Menasseh ben Israel (part 3)

Menasseh ben Israel: Printing and Teaching Judaism

This section united imprints from Menasseh’s press and its Christian publishers, in Spanish, Portuguese and Hebrew (with Latin) with those of his Jewish competitors.

Orden de los cincos Tahanioth. Estampado por ordre de los señores Efraim Bueno, y Yonah Abravanel. Amsterdam: Menasseh ben Israel, 5390 [1630].

[2], 222 p; 15 cm; 8vo. Wanting title page. Special Collections Roth Collection 534

A Spanish translation of the prayers for the five “minor” fast days of the year (10^th of Tevet, Ta’nit Esther, 17^th of Tammuz, 9^th of Av, and Tzom Gedaliah). Financed by his friend the physician Bueno (whose portrait was painted by Rembrandt) and his brother-in-law.

Hamishah Humshe Torah: u-Nevi’im rishonim ve-aharonim ve-ketubim; Haftarot mi-kol ha-shanah. Pentateuch with Targum, Five Scrolls and the Haftaroth. Be-Amsterdam: Nidfas be-veit Menasseh ben Israel; Amstelreodami: sumptibus Henrici Laurentii [1631]
128 l [i.e. 256 p], 46 l [i.e. 92 p]; 22 cm. Special Collections Roth Collection 111

Printed and corrected in Amsterdam by Menasseh ben Joseph Ben Israel, financed by the Christian publisher Laurentius (active 1602-45) who early saw the export potential of the new high quality Hebrew imprints produced by Menasseh. The Pentateuch and prophetical portions are arranged for the weekly Shabbat readings. The woodcut title page design has been lifted from a

Christian publication, as shown by the Tetragrammaton enclosed in a triangle of light – a motif of Jesuit inspiration also used by Millenarian sects.

Tratado del Temor Divino, extracto del doctissimo libro llamado Ressit hohmá, traduzido nuevamente del Hebrayco, a nuestro vulgar idioma por David hijo de Ishac Coen de Lara. Amstelredam: en casa de Menasseh ben Yosseph ben Ysrael, 5393 [1633]

208 p; 18 cm; 4to. Wanting all after p. 208 [2 pages missing at the end]. Special Collections Roth Collection 889

Reshit Hokhmah (Beginning of Wisdom) was a popular ethical work by the Safed kabbalist Elijah ben Moses de Vidas (? 1518- Hebron 92). In it, he collected all the moral sentences scattered throughout the Talmud, Midrashim, and Zohar. The present Spanish translation is of the first part, concerning the fear of God. Spanish was the learned vernacular, which the Portuguese Conversos had studied at university. The woodcut title page arch is topped by the pelican feeding its young – a Christian symbol of the crucifixion and one of the symbols adopted by the Rosicrucian sect. It was adapted on one of the portals of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue (1675).

Esrim ve-arba’ah: ve-hem hamishah humshe Torah Nevi’im rishonim ve-aharonim u-Khetuvim. Bible, Old Testament, Hebrew. Be-Amsterdam: be-vet Menasheh ben Yisra’el, [3]98 [1639]; Amstelodami: Sumptibus Joannis Janssonii, 1639

166 l [i.e. 332 p].; c. 17 cm. Special Collections Roth Collection 104

Menasseh’s complete Hebrew Bible, not arranged for liturgical use, with a fine engraved titlepage. In this year, Menasseh joined the college of Rabbis of the newly united Sephardi community and was expected to give up printing. Jansonnius (Arnhem 1588 – Amsterdam 1661), the Christian publisher who financed this book with a clear eye on especially the growing Polish market, also printed five Hebrew books on his own account.

Manasseh ben Israel, Thesouro dos dinim: que o povo de Israel, he obrigado saber, e observar composto por Menasseh ben Israel. Amsterdam: [s.n.], 5470 [1710]
Special Collections Roth Collection 635

This work was originally published by the Printer Elijah Aboab, 5405 [1645]. It was dedicated to “Senhores Parnassim deste Kados de Talmud Tora”, that is Menasseh’s employers, with an approbation (permission to print) by Rabbis Saul Levi Mortera (see next item) and David Pardo. The book was intended to help the recently reconverted members of the community to observe laws which were new and in some cases strange to them. As a DYI manual, it is written in the ‘common’ Portuguese.

Saul Levi Mortera, Hamishim derushim yekarim; va-yikra et shemo Giv’at Sha’ul. Amsterdam: Be-vet Imanu’el Benvenisti, 405 [1645]
116 l; 22 cm. Special Collections Roth Collection 704

Saul Levi Mortera (Venice 1596-Amsterdam 1660) a senior Amsterdam rabbi, a famed preacher, and a teacher at Keter Torah. In 1656 he chaired the tribunal that excommunicated his former pupil Baruch Spinoza. The 50 sermons in the present work were published by Mortera’s students, who selected them from among a corpus of 500. Immanuel Benvenisti was Menasseh ben Israel’s most formidable competitor in the Hebrew printing business. Between 1641 and 1660 the Benveniste press produced prayer-books, an edition of the Midrash Rabbah, Alfasi’s law code, and the Shulchan Arukh. His woodcut title pages, here displaying Benvenisti’s printer’s mark as a coat of arms displaying a castle and lion (Castile and Leon?) surmounted by a star, were widely imitated in Hebrew printing across Europe.

Menahem Azariah da Fano, Sefer Asarah ma’amarot. she-hiber Menahem Imanu’el; ve-nosaf alav ha-perush Yo’el Mosheh she-hotsi le-or Mosheh ben Shelomoh ha-Levi. [Amsterdam]: Nidpas be-vet Yehud. ben Mordekhai, Shemu’el bar Mosheh ha-Levi, 409 [1649]

158 l [i.e. 316 p]; 20 cm. Special Collections Roth Collection 260

This is one of the early works of popular Kabbalah and shows its spread among the Sephardi communities. The “Ten Essays” originate in festival sermons by Menahem Azariah da Fano (1548-Mantua 1620), Italian rabbi, talmudist, and kabbalist. His achievement was to make Lurianic Kabbalah accessible to the common people. With the commentary Yoel Moshe by Moses ben Solomon ha Levi of Frankfurt (here in its first edition), Fano’s Kabbalah became accepted among an Ashkenazi readership. Judah Leib ben Mordekhai Gimpel of Posen and Samuel bar Moses ha Levi were the first Ashkenazi printers in Amsterdam (1648-52). The former had been compositor at both Menasseh ben Israel’s and Immanuel Benvenisti’s presses, Samuel bar Moses ha Levi had been foreman at Benvenisti’s press. So it is hardly surprising that the titlepage is based on Benvenisti’s gate design – even that printer’s lion and tower device reappears.

Solomon Ibn Verga, Shevet Yehudah. Amsterdam: be-vet Imanu’el Benvenisti, 415 [1655]
88 l [i.e. 176 p]; 16 cm. Special Collections Roth Collection 357

Ibn Verga (1460-1554), a refugee scholar from Portugal, wrote Sceptre of Judah (alluding to Gen 49:10: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah…”) as an account of Jewish persecutions, culminating in those of the Iberian Peninsula that he had witnessed himself. He was an eyewitness of the Lisbon massacre of 1506. The work was a bestseller: a Yiddish translation was published in Amsterdam in the fateful year 1648, and a Latin one in 1680. The titlepage features a different gate design, with the familiar coat of arms drawn in by hand.

Menasseh ben Israel (part 2)

Menasseh ben Israel: In the midst of history

In this section, some of the Brotherton Library’s early printed witnesses to Menasseh ben Israel’s mission to England were exhibited. Included were some Christian responses.

Edward Nicholas, Apologia por la noble nacion de los Iudios y hijos de Israel escrita en Ingles por Eduardo Nicholas. En Londres: E impresa en casa de Juan Field, 1649.
[2], 8 l [i.e. 15 p]. Special Collections Roth Collection 723

Translation of: Apology for the honorable nation of the Jews and all the sons of Israel, London: Printed by John Field, 1648 [i.e. 1649]. An interesting example of Spanish printing in London. Nothing is known about Edward Nicholas, who was once thought to be identical with the English statesman Sir Edward Nicholas (1593-1669). Some authorities consider the name a pseudonym, disguising, perhaps, Menasseh ben Israel, because he lists the Apology among his works in the appendix to Vindiciae Judeorum.

