The Enchanting Life of Rabbi
Abraham Zacuto
and
His Book of Lineage
The author of the Book of Lineage,
Rabbi Abraham Ben Samuel Ben Abraham Zacuto III (1452 – 1515),
could be the main character of a major film or of a great book;
his life was full of adventures and accomplishments. His life is
surrounded by legend as befits a Judaeo-Iberian sage, and it is
quite difficult for us to separate the hard facts from the
embellishments. A Renaissance man and a contemporary of Leonardo
da Vinci (they were born in the same year), Abraham Zacuto was a
scientist and historian, astronomer and astrologer, Talmudic
scholar and man of the world. Zacuto was present at the birth
of modernity: he advised Columbus before he sailed West,
equipped with Zacuto’s astrolabe -- and he advised Vasco da Gama
before he sailed East, equipped with Zacuto’s charts. Thus
Zacuto stood at the gate of the great breakthrough of European
civilisation: discovery of America, of the Cape of Good Hope, of
the seaway to India.
He was born and brought up in Salamanca, in
Castile though the Portuguese dispute it and claim he and his
family are from Evora in Portugal. However, he was usually
referred to as the Sage of Salamanca, a city of the great
University that kept its place of honour next to Oxford and
Sorbonne. In 1473, at age of 20, the young Zacuto began his work
on his famed solar declination tables, called Ha-Hibur
ha-Gadol or Almanach perpetuum coelestium motium
(Perpetual Almanac of the Heavenly Bodies), essential for the
calculation of geographical coordinates. The tables were
completed in 1478 under the patronage of the bishop of
Salamanca, Gonzalo de Vivero, who admired Zacuto's extensive
knowledge of astronomy and history. In 1481, the original Hebrew
text was translated into Spanish by Juan de Salaya, a professor
of astrology and logic at the University of Salamanca.
Translations into Arabic and Latin followed, and the first
printed edition appeared in 1496 in Leiria, Portugal, prepared
by Zacuto’s disciple, Jose Vicinho, a Portuguese astronomer of
Jewish origin. The tables became a popular and necessary tool
for navigation, accompanied by a technical invention of Abraham
Zacuto, his copper astrolabe – until his time, this ancient
instrument was made of wood and did not allow for desired
precision.
Zacuto wrote about his deserved success:
“When I was in the Kingdom of Spain and also in other Christian
kingdoms, my books on astronomy appeared which were titled 'by
Rabbi Abraham Zacuto of Salamanca’. And I am permitted to glory
in this, as the Sages have said, ‘What wisdom is it that has
made the [Jewish] scholars important in the eyes of the nations?
It is the calculation of times and signs.’ And I bear witness to
Heaven that they praised Israel very much for this.”
When Christopher Columbus arrived in Spain,
he met with the great astronomer and received a copy of the
tables. This manuscript with the marginalia of Columbus is
extant in the Colombian library in Portugal. It is often said
that Zacuto was also instrumental in raising a big loan for
Columbus with the tycoons Abraham Senior, Gabriel Sanchez and
Luis de Santangel. A prominent man of Jewish origin, Senior
embraced Christianity, while Santangel and Sanchez were born
into a recently baptised family. Zacuto also introduced Columbus
to Don Isaac Abravanel, a Jewish notable with great influence at
the Court, and he arranged for the navigator’s audience with the
King and the Queen. Soon Columbus set sail to America, bearing
the Zacuto tables with him. The family tradition insists that a
young Zacuto, a son of R. Abraham, sailed with him, and
accompanied him in all his journeys. If so, this young man was
the first Jew on the American soil. It is possible that he
advised the Genoese navigator to use his father’s tables in the
moment of need. During Columbus’ last voyage to America (1504),
his small fleet was marooned on Jamaica, where the natives did
not want to supply him and his sailors with food. The Zacuto's
tables provided him with a way out as they indicated there would
soon (on February 29, 1504) be a lunar eclipse. Columbus
assembled the Caciques (as the native chiefs were called) and
threatened them that he will banish the moonlight. The eclipse
frightened the natives and they asked Columbus to save the moon.
Columbus acquiesced, the eclipse passed and since then the
Caciques respected him and provided with all he needed, says the
legend.
Meanwhile R. Abraham Zacuto became a
professor of astronomy, first in Salamanca and later at
Saragossa University. But the dramatic events of 1492 changed
everything. After their conquest of the last Moorish kingdom of
Granada, the Royal rulers of recently united Spain decided to
convert their Jewish subjects, to finish off in one stroke the
hundred years drive for Christianisation of Spanish Jews. With
the Moors subdued, there was no need for cultural plurality. The
conversion, in the view of Ferdinand and Isabella, would unify
the people of Spain under one crown and one church. (They
repeated it a few years later with the Spanish Muslims, leaving
them with no choice at all). But the plan misfired: thousands of
Jews left the country instead of agreeing to the most
advantageous proposals of the Crown. The Queen and the King did
not expect it, but thus their Edict of Conversion became the
Edict of Expulsion. Eventually some forty thousand Jews and many
Conversos left Spain, mainly for Portugal. Amongst them was the
great astronomer Abraham Zacuto who decided to accompany his
master, the great sage and mystic Isaac Aboab.
In Portugal, Zacuto’s fortunes even improved.
His advice was sought and his abilities as astrologer were also
employed. He became the Royal Astronomer at the court of King
Joao II and advised Vasco da Gama before his voyage to India in
1497. The Portuguese astronomer and cartographer Jose Visinho
considered himself his disciple, translated and published his
book and helped him to find a proper place in Portugal.
There are many stories of Zacuto’s success in
Portugal. It is written in the book of Neshmat Haim: once
the King Joao II came to try R. Abraham Zacuto's wisdom. He said
he intended to travel to Iborra and demanded to know from the
stars through which gate he would enter Iborra. R. Abraham
replied, “Whatever I'll say, you will enter by other gate’. The
King said, “No, put your divination in writing and seal it with
your own seal”. He brought a clean sheet of paper and wrote,
“The King will open a new gate and enter through it”. And so it
was - the king wanted to prove his fortune telling is false, and
broke a new gate into the city and entered through it. As he
entered, he opened the R. Abraham Zacuto’s letter and read it
out loud, and it was a miracle in his eyes. Another time the
King invited R. Abraham Zacuto to his room and enquired about
the distance between earth and heaven. He gave the answer: In a
year's time the king raised the roof of the room by one and a
half cubit and asked R. Abraham: tell me, Astronomer, what the
distance between the earth and heaven is, as I forgot what you
said. The wise man replied, “Since then, the earth was raised or
heaven descended”.
Abraham Zacuto spent much time in the
Templar-built castle of Tomar, a centre of mystical studies in
Portugal. There he established a synagogue which exists till
this very day and is known as ‘Zacuto Synagogue’.
But the stars did not bode him well: despite
his contribution to the successes of Portugal, Zacuto lost royal
favour. The last king of Portugal wrote in 1920s of ‘great and
burning ingratitude’ of his royal ancestors to the astronomer.
The new king of Portugal, Manuel who came instead of King Joao,
succumbed to the same idