Isaac Aboab da Fonseca
Isaac Aboab da Fonseca | |
---|---|
Personal | |
Born | Simão da Fonseca February 1, 1605 |
Died | April 4, 1693 | (aged 88)
Religion | Judaism |
Children | Judth Aboab da Fonseca and Rabbi David Aboab da Fonseca |
Parents |
|
Position | Rabbi |
Synagogue | Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue |
Began | 1642 |
Ended | 1654 |
Dynasty | Aboab |
Isaac Aboab da Fonseca (or Isaak Aboab Foonseca) (February 1, 1605 – April 4, 1693) was a
Life
Isaac Aboab da Fonseca was born into the
At the age of eighteen, Isaac was appointed hakham (rabbi) for Beth Israel, one of three Sephardic communities in Amsterdam, which later merged. In order to be distinguished from his cousin Isaac ben Mattathiah Aboab, he added his mother's last name (da Fonseca) to his own.
In 1642, Aboab da Fonseca was invited by
Back in Amsterdam, Aboab da Fonseca was appointed Chief Rabbi for the Sephardic community. In 1656, he was one of several scholars who excommunicated philosopher Baruch Spinoza, whom Aboab knew first as a student in the yeshiva and then in the evening discussions which Saul Levi Morteira, Menasseh, and Aboab oversaw.[5]
Aboab had mystical kabbalistic leanings, publishing texts on it. He was one of many fervent Sephardic supporters in Amsterdam 1665-66 of messianic figure Sabbatai Zevi, until Sabbatai's apostasy in September 1666.[6][7]
During the tenure of Aboab da Fonseca, the Sephardi community flourished. The construction of the new Portuguese Synagogue (the Esnoga) was prompted by a sermon delivered by him in 1671. It was inaugurated less than four years later, on August 2, 1675 (10 Av 5435).[8]
Isaac Aboab da Fonseca died in Amsterdam on April 4, 1693, at the age of 88.
Works
Aboab translated from Spanish into Hebrew the works of the kabbalist Abraham Cohen de Herrera, Sha'ar ha-Shamayim and Beit Elohim (Amsterdam, 1655).[7]
Legacy
In 2007, the Jerusalem Institute (Machon Yerushalaim) in Israel published a book about Rabbi Fonseca's works, including the author's expositions about the community of Recife at that time. The book is called Chachamei Recife V'Amsterdam, or The Sages of Recife and Amsterdam. The Dutch historian Franz Leonard Schalkwijk who researched the history of the Jews of the Dutch colony also wrote of Fonseca.
See also
- History of the Jews in the Netherlands
- Manasseh ben Israel
- Marrano
- Sephardic Jews in the Netherlands
- Spanish and Portuguese Jews
References
- ^ Bodian, Miriam. Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation: Conversos and Community in Early Modern Amsterdam. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1997, 163
- ^ a b c Palvanov, Efraim (July 7, 2016). "Isaac Aboab da Fonseca - America's First Rabbi". Jew of the Week. Archived from the original on July 20, 2016. Retrieved January 11, 2024. Author source: www.jewoftheweek.net/2020/11/26/what-i-learned-from-10-years-of-jew-of-the-week/; www.mayimachronim.com/about/
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Bodian, Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation, 163
- ^ Israel, Jonathan I. Spinoza, Life and Legacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2023, 176-77
- ^ Israel, Spinoza, 180-81
- ^ Scholem, Gershorn, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1973, 518-45, 749-64
- ^ a b Both the Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) and the Encyclopaedia Judaica (2007) entries on him concur on this fact.
- ^ Cecil Roth's entry in the Encyclopaedia Judaica (2007).
External links
Media related to Isaac Aboab da Fonseca at Wikimedia Commons
- Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) entry on "Isaac da Fonseca Aboab"
- Encyclopaedia Judaica (2007) entry on "Aboab Da Fonseca, Isaac" by Cecil Roth
- Jewish Historical Museum
- Jewish Virtual Library