Uriel da Costa - Knowledge

783: 483:, and da Costa fined a significant sum. By 1627, da Costa was a denizen of Utrecht, though the Amsterdam community still had an acrimonious relationship with him. For example, they asked a Venetian rabbi, Yaakov Ha-Levi, whether da Costa's elderly mother was eligible for a burial plot in the Jewish cemetery. The following year, da Costa's mother died, and he went back to Amsterdam. Ultimately, the loneliness was too much for him to handle. Around 1633, he accepted terms of reconciliation with the Jewish authorities, which he does not detail in his autobiography. He was thus reaccepted into the Jewish community. 487: 175: 631: 574: 31: 738:. Da Costa had a connection to the Spinoza family, through Baruch's mother, Hanna, with both families coming from Porto, in northern Portugal, and might have known each other there. The Spinozas would have known of da Costa in the Jewish community of Amsterdam, of his troubles with the authorities, and his suicide. There is a 1901 imagined portrait of da Costa and the young Spinoza, but a Spinoza biographer, 647: 742:

describes the painting as "overwrought" and its depiction of Spinoza being instructed by da Costa as "pure fantasy." Spinoza was just eight years old when da Costa committed suicide, and he might not have known then about his family's connection to him. However, as an adolescent he likely learned the

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violations, he was excommunicated a second time. As he describes it, for seven years, he lived in virtual isolation, shunned by his family and embroiled in civil-financial disputes with them. In search of legal help, he returned to being "an ape amongst the apes"; he would follow established Jewish

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and philosophical concepts. Da Costa was relatively early in arguing before a Jewish readership in favor of the mortality of the soul, and in appealing exclusively to direct reading of the bible. He cites neither rabbinic authorities nor philosophers of the Aristotelian and Neoplatonic traditions.

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At about the same time (in Hamburg or Amsterdam) da Costa was working on a second treatise. Three chapters of this unpublished manuscript were stolen, and formed the target for a traditionalist rebuttal published by Semuel da Silva of Hamburg. Da Costa enlarged his book further, with the printed

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Inter Hispanicos Judaeos quaedam Sadducaeorum reliquae supersunt uti constat vel exemplo Urielis Rabulae Hebrei qui hispanico idiomate "Examen Traditionum Philosophicarum ad legem scriptam" edidit in eo humanarum mortalitatem, propugnavit а tandem Anno christi 1640 . Ipse violentas manus sibi

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in Amsterdam, then forced to lie on the floor while the congregation trampled over him. This ordeal left him both demoralized and thirsty for revenge against the man (a cousin or nephew) who initiated his trial seven years previously and marked the final dramatic point of his autobiography.

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Leone of Modena later published a developed iconoclastic treatise of his own ("kol sakhal / shaagat arye"), and it is quite possible that da Costa's doubts had some influence on him. Salomon & Sassoon, introduction to da Costa's Examination of Pharisaic Traditions, 1993, pp.

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adds that he set out to end the lives of both his brother (or nephew) and himself. Seeing his relative approach one day, he grabbed a pistol and pulled the trigger, but it misfired. Then he reached for another, turned it on himself, and fired, dying a reportedly terrible death.

395:. It is not known what effect this had on his life. He barely mentioned it in his autobiography and continued his international business. In 1623, he moved to Amsterdam for unknown reasons. The leaders of the Amsterdam Sephardic community, troubled by the arrival of a known 325:

for outside relations, presumably because he was wanted in Portugal. All resumed their international trade business. Upon arriving in Hamburg, da Costa quickly became disenchanted with the kind of Judaism he saw in practice. He came to believe that the

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and contemplate it seriously. Da Costa also held a benefice, an ecclesiastical office, in the Catholic Church. In his autobiography, da Costa depicted his family as devout Catholics. However, they had been subject to several investigations by the

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in the title role; the play would remain a signature piece in Adler's repertoire to the end of his stage career, the first of the several roles through which he developed the persona that he referred to as "the Grand Jew" (see also Adler's

680:. Müller publicized da Costa's excommunication, to make an anachronistic point that some Sephardic Jews of his days were Sadducees. Johann Helwig Willemer made the same point, and implied that this extreme heresy leads to suicide. 297:

After his father died, the da Costa family fell into financial difficulty due to unpaid debts. In 1614, they escaped this predicament by leaving Portugal with a significant sum previously collected as tax farmers for

758:, he read the Bible and was impressed by it. Yet upon confronting an organized rabbinic community, he was not equally impressed by the established ritual and religious doctrine of Rabbinical Judaism, such as the 497:

Shortly after, da Costa was tried again; he encountered two Christians who expressed to him their desire to convert to Judaism and he dissuaded them from doing so. Based on this and earlier accusations regarding

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His short autobiography contains many details about his life, but over the past two centuries, documents uncovered in Portugal, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and elsewhere have changed and added much to the picture.

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Letters addressed to his Highness the Prince of *****, containing comments on the writings of the most eminent authors, who have been accused of attacking the Christian Religion

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Den Boer, Harm (1989-01-01). "Was Uriel Da Costas's "Examen" Seized by the Spanish Inquisition? The Spanish "Index librorum prohibitorum" as a bibliographical source".

435:; previously, only the three chapters had been known. The work runs to over 200 pages and is divided into two parts. In the first part, da Costa develops his earlier 527:

and skeptical views, including doubts about whether biblical law was divinely sanctioned or whether it was simply written down by Moses. Da Costa suggests that all

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traditions and practices but with little real conviction. Seeking reconciliation, he first suffered punishment for his heretical views: he was publicly given 39

259: 342:(Propositions against the Tradition). In eleven short theses he called into question the disparity between certain Jewish customs and a literal reading of the 1719: 837: 868: 688:

quite fully, to demonstrate among other things that questioning religion without turning to revelation would bring one to miserable faithlessness.

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is a human invention, and specifically rejects formalized, ritualized religion. He further sketches an idealized religion to be based only on

961:(Propositions against the Tradition), ca. 1616. An untitled letter addressed at certain Rabbis, opposing their extra-biblical traditions. 479:, whose leaders reported to the (Christian) city authorities that this was an attack on Christianity as well as on Judaism. The work was 782: 1333: 789:, 16th-century manuscript. Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Manuscritos latinos, K.II.2, ff. 522–550. 1774: 1769: 1239: 354: 1724: 1602: 451:. Da Costa believed that this was not an idea deeply rooted in biblical Judaism but rather had been formulated primarily by 1558: 519:"Example of a Human Life," da Costa tells the story of his life, intellectual development, and experiences as a victim of 1739: 1734: 1359: 1704: 1684: 1779: 1541: 1509: 1419: 1153:

Previous research concluded he went to Hamburg after a time in Amsterdam, but some official documents show otherwise.

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and he was excommunicated by several Jewish authorities. His iconoclastic life culminated in suicide in c. 1640.

1638: 1409: 1659: 1784: 1251: 584: 544: 1764: 427:(Examination of Pharisaic Traditions) in Portuguese. The complete printed book was discovered in 1990 at the 350: 1699: 1650: 1435: 523:. Transmitted to print in Latin some decades after his death and only a few pages long, it also expresses 1759: 1587:

Uriel da Costa e l'Exemplar humanae vitae: testo latino, traduzione italiana, commento storico-filologico

670: 227: 711:, when he made an analogous argument that Christian states should be at least as tolerant toward modern 1714: 1526:. Bibliotheca Spinozana ; 2 (in German, Hebrew, Portuguese, and Latin). Amsterdam, M. Hertzberger. 1392: 750:

seeking to return to their ancestral Jewish roots upon arriving in an organized Jewish community. As a

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in English), where he recreates Uriel da Costa's final moments adding the young Spinoza in the scene.

814:, a play about da Costa's life. This would later become the first classic play to be translated into 346:, and more generally tried to prove from reason and scripture that this system of law is sufficient. 1729: 833: 439:, considering Modena's responses and corrections. In the second part, he adds novel views that the 384:, written in response to religious queries about da Costa posed by the Hamburg Jewish authorities. 417:

took 8 years of work, created a huge backlash, and disappeared shortly after and still not extant.

1008: 828: 822:; Uriel Acosta is the signature role of the actor Leo Rafalesco, birth name Leib Rafalovitch, of 704: 696: 595: 448: 299: 86: 399:, staged a hearing and sanctioned the excommunication previously set in place against da Costa. 1754: 1749: 1665: 1173: 872: 856: 428: 283: 149: 1375: 925: 1689: 1354: 1316: 1228: