David Nieto, the spiritual leader of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community in London from 1701 to his death in 1728, was born 300 years ago in Venice, on January 18, 1654. He was one of the most accomplished scholars of his time, both in Jewish and in secular learning, and was alive to all the momentous changes taking place in philosophy, theology, and science in this period when the modern age was making its entry onto the stage of the Western world. Nieto endeavored to defend the Jewish tradition against the modernist tendencies and criticisms then beginning to be expressed. Writing in Hebrew, Spanish, and Italian, he repelled the attacks leveled against Rabbinic Judaism by Christianity, Spinozism, Deism, Sabbatianism, and by those ex-Marranos, ignorant of the Rabbinic stage in Jewish religious evolution, for whom Judaism was the Bible only. His major works are: De La Divina Providencia (1704); Matteh Dan (1714); and Esh Dath (1715).
The following excerpts, translated by myself from the original Hebrew, are the first appearance in English of any of Nieto’s writings.
—Jakob J. Petuchowski.
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The Argument from Design
Look at the soul of man, and regard its workings, and you will see great and wonderful things. Take the most stupid of fools, and marvel at the fact that this man, whom we call a fool, is able to speak the language of his people. He carries in his memory the name of everything he knows, so that when he is speaking to his fellow he does not have to look for the word he needs. Instead, he speaks his speech trippingly on the tongue, just as the thoughts occur to him, for an hour or two without interruption.
Moreover, this fool knows a number of men, women, and children, and, if he wants to think of them, they stand up bodily before him in his imagination. He also knows all the streets of the city, and its pathways, several houses, and the number of rooms in every house, and the number of objects there are in every room. All this is fixed in his memory. And this is the story of the fool!
It is as nothing when compared with the sage who knows several languages, and several sciences, and events Which he has read or seen or heard about. He deals with the highest regions, and studies theology according to his capacity. From there he descends to the angels and the souls, and he remembers about them what he has learned. And from there he proceeds to the spheres and all their hosts, and he reflects upon the essence and the quality of the sun, and the moon, and the stars. He studies the composition of the air, the thunders, lightnings, and winds, the dew, the rain, the hail, and the snow. And in the sea he ponders the work of the Lord. And from there—to the earth and everything that is in it. . . .
All these things, and many like unto them, are engraved upon the mind of the sage. And all of them appear before him, at the wink of an eye, as if they could be surveyed in one glance. If he has gone to the end of the earth, and has seen there great and beautiful cities, he can see them again, if he so desires, standing before him in their place and in their colors.
Yet all this is contained in the circumference of the tiny human head; and we do not even know the location of these perceptions and forms, let alone those things which do not depend upon sense perception.
Behold, God hath wrought all these to show His creatures the glory of His greatness, and of His wisdom, and of His omnipotence. All of them bear the seal of the Infinite. (Esh Dath, II, 220.)
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On Miracles
A skilled architect once built a great and beautiful city, with market-places and streets. He erected stately residences for the aristocracy and a royal palace which, for structure and beauty, had no equal. All who saw it said that there was not a skilled architect like unto him. One day the king said to the architect: “I would like you to tear down a room in my palace, because, on a certain day, I want to give a banquet, and I do not want this room to be in the way of my guests. And, after the banquet, rebuild the room as it was at first.”
The architect did as he was commanded. When the room was reconstructed, the young men marveled at the skill of the architect. But the elders, who knew that the architect had built the whole city, and the houses, and the terraces, said to the young men: “How can you marvel at the fact that he demolished and then reconstructed a single room? Surely, this is nothing for him, seeing that he had originally built the whole city!”
Similarly, which testimony to the greatness of God is more eloquent: that He created the whole world out of nothing; or that He divided the Red Sea and, after He had made Israel to pass through it, returned it to its former state? Surely the greatness of God is manifest much more in Creation than in all the miracles and wonders!
And the proof for this is that we only have three festivals in the year which commemorate the Exodus from Egypt, but fifty Sabbath days, with greater holiness than festivals or the Day of Atonement, to commemorate the work of the Creation. (Esh Dath II, 190-194.)
