Rabbi Hayim Benveniste (1603-1674) and the false Messiah Shabbetai Zevi

In the picture above you can see Balat, the old Jewish quarter 

Rabbi Hayim Benveniste was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1603. At the time the city was called Constantinople and had a very large and thriving Jewish population, formed primarily by Jewish refugees who were expelled from Spain in 1492. While the poor Sephardic Jews were rejected from everywhere else in the world, or forced to convert to Christianity or Islam in order to be accepted, the Turkish Sultan Bayezid II (1481-1512 ) formally invited the expelled Jews from Spain to come to Turkey. And he issued a law forbidding persecution or discrimination against Jews throughout the Ottoman Empire. Jews settled in two major cities: Constantinople and Salonika (=Thessaloniki, which became the only city in the world in the 16th century with a majority Jewish population). Over time more and more Yehudim arrived in Turkey, not only in Spain Portugal and Spain but also from Poland, Germany, and France.

Rabbi Hayim Benveniste came from a prestigious family of Rabbis who came from Spain. In his youth, he studied with the great luminaries of Turkey, including Rabbi Yosef Miterani. At the age of 21, Rabbi Benveniste was chosen as one of the two chief rabbis of Smyrna, together with the famous Rabbi Aharon Lapapa.

In 1665 the false Messiah Shabetay Zevi came to Turkey. He enjoyed enormous popularity in virtually every Jewish community in the world, Sephardic and Ashkenazi. The suffering of the Yehudim was so intense that people blindly clung to what they perceived as a ray of hope. Shabetay Zevi was very charismatic, and he was also supported by many Rabbis. Rabbi Hayim Benveniste and his colleague Rabbi Aharon Lapapa were the main opponents to Shabetay Zevi in Turkey. In Shabbat, December 12, 1665, Shabetay Zevi burst into the main Synagogue of Smyrna, confronted Rabbi Benveniste and caused a huge uproar in the community. Many Rabbis, and most people were captivated by his charisma (and surely pressured by their great despair) and Shabetay Zevi became virtually the highest authority of the Jewish community in Turkey. Rabbi Benveniste was overwhelmed by this situation. Rabbi Aharon Lapapa, which continued vigorously opposing Shabetay Zevi, was expelled from the community (sic.).

Most other Rabbanim supported Shabetay Zevi. This weird situation lasted for nine months. Shabetay Zevi went to meet the Vizier and was threatened by him to convert to Islam or be executed. (It is believed that the Sultan Mehmed IV told him: “If you are so powerful and can do miracles as you say, I will ask my soldiers to shoot 10 arrows at you. If you’re still alive, I myself will become one of your followers”. Shabetay Zevi did not accept the challenge and chose conversion to Islam). When he converted, though some of his followers said it was only a temporary strategy of the Mashiah, Rabbi Benveniste and others realized the great deception. This whole story was very painful and very harmful, not only for the Turkish Jewish community, which was the epicenter of this movement but also for almost all Jewish communities around the world for years.

BOOKS: Rabbi Benveniste wrote many very famous books. Among them: “Keneset Hagedola“, a book of four volumes about the Tur Bet Yosef and Shulhan Arukh. This book is so important that the famous rabbi HIDA (Rabbi Hayyim Yosef David Azulay, 1724-1806) said that a rabbi can not issue a verdict (pesaq) without consulting the Keneset Hagedolah. “הרב הנזכר מאיר עיני גולה הוא בספרי כנסת הגדולה אשר נדפסו בשמונה חלקים, ובלעדו לא ירים איש מורה הוראה הבקי בדרכי הוראה והוא מיראי הוראה את ידו בשום הוראה עד שילך מהרה לבית הכנסת ויראה מה בפיו ומה ירמזון עיני חכמתו, ואחר צאתו מבית הכנסת בנחת רוח יערה יורה יורה “.

He also wrote BA’E HAYE, a book of rabbinic Responsa, that is, questions and answers about many cases that occurred in the community and required a rabbinical expert opinion. This book also serves as a great historical document to study the details of the Jewish life in 17th century Turkey.

 



Rabbi Shelomo Oliveyra (1635-1708) and the importance of learning Hebrew

Amsterdam Synagogue
Rabbi Shlomo ben David de Oliveyra haLevy, came from Lisbon, Portugal, from a family of anusim, converts in Spain, whose original name was Benveniste. The Oliveyra surname was adopted by the family after the Inquisition, and it was chosen because according to their family tradition they were descendants of Yitshar, the son of Qehat, (Shemot 6:16) of the Tribe of Levi. Yitshar means, “fine olive oil.”
Rabbi Oliveyra served as teacher in Yeshibat Keter Tora in Amsterdam. In 1698, after the death of rab Ya’aqob Sasportas, he was appointed in his place as Ab Bet Din, Senior Rabbi of the Rabbinical Court of Amsterdam, which later on included all the Sephardic communities in Europe.
The signature and haskamot (rabbinic authorizations and introductions to Jewish books) of Rabbi Oliveyra are found in dozens of books published at that time.
Rabbi Oliveyra was a prolific author. And while he wrote several books that are no longer in our hands, such as a commentary on Maimonides’ Mishne Torah, we now have access, thanks to the magic of the Internet, to most of his writings.
Here are some of them.
DARKHE NOAM (Hebrew): A student’s guide of the Talmud. It analyzes many Aramaic terms and especially Talmudic technical expressions. This book is an indispensable tool for beginners who want to study Gemara. And it is based on two previous books, which record the way Gemara was studied in Spain: mebo haTalmud, by Rabbi Shemuel haNagid, and  Darkhe haTalmud, by the famous Rab Isaac Canpanton.
DARKHE HASHEM (Hebrew) is a compendium of the 613 mitzvot, biblical commandments, arranged in alphabetical order.
Before describing the next books, I would like to explain that Sephardic communities had a very specific order in terms of Tora studying, which today many communities have lost. Along with the intensive study of Tanakh (the 24 book of the Hebrew Bible) one of the first disciplines to which the student was exposed, during elementary school, was the study of diqduq, or Hebrew Biblical grammar.
This includes, first, learning to pronounce correctly the Hebrew constants and also know how and when to pronounce the Hebrew vowels (as sheva, qamets qatan), which is not always evident from the visible text.
This knowledge must also include a total mastering of the te’amim, what is known as musical notes, but which really are firstly tonic accents and punctuation marks. If a student did not have a complete mastery of Biblical pronunciation, he was not considered to be yet “literate”.
Only then, once he had learned the precise pronunciation of the words, he would proceed to study Hebrew semantics, that is,  theunderstanding of words.
The same happened with the Aramaic language: for a beginner student, to understand all the books of the Tanakh (including Daniel Ezra and Nehemiah) it was necessary to know Biblical Aramaic. Which was also a prerequisite to move into the next level of Aramaic: Talmudic and Rabbinical Aramaic.
Without these basic intellectual tools, Tora study would be deficient. And the student would always be depending on a teacher to translate the basic texts.
A deep and solid knowledge of the Hebrew language was considered a prerequisite for the serious learning of any other Tora discipline, such as Mishna, Gemara, Halakha, etc.
Now, we can proceed to present the literary production of Rabbi Oliveyra, who was literally “a master of the Hebrew language”.
Among his many books we can mention:
ZAYIT RA’ANAN: An alphabetical Glossary and explanations in Portuguese of many difficult words of the Mishna, Gemara and medieval philosophical books.
TE’AME HATE’AMIM (Hebrew): Explanation of the te’amim, the biblical accents and punctuation marks, especially the te’ame emet, that is, Yiob, Mishle and Tehilim, which are different from the rest of Tanakh. This book is mentioned by the Hida in his book Shem haGuedolim.
YAD LASHON: A treaty of Hebrew grammar, explained in Portuguese.
ETS HAYIM: A book of Hebrew semantics, which includes a glossary presented in alphabetical order, with words in Hebrew and Aramaic (translated into Portuguese).
DAL SEFATAYIM: A book that explains the principles Aramaic grammar in Portuguese.
SHARSHOT GABLUT: Another book of Hebrew and Aramaic semantics, presenting the roots of the words in alphabetical order. This was an essential tool for writing poetry in Hebrew (learning rhyme and metrics), an  area in which Rabbi Oliveyra excelled.
AYELET AHABIM: A long poetic and philosophical composition on Aqedat Ytshaq, that is, the sacrifice of Isaac.
Rabbi Oliveyra also translated parts of the book Shene Luhot haBerit by Rabbi Yesha’ayahu Rabbi Horowitz (the Shela”h haQadosh, 1565-1630).
He also translated from Arabic to Portuguese the famous Canon of Medicine by the Persian physician Avicenna.
Min HaShamayim (=providentially) I found a link in Googlebooks with almost all the books of Rab Oliveyra in a very clear and readable digital edition. The book is called in the original Portuguese: “Livro da gramatica Hebrayca and Chaldayca”. (Amsterdam 5449.1682) and HERE is the link. The reader will note that after the first book, the others were scanned backward. Therefore, I recommend to start from the end, with the book Darkhe No’am, the guide for studying Gemara.

 



Rabbi Ya’aqob Yehuda León (1602-1675) builds a Bet haMiqdash

Yesterday we explained that Rabbi Yahacob Yehuda Leon was born in Portugal and lived in Amsterdam. We mentioned that among his many works are: the vocalization, Spanish translation and illustration of the Mishna (the latter two texts are lost) and the translation into Spanish, with commentary of the book of Tehillim.
We also mentioned that his name has many variations. He called himself “Leon Hebreo” but most authors of his day called him “Leon or Yehuda Templo”. Why “Templo”?  Rabbi Leon was also a great artist and designer, specialized in heraldry, the designing of coats of arms.
Rabbi Leon used his artistic talents to build a miniature model of the Bet haMiqdash, the great Temple of Jerusalem.
To build his Temple Rabbi Leon used all available Jewish sources: biblical sources, the Talmudic treaty of Middot, the writings of Josephus Flavius and the detailed description of Maimonides in his Mishne Tora.
In 1641 Rabbi Leon finished his elaborate model of the Temple on a scale of 1: 300. The model measured in meters  1,30 x 1,20 x 0,60.
jleon-1
Together with this miniature Bet haMiqdash Rabbi Leon also wrote an explanatory book that guides the reader, and those who visited his exhibition, inside the Bet haMiqdash, describing each of its enclosures, vessels,  utensils, etc. This book was called “Portrait of the Temple of Solomon”.
The book was originally published in Spanish, but aroused much interest among the Yehudim of the world and even among Gentiles. It was soon translated into Hebrew, Dutch, French, English, German and Latin.
Rabbi Leon exhibited the model of the Bet haMiqdash in his own house. And the exhibition got a lot of attention.
In 1642 the Jewish community in Amsterdam had an illustrious visitor. Henrietta Maria of France (1609-1666), Queen consort of England, wife of Charles I, who accompanied by Prince William of Orange and his fiancee Mary Stuart, came to the house of Rabbi Leon to visit his miniature  Bet haMiqdash.
According to some historians in 1671 Rabbi Leon took the model of Bet haMiqdash to London. We have a beautiful letter of recommendation written by Constantijn Huygens addressed to King Charles II,  See here .  (Some historians say that while in London Rabbi Leon designed the first coat of arms used by the British Freemasons). The model of the Bet haMiqdash remained in London for nearly 100 years, and was exhibited by the descendants of Rabbi Leon, including Isaac de Leon and Moshe Isaac de Castro.
One such exhibition was held in London in 1729. In the journal of the court he put a sign that read: “You can see every day in the Royal Exchange, the model of the Temple of Solomon in all halls, walls, Gates , Chambers and holy vessels, the great Altar of Sacrifice, the bronze sea, the laundry and the Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant, the chair of Mercy and the golden cherubs, the altar of incense, the candlesticks, the tables, and the two famous columns Yakin and Boaz. “
Rabbi Leon also published the book “Treaty of the Ark of Testament” written in Dutch in 1647. This book describes in detail and draws the Aron haBerit, the ark of the covenant.
He also wrote in Latin “Treaty of cherubim”, where eh explains, describes and illustrates the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant.
And finally he wrote the book “Portrait of the Tabernacle of Moseh”, in Spanish, published in Amsterdam in 1654.
Here is this beautiful book, which describes what we are reading in the parashiyot of these weeks. I recommended to see in the first pages the original artwork of Rabbi León, in full color, of the Mishkan and all its details. Click  here
Rabbi Yahacob Yehuda Leon Hebreo “Templo” died in 1675.


