Abramites

Abstract: Who can enumerate the number of ours who are renowned by fame, and learning? The learned R. Moses bar Maimon was Physician to Salad'ui the King of Aegypt. Moses Amon to Emperor Sultan Bajaseth. Elias Montalto to the most eminent Queen of France, Loysia de Medkis; and was also her Counsellor. At Padua, Elias Cretensis read philosophy; and R. Abraham de Balmas, the Hebrew Grammar. And how much honour had Elias Grammaticus at Rome! . . . Picus Miranduia (who useth to say, That he had but amali understanding, who only looked after his owne things, and not after other mens) and others, had Hebrew teachers. David de Pomi) dedicated his Book to Pope Sextus the fifth, who lovingly, and courteously received both the Author, and work. So at this day we see many desirous to learn the Hebrew tongue of our men. Hence may be seene that God hath not left us; for if one persecute us, another receives us civilly, and courteously; and if this Prince treats us ill, another treats us well; if one banisheth us of his country, another invites us by a thousand priviledges.1When Menasseh ben Israel wrote these words in 1650 he had attained the pinnacle of his scholarly aspirations. Christian colleagues from all over Europe frequented his house.2 Others corresponded with him regarding difficult theological questions. Finally, his coreligionists, who had tended to neglect him when important decisions were to be made, granted Menasseh due recognition. The time seemed ripe for a reassessment. In fact, it was by placing his own efforts in the same context as those of Moses ben Maimon, Moses Hamon, Elijah Delmedigo (Elia*) Creten*>i*>), Elijah Levita (Eliot) Grammatica*)), David de' Pomis, Elijah Montalto, and Abraham de Balmes that Menasseh clearly expressed the framework for his life's accomplishments. In spite of the shame Christians attributed to them as Jews (con el oprobio de Judio*)), these scholars had been successful in gaining reputation and honor outside the Jewish world, earning a position among the elites of their countries.3 Furthermore, they had used their influence to help Diaspora Jews in their respective societies.Menasseh attempted something comparable. During the seventeenth century, increasing numbers of Christian scholars turned to Jews to study Hebrew and Aramaic. They read the Talmud and the medieval Jewish philosophers, and they reprinted, edited, and translated Hebrew and Aramaic books.4 Unlike most of their medieval forerunners, many early modern Hebraists aimed not only at anti-Jewish polemics but also at something beyond, and this approach opened up new possibilities for cooperation. Already in the fifteenth century, Christian scholars had discovered the Kabbalah as a possible source for universal wisdom and knowledge. Others, in the context of humanist scholarship and antiquarianism, had drawn new attention to the concept of hebraica verita*). According to them, hebraica verita,) was an "original truth" that had been lost during the ongoing corruption of the Christian church. Once rediscovered from the Jewish sources, it would lead to the "correct" understanding of Christianity. After the Reformation some theologians went even further, assuming that the study of antique and medieval Jewish sources would help to decide the right and wrong of the most hotly disputed confessional issues.Menasseh ben Israel was one of the first rabbis to respond systematically to these new challenges. Only in some Italian states and cities had individual rabbis- such as some of those named in the epigraph - begun publishing treatises about Jews and Judaism intended lor a Christian audience. Others such as Leone Modena or Simone Luzzatto influenced Menasseh even more: Modena published (in 1637) the first Jewish ethnography written by a Jewish author for a Christian public.5 Though Modena's book was primarily directed against Buxtorf's Synagoga judaica (1603),6 the Venetian rabbi sought, like Menasseh, to spread knowledge about Judaism among Christians and thereby improve Jewish-Christian relationships. …