Manasseh ben Israel, Mikveh Yisra’el, Esto es, Esperança De Israel: Obra con suma curiosidad conpuesta / por Menasseh Ben Israel ... Trata del admirable esparzimiento de los diez Tribus, y su infalible reduccion con los demas, a la patria... En Amsterdam: En la Imprension de Semuel Ben Israel Soeiro, 5410 [1650]

[7] l, 126 p; 16 cm; 8vo. Special Collections Roth Collection 633

The treatise on the Lost tribes of Israel, allegedly rediscovered in South America, responds to and is preceded by the “Relacion De Aharon Levi, alias, Antonio de Montezinos”. Montezinos and Menasseh had met in Amsterdam in 1644. Montezinos created a sensation with his travel report, which identifed Peru as Ophir, Indian language words as Hebrew, and Indian tribes as Lost Tribes. His “Jewish Indian theory”, given guarded support in Menasseh’s book, was to have a long life in European literature. Samuel ben Israel Soeiro was Menasseh’s son and managed the printing press 1650-52. That Menasseh’s work created a stir at the time is evidenced by the simultaneous English translation: The hope of Israel: written by Menasseh ben Israel, a Hebrew divine, and philosopher. Newly extant, and printed in Amsterdam, and dedicated by the author to the High Court, the Parliament of England, and to the Councell of State. Translated into English, and published by authority. In this treatise is shewed the place wherein the ten tribes at this present are, proved partly by the strange relation of one Anthony Montezinus, a Jew, of what befell him as he travelled over the Mountaines Cordillære, with divers other particulars about the restoration of the Jewes, and the time when… Printed at London: by R.I. for Hannah Allen, at the Crown in Popes-head Alley, 1650; and The Hope of Israel, written by Menasseh ben Israel; an Hebrew divine and philosopher; newly extant and printed in Amsterdam and dedicated by the author to the high court, the Parliament of England, and to the Councell of State; whereunto are added in this second edition some discourses upon the point of the conversion of the Jewes, English translation by Moses Wall, London: Chapman, 1652.

Arise Evans, Light for the Iews: or, The means to convert them: in answer to a book of theirs, called The hope of Israel, written and printed by Manasseth Ben-Israel, chief agent for the Jews here, 1650 ... [etc.]. London: Printed for the author, 1656.

52, [2] p. Special Collections Strong Room Engl. 8vo 1656 EVA

Arise Evans (1607 – after 1660) was a self-proclaimed prophet, first court prophet at the court of Charles I and then at Cromwell’s court. His visions had a strongly biblical flavour. In the present work, he takes up Menasseh’s apocalyptic ideas for missionary purposes.

William Prynne, Short demurrer to the Jewes long discontinued remitter into England: Comprising an exact chronological relation of their first admission into, their ill deportment, misdemeanors, condition, sufferings, oppressions, slaughters, plunders, by popular insurrections, and regal exactions in; and their total, final banishment by judgment and edict of Parliament, out of England, never to return again: collected out of the best historians and records. With a brief collection of such English laws, Scriptures, reasons as seem strongly to plead, and conclude against their readmission into England, especially at this season, and against the general calling of the Jewish nation. With an answer to the chief allegations for their introduction. London: for Edward Thomas dwelling in Green-Arbor, 1656.
2 pts in 1; 4to. Special Collections Roth Collection 778

This tract (which is here presented in its second edition) in the form of the legal instrument of the demurrer (counter pleading) was a hostile response to Menasseh ben Israel’s petition To His Highnesse the Lord protector of the commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the humble addresses of Menasseh Ben Israel, a divine, and doctor of physic, in behalf of the Jewish nation, originally published in Amsterdam in 1651 and then London 1655. Menasseh perceived the unique opportunity posed by the reign of the Puritans to reverse the expulsion of 1290. He was familiar with Millenarian tendencies (expectations of the Second Coming) and sought to convince Cromwell that a resettlement of the Jews would hasten universal redemption. In his tract, Prynne (Swanswick 1600-London 1669), a conservative Puritan lawyer and opponent of Cromwell, mingles learning with gross stereotypes. The text was redeployed in 1753 by opponents of Jewish naturalisation.

Manasseh ben Israel, Vindiciae Judeorum, or, A letter in answer to certain questions propounded by a noble and learned gentleman: touching the reproaches cast on the nation of the Jevves; wherein all objections are candidly and yet fully cleared. [London]: Printed by R.D., 1656.

41 p; 20 cm. Special Collections Roth Collection 636

This apologetic work, a defence of the Jewish people against the accusations of Prynne’s Short Demurrer, was to have a profound influence on the Jewish emancipation movement in the 18^th and early 19^th centuries. “A catalogue of such books as have been published by Manasseh ben Israel, in Hebrew” and a list of “Books ready for the presse” are appended at the end.

Margaret Fox, A loving salutation to the seed of Abraham among the Jewes ... And the way of truth opened to them ..., London: Printed for Tho. Simmons, 1656.

[iv], 74, [2] p ; 19 cm ; 4to. Special Collections Birkbeck Library 32.6.

Bound as part of a collection of Fox’s works from the library of Maurice Birkbeck (1734-1816).

Margaret Askew Fell Fox (Dalton-in-Furness 1614 – Swarthmooor 1702) “the mother of Quakerism”, was the author of feminist and missionary treatises. The second edition of this text (first published in English only in 1656, also bound in this volume) in parallel English and Hebrew columns is of particular interest. This collection contains two further works of relevance here: For Manasseth [sic] ben Israel. The call of the Jewes out of Babylon, which is good tidings to the meek, liberty to the captives, and for the opening of the prison doores. London: Printed for Giles Calvert, 1656; and A call unto the seed of Israel, that they may come out of Egypts darkness, and house of bondage, unto the land of rest. Also the righteous law of God justified. With an epistle to all those whose desire are after the truth as it is in Jesus where ever they are scattered. Also twenty five queries to all the worlds priests and people. London: Printed for Robert Wilson, [1668?].

Remembering Menasseh ben Israel (part I)

Menasseh ben Israel, rabbi, scholar, philosopher, diplomat and Hebrew printer, 1604-1657

Earlier last year, I put together a special display

for the annual meeting of the

Hebraica Librarians Group,

at the Brotherton Library,

University of Leeds, 26 April 2007. I thought some of you might like to see it.

2007 marked the 350^th anniversary of the death of Menasseh ben Israel – rabbi, scholar, diplomat and Hebrew printer. Although his mission to Cromwell to re-admit Jews into England remained inconclusive at the time, English Jews consider him the father of their modern-day settlement here. It is fitting that a special display of his works should be mounted at the Brotherton Library, the repository of Cecil Roth’s collection of books and manuscripts. For Roth (London 1899- Jerusalem 1970), honoured as “Friend of the Sephardic Community”, had a special interest in Menasseh ben Israel.

Roth’s monograph A Life of Menasseh ben Israel: Rabbi, Printer, and Diplomat was first published in Philadelphia by the Jewish Publication Society of America in 1934 (reprinted 1975, translated into Hebrew 1960). But Menasseh ben Israel is himself of interest to Hebraica librarians: he revolu-tionised Hebrew printing, made Amsterdam the capital of Hebrew publishing and helped create a new standard of Hebrew typography that became widely known, imitated and pirated as “Defus Amsterdam” (Amsterdam print) and “Otiyot Amsterdam” (Amsterdam letters). What also emerges strikingly is the multilingual nature of his world: Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Dutch and English.

By the time Roth began his career as Hebraica collector, some of Menasseh’s imprints were already rarissima. It was gratifying to be able to reunite Roth’s rare Menassiana for the first time since they had entered the Brotherton Library 25 years ago, and display them together with treasures from other collections in the same library.

The image above is a portrait of Menasseh ben Israel by Salom Italia, engraved 1642, the original of which is in the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana in Amsterdam.