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The Effect of Sin and the Goodness of God
Imagine a great pool full of sweet and pure water which never ceases. From it several channels conduct the water for the irrigation of surrounding fields.
One day the water stopped coming to some of the fields. The farmers thereupon complained to the owner of the pool, saying that he had stopped the water for their fields in order to harm them, and to let them die of starvation and thirst. But the owner of the pool answered and said: “I am supplying water for all the fields, as usual. If there is no water for your fields, this can only be due to the state of disrepair in which you have left the channels and the conduits. Your complaints are therefore not against me but against your own laziness which has caused this damage. Go, then, and clear the way of the water, and remove the stones from it, and the water will return to you as at first. Understand, moreover, that I am not holding back for my own use the water which is meant for you. But, as is its nature, it continues to flow through such openings as it can find.”
Similarly, the Holy One, blessed be He, causes His abundance to flow regularly, as it is written (Ps. 136:25): “He giveth food to all flesh.” And whoever is worthy to receive, receives. But if there is in men’s hands evil and sin, which arrest the flow and stop it, then the flow of God’s abundance is diverted to the right or to the left so that the sinner will be like a juniper in the wilderness and will not see when good cometh.
This is the meaning of Isaiah’s saying (Isa. 59:1, 2): “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. . . . But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.” (Esh Dath II, 204.)
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An Apologia for Rabbinic Lore
I am amazed that there are people who think like this about the faithful and holy Sages of Israel. [Nieto is referring to the charge that the words of the Sages are full of stupidities and puerile expressions.]
I shall ask them why they go to such troubles in interpreting the Greek and Roman poets, those idolators who neither knew the Lord nor served Him. For the bulk of their poetry is exclusively concerned with the loves and harlotries of their gods. And if, perchance, there be in them a little philosophy and rhetoric, that little advantage is made void by the great disadvantage.
And as for the words of the Tannaim and Amoraim, not only do they not explain them, but they speak of them disparagingly, in haughtiness and in contempt.
Behold, it is not proper for them to do so. For even the corpse of a king is honored, and people prostrate themselves before it as if it were still animated with life. And there he lies, ensconced in gold and in silver—though not a single breath is within him!
Let us grant then, for argument’s sake, that the Israel of today is but the corpse of ancient Israel. Why, then, do they not show him at least as much respect as they show the corpse of a king? Nay, more than this! For our bones have not yet dried, and our hope is not lost. Even though we have been poured from vessel to vessel, and even though we have been thrust out again and again, behold, we are bearing the yoke of Exile with great patience, because we can see with our own eyes that God has not forsaken us in our slavery.
How much more so was this the case in the days of the Tannaim and Amoraim, when the strength of our nation was not yet completely cut off; for then there was still the sap of an existing Sanhedrin, and the Lord had not yet hidden His face from us!
And even now, while we are suffering the most complete humiliation and dispersion, we can see the face of the Lord looking through the windows of heaven to watch over us in His great goodness and loving-kindness. For, with all the troubles that have come upon us, there was fulfilled in us [the words of Jeremiah, 46:28]: “But I will not make a full end of thee; and I will correct thee in measure.”
And this is our certain hope: that the Lord has pleasure in us, to sanctify His great Name through us, even as He promised us through His servants, the Prophets.
The fact is furthermore not concealed from their eyes that all the sages of antiquity—be they Jews or Gentiles—used to write their books in proverbs and in riddles. Pythagoras, for example, wrote in his books: “Do not eat beans!” and “Do not put a golden ring upon your finger!” and many things of this order. But his commentators say that these are merely riddles which contain the secrets of the highest moral virtues. Similar things they wrote about Aesop. Why, then, do they not take this sort of thing to heart?
And when it comes to religious laws, they can surely see that there is no intelligence like that of our Sages, no incisiveness like their incisiveness, and no understanding like their understanding! (Matteh Dan IV, 304.)
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Jakob J. Petuchowski, who was born in Berlin in 1926, was ordained here at Hebrew Union College, and for the past five years has been rabbi at Temple Emanuel, Welch, West Virginia. The translations that appear above are taken from his doctor’s dissertation, submitted to the faculty of Hebrew Union College, on “The Theology of Haham David Nieto.”
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