Rabbi Simone (Simhah) ben Isaac Luzzatto (1583–1663), early member of a noted Italian Jewish family that was to produce many a distinguished figure after him, was born, lived, and died in Venice, where he sat on the rabbinical collegium. He acquired a humanistic as well as rabbinical education, and had the learning of the Renaissance at his finger-tips. A rationalist of the new type, he championed Maimonides against the Cabala, wrote a treatise in Italian on the compatability of faith with science (Socrate, 1651), and is said to have written a Hebrew work, no longer extant, to refute the arguments of the Karaites (Debor Shemuel).
The book of which we print an excerpt below—translated into English for the first time by Felix Giovanelli—is called Discorso circa il Stato degli Ebrei (“Discourse on the Situation of the Hebrews”). It represents one of the first attempts, if not the very first, to frame Jewish apologetics in other than theological dimensions. Luzzatto’s rationalism, in that early day, emboldened him to arguments whose unabashed “materialism” would shock present-day rabbis. He was the first, Jew or Gentile, to take a cool and sober look at the position of the Jews in Europe and draw up a balance sheet of assets and liabilities in social, economic, and political terms.
Concerned to protect the situation of Jews in his own city of Venice, Luzzato points out, in the first chapters of his Discorso, the benefits they bring as traders to the Venetian economy, and the indispensability of trade to civilization. He argues that Jewish affluence is not a threat to the state and the surrounding population because the Jews have no country of their own to which to transfer their wealth. Nor do they aspire to political or social power in the countries where they now reside, being submissive, law-abiding, and without spirit. Yet the only way Luzzatto can explain to himself and others why the King of Spain expelled a people so beneficial to his realm as the Jews is to decide that they must have plotted against him—here Luzzatto’s argument rests on the conclusion that Jews, being of such great benefit to a country, must not be given cause to turn against it. Moreover, no earthly prince, Luzzatto suggests, would be so suspicious as to punish a whole people for the crimes of some of its members.
Because of the expenses incurred in supporting the large families enjoined upon them by their sexual morality, Jews cannot hoard and withdraw their money from circulation, or amass huge fortunes. Nor do they offer any threat to the dominant religion, since their own does not urge them to seek proselytes—and in any case their political weakness causes them to be pusillanimous and deferential to the customs and beliefs of non-Jews.
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All this is, obviously, apologetics; but it is also self-criticism. And Luzzatto goes further in the same vein by pointing out the indifference of most Jews to manners and secular learning caused by narrow preoccupation with their personal affairs, which is dictated in turn by the handicaps under which they are forced to live. On the other hand, Jews are steadfast in their faith, go to extremes in the punctilious observance of their religion, show admirable fortitude under adversity—if not courage in the face of danger—and maintain unwavering solidarity with their co-religionists, despite individual geographical or cultural differences (differences that make it so hard to characterize the Jews as a whole). Moreover, Jews have a remarkable capacity for complex tasks, are largely immune to carnal vices, and keep their blood pure. “Their errors,” says Luzzatto, “tend to be somewhat abject and mean rather than anything savage and grand.”
As Yitzchak Fritz Baer indicates in his Galut (Bücherei des Schocken Verlags, No.61, shortly to be published here in an English translation), Luzzatto’s views were a product of the first wave of Enlightenment, the Renaissance wave; he takes his criteria from the Bible, philosophy, and the humanistic sciences, but not from Rabbinical lore—which is the essential Jewish tradition in the Galut. The second wave of Enlightenment, that of the 18th century (the Enlightenment), finds less of a positivist, “materialist” echo among Jewish apologists, and more of a philosophical and idealist-theological one—compare, only, Moses Mendelssohn with Luzzatto. According to Dr. Baer, the national consciousness with which Luzzatto described the Jews does not appear again until recent times, in the secular Hebrew literature that originated in 19th-century Russia.
This short discussion by no means exhausts the significance of the Discorso. The excerpt that follows is taken from its middle chapters; and a second excerpt, from later chapters— which will appear in COMMENTARY’S next number—will deal with the historical destiny of the Jews.—ED.
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Of the difficulties of a universal definition
of the customs of the Jews, and how
readily susceptible of correction
their delinquencies are.
. . . Our soul is compounded for the most part of divers and dissimilar pieces, each of which upon varying occasions presents its peculiar semblance; whence it arises that to describe the nature and condition of one single man is a thing most arduous and difficult, the more so if we insist upon referring all his acts to one Criterion and Idea.
It is for that reason that so many Authors have treated of the nature of Dogs, Horses, and Falcons; and with great exactitude have espied their customs and conditions; and that so few have treated of Man, and then, only most obliquely. Who among these hath best discoursed on men was Theophrastus, Aristotle’s disciple. Reserving such an undertaking for his last years, viz., when he had become an octogenarian, he, most observant of the Characters of the human spirit, compiled a treatise in the Historical manner, of which only a fragment has come down to us, the rest having been abolished by the outrages of Time.
If it be so hazardous to define the inner uses of a single human being, of what must we not be capable in giving definition to those of a whole People? Especially of the Hebrew Nation, so dispersed over the Orb that it is impossible to affirm anything certain and stable concerning it. Strewn over the Universe, and like unto streams flowing through long tracts of countryside, whose waters are modified by the qualities of the divers terrains through which they must pass, the Jews do likewise acquire various customs from the other Nations in whose midst they dwell. On this account, a great divergence exists between the Venetian and the Constantinopolitan Jew, between the latter and the Damascan Jew or the Jew from Cagliari, and between all these and German or Polish Jews.
If, however, we should still desire to inquire into the usages of this people as a whole (in universale) , it might be said that they are a Nation of very abased spirit, weak, inept in their present state for all Political government, immersed in their private interests, and little concerned, indeed not at all, for their universal interests. Distinguished by a parsimony verging on Avarice, ardent admirers of antiquity, poor observers of the present course of things, many of them uncultivated in their ways, little turned to Doctrines, imperfectly learned in languages, they are given, in the opinion of observers, to a meticulousness bordering on excess when it comes to observing their Law.
To which defects can be counterpoised other qualities meriting some observation, to wit, an inexpressible firmness and tenacity in the belief and observation of their Religion, a uniformity of dogmas concerning their Faith, in the course of the 1550 years that they have been scattered over the planet; admirable constancy, if not in confronting danger, at least in bearing up under calamities; a singular knowledge of Holy Writ and its interpretations; human charity and hospitality toward any member of their People, even though a Stranger and a Foreigner. Uniformity of Religion subsisting amongst them, a Persian and an Italian Jew can pity and commiserate with each other; remoteness in space can occasion no disunion amongst them. Most abstinent in the matter of carnal vices, they are obedient and scrupulous in preserving their racial stock unmixed and undefiled. Many amongst them are skilled in treating all manner of difficult affairs; and they show humbleness and respect toward all whatsoever who stand outside their Religion. Their errors and delinquencies partake in most cases of the humble and even abject rather than of the atrocious and enormous.
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For which reason, if it happen (as often it is wont to happen amongst any Nation) that one of their number commit a crime and transgress the edicts of the Prince, the remedy, the medicament, is always at hand. The vices of the soul are like unto the infirmities of our body, which are divisible into two classes: some, though most grave and pernicious, a simple Doctor, by ordinary purges and evacuations, suffices to overcome and vanquish; but others are of more malign quality, which being contagious and communicable, oblige the very Sovereign to combat them by quarantines and prohibitions, and even to accompany these by the threat of supreme penalties.
Thus, amongst wicked actions are some which, albeit abominable, have for their scope but one’s own pleasure and private profit; and having no point of diffusion and communication, but, rather, being restricted to a few guilty souls, these last do not desire (nor does it accord with their own profit and self-interest) that their wicked acts should prove contagious to others. For which reason, once they are discovered, ordinary Magistrates suffice to correct and to expel such evils, by common chastisements and penalties such as exile, prison, the galleys, mutilation of offending limb, and even death.
Such like enormities have been committed in all times by members of all Nations under the spur of greed or similar abject qualities. But there are certain execrable acts that are contagious by nature, and which, spreading, penetrate 3 People through and through; in fact, it is not possible to put such wickedness into practice save by means of a total conspiracy, such as must involve the felony of a whole People, a change of Religion, the invasion of Cities, rebellion against every civil order and condition. Which excesses are the more frightful and terrible, for that the very tortures and penalties invoked are esteemed as rewards by the guilty, as a glorious recompense for their activity; and rather than flee death with horror, they oft go to it rejoicing, as in the case of those who would vindicate Liberty or change Religion.
In the instance of the Worship of the Golden Calf, though not all had in fact participated in that outrage, no more than in Korah’s rebellion against Moses, yet the Lord did will a universal chastisement, which came to pass by reason of that judgment according to which all have a proclivity and readiness for such excesses. The which never proved necessary for other sins, for God hath ever distinguished amongst the delinquencies and errors of each member of the Nation. In those cases afore mentioned in which the usual remedies administered by subaltern Magistrates are insufficient, the Sovereign is obligated to intervene from the eminence of his own Majesty and supreme authority. bringing about the extermination of evil by a general effusion of blood, or at least by universal banishment.
The wicked acts of the Hebrew Nation were never of so pernicious a nature, either in the City of Venice or elsewhere in the some 1550 years that have elapsed. It is indeed true that in the annals of the Ancient Historians can be read accounts of certain commotions of the Hebrew Nation, which, following upon the time of Trajan, took place in Alexandria and some time later in Cyprus, but this was at a time when the Hebrews were participants in the Government of the City and were fresh from the Captivity enforced by Titus, whence they still retained some traces of their original ferocity. Nor can it be sustained that in our day the King of Spain hath resorted to that rigorous and total expulsion of the exceedingly numerous Granadan people, so rich in Husbandmen and Artisans, because of a theft, murder, or private delinquency committed by some fifteen or twenty of them, the which would not have justified a resolution so injurious to his Kingdoms and so astounding to the world; for assuredly, the inner motives of so severe a decree must have been some secret conspiracy by him discovered which had wormed its way throughout the Granadan Nation, and hence merited slaughter rather than exile; and there can be no doubt whatsoever that to condemn the whole because of the part is against Nature and Divine Precept.
There is no perfection so excellent in this world that does not often carry thereunto annexed and engrafted some Evil that lends itself to iniquitous Abuses. Iron, which is of such exceeding utility and affords a material for divers Tools necessary to human life, oftentimes is a means to murder and carnage. Speech which so ennobles our Kind is oft the cause of misfortune and ruin. But notwithstanding, never was there Legislator so scrupulous that he prohibited the excavation and extraction of iron from Mines or laid human discourse under a ban. And as for the documents of Holy Writ, we find that even though the crimes of the inhabitants of Pentapolis had reached the very Apex of wickedness and enormity, it pleased God that the innocence of five men should ward off the scourges that so numerous a People merited. None the more can a handful of delinquents in a Nation suffice to justify the provocation of public indignation against the whole of it.
Consideration XII
Of the opposition to the Hebrews by three
classes of persons, and its resolution.
The Hebrew Nation is harassed and oppugned by three classes of Persons: Religious Zealots; Politicians and Statesmen; the commonalty and the vulgar. The Zealots claim that it is a contemning of Religion itself to allow within a State those who have not given assent to the Religion commonly professed. Unto whom it is easily answered that they would do well to moderate the Zeal of their pious minds, seeing that the Supreme Head of the Christian Religion in the City of his own Residence hath allowed the Hebrews, for these past 800 years, to remain in that City and enjoy a stable Domicile there; and in a spirit of supreme justice and charity to be governed and upheld in their rights; wherefore it is not thinkable that in matters of Religion anyone should presume to know more than its Head.
The Politicians affirm that a diversity of Religions in a same City is not suitable, because of the scandal and bad example that each may manifest for the other; to say nothing of dissensions, disunity, and hatreds that may spring up amongst the inhabitants of that self-same City.
In the first instance, they may be answered that scandal and bad example cannot arise, by reason of the scant communication betwixt Hebrew and Christian, and of the divergence of their Ritual and of the languages in which their Books are composed. Add to this the prohibitions under which both sides lie, against living in one another’s society; the prohibitions, especially, that mark the observances of the Jews in the tasting of many viands, which are not allowed in conformity to their religious customs; to say nothing of those having to do with carnal intercourse, which apart from the prohibitions of their own law, is likewise regulated by the Sovereign’s edicts, the transgressions of which are most severely punished; and finally, the impotence and the subjection of the Hebrews brings it about that those not of their Religion shun and flee them; and hence it is rare that outsiders are converted to their Beliefs.
As for discord and dissension, it can be answered that Hebrews and Christians are not contraries like Black and White, which, both belonging to the genus of color, will not abide each other, but rather like Sweet and Red, which, being completely apart and non-communicant except under the most general genus of Quality, may subsist side by side in the same object, and are so found. In such a wise are Christians and Hebrews divided and removed from one another; rarely do they vie and dispute for reasons of Religion. This is all the truer, since, in virtue of the conditions of the moment and of his principal institutes, all thought of propagating and spreading his Religion is alien to the Jew, being preoccupied solely to vanquish his necessities and urgencies; and he does not aspire in any manner to better his universal lot, to attempt which would surely be reported to the Magistrates and lead to extreme penalties.
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Another evil is adduced by Politicians against the [Hebrew] Nation, which is the pursuit of usury, a crime not only condemned by Divine Law, but universally forbidden by the civil order as destructive of possessions and subversive of the family, whence the Poet: “Hinc usura vorax avidumque in tempore fenus (by voracious usury and greedy interest to calamity led).” To such an imputation it can be retorted that the usury practiced by the Jews is tolerated by civil laws rather than expressly allowed and conceded (as will be explained in the sequel); but, more than this, it may be affirmed with great probability that most rare are those who sustain themselves upon usury. The domestic expenses of the Jews being very considerable, it is scarcely convincing that they could support themselves by a pursuit that is neither allowed nor conceded by the laws of the Sovereign. Beyond that, it lies not in the power of the Jew at any time to constrain the Christian to the redemption of his goods; and once he hath employed his capital he must needs await the pleasure and convenience of the Christian in redeeming his pledges. And if the Monti di Pietà [state pawnbroking offices under Papal and Episcopal sponsorships at the time] of Padua, Vicenza, and Verona, which have hundreds of thousands of ducats engaged in the service of the needy, could not, at the end of a year, sell their pawns, they would straightway be destitute of Money, with all their Capital embroiled and illiquid. Therefore it is not likely that the Jews, who, compared to the Monti di Pietà, are of mediocre wealth and possessions, could long endure and bear up under circumstances even more disadvantageous.
I venture to hold up for consideration by men wise in the ways of the world that celebrated saying of Tacitus concerning the banishment of Diviners and Astrologists from the City of Rome, “quod in civitate nostra, & vetabitur semper & retenebitur (which will ever be condemned yet still practiced in our City)”; in this light should usury be judged, a sin ever condemned but in every time and place practiced, forasmuch as two major stimuli flowing from our frailty concur to it: the necessity of the borrower, who contributes the usury, and the insatiable greed of the lender, who receives it. If such a transgression should not be committed by the Hebrews, others would not be lacking, perhaps, who, by greater extortions of the needy would carry on that depraved pursuit. In this connection, he who, wishing to stigmatize the [Hebrew] Nation, called it the Hold and Cloaca of every filthy transaction, perhaps signified by this reproachful calumny Necessity and Urgency, the Hold and the Cloaca being very essential to the Ship and the sumptuous Palace. This I do not say by way of defending such practices, but only to demonstrate that such enormities, and others for that matter, are not uniquely the property of the Hebrews as many so presumptuously aver, but rather accidents consequent upon the hardships of life and the prevailing conditions of the times.
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To the vulgar it is easy to suggest, most convincingly, all manner of calumny and slander contrived through hatred of the [Hebrew] Nation. Did the vulgar have any capacity for learning, they could be admonished to read the ancient Doctors and Historians who, like Tacitus amongst the Pagans and Tertullian amongst the Christians, treated of the events befalling the first Christians. They would then observe what false imputations were fastened upon innocent people; and it could be conjectured that the same could now easily befall the Hebrews, did the ill-wishers of that Nation have their way.
The first (Tacitus) relates that pitiless Nero, having put the City of Rome to the torch because moved by the ambition to rebuild it according to a better conception, designed to discharge the hatred conceived by the People against him upon the Innocent Christians of that time; this by accusing them libellously of having committed the misdeed. He condemned them to be set on fire after having been dipped in pitch and sulphur, and to be placed on the Public streets of the destroyed City that they might serve as street lights and lanterns for the Roman People.
The second (Tertullian) bitterly defended his people against the mendacious accusation of infanticide, according to which they used the blood of innocent children in the celebration of their ceremonies. So incredible an imposture, destitute of all probability, was later to give rise amongst the Jews to tragical experiences, especially in the lands to the North of the Alps. Yet the same defence employed by the Eloquent Doctor might still serve our unhappy Nation, especially when it is considered that our Religious usages enjoin us to abstain from tasting of the blood of brute animals; and much less can it be a question of human blood.
To credit public Gossip and vulgar Noises is to venture one’s faith in a reckless Rabble, one’s belief in unreliable witnesses. To defend itself against the outrages of Time and acquire new weight and vigor, Truth itself is wont to avail itself of the trappings of popular report; in the manner of those women, who that they might step forth in greater majesty appear shod with raised soles and heels; and of still others who, to season their speech and give it fragrance, mingle with it such a pleasing aroma as the lie. . . .
It cannot be doubted that the Hebrew Nation is subjected, amongst other calamities, to Libels and Infamies, more so than any other, by reason of the impunity enjoyed by their calumniators. They often mix truth and falsehood, thereby achieving the pernicious invectives that all know, and that demand such careful wit to separate if the real is to be distinguished from the imposture. And if unaffected nature rejects corrupt humors to the weaker parts of our bodies, all the more, it may be supposed, do men, overwrought by passions and perturbed humors, seek to discharge upon the weaker in body and mind their reproaches and slanders. But, moreover, whilst they heap upon the Hebrews the gravest and most intolerable crimes, and affirm them as notorious fact, they not only insult the Hebrews but tacitly censure the diligent foresight of the Sovereign; this, by implying that with their Bats’ eyes they can outvie the Lynx-eyed vision of the Prince, who never neglecting his inquiries, examines and meditates the most hidden and abstruse acts of his subjects. In what manner can it be sustained that they, unto whom it doth not pertain to know the misdeeds of Hebrews, are so well-informed; whilst that civil power which ought to have such knowledge and such information is yet so ill-informed?
