Obj. ID: 35579
Jewish printed books  Nishmat Chaim by Menasseh ben Yosef ben Yisrael, 1604 - 1657, Amsterdam, 1652

This text was prepared by William Gross:

First edition of Menasseh Ben Israel’s magnum opus on the properties and immortality of the soul. It is one of the few, exceedingly rare copies that retains in its original context the author portrait by Salom d’Italia. The book was printed by his son Samuel Abarbanel Soeiro.
Having been written in Hebrew for a Jewish readership, and intimately connected to the tragic death of his eldest son, Joseph (at the age of twenty from a sudden illness), Nishmat Hayyim is considered more closely reflective of Menasseh’s own thinking than much of his other works. On the one hand it may be seen as his magnum opus; on the other hand, it has been described by later scholars as “crassly superstitious” (Roth), and as useful “mainly as a highly reliable source of folk-theological information, rather than as a body of considered judgement” (Asa Kasher).
The four ma’amarim of Nishmat Hayyim deal with the pure godly soul, questions concerning the soul from the time of its birth to its departure from the body and after death, spirits and demons and the truth of their existence through Kabbalah, proofs through the intellect concerning the cycles of the soul (gilgul nishamot), etc. This copy contains an afterword and poem in praise of the author and his book by Jacob Sasportas, Benjamin Mussafia and Samuel ben Avraham Jessurun de Mercado.
Title page with architectural gateway supported by columns entwined with vines.
Menasseh ben Israel was the author of many works. His major work Nishmat Hayim is a treatise in Hebrew on the Jewish concept of reincarnation of souls, published by his son Samuel six years before they both died.[8] Some scholars think that he studied kabbalah with Abraham Cohen de Herrera, a disciple of Israel Saruk. This would explain his familiarity with the method of Isaac Luria.
Facing the title page is the famous engraved portrait of Menasseh Ben Israel by Salom d’Italia. This is one of the few, exceedingly rare copies of the book that preserves this portrait in its original context.
Menasseh ben Israel was one of the great figures of Sephardic Jewry, not only for his printing activities, but also for his erudite knowledge, his writings and his role as spokesman for his people. His father had thrice escaped death in Lisbon, Portugal, and resettled in Amsterdam to start life anew. Menasseh was given the best possible education in the Sephardic tradition. He studied under Chacham Isaac Uziel in the newly established Yeshiva in Amsterdam and excelled in his Talmudic studies and in his thorough knowledge of the Bible. At the astonishingly young age of 18 years he was appointed to the Rabbinical Council of Amsterdam, consisting of four members. A gifted orator and well versed in secular knowledge and culture, Menasseh was soon the most popular preacher in the new world center of Sephardic Jewry.
His fame as a scholar and as an expert on all matters of learning and science spread far beyond Holland. Some of the greatest scholars of the world sought his friendship and advice. The Queen of Sweden, Christina (the daughter of Gustaf Adolf), the painter Rembrandt, and the statesman and philosopher Hugo Grotius, were among his non-Jewish correspondents and friends. Yet, with all his secular knowledge and fame, Menasseh ben Israel devoted most of his time and interest to Jewish studies and to the defense of the Bible against many critics.
Poverty caused Menasseh ben Israel to turn his attention at least temporarily to practical business. He established the first Hebrew printing press in Holland, and was the father of the great printing and publishing tradition of Amsterdam, from which stemmed some of the best editions of the Tanach, the Talmud, and many other important volumes of Hebrew literature. In time, it became a flourishing business.
Menasseh earned his greatest merits as a spokesman for his Jewish brethren. He used his friendship with Queen Christina to induce her to consider the opening of Scandinavia as a haven of refuge for the thousands of Jewish refugees who were still wandering from one country to another, driven from place to place, deprived of their last possessions by greedy rulers and their still greedier subjects. He almost succeeded, when Christina abdicated from the throne. Yet Menasseh ben Israel did not abandon his hopes for providing new havens for his brethren. His attention now centered on England. In 1650 Menasseh sent a petition to the English Parliament to officially grant the readmission of Jews. He dedicated to it his manuscript called "The Hope of Israel." Menasseh expressed the wish to be permitted to visit England and defend in person the cause of the Jews. This permission was granted to him; but the outbreak of hostilities between England and Holland postponed his trip to Britain for more than five years.
In October 1655, Menasseh ben Israel landed in London. After his arrival he presented to Oliver Cromwell, then the strong man of England, a memorandum in which he refuted the prejudices against the Jews and pointed out the advantages that England could derive from granting them permission to resettle in England and live according to the commands of their religion. Cromwell sponsored this petition warmly, but the British clergy and the wealthy merchants, who were afraid of competition, did everything in their power to prevent its realization. In order to clear his brethren from the flood of false accusations brought up by their enemies, Menasseh ben Israel wrote his famous "Salvation of the Jews," in which he praised the faith and courage of the Jewish people throughout their history.
Menasseh ben Israel succeeded eventually. Cromwell granted many individual Jews the right to settle in London. Menasseh himself was honored by the British Protector and sent off with a farewell present of an annual stipend of 100 Sterling pounds. However, on the way back to Amsterdam, this great defender of the Jewish faith and the Jewish people died. He was laid to rest at the Jewish cemetery in Amsterdam.
Menasseh's press was taken over, still during his lifetime, by his son Samuel b. Israel Soeiro, after the sudden death of his son Joseph who had been operating the press. There was a period of inactivity when Samuel went to England to prepare for his father's trip there (see above). The last publication from the Ben Israel press was Menasseh's "Humble Address" to Cromwell. Samuel died in England in 1656, one year prior to Menasseh.