[⁵] At the joint expense of Ephraim Bueno and Jona Abrabanel (who both contributed Sonetos to De La Resvrreccion De Los Mvertos) the Sepher Pene Rabah [I. S.] was issued at Amsterdam in the year 5388. It was edited, re-arranged and printed by Manasseh Ben Israel. Jona (ob. 1667) Abrabanel was a poet, and son of Dr. Joseph (ob. 1620?) Abrabanel, a physician in Amsterdam, whose sister Rachel was the wife of Manasseh Ben Israel. Their father, Isaac Abrabanel, a scientist (ob. 1573), lived and died in Ferrara, Italy, and was on intimate terms with the famous marrano physician, Juan Rodrigo de Castel-Branco [Amatus Lusitanus] (1511–1568). He was the son of Joseph Abrabanel (1471–1552), a doctor of medicine, born at Lisbon and died at Ferrara, whose father, Don Isaac, was the illustrious Bible commentator and statesman.
Dr. Ephraim H. Bonus Dr. Abraham Zacut
H. H. R. Manasseh Ben-israel
Haham J. J. A. de Leon
[Templo] H. H. R. Isaac Aboab
da Fonseca
From rare engravings lent by Israel Solomons
In 1603 Joseph Ben-Israel, the father of Manasseh, and his wife Rachel Soeiro, secretly left Lisbon. He had been a victim of the Inquisition, which deprived him of his wealth, and on three distinct occasions had been subjected to excruciating tortures, which undermined his health. They apparently fled to La Rochelle, France, for it was here that Manasseh was shortly afterwards born, in 1604, as is attested by his marriage certificate, deposited in the Archives of the City of Amsterdam (Puiboek, No. 669, fo. 95 verso, 15 Aug. 1623). Here he was also baptized, as it was not until his parents arrived at Amsterdam that they dared avow their faith in the God of Israel. In a holograph letter[¹] of Manasseh to an unknown correspondent (suggested by Mr. E. N. Adler, the owner, to be Gerard John Vossius) he writes: “... and the Thesoro delos Dinim (Appendix xxiii) of our rites and ceremonies, the last in my Portuguese mother tongue, for I am a Lisbonian by patrimony....” He did not claim Lisbon as his own birthplace, but as that of his father. Most of his connections were with Spanish and Portuguese Jews, though he was opposed to any sort of separation, condemning it in his writings, and emphasizing the necessity of Jewish unity and brotherhood. It is noteworthy that a hundred and twenty-six years later, when the father of Jewish Rationalism, Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), had to defend Judaism and the Jewish people, he found no better apology than Manasseh’s Vindiciae Judæorum (1656), which was translated into German, and for which he wrote the admirable Vorrede (Appendix xxiv).
[¹] Amsterdam, ultimo de Janʳᵒ, 1648.
Magᵉᵒ y muy docto Sʳ
... y el Thesoro de los dinim de nuestros ritos y ceremonias, este en mi lengua materna lusitana, porq’ yo soy por patria Lixbonense.... Con esto me despide, hora vale amantissimo S.