Everything about Menasseh Ben Israel totally explained
Manoel Dias Soeiro (
1604–
November 20,
1657), better known by his
Hebrew name
Menasseh Ben Israel (also,
Menasheh ben Yossef ben Yisrael, also known with the Hebrew acronym,
MB"Y), was a
Portuguese-Jewish rabbi,
kabbalist, scholar, writer, diplomat,
printer and publisher, founder of the first Hebrew
printing press (named
Emeth Meerets Titsma`h) in
Amsterdam in
1626.
Life
Rabbi Menasseh was born in
Madeira in
1604, with the name Manoel Dias Soeiro, a year after his parents had left
Portugal because of the
Inquisition. The family moved to
The Netherlands in
1610. The Netherlands was in the middle of a process of religious revolt throughout the
Eighty Years' War (
1568–
1648). The family's arrival in 1610 was during the
truce mediated by
France and
England at
The Hague.
Menasseh rose to eminence not only as a rabbi and an author, but also as a printer. He established the first Hebrew press in Holland. One of his earliest works,
El Conciliador, won immediate reputation; it was an attempt at reconciliation between apparent discrepancies in various parts of the Old Testament. Among his correspondents were
Gerhard Johann Vossius,
Hugo Grotius, and
Pierre Daniel Huet. In
1638, he decided to settle in
Brazil, as he still found it difficult to provide for his wife and family in Amsterdam, but this step was rendered unnecessary by his appointment to direct a college founded by the Pereiras.
In
1644, Menasseh met
Antonio de Montesinos, who convinced him that the
South America Andes' Indians were the descendants of the
lost ten tribes of Israel. This supposed discovery gave a new impulse to Menasseh's
Messianic hopes. But he was convinced that the Messianic age needed as its certain precursor the settlement of Jews in all parts of the known world. Filled with this idea, he turned his attention to England, whence the Jews had been expelled since
1290. He found much Christian support in England. During the
Commonwealth the question of the readmission of the Jews was often mooted under the growing desire for religious liberty. Besides this, Messianic and other mystic hopes were current in England. In
1650, there appeared an English version of the
Hope of Israel, a tract which deeply impressed public opinion.
Oliver Cromwell had been moved to sympathy with the Jewish cause partly by his tolerant leanings, but chiefly because he foresaw the importance for English commerce of the presence of the Jewish merchant princes, some of whom had already found their way to London. At this juncture, Jews received full rights in the colony of
Surinam, which had been English since 1650.
In
1655, Menasseh arrived in
London. During his absence, the Amsterdam rabbis excommunicated his student,
Spinoza. One of his first acts on reaching London was the issue of his
Humble Addresses to the Lord Protector, but its effect was weakened by the issue of
William Prynne's able, but unfair
Short Demurrer. Cromwell summoned the
Whitehall Conference in December of the same year. Some of the most notable statesmen, lawyers, and theologians of the day were summoned to this conference. The chief practical result was the declaration of judges Glynne and Steele that "there was no law which forbade the Jews' return to England." Though nothing was done to regularize the position of the Jews, the door was opened to their gradual return.
John Evelyn was able to enter in his diary under the date Dec. 14, 1655, "Now were the Jews admitted." But the attack on the Jews by Prynne and others couldn't go unanswered. Menasseh replied in the finest of his works,
Vindiciae judaeorum (1656).
Soon after Menasseh left London Cromwell granted him a pension, but he died before he could enjoy it. Death overtook him at
Middleburg in the Netherlands in the winter of
1657 (14
Kislev 5418), as he was conveying the body of his son Samuel home for burial. His tomb is in the
Beit Hayim of
Ouderkerk a/d Amstel.
Writings
Menasseh ben Israel was the author of many works. His major work
Nishmat Hayim is a treatise in Hebrew on the Jewish concept of
reincarnation of souls, published by his son Samuel 6 years before they both died. Some are of the opinion that he studied kabbalah with
Abraham Cohen de Herrera, a disciple of
Israel Saruk. This would explain his amazing familiaritiy with the method of the
Ari haQadosh he`Haï. Among his other works, his
De termino vitae was translated into English by
Pococke, and his
Conciliator by
G. H. Lindo; we also find a ritual compendium
Tesoro dos dinim. He was a friend of
Rembrandt, who painted his portrait and engraved four etchings to illustrate his
Piedra gloriosa. These are preserved in the
British Museum. Other works can be found in the Biblioteca Nacional - Rio De Janeiro/Brazil per example:
Orden de las oraciones del mes, con lo mes necessario y obligatorio de las tres fiestas del año. Como tambien lo que toca a los ayunos, Hanucah, y Purim: con sus advertencias y notas para mas facilidad, y clareza. Industria y despeza de Menasseh ben Israel
Children
His son, Yossef, died at age 20. Descendent of
the Abarbanel, Menasseh was also the father of
Samuel Abarbanel Soeiro, also known as Samuel Ben Israel.
Further Information
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