Isaac Aboab da Fonseca (or Isaak Aboab Foonseca) (February 1, 1605 – April 4, 1693) was a

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

, scholar, kabbalist, and religious writer. In 1656, he was one of several elders within the Portuguese-Jewish community in Amsterdam and for a time in

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil (; ), also known as New Holland (), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas. The main cities of the colony were the c ...

before the Portuguese reconquest. He was one of the religious leaders who

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the con ...

philosopher

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

in 1656.

Life

Isaac Aboab da Fonseca was born into the Aboab family in the Portuguese town of

Castro Daire Castro Daire () is a List of Portuguese municipalities, municipality in Viseu District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 15,339, in an area of 379.04 km2. The present mayor is Paulo Almeida , elected by a coalition CDS-PP, PSD. The muni ...

as Simão da Fonseca. His family and parents were '' Conversos'', Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity. Although the family had ostensibly converted to Christianity, this did not put an end to local

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

suspicions. In 1581, the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

secceded from the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered ...

, this caused significant immigration of Sepheradic Jews to the

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 1603 it was made legal in the Netherlands to practice

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

in the open. In 1612 When Isaac was seven, the family moved to

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 ...

. From that moment on, the family "reconverted" back to

, and Isaac was raised as a Jew from that moment on. Together with Manasseh ben Israel, he studied under the scholar, doctor, poet and mathematician Isaac Uziel, Uziel would open a talmudic school of his own. Aboab and ben Israel disagreed in 1629 about writings by

Joseph Solomon Delmedigo Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (or Del Medigo), also known as Yashar Mi-Qandia (; 16 June 1591 – 16 October 1655), was a rabbi, author, physician, mathematician, and music theory, music theorist. Born in Heraklion, Candia, Crete, a descendant of E ...

and there were lingering ill-feelings. At the age of eighteen, Isaac was appointed ''

hakham ''Hakham'' (or ''Chakam(i), Haham(i), Hacham(i), Hach''; ) is a term in Judaism meaning a wise or skillful man; it often refers to someone who is a great Torah scholar. It can also refer to any cultured and learned person: "He who says a wise th ...

'' (rabbi) for Beth Israel, one of three Sephardic communities in Amsterdam, which later merged. In order to be distinguished from his cousin Isaac ben Mattathiah Aboab, he added his mother's last name (da Fonseca) to his own. In 1642, Aboab da Fonseca was invited by Moses Cohen Henriques appointed rabbi at

Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue The Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue (; ; ) was a former Judaism, Jewish synagogue, located at 197 Rua do Bom Jesus (Rua dos Judeus), in the Recife Antigo, old city of Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil. The synagogue was esta ...

Recife Recife ( , ) is the Federative units of Brazil, state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North Region, Brazil, North and the Northeast R ...

, in

Pernambuco Pernambuco ( , , ) is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.5 million people as of 2024, it is the List of Brazilian states by population, ...

. Portuguese Jews from Amsterdam were a significant segment of the European population there. Many had first emigrated to

due to persecution by the

Portuguese Inquisition The Portuguese Inquisition (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal in 15 ...

and opportunities to pursue commerce in the Atlantic world. By becoming the rabbi of the Portuguese Jewish community in Recife, Aboab da Fonseca was also probably one of the first appointed rabbis of the Americas, along with his rabbinic companion Moses Raphael de Aguilar. Kahal Zur Israel congregation had a synagogue, a

mikveh A mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvot'', or (Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazic) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for ritual washing in Judaism#Full-body immersion, ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve Tumah and taharah, ...

and a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

as well, one of the first in the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

. Still during Fonseca's tenure as rabbi in Pernambuco, the Portuguese attacked the Dutch colony. The Portuguese who were animated in part by the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest who said "have their open synagogues there, to the scandal of Christianity" calling for the reconquest of the colony and the destruction of the Jews. The Portuguese re-occupied the capital of

in 1654, after a struggle of nine years. The Jews fought alongside the Dutch army which refused to surrender until the Portuguese guaranteed they would allow the safe passage of Jews. Aboab then returned to Amsterdam. Some members of his community immigrated to North America and were among the founders of

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

. Back in Amsterdam, Aboab da Fonseca was appointed Chief Rabbi for the Sephardic community. In 1656, he was one of several scholars who excommunicated philosopher

, whom Aboab knew first as a student in the yeshiva and then in the evening discussions which Saul Levi Morteira, Menasseh, and Aboab oversaw. Aboab had mystical kabbalistic leanings, publishing texts on it. He was one of many fervent Sephardic supporters in Amsterdam 1665-66 of messianic figure Sabbatai Zevi, until Sabbatai's

apostasy Apostasy (; ) is the formal religious disaffiliation, disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous re ...

in September 1666.Both th
''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1906)
and th
''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (2007)
entries on him concur on this fact. During the tenure of Aboab da Fonseca, the Sephardi community flourished. The construction of the new Portuguese Synagogue (the ''Esnoga'') was prompted by a sermon delivered by him in 1671. It was inaugurated less than four years later, on August 2, 1675 (10 ''Av'' 5435).Cecil Roth's entry
in the ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (2007). Isaac Aboab da Fonseca died in Amsterdam on April 4, 1693, at the age of 88.

Works

Aboab translated from Spanish into Hebrew the works of the kabbalist Abraham Cohen de Herrera, ''Sha'ar ha-Shamayim'' and ''Beit Elohim'' (Amsterdam, 1655).

Legacy

In 2007, the Jerusalem Institute (Machon Yerushalaim) in Israel published a book about Rabbi Fonseca's works, including the author's expositions about the community of Recife at that time. The book is called ''Chachamei Recife V'Amsterdam'', or ''The Sages of Recife and Amsterdam''. The Dutch historian Franz Leonard Schalkwijk who researched the history of the Jews of the Dutch colony also wrote of Fonseca.

References

External links

''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1906)
entry on "Isaac da Fonseca Aboab"
''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (2007)
entry on "Aboab Da Fonseca, Isaac" by Cecil Roth
Jewish Historical Museum

Jewish Virtual Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fonseca, Isaac Aboab Da 1605 births 1693 deaths People from Castro Daire 17th-century Dutch rabbis Baalei teshuva Dutch Orthodox rabbis Dutch people of Portuguese-Jewish descent Dutch Sephardi Jews People from Dutch Brazil Religion in the Dutch Republic Immigrants to the Dutch Republic Portuguese emigrants People associated with Baruch Spinoza Rabbis from Recife 17th-century Brazilian rabbis Brazilian Orthodox rabbis Aboab family Brazilian religious writers 17th-century Sephardi Jews

Life

Works

Legacy

See also

References

External links