In the course of our inquiry we shall show that Manasseh was in close touch with the Holy Land; here attention is called only to the fact that in this editorial work Manasseh was actuated by a desire to compare the various manuscripts. These Mishnaioth are a wonderful pocket edition, containing the text without any commentary, and evidently destined for repetition. Talmud students will find here a good many instructive variants.
Another book edited by Manasseh, though it is merely a translation, throws some light on the tendencies of the time and on Manasseh’s Jewish connections. This is the Libro Yntitulado Enseña a Pecadores.[¹] (Appendix ix). This little book contains, in addition to a translation of a prayer composed by Rabbi Isaac (1534–1572) ben Solomon [Ashkenazi] Luria, a translation of a section of Rabbi Isaiah (1555–1630) ben Abraham Horwitz’s Sepher Shné Luchot Ha’brith ... Amsterdam ... 5409. The author’s name has come down to posterity by the initials of his great work “S. L. H.”[²] with the attribute Hakadosh.[³] He was Rabbi in Frankfort-on-the-Main, Prague, Posen, and Cracow, and then went to the Holy Land, where he was called מרא דארץ ישראל[⁴] His Shné Luchot Ha’brith is a work of admirable erudition in the Agadah (Legend, Saga) of the Talmud, as well as in homiletics and Cabbalah. Rabbi Isaiah Horwitz was a religiously inspired Zionist. His enthusiasm in expounding the glory of the Holy Land (Shné Luchot Ha’brith, p. 275, sermon to Lech L’cha, and p. 389, sermon to Va’etchanan) was almost unique in the literature of that time. He combined moreover a rare religious ecstasy and Cabbalistic visions with progressive ideas on education, in which he recommended a systematic method, contrary to the customs of that time—a tendency also found in Manasseh. Rabbi Isaiah lived to an advanced age, and his activities came to an end in the Holy Land. His manuscript was brought to Amsterdam and published there, with additions by his son David, who was also a distinguished scholar. This book seems to have impressed Manasseh so much that he published a translation of a part of it, containing prayers and contemplations for repentant sinners, evidently for Marranos, for whom a great many prayer-books and religious tracts were published at that time in Spanish and Portuguese.
[¹] Instruction for Sinners.
[²] Pronounced “Shloh.”
[³] The Saint.
[⁴] Lord of the Land of Israel.
This book, while proving the fact of Manasseh’s connection with a great Palestinian authority, shows also that he was in touch with the Hebrew poet and grammarian, Haham Ribi Solomon[¹] de David de Israel d’Oliveyra, the author of Sharshot Gabluth—Ayeleth Ahabim, which were both published in Amsterdam in the year 5425 [1665], and many other books and treatises on Hebrew poetry. He is considered to be one of the precursors of the revival of modern Hebrew literature in Holland, and wrote poems and compositions of a didactic character. In the course of our inquiry we shall discover that Manasseh himself had a great predilection for Hebrew poetry. Embodied in the Enseña a Pecadores is a “Confession of Penitence” composed by Haham d’Oliveyra in Hebrew וידוי כפרה and Portuguese [[♦]Viduy Penetencial], which includes a prayer for the rebuilding of the “Holy City,” using the Biblical phrase:—תבנה חומות ירושלים Fabricarás murallas de Yerusalaim.
[¹] Ob. 23 May, 1708, at Amsterdam.
[♦] “Vidvy” replaced with “Viduy”
Another work of Manasseh in Latin, De Termino Vitae, Amsterdam, 1639 (Appendix x), was written with the object of answering a question which was addressed by his friend the Christian scholar Jan van Beverwijck [Johannes Beverovicius] (1594–1647) to various divines and scholars, and is, consequently, apologetic in character. But two passages throw some light on Manasseh’s views as to the Land of Israel and Messianism. In one of them he emphasizes the fact that the Jews frequently collect alms for those who live in the Holy Land;[¹] and in the other he says that “if anyone desires to know all the controversies of the Jews concerning the explanation of Daniel’s (fl. 3389 a.m.) Prophecies, he may read Abrabanel’s Treatise, which the learned Johannes Buxtorf II. (1599–1664) has translated into Latin.”[²] In this way he identifies himself with the ideas expounded by Abrabanel in his Mayy’neh Hayeshuah, which showed that Abrabanel was not only Messianistic in the usual sense, but was firmly convinced that the end of the Captivity might be expected in the near future.