Rabbi Ya’aqob Yehuda León (1602-1675) and his translation of Tehilim

Today we will learn about Rabbi Ya’aqob Yehuda Leon. Born in 1602. Some say he was born in Hamburg, which at the time belonged to the Netherlands, and some say he was born in Coimbra, Portugal. We will follow this second opinion. His grandfather and great-grandfather came from the city of Leon, in Spain, where they practiced Judaism in secret. His father, Simaõ de Leão was born in Portugal. He was a trader in Tavarede and Buarcos, near Coimbra. His mother was Felipa de Fonseca. In 1605 his entire family fled Portugal and openly embraced Judaism once they came to the Netherlands. There Ya’aqob studied with a great Tora scholar Rabbi Isaac Uziel (died in 1622), which besides being a distinguished Talmudist, was a physician and an expert in diqduq, Hebrew grammar.
In 1628 he moved to Hamburg, to the Sephardic synagogue “Cardozo” to replace Rabbi Isaac Attias, who was the first rabbi of Hamburg, and who also a student of Rabbi Uziel. In 1635 he returned to Amsterdam as Hakham of one of the three Portuguese Jewish communities.
Nothing about this Rabbi is simple. His life and works are fascinating. Let’s start with his name. His original name was Ya’aqob (he wrote it “Yahacob”) Yehuda Leon, but he called himself and signed, “Yahacob Yehuda, Leon Hebreo” ( “Hebreo”, Hebrew,  means “Jew”). In many circles, he was known simply as “Leon Hebreo”. But in most encyclopedias his name is Ya’aqob Yehuda Leon “Templo”. Tomorrow we will explain why he was given this second surname.
One of the most important things he did was the vocalization of the Mishna, with Rabbi Menashe ben Israel . This was a monumental project, because as anyone familiar with Rabbinic literature knows, the Mishna was never vocalized. The vocalization of the text was received by tradition. In this case, these two Rabbis were students of the same eminent teacher Rabbi Isaac Uziel, who belonged to the uninterrupted chain of Sephardic Rabbis, whose tradition dates back to the times of the Geonim.
We can see above an image of one page of that Mishna (If you zoom you can read some marginal notes in Spanish to explain some difficult words).
It appears that Rabbi Leon also translated the Mishna into the Spanish, along with Rabbi Menashe ben Israel, but I think that that Mishna is lost…. Something else that is lost are the illustrations made by Rabbi León to the Mishna. Let me explain: aside from being a great Talmudic scholar and an expert in grammar, Rabbi Leon was also an artist. His specialty was “heraldry”, namely the design and manufacture of “coats of arms”, something very fashionable in those days for noble families. Rabbi Leon then illustrated some texts of the Mishna, which obviously allowed a better understanding of the issues at hand. B’H tomorrow we will continue explaining how Rabbi Leon used his artistic talents for ‘abodat haQodesh.
Perhaps the most significant contribution made by Rabbi Leon for Spanish-speaking Jews was his translation of the Book of Tehilim. We live in privileged times. One of the privileges we have today as Yehudim is that we can now access from our computers, virtually all Tora books that have ever been published. Most of these books can be found in the website “www.hebrewbooks.org”and many others in “google books”. In the latter server is where I found the book of Tehillim by Rabbi Leon. To my knowledge, this is the first Jewish translation of the Tehillim to Spanish (there were probably other translations to Ladino). He called this book KODESH HILULIM (Praises of Holiness). In this book  Rabbi Leon does three things: 1. He translates literally the text of Tehilim from Hebrew into Castilian. 2. He paraphrases it, i.e., extends the translation to facilitate its understanding. 3. Writes a brief commentary on some words and ideas.
I will transcribe a few paragraphs for the reader who wants to practice reading old Spanish. (Please note that the ancient script of “s” looks very much like an “f”).
On the cover, it says:
“Las Alabanzas de la Santidad, traducción de los Psalmos de DAVID por la misma phrasis y palabras del hebraico, ilustrada con su paraphrasis que facilita la inteligencia del texto y anotaciones de mucha doctrina , sacadas de los mas graves autores, dirigida al ilustrísimo señor Ishak Senior Teixeyra residente de su majestad, la reina de Suedia,  por el Haham Yaacob Yehuda, León Hebreo,  autor de las obras del retrato del tabernáculo de Moseh, y del templo de Selomoh y de todas sus circunstancias, en Amsterdam, año 5431. “
“, Translation of the Psalms of David for the same syntax and words of Hebrew, illustrated with paraphrases to facilitate its  understanding, with text and annotations of doctrines, drawn from the most serious  authors,  dedicated to the illustrious Mr. Ishak Senior Teixeyra [son of Abraham senior Teixeyra, a nobleman and a famous Jewish philanthropist. Isaak was the ambassador of the Queen of Sweden, Christine, in Hamburg] residents of her majesty, the queen of Suedia [Sweden],  by Haham Yahacob Yehuda, Leon Hebreo, author of the Portrait of the tabernacle of Moseh and the temple of Selomoh, and all its circumstances, in Amsterdam, the year 5431 [1670]. “
To download Rabbi Leon’s Tehilim click here


The last words of Isaac de Castro Tartas (1623-1647)

Dear reader,  5 years ago I started writing Halakha of the day, and usually, once a week, I write about unknown Sephardic rabbis. This is the first time I write about the life of a Sephardic Jew who was not a rabbi (it is also the first time I write about someone so young, who died when he was only 24 years old). After reading, I hope you will understand why I was moved to pay tribute to this, unfortunately unknown, hero of Am Israel.
Isaac de Castro was born in the city of Tartas, in southwestern France, in 1623. His parents were from Portugal and belonged to one of the thousands of Jewish families that in 1497 were converted to Christianity “by decree”, and since then practiced Judaism secretly for 3, 4 or more generations (it is estimated that in 1497 no less than 120,000 Jews lived in Portugal).
In Tartas, Isaac’s name was Thomas Luis. In 1640 his family moved to Amsterdam where they finally were able to practice their religion openly. There, Thomas and his father were circumcised and changed their names to Hebrew names. Thomas was called from now, “Isaac de Castro”. Castro (or Castro), surely the original surname of his family, was a typical Sephardic las name (see here the most famous Sefaradim named Castro). As an illustration we can mention rabbi Ya’aqob de Castro (1525-1610) of Portuguese origin, one of the most important rabbis of the Jewish community in Egypt.
Isaac began studying Judaism and medicine in the Netherlands. In 1642 or 1643 we find Isaac in Brazil. As explained last week, his uncle, Rabbi Moshe Refael Aguilar, came to Brazil to found a community in the city of Recife. At that time, Brazil was divided into two zones: one belonged to the Dutch and the other to the Portuguese. Recife was in the Dutch side. There, Isaac lived a completely Jewish life. Not only that but he was also dedicated to inspire hundreds (or thousands) of converts residing in Brazil to practice more openly their Judaism. While there were no courts of the Inquisition in Brazil, such as those that existed in Peru or Mexico, on the Portuguese side there were many officer who watched that the “New Christians” -that is, Jews who were converted to Christianity more than a century ago- would no return to their religion.
No one knows exactly why, but the young Isaac left Recife and traveled south to the city of Salvador, capital of Bahia de los Santos, in Portuguese territory. There, Isaac was recognized by the local authorities. He tried to hide his Jewish practice but something gave him away: his tefillin.
Isaac was taken prisoner, accused not only of “Judaizing” but also of Jewish proselytism among the “new Christians”. He was extradited on a ship to Lisbon.
The Portuguese Inquisition first tried to persuade him to give up his Jewish faith and embrace Christianity. Isaac refused with very solid arguments, showing that Judaism is the true faith. Seeing that despite his short age he was a very knowledgeable man, the Inquisition sent its experts philosophers and theologians. But nothing and no one could persuade Isaac to renounce his faith.
For the first time in history, according to Miriam Bodian,  a Jew used the following argument: “I have the right to practice Judaism in light of a universal human law: freedom of conscience … an act performed in accordance with one’s conscience can not be judged guilty, and the act I do and I will continue to do – the act of professing the Jewish religion – is carried out according to the dictates of my own conscience. “ When the Inquisition saw that every effort was useless, it resorted to a last resource: public execution. The accused were sentenced to be burned alive in those cynically named “autos de fe” (acts of faith).
In December 15, 1647, when Isaac was only 24, he was taken to the public square, along with five other conversos, convicted of the same crime: Judaizing (judaizar).
The archives of the Portuguese Inquisition report that Isaac was left standing for several hours, near the fire, close enough to repent from his “great sin” (being a Jew) for fear of the fire. But Isaac resisted. And while being embraced by the flames, with his last breath, Isaac recited with a very loud voice “Shema Israel HaShem Elokenu HaShem Ehad”.   
They say that the cry of Isaac caused an enormous impression on all those who had come to witness the public execution. Even the cruel executioners felt remorse for having taken the life of such a young brave man. The Gentiles who witnessed the execution, for weeks did not talk about anything else. What’s more, the words of Isaac, the Shema Israel, had now become the symbol of freedom of conscience in Lisbon. And it inspired many converts to re-embrace their Jewish faith. Moreover, for several years the Gentiles repeated the words of the Shema …  the Inquisition had to impose a severe punishment for anyone heard saying the Shema Israel, the last words of Isaac de Castro Tartas זצוק”ל .

 



Rabbi Isaac Arama (1420-1494) and the Spanish inquisition

Rabbi Isaac Arama  was born in the city of Zamora, in Castile,  Spain, in 1420. for a while he was the head of the Yeshiba in Zamora until he was called to lead the Jewish community of Tarragona, and later the city of Fraga, in Aragon.  In order to counteract the effects of the Christian preachers sermons to which the Jews of Aragon were compelled to listen, Rabbi Arama delivered his lectures focusing on the principles of Judaism. These lectures became the basis of his later works and contain interesting data on the history of the Jews in Spain, prior to their expulsion. Rabbi Arama engaged in several public disputations with Christian scholars. Finally he settled in the city Catalayud until 1492, the year of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. That year he escaped to Naples, Italy, together with his son Meir.  He was contemporary and friend with the famous Rabbi Don Itshaq Abarabanel, who use to come very often to the house of Rabbi Arama.

Rabbi Arama was a great Talmudist and a brilliant philosopher, he particularly admired and defended the philosophical ideas of Maimonides. Following Maimonides, Rabbi Arama sought to demonstrate the superiority of human reasoning over imagination, and the superiority of divine revelation (or nebu-a) over human reasoning. Reason, ultimately, should be subordinated to Scripture whenever the two are in conflict. Rabbi Arama explains than in the time of Abraham Abinu, besides idol worshipers there were also philosophers, i.e., people who were guided solely by reason and denied revelation. In their opinion reason and logic was the highest possible intelectual level a human being can access.  Moreover, since reason and logic were given by God, all a person needs to follow the will of God is to follow the calls of his own logic and reasoning. “Revelation”, therefore, was unnecessary.  Rabbi Arama explains that the binding of Ytshaq is the farthest one can go from logic. Killing one’s own son defies human basic reasoning.  This is the reason God tested Abraham, to see if Abraham would be willing to follow God’s call, his private revelation, instead of his own logic.  Abraham by following God instead of human logic, became yere Eloqim, “A God fearing individual”  which is a level above that of the philosopher. Thus, when the test is over and God commands Abraham not to kill his son, God tells Abraham: ‘ata yadtati ki yere Eloqim ata… Now, I know, that you are a God fearing [individual]. It is possible that in this analysis of the binding of Ytshaq, comparing logic with revelation, rabbi Arama is also criticizing the Christian doctrine of natural law. According to Thomas Aquinas, the natural law is nothing else than the rational creature’s participation in the eternal law. For Aquinas God’s eternal law human wisdom, inasmuch as it is the directive norm of all movement and action.

The philosophical ideas of rabbi Arama had a double purpose. One the one hand, to explain Judaism in light of the new radical rationalism, represented by Aristotelian philosophers, who believed in the superiority of reason over revelation. And on the other hand, Rabbi Arama like his predecessors, had to articulate very clearly the cardinal Jewish principles. His writings against the Christian dogmas aimed to equip the Jews with the right arguments to withstand the missionary sermons of the Church, to which, under the laws then prevalent, the Jews were compelled to listen. These writings are often the summary of oral disputations between Rabbi Arama and Christian scholars.

HIS WORKS AND IDEAS

The most famous book of Rabbi Isaac Arama, which trascended his own age and time, is undoubtedly “Aqedat Yitshaq” (The Binding of Isaac).  Rabbi Arama is frequently spoken of as the “Ba’al haAqeda” (author of the Aqeda).

The book is written as a commentary to the Pentateuch. It consists of chapters or portals (she’arim). Each sermon  is divided into two parts: 1. “derisha” (“analysis”), and 2. “perisha” (“exposition”). In the “derisha” part, the author examines a philosophical idea in light of biblical or rabbinic sources. In the “perisha”, he exposes the difficulties which seem to appear in the text and solves them with the aid of a central idea. Thus, the gap between the two parts of the sermon is skillfully closed, and they merge into one harmonious whole.

Aqedat Ytshaq exercised a great influence upon Jewish thought, it is still much read and it is considered by many the classical work of Jewish homiletics, i.e., the art of building a religious sermon, which, modeled after the old petihtaot of the Rabbis of the midrash,  begins with the exposition of a Biblical text, and evolves into philosophic disquisitions and interpretations.

In this book he deals with the most relevant philosophical issues of Judaism.

One example: Rabbi Arama examines in which circumstances we could or should understand a Biblical story as a prophetic vision rather than as an historical event. At one point he declares that even when we are allowed to interpret a passage as allegorical, this interpretation of Scripture should not deny its literal meaning. The commandants, however, can never be interrupted allegorically.  This matter was very relevant in light of the Christian vision of the Old Testament commandments as allegorical, and what is popularly known as replacement theology, by which, for example, circumcision is replaced by baptism.

Rabbi Arama also deals with subjects such as Divine Providence and the dynamics between God’s omnisciency (that everything is known to Him) vs. man’s free will (If God knows what I’m going to do, was I free to chose what I did?).

Rabbi Arama also analyzes the lists of articles of faith drawn up by Maimonides (13), and he presents his own list which include only six principles.  This summary might have been done in order to facilitate his contemporaries to comprehend what are the beliefs that stand in complete opposition to Christianity.   

This is why, for example, the principle of the Messiah was left out, because although  Jews reject Jesus, Judaism does not reject the idea of a Messiah.

They are:

1. The belief that God is the Creator of the world.

2. The belief that God possesses the power to suspend the laws of nature and perform miracles at will.

3. The belief that God revealed Himself to our patriarchs in Mt Sinai and to our prophets. 

4. The belief in providence, i.e., the God knows our actions and rewards or punishes.

5. The belief in freedom of choice and repentance (teshuba).

6. The belief in the immortality of the soul.

Rabbi Arama also wrote a commentary on the five Megilot ; a commentary on Mishle, the Proverbs, called Yad Abshalom (“The Hand of Absalom” or “A Memorial for Abshalom) in memory of his son-in-law, Abshalom, who died shortly after his marriage.



Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca (1605-1693), first rabbi of the Americas

Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca was born in 1605 in the town of Castro Daire, Portugal. His birth name was Simão da Fonseca. His parents were “marranos”, Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity. When Isaac was seven, the family moved to Amsterdam. Many Portuguese Jews who for a century lived as Jews in secret to escape the Inquisition, emigrated to Amsterdam, where freedom of worship was declared in 1596, something inconceivable until then in Christian Europe. There, they created a community that became very prosperous in every way.  Arriving at Amsterdam, the Aboab family was finally able to practice their religion openly. Simão renamed Isaac, with its ancient Jewish last name: Aboab (also spelled Abohab). In Amsterdam, Rabbi Aboab studied with one of the few rabbis who at the time were in the city: Rabbi Isaac Uziel, a native of the city of Fez in Morocco. At eighteen Rab Aboab was ordained as a Rabbi (hakham) of the Beth Israel community, one of three Sephardic communities that existed at that time in Amsterdam. In 1638 he was named as one of the four Rabbis in the main community of Amsterdam: “Talmud Tora”.

