1605

Isaac Aboab Fonseca, da

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First name
Isaac Aboab
Last name
Fonseca, da
Date of Birth
1605
Date of Death
1693
Born in
Castro Daire
Died in
Amsterdam

Isaac Aboab da Fonseca was a rabbi, scholar, kabbalist and writer. In 1656, he was one of several elders within the Portuguese-Israelite community who excommunicated Spinoza. Da Fonseca came with his parents to Amsterdam during the 1610s. As a star pupil in the rabbinate, he became a haham at the age of 21. He worked as a haham in the Dutch Brazilian colony in the 1640s (cf. Emmanuel, 1955, p. 5) and was appointed chief rabbi of the Portuguese-Israelite community of Amsterdam in the second half of the 1650s. He translated the kabbalistic work Shaar hashamayim (‘Gate of Heaven’) and wrote a commentary on the Torah. See: Bodian, 1999, esp. p. 163.

Relationships

Benedictus Spinoza, de

Acquaintance