Menasseh Ben Israel

Menasseh ben Israel (* 1604 in Lisbon and La Rochelle, † November 20, 1657 in Middelburg, Netherlands ) was a Sephardic Jew, scholar, diplomat, writer, Kabbalist, printer and publisher. He is also known by the Hebrew acronym MB "Y.

Life

Menasseh ben Israel was born in 1604 as son of Marranos Gaspar Rodrigues Nunes in Lisbon and La Rochelle. His baptismal name was Manoel Dias Soeiro. Suspicions that he was born in Madeira, could not be documented. His parents were exposed to persecutions of the Inquisition and left Portugal after the father had to occur in an auto da fe as Repentant. In 1613 or 1614 the family settled in Amsterdam and returned to Judaism.

Early years

The young Manasseh began a successful education. As a member of the Santa Irmandade Talmud Torah of Amsterdam he visited the yeshiva since the age of 14. His teacher was a native of Morocco, Rabbi Isaac Uziel. At fifteen, he held claims to the first sermon in Portuguese; at seventeen he wrote his first book, a Hebrew grammar. When his teacher died in 1622, Menasseh ben Israel said to have been appointed to succeed him as a preacher of the community Neve Shalom. The official appointment as a predicator ( preacher ) was only 1628. In 1622 he is also called Ribi (teacher ) of the Talmud Torah congregation mentioned. In the same year his parents died.

The following year, the 19 -year-old Manasseh married the 21 -year-old Rachel Abarbanel, which traced its ancestry to the well-known Spanish- Jewish family of Abrabanel. Together they had three children; the daughter Gracia (Hannah ) and the two sons Joseph and Samuel.

Printer and author

In addition to his duties as a teacher to Manasseh operated as booksellers and from 1626 as a printer. He founded the first Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam ( Emeth Meerets Tisma `h ). The first book, a Hebrew prayer book, left the printing press in January 1627. With the creation of this print to Amsterdam developed into the most important Hebrew printing center in Europe. Manasseh moved and printed books in Hebrew, Yiddish, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese and some in Dutch and English. As a whole, left his print on the 80 tracks. Were financed his prints mostly by his friend Dr. Ephraim Bueno, or of his brother Jonas Abarbanel.

In 1628 published by Menasseh Sefer Selim and the Mayan gannim his friend and important Jewish scholar Joseph Solomon Delmedigo. This works with both religious and scientific content and with many mathematical illustrations attracted some attention and been discussed controversially in the Sephardic community. For some chapters were even prohibited by the parnassim the pressure.

In 1632 the first part of the written work of him Conciliador appeared ( Conciliador o de la Conveniência de los Places of S. Escriptura la que repugnantes entre si parecen ), ( reconcile conciliar = span ) in the contradictions and inconsistencies in biblical passages balanced should be. The book, which was primarily directed at the former conversos to eliminate the uncertainties in matters of faith, great attention has been paid outside the Jewish community. Already in 1634 it was translated by Dionysius Vossius, the son of the famous Amsterdam scholar Gerhard Vossius, into Latin. The Concilador, published three more volumes of the 1641-1650, Manasseh made ​​known in humanist circles in Europe. After this success, he wrote a number of other writings, which were also for non - Jews of interest ( De Creatione Problemata, 1635; De termino vitae, 1634; De Resurrectione Mortuorum 1636; De Fragilitate Humana, 1642).

Manasseh led the printing until 1642. Later it passed into the hands of his two sons. The last work, which appeared in his printing shop, was an open letter to Oliver Cromwell (To his high eat the Lord Protector, 1651).

Relations

Although in parts of the Sephardic community of Manasseh possessed a high reputation and was supported by the wealthy families of the Buoenos, Abravanel, Pintos, Abudientes and other wealthy families, he suffered most under tight financial circumstances. Within the community, he was not without controversy. He stood clearly against the Jewish freethinkers as Uriel da Costa, Juan de Prado and his former pupil Spinoza and answered in various books on their attack on the idea of ​​the immortality of the soul ( De Resurrectione Mortuorum, 1636 ). Compared to the Orthodox rabbi, he had to turn translated because of its proximity to the Karaites to fight back. His relationship with his former classmate Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca was tarnished since he had the main work Sefer Elim by Joseph Solomon Delmedigo published in his print shop in 1629.

That Manasseh also in the non-Jewish world enjoyed great prestige, is already visible in his relationship with the painter Rembrandt van Rijn, who lived in the same neighborhood of Amsterdam. Rembrandt immortalized him in 1636 in a portrait and created four etchings to book Piedra gloriosa. His relationship with the non-Jewish scholarly world is in his rich correspondence expressed. He corresponded with known scholars such as Gerhard Johannes Vossius and his sons Isaac and Dionysius Vossius, with Grotius, Salmasius, Christian Ravis, Jan van Beverwijck, Simon Episcopius, Barlaeus, Peter Cunaeus, David Blondel, Anna Maria Schürmann, Pierre Daniel Huet and other more. This correspondence began, especially after the publication of the Consiliadors. His messianic publications brought him contact with António Vieira, Paul Felgenhauer, Isaac de La Peyrere, John Dury, Nathaniel Holmes, Henry Jessey, Henry More and other Puritans of England.

