but was pretty pedantic. Of course, that could be a lot of license taken by the translator, as opposed to completely making something up out of whole cloth.
But the other thing is that, because Spinoza was Jewish, I don’t think he would ever have spoken of “temples” in the plural. To Jews, there is only one Temple, it’s in Israel, and it’s in ruins, not to be rebuilt until after moshiach arrives.
Yes, I realize that for a time, Reform Judaism embraced a different idea of “temple” as being not a literal place, but a spiritual place, which led to a misunderstanding of synagogues being called “temples,” but the Reform movement was founded in 1819, and Spinoza was born in 1632.
Yes, Spinoza was a radical thinker, who departed from Orthodox Judaism to the point of being excommunicated, but I don’t think referring to edifices as “temples” was either among his offenses, or something he would do just to make a point, because it would not communicate.
Now, it could be more license by a translator. The original word could be something very general, like “edifice,” or it could be “synagogue,” but it’s a very dishonest translation.
In other words, even if this can be traced to a quote by Spinoza, I think the English here will turn out to be so removed from the original, that it may miss the point.
That said, I do not recognize it, and I have read quite a lot of Spinoza, but I should note that I have not read any Spinoza in a long time. I read most of what I read from about age 30 to about 42, which means it’s been a good 10 years since I read any-- and most was read in my early 30s, except for a bout when I was pregnant, not working, and reading a LOT, when I was 37. Anyway, a while ago.
The only thing that sounds authentic is the “punching yourself in the chest.” It’s a reference to something people do during the Amidah prayer, and on Yom Kippur, during Vidui. Most people just tap themselves on the chest three times, when they say they’re sorry for offenses against the deity, but I guess in the past there have been communities that have actually struck themselves.
So whoever said it knew about that act, but that doesn’t mean that some Jew didn’t write it, just because Spinoza didn’t.
I’m leaning towards, “He didn’t say it”; however, I will not be shocked if it turns out to be a very, very loose translation of something. I have seen side-by-side translations of a lot of things, of which, if you hadn’t been told, would never guess were of the same passage.
As far as “jiving” (I think you mean “jibe”) with Spinoza in general, well, yes and no. Yes, in that he thought traditional worship was too severe, but no in that he did not tend to express it this way. He tended not to be so florid, and to use a lot of proof texts. The lack of any proof texts here makes it sound very un-Spinoza. But then, this could be from something personal, and not a philosophical writing, I suppose. It actually does reflect the Yom Kippur haftarah fairly well (“this is not the fast I want”), so there’s actually nothing wrong with it religiously (IMHO), and I’m not surprised to see it right at this time of year.
But still, on balance, I’m going to say no, not Spinoza.