Especially because of the press of their [the Hebrews’] quarters and the openness of their private life, it is impossible that wicked acts should not be discovered and observed by neighbors, and hence readily revealed to the Magistracy, under the spur of rewards and the stimulation of hatred and vying emulation, to which passions the Hebrews are subject no less than other Peoples. From these considerations, it follows that the calumniators would do well to relinquish their curiosity, deeding it over to the sober and established powers of public government, and to take for an indubitable maxim that what is not observed and castigated by the Sovereign in the wake of such clamorous accusations must needs be a vain fiction and brazen falsehood.
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I Esteem the most improbable of all libels to be that one which affirms that the Jews of Venice keep the Pirates of Barbary informed of the sailings of Vessels from the City, thereby sharing in their booty. The which can be shown on various grounds to be an idle invention. For what commerce, what confidence, can the Jews enjoy amongst the Corsairs, if mighty Princes and Monarchs have never been able to conclude any pact or convention with them? Or if, concluding which, they were not a long time in being undeceived? In what manner can advices come into the hands of these Pirates, if there be no route of passage regularly plied betwixt Venetia and Barbary?
The Nests of the Corsairs are Four, viz., Tripoli, Tunis, Bizerta, and Algiers. With Tripoli there can be no communication whatsoever, if it not be by way of Zante and Morea [Greece], or Malta, which would require thirty days or so of sailing. It would be necessary to have these advices reach the two places mentioned by sea way, or have them sent to Malta overland, and thence carried to Tripoli. How dubious the maritime route is, everyone well knows. It would be necessary to fit out speedy Vessels and then sail back in time to meet the mercantile Vessels, all the while knowing where they might be encountered. To send advices to Tunis, either Leghorn or Malta must first be reached, and thence Tunis has to be reached by sea way; in which case, the same difficulties attendant upon the Tripoli route would be encountered. Bizerta fits galleys out only, and embarks upon one single expedition each year in the Summer season. Even so, its depredations are customarily confined to the Lands. They can seize Vessels only by accidental Incursions, for they are in no fit position to lurk on the open sea, in view of the awkwardness of having such numbers of sailors to man their oars and because their light Galleys are not made to withstand the fury of the Sea. As for Algiers, in addition to the disadvantages just set forth in the cases of Tunis and Tripoli, there is its great distance from the Levant; wherefore they most seldom venture in our Seas and limit their activities to the Straits [Gibraltar], or, at most, venture out to the edge of the Western Ocean.
I do not know, either, why the Corsairs should be disposed to share their booty with the Jews, considering that of themselves they are able to keep informed of the movements of Vessels and their sailing times from Venice. Who is that Mariner so Inexperienced who cannot discover for himself that the Northwest Wind wont to blow in the Summer carries Italian Vessels to Southern parts and the Levant? And how many must they [the pirates] not have in the way of Christian slaves and Renegades, practical Pilots, experienced Steersmen, who can give any information they wish concerning Venetian navigation and lead them at will to any site or Port whatsoever—and all this with no necessity of rewarding the Jews with a share of their profits or earnings? Again, when it is considered that many Vessels are in some measure laden with the goods of Jews, it becomes incredible to suppose that Jews should deliver into the hands of Barbarous and Unbelieving Pirates the possessions of relatives and friends in order later to retrieve them, meanwhile running so manifest a danger and risking so certain a loss. Rather would Jews themselves turn informers to avert such damage at their own expense.
Nor is it more convincing to affirm that the Jews are persuaded to commit such crimes because spurred by the hope of trafficking in a cheap market of mercantile booty. For it is a notorious fact that in the places already cited there is often a numerous concourse of Frenchmen, Englishmen, and Flemings, as well as their Consuls-Resident and accredited representatives, who putting in regularly with their Vessels laden with provisions and wares (and I say nothing of Italians, Genovese, and Livornese) are ready for any transaction. For which reason, when booty arrives, the Hebrews may hope least of all those present to chance upon an opportunity for a good investment, being less numerous and less wealthy.
From the improbability of this imputation the Prudent Reader will be enabled to argue the flimsiness of many another directed at that unhappy Nation and fastened upon it.
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