Although Menasseh performed different functions in the Amsterdam community, he was never desren Oberrabi. As in 1639, the three Jewish communities were united, he was passed over as the third rabbi. In 1640 he was fined for disputes of the parnassim for a day with the Herem and suspended for a year as a preacher. This and the ongoing financial constraints led him to plan an exit to the Dutch Brazil. It was not until 1642 was employed as a conductor, founded by Abraham and Isaac Pereira yeshiva let him give up his emigration intentions.

Mission in England

When, after the Puritan Revolution of 1649 philo -Semitic forces demanded the return of the displaced since 1290 from England Jews, Manasseh became the prominent negotiator. The Jewish Messianism and the English millenarianism had some contact points. Following the alleged discovery of the ten lost tribes of Israel by the Marrano traveler Antonio de Montezinos, another end-time conditions should be satisfied with the readmission of the Jews in England. 1650 devoted Manasseh the Latin version of the hope of Israel, in which the story Montezinos was included, the English Parliament. For political and health reasons, he left the negotiations for the time being his friend David Abravanel and his son Samuel Soeiro 1651 and wrote an open letter to the Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland Oliver Cromwell. In 1655 he went to England in person and met with various personalities. He had the opportunity to explain the reasons for a return of the Jews to England in Cromwell. At the Cromwell convened Whitehall Conference of December 1655, there was no agreement on resettlement. After permission for a synagogue and a cemetery was granted in the sequence. During his stay in England Menasseh wrote the Vindicae Judaeorum, a defense against the attacks to which he was subjected. Although he was equipped by Cromwell with an annual pension of £ 100, he returned very disappointed in the fall of 1657 back to Holland. Soon after his arrival he died in Middelburg. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Beth Haim ( Ouderkerk aan de Amstel ), where his grave can still be seen today.

Works (selection)

• Peney Rabah. Amsterdam 1628. Online
• Conciliador o de la Conveniência de los lugares. Amsterdam in 1632. Online
• De Creatione Problemata XXX. Amsterdam 1635th online
• De Resurrectione Mortuorum. Amsterdam 1636th online
• Calendario de las fiestas y ayunos, los que cada año Hebreos celebran. Amsterdam 1636th online
• Thesouro dinim dos, que o povo de Israel he obrigado saber e observar. Amsterdam from 1645 to 1647. online
• Esto es, Esperança de Israel. Amsterdam 1650 ( engl. Hope of Israel. London 1650). online
• Nishmat Hayim. Amsterdam 1651st online
• To his high eat the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Amsterdam 1651st online
• Piedra gloriosa o de la estatua de Nebuchadnesar. Amsterdam in 1655. Online
• Vindiciae judaeorum. Amsterdam 1656. ( The rescue of the Jews from the English translated by Moses Mendelssohn, Berlin, 1782. )

Literature (selection )

• J. H. Coppenhagen: Menasseh Ben Israel. Manuel Dias Soerio 1604-1657. A Bibliography. = Menaše ben Yiśrā ʾ el. Misgav Yerushalayim, Jerusalem, 1990, ISBN 965-296-014-4 ( Misgav Yerushalayim. Bibliographical Series 2).
• Richard Popkin, Yosef Ed. Kaplan, Ed Henry. Méchoulan ( eds. ): Menasseh ben Israel and his World. Conference. Papers. Brill, Leiden 1989, ISBN 90-04-09114-9 ( Brill's Studies in intellectual history 15).
• Henri Méchoulan, Gérard Nahon (eds.): Menasseh ben Israel. Espérance d' Israël. J. Vrin, Paris, 1979 ( Bibliothèque d' histoire de la philosophie. ISSN 0249-7980 ).
• Cecil Roth: A Life of Menasseh ben Israel, Rabbi, Printer and Diplomat. Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, PA 1934 ( Reprint. Arno Press, New York, NY, 1975, ISBN 0-405-06743-7 ( The Modern Jewish Experience ) ).
• Lucien Wolf ( ed.): Menasseh Ben Israel 's mission of Oliver Cromwell. Being a reprint of the pamphlets published by Menasseh Ben Israel to promote the re- admission of the Jews to England 1649-1656. With an introduction and notes. Macmillan & Co., London 1901
• Cecil Roth, AK Offenberg: Manasseh ( Menasseh ) Ben Israel. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edition, Volume 13, Detroit / New York, among others 2007, ISBN 978-0-02-865941-1, pp. 454-455 (English)
• Meyer Kayserling: Menasseh ben Israel. His life and work. At the same time a contribution to the history of the Jews in England. Prepared from the sources. Springer, Berlin, 1861.

• Robert Manasseh: The Expulsion from hell. Novel. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-518-41267-1.