From the heart (Va-yakhel)

Parashat Va-yakhel Exodus 35:1 - 38:20

Parashat Va-yakhel continues the saga of the building of the Tabernacle in the Desert.

In a way the theme that opens this Parasha continues that of the one of two weeks ago, when in "Terumah" we heard about the contribution ("terumah") brought by the people. In Va-yakhel ("and [Moses] assembled [the people]") we read again about the gifts that the Israelites contributed.

Take from among you gifts to the Lord; everyone whose heart so moves him shall bring them — gifts for the Lord: gold, silver, and copper; ⁶ blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, and goats' hair; ⁷ tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood; ⁸ oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; ⁹ lapis lazuli and other stones for setting, for the ephod and the breastpiece. (Exodus 35:5-9)

The central passage for me here is the specification "everyone whose heart so moves him". The Hebrew "kol nediv libo" can be understood literally as everyone who is generous of heart. The heart as a source of generous emotion and of freedom is emphasised elsewhere. In Exodus 35:21 we hear that not everyone brought gifts, but only volunteers:

Each person who was ready to volunteer then came forward. [Also] each one who wanted to give brought a donation to God for the making of the Communion Tent, all its necessities, and the sacred vestments.

The central expression here is "kol-ish asher nesa'o libo vechol asher nadvah rucho" - "everyone whom his heart uplifted (or carried) and everyone whose spirit was giving". It is in fact quite hard to decompact the poetry of the Hebrew original here, and translations vary.

A third time is the heart mentioned as the source of generosity:

Men and women, all whose hearts moved them (ha'anashim al-hanashim kol nediv lev), all who would make an elevation offering of gold to the Lord, came bringing brooches, earrings, rings, and pendants — gold objects of all kinds (Exodus 35:22)

In what follows we are told specifically about gifts of jewellery, and perhaps even more interestingly, about the skilled women weavers' contributions. Finally, these voluntary contributions are summed up in similar terms:

Every man and woman, whose heart moved them / whose heart was giving (nadav libam) to bring of all the work, which the Lord had commanded to do by the hand of Moses, the children of Israel brought a willing offering (nedavah) unto the Lord (Exodus 35:29).

Both men and women were generous of heart. That is to say, the universal nature of the generous heart is stressed.

The repeated emphasis that giving comes from the heart or from a spirit of giving is something that we moderns are easily tempted to connect with charities and fundraising. And why not? This Parashah is a good model that encourages us to emulate the generosity of our ancestors in a modern context of global responsibility.

If one looks at the Parashah as a historian, what comes across strongly is the contrast between Moses' "building campaign" and Pharaoh's building campaigns. Where the Pharaoh's great cities Pithom and Ramses were built by slave labour, including Hebrew slave labour, Moses builds something less permanent and stable, the Tabernacle, using voluntary contributions.

This characteristic of respecting free choice is highlighted if we compare the Parashah with the Haftorah (I Kings 7:40-50). Here we hear about Solomon's Temple building and Hiram the master builder.

On the face of it, the parallelism is hardly original. Where the Parashah treats the building of the Tabernacle, the Haftorah treats the building of the Temple. What could be more predictable? And yet there is a subtle difference. It is the difference between freedom and compulsion.

Solomon builds, and Hiram builds for Solomon just like Bezalel built for Moses:

So Hiram finished all the work that he had been doing for King Solomon on the House of the Lord. I Kings 7:41)

Although Solomon was no Pharaoh, this is clearly a project controlled by a centralised monarchy, and there is little evidence of free choice and generosity of the heart. The Temple is very definitely one king's project, and despite Hiram's honourable mention Solomon is not going to share the glory with a multitude of "sponsors". In that way the Tabernacle is more reminiscent of the name plaques in synagogues, where contributions by diverse donors are meticulously listed for commemoration.

I'd argue that Moses was not only an astute comunal politician who knew how to coopt his "sponsors". He was also a gifted, perhaps prophetic educator. He understood that a project owned by many will be cherished by many, whereas a top-down royal project may not outlast the days of the monarchy. And so it was: the temple, alas, was destroyed, but the migratory Tabernacle, precious yet unstable, the work of many hands and even more hearts, still wanders with us.