 

In those years the Dutch colonized several parts of Brazil. And many Jews from Amsterdam, who were prominent in international trade, moved to the city of Recife, in Pernambuco, Brazil. In 1641, Rabbi Isaac Aboab was sent to Recife as the rabbi of  “Kehal Zur”, the new congregation in Recife, the first Jewish community in the Americas. Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca was therefore the first official rabbi in the Americas. Most European citizens of this city were Jews from Amsterdam. In Recife Rabbi Aboab developed a beautiful congregation, modeled after the Jewish community in Amsterdam. “Kehal Zur”  had a synagogue, a Mikve and a Yeshiva, where Rabbi Aboab taught Torah, particularly Talmud.

 

Rabbi Aboab da Fonseca enjoyed a few years of prosperity in Recife. In 1645 the Portuguese began to attack the Dutch colonies in Brazil. The long history of these battles is too extensive to be discussed in these few lines. What we can say is that the Portuguese, when achieved victory, allowed an honorable surrender to all Dutch, but not to the Jews, who were ordered to convert. Several Jews escaped, among them the 24 Jews who in 1654 would reach the city of New Amsterdam, now “New York”.
On 26 January 1654 the Portuguese occupied the city of Recife in 1654. Rabbi Aboab escaped to Amsterdam. Back in Amsterdam, he was appointed as the chief rabbi of the Sephardic community in that city. In 1656, he was one of the rabbis who excommunicated Spinoza.
During the years 1664-1666 began a messianic movement around Shabbetai Zevi. Back then, most  rabbis of the world, Sepharadim and Ashkenazim, believed that Shabbetai Zevi was the Messiah. And although he was not militant, Rabbi Aboab was no exception. In 1666 when the Turkish Sultan gave Shabbetai Zevi the choice between death and conversion to Islam, he decided to convert. Jews understood then that they had been victims of a huge hoax, with devastating consequences for the global Jewish community.

 

Despite all these difficulties, the Jewish community in Amsterdam flourished under the Rabbinate of rabbi Aboab and it produced, among other things, hundreds of Talmide Hakhamim who served the community and wrote thousands of books in Spanish and Portuguese.

 

In 1647 rabbi Aboab wrote a Hebrew grammar book that has not yet been published “melekhet ha-Diqduq. He also translated from Spanish to Hebrew (sic) a Qabbala book written by Abraham Cohen Herrera, called ” Las puertas del Cielo” in Hebrew “Shaar HaShamayim”.
Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca died in Amsterdam on April 4, 1693, at the age of 88 years.

 



Rabbi Abraham Saba (1440-1508) and the Island of Alligators

Rabbi Abraham Saba was born in Castile, Spain, in 1440. When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, there was no safe place to go. No route was safe from pirates, hunger and the ever present threat of plagues and epidemics. 120,000 Jews fled to Portugal. At that time, Portugal appeared as the most reliable place. No sea to cross, a very similar language and an Iberian culture. Rabbi Abraham Saba was one of those Jews who left Portugal pursuing a new beginning. But the poor Jewish refugees from Spain soon discovered that the horrors and tragedies they were living, were not over.
The Portuguese king John II, eager to increase his treasure, approved the admission of Jews requiring them to pay a large sum of money, 100 Cruzados. Those who could not pay that amount,  could reside in Portugal for a maximum of eight months, for a smaller sum, 8 Cruzados a head. Most Jews, including Rabbi Saba, moved to the city of Oporto, Portugal’s main port, hoping to navigate soon to a new destination in Italy, Turkey, Greece or North Africa. But the shortage of ships made their exit impossible. And after the eight months ended, King John proclaimed that those who could not renew their residence paying for 8 additional months, should convert to Christianity or would be automatically considered his slaves. No one had money to pay. The refuges had left Spain with empty hands. The families who refused conversion witnessed one of the worst tragedies ever suffered by Sephardic Jews. King John ordered separating the children from their parents, something not even the cruel Spanish Inquisition dared to do. Thousands of young children were swept into the convents to be raised as Catholics. 700 adolescents boys and girls were sent on a ship to Sao Tome and Principe, a remote island off the coast of Guinea, recently colonized by the Portuguese explorers, famous for the abundance of carnivorous alligators. According to reports from that time, most of these children died, some eaten by the large reptiles, and others by hunger or neglect.

 

Rabbi Saba describes this terrible event in his book Tseror Hamor, parahsat ki Tabo.
זאת היא קללה אחרת שקרה לנו בעוונותנו בפורטוגאל, שלקח המלך את הבנים ואת הבנות הקטנים ושלחם בספינות לאיי הנחשים כדי לעשות שם יישוב

 

“This is the great tragedy that befell us in Portugal, the King took the children and sent them in boats to the islands of alligators, to populate that place”

 

Two of Rabbi Saba’s children were taken from him in these circumstances, and rabbi Saba never saw them again. Searching for his children, he tells, he dressed as a Gentile and visited numerous convents. In each convent he recited aloud the Shema Israel. Hearing the voice of Rabbi Abraham, attracted by the sweet and familiar melody of the Shema, the Jewish children would came to him and cried inconsolably.

 

In 1495 King John II died and King Manuel ascended to the throne. The situation of the Jews did not improve. He married the Spanish Princess Isabel, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabel יש”ו, hoping to bring the entire peninsula under a single monarchy The Spanish kings agreed to this marriage with one vicious condition: Manuel had to expel the Jews from Portugal. In December 4, 1496, Manuel stipulated that by November next year no Jew could reside in Portugal. Those who do not want to convert should abandon their possessions and leave the country. When Manuel saw that the Jews were willing to risk their lives and go, leaving everything behind instead of converting, he realized that the departure of the Jews would negatively affect the economy of Portugal, as it was happening in Spain. He decided then to make a mass conversion “by decree”. In other words, instead of expelling the Jews from Portugal, he decided to expel the Judaism from the Jews. And declare all of them new Christians de facto.

 

There was a group of 20,000 Jews in Lisbon, including Rabbi Saba, desperately waiting for some boat that could take them out of Portugal. But the King ordered to forcibly baptize them and he said: “You can leave, if you wish, but your children are already baptized, and they must remain here”  The poor Jews had to choose between their children and their faith …. These Yehudim were the bravest, those who fled Spain, leaving everything behind,  to keep their faith intact…

 

Rabbi Saba was taken to prison. And there he saw the chief Rabbi of Portugal, Ribbi Shimon Maimi (or Meimi) זצ”ל. He, his wife, his daughters and his sons in law were tortured by the Inquisition, hoping to force them to convert, and thus serve as an example for the other Jews. But the elder Rabbi Maimi and all his family chose to suffer the terrible tortures, and died al qiddush haShem, rejecting conversion.

 

After spending six months in a prison Saba Rabbi was sent with a group of Jews to the city of Arcila or Assilah, in Morocco, a fortified prison. After a few months, Rabbi Saba miraculously escaped and came to Fez, a city with a large Jewish community. It took a few years for rabbi Saba to recover from his physical and emotional deterioration. After a long convalescence, he became one of the Rabbis of the city, and began to rewrite his books.

 

Six of his books remained in Portugal. One of the most famous books of Rabbi Saba, where the story I presented today is written, is “Tseror Hamor,” a commentary on the Tora. He also wrote Eshkol ha-Kofer, a commentary on Megillat Ruth and Megillat Esther. These two are the only books of Rabbi Saba we have today. Some of the manuscripts which were left in Portugal were Tseror haKesef, a rabbinical responsa on issues related to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Tseror haHayim, a commentary on the treatise Pirqe Abot. A commentary on the Psalms, a commentary on the Gemara Berakhot and a qabbalistic book in which he explained the ten Sefirot.

 

From Fes Rabbi Saba traveled to Adrianopoli (now the city of Edirne in Turkey). He died on the 9 Tishri 5269 (1508) on a boat. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Verona, Italy.

 

The granddaughter of Rabbi Abraham Saba married Rabbi Yosef Caro, author of the Shulhan Arukh


SEPHARDIC RABBIS: Rabbi Hayim Carigal (1732-1777) and Yale University

The first Jews who came to America in colonial times, were Sephardic Jews who had escaped from Recife, Brazil, where they were persecuted by the Portuguese Inquisition. In September 1654 a group of about 25 Jews arrived as refugees at the port of New York, which was then called New Amsterdam. Over time other communities were formed in the American colonies. The most important of these communities was established in the city of Newport, Rhode Island.
Newport Jewish community flourished especially in the eighteenth century, with the leadership of Aaron Lopez. Aaron Lopez arrived in Newport in 1752. He was originally from Lisbon, Portugal. There, he was known as Don Duarte Lopez. For 150 years his ancestors had lived in Portugal as “Marranos”, i.e., pretending that they were Catholics, to escape the Inquisition, which forbade the practice of Judaism. Aaron Lopez became an important and very successful businessman. At one point he had his own fleet of 80 merchant ships.
Rabbi Hayim Rafael Carigal (or Karigal) was born in 1732 in the former Sephardic Kehilá of Hebron. He studied at the Yeshiba of Hebron, founded and maintained by Abraham Israel Pereira, from Amsterdam. Rabbi Carigal was a prodigious student and was ordained a rabbi at the age of 17. Although it was the spiritual center of the Jews throughout the world, the Jewish community of Israel, was very poor. And it needed the ongoing support from the Jews of the diaspora. Rabbi Carigal was appointed by his colleagues to be a “Shaliach deRabanan” a representative of the Rabbis, to raise funds to help the Yehudim of Israel. In those days, the rabbis assigned to these missions were chosen based on their erudition. The wisest men were elected for the mission because it was expected of them not only to raise funds for Israel, but also to teaching Tora to the Jews of the diaspora.
Rabbi Carigal reached Newport, Rhode Island, in 1773. He was welcomed and hosted by Mr. Aaron Lopez, who said that Rabbi Carigal was the most prominent Jewish scholar who has ever reached the Americas.
Ezra Stiles was a Protestant Minister, friend of Aaron Lopez. Stiles fervently loved and admired all matters related to Judaism, and especially the Hebrew language. He said that without a solid knowledge of Hebrew language, it was impossible to understand the Bible.
When Stiles learned of the arrival of Rabbi Carigal to Newport, he came to the famous “Touro” Synagogue to hear the sermon of Rabbi Carigal. According to Stiles memoirs, it was on the day of Shabuot, May 28, 1773. Rabbi Carigal, as was the custom in the Sephardic communities, delivered his sermon in Spanish, with a few words in Hebrew. Stiles was fascinated with the personality and erudition of Rabbi Carigal and asked to meet with him. Ezra Stiles and rabbi Carigal met 28 times. Stiles became one of the greatest admirers of Rabbi Carigal. He asked the rabbi many questions about the Jewish religion and the Hebrew language, and carefully recorded all the answers he received. Before leaving Newport, Stiles commissioned a portrait or Rabbi Carigal.
In 1778 Ezra Stiles was appointed as the 7th president of Yale University. Stiles established that all freshman students take a Hebrew language course. And while this course is no longer mandatory, much remains in Yale of what Rabbi Carigal taught Ezra Stiles. Among other things, the seal of Yale University, who reads the Hebrew words URIM VETUMIM.

 



Rabbi Yehuda Hayyat (d. 1510), and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain

The city of Mantova, Italy
יום מאורי חשך בגרוש קאסטיליא….

Rabbi Yehuda ben Ya’aqob Hayyat z”l suffered all the tribulations that fell upon the Jews as a consequence of their expulsion from Spain. His dramatic life story exemplifies the adversities of hundreds of thousands of Jews who were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula for refusing to abandon their religion.

.In his book “Minhat Yehuda” Rabbi Hayyat describes the calamities he lived for about two years

When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, about 120,000 of them fled to Portugal. The Portuguese King Juan II, accepted the Jews, but demanded them to pay an exorbitant sum of money to stay there. A year after arriving into Portugal, in 1493, the king decided that Jews could not stay any longer in his kingdom unless they converted to Catholicism or pay again a huge amount of money. The Jews were poor refugees, and when they were expelled from Spain all their properties were expropriated. In addition,  it was forbidden for them to take silver, gold, or anything of value. In Portugal, they were living in extreme poverty and were not able to afford the payment that the King demanded

Along with 250 other Jewish refugees, Rabbi Hayyat left Portugal and sailed from the port of Lisbon in a precarious ship toward the coast of Morocco. Conditions on board were so unhealthy that after a few days at sea an epidemic broke out on the ship. In those conditions  they would not disembark into any other port. The ship was taken to the port of Malaga. There, several priests were awaiting for those Jews. When the desperate Jewish passengers asked the Catholic clerics to give them water and bread, the priests refused, unless they accepted baptism …. The poor Jews stayed for five days in the ship. Close to hundred of those Jews chose to convert in order to save their lives. And about fifty of those Jews, among them, Rabbi Hayyat’s wife, died of thirst and starvation

After two months, the precarious vessel reached the coast of Morocco. But upon stepping on solid ground, a moorish that recognized Rabbi Hayyat from Spain, accused him of being an infidel and the Rabbi was immediately imprisoned and sentenced to death by Muslim fanatics, who claimed that his religious beliefs and practices offend Islam. To save his life, they said, he had to convert to Islam. If he would do, they would honor him and grant hi all he wishes. For forty days Rabbi Hayyat was imprisoned in a dark underground hole living in inhuman conditions, surrounded by rodents, snakes, and scorpions

In the end, some Jewish refugees from the Moroccan village of Shorshan, who were extremely poor, managed to raise some money to bribe the jailers and save Rabbi Hayyat from a certain death. Rabbi Hayyat gave them in exchange and as a token of gratitude 200 books that he had brought with him from Spain. He escaped to the city of Fes, a little further south. Fes was the refuge of tens of thousands of exiled Jews from Spain. But there too Rabbi Hayyat found only more tribulations

He writes in his book

“Fes suffered from a terrible famine… people were forced to eat grass to survive. Every day I work grinding some grains with my bare hands in the house of a Muslim family to earn a small and this morsel of bread. … like other Jews who escaped from Spain, we have no home or shelter. And at night, in the winter, we would dig to ourselves into the dumps hole, in the outskirts of the city, to sleep. “

After being in Fes for 8 months, the rabbi narrates, “… a terrible fire broke out in the city and many people died in the flames … After the fire, and as a result of the great drought, over 20,000 (sic.) Jews perished of starvation and epidemics. And when they saw this, many Jews who came from Spain and Portugal, decided to return there, to avoid a certain death for them and their children. “

A contemporary Spanish historian Andrés Bernáldez (1450-1513) writes in his book “History of the Catholic kings” (p. 78) that the Jews who left Fes were victims of all forms of abuse… on the roads they were attacked by Moors, who kidnapped and raped their wives and daughters, and opened their bodies to see whether they had hidden silver or gold in their stomachs

Rabbi Hayyat managed to leave Morocco and embarked for Italy. First, he arrived into Naples, but at that time (1494) Naples was at war and the French King expelled the Jews from the  city. Then, Rabbi Hayyat arrived at the port of Venice alone, as he had lost his entire family, and half-naked. When the Spanish Jews living in Venice recognized him, they took care of him. From Venezia, Rabbi Hayyat reached the Italian city of Mantova, where he lived until his last days

HIS WORKS

In Mantova Rabbi Hayyat found and befriended a Sephardic Rabbi named Yosef Ya’abets, who convinced him to write a commentary to the famous mystic (and cryptic) book “ma’arakhot Eloqim”. Rabbi Hayyat, far for complaining to God for his terrible fate, called his book “Minhat Yehuda” (The offering of Judah). That is: this book was an offering that Rabbi Yehuda Hayyat, offered to HaShem for saving his life

This book is considered a seminal work because it explains the most complex principles of Kabbala, and contributed to the spread of Hokhmat haQabbala, a phenomena which reached its peak in the 16th century. Rabbi Hayyat mentions in his book some of his teachers in Spain. Among them, Rabbi Shemuel Ibn Shraga and Rabbi Yosef Alcastilia (also, “Alcastiel”), meaning, from Castille

There is another book, which was never published yet, which consist of 18 questions and answers between rabbi Yehuda Hayyat and Rabbi Yosef Alcastiel. From these 18 questions and answers, 17 are on mysticism and only one on a Talmudic subject. 

Although precise details are unknown, it is estimated that Rabbi Yehuda Hayyat died in Mantova, Italy, circa 1510