Benjamin ben Immanuel Musaphia (c. 1606 – 1675), also called Benjamin Musaphia, Binyamin Moussafia or Mussafia and Dionysius, was a Jewish doctor, scholar and kabbalist. Musaphia was probably born in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. He married Sara Abigail da Silva, daughter of Semuel da Silva, in 1628. Their sons and grandsons joined the court of the Gottorps, and a daughter was married to

Gabriel Milan Gabriel Milan ( – 26 March 1689) was a colonial administrator and planter who served as governor of the Danish West Indies from 7 May 1684 to 27 February 1686. Though he mainly went by the name of 'Gabriel Milan', he identified himself as ...

, who would later be appointed governor of the

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies () or Danish Virgin Islands () or Danish Antilles were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with , Saint John () with , Saint Croix with , and Water Island. The islands of St ...

(now the

United States Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located ...

). Around this time, Musaphia graduated from the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

medical school, which was regarded as the best of its kind at the time. He was a Hebrew lexicographer and philologist.

Publications

After Sara's death on 7 August 1634, Musaphia dedicated '' Zekher Rav'', an adaptation of the

creation myth A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony, a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it., "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Cre ...

in which all

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

word roots are used exactly once, to her. It was first published in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, in 1635, and a second edition with a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

translation was published in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

in 1638. Another work was published in 1640, namely '' Sacro-Medicæ Sententiæ ex Bibliis'', a medical treatise containing about 800 sentences on medicine. It contained a section on

alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

that created some stirring at the time. Musaphia also dedicated a work on ebb and flow to

Christian IV of Denmark Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and King of Norway, Norway and List of rulers of Schleswig-Holstein, Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is th ...

in 1642.

Career

In 1646, while living in

Glückstadt Glückstadt (; ) is a town in the Steinburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located on the right bank of the Lower Elbe at the confluence of the small Rhin river, about northwest of Altona. Glückstadt is part of the Hamburg ...

Holstein Holstein (; ; ; ; ) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider (river), Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost States of Germany, state of Germany. Holstein once existed as the German County of Holstein (; 8 ...

, Musaphia was appointed royal physician to the Danish court by Christian IV. Around 1648, probably in connection with the death of Christian IV, Musaphia went to Amsterdam and joined the college of rabbis. In 1655, he published an extended version of

Nathan ben Jehiel Nathan ben Jehiel of Rome (, 1035 – 1106) was a Jewish Italian lexicographer. He authored the Arukh, a dictionary for Rabbinic Judaism that was the first work to examine Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. He is therefore referred to as "the Arukh." B ...

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ic dictionary ''Aruk'' (ca. 1100), titled ''Musaf he-'Aruk'', detailing many Jewish customs. The preface states that he had been collecting this information since a young boy. Musaphia was also working on a commentary of the Talmud in 1702, which was never published, and the manuscripts have since been lost. He is described by

Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was a German exegete and one of the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (no ...

as a semi- Spinozist. He wrote a letter of homage to

Sabbatai Zevi Sabbatai Zevi (, August 1, 1626 – ) was an Ottoman Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey). His family were Romaniote Jews from Patras. His two names, ''Shabbethay'' and ''Ṣebi'', mean Saturn and mountain gazelle, ...

on his declaration of being the

messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

. He became an enthusiastic advocate of the Sabbatean movement. His work was discussed by

Jacques Basnage Jacques Basnage De Beauval (8 August 165322 December 1723) was a celebrated French Protestant divine, preacher, linguist, writer and man of affairs. He wrote a ''History of the Reformed Churches'' and on ''Jewish Antiquities''. Biography Jacques ...

and

Menahem Amelander Menahem Mann Ben Solomon ha-Levi Amelander was a Dutch-Jewish author and historian of the 18th century. He died before 1767. Life His 1743 Old Yiddish chronicle, ''Sheyris Yisroel'' (''Remnant of Israel'') is a continuation of his Yiddish tran ...

, the latter of whom including the fact that his commentary on the Gemara Yerushalmi had not been published as of 1741. He is said to have assisted Spinoza with his return or repentance to Judaism. He also researched the ocean tides.

Personal life and family

His brother Albert Dionis was one of the wealthiest Jews in Hamburg in 1614. Musaphia died in 1675, in Amsterdam.

Sources

* H. C. Terslin, ''Guvernør over Dansk Vestindien Gabriel Milan og hans Efterkommere'' (Helsingør, 1926) * Hauch-Fausbøll, ''Jødernes Færden og Ophold i den Danske State i 17. Aarh.'' (Tidsskrift for Jødisk Historie og Literratur II) *

Meyer Kayserling Meyer Kayserling (also '' Meir'' or ''Moritz'', 17 June 1829 – 21 April 1905) was a German rabbi and historian. Life Kayserling was born in Gleidingen near Hanover, and was the brother of writer and educator Simon Kayserling. He was educ ...

, ''Jødernes Historie'' * J. Margolinsky, ''Benjamin Musaphia'' (Tidsskrift for Jødisk Historie og Literratur III)

References

External links

''Jewish Encyclopedia'' article

The medical school of Padua and its Jewish graduates
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Musaphia, Benjamin 17th-century Danish Jews 17th-century German Jews Danish alchemists Danish Sephardi Jews Dutch alchemists Kabbalists Jewish Dutch writers Spanish Jews Danish people of Spanish descent Dutch Sephardi Jews German Sephardi Jews 1675 deaths Year of birth uncertain 17th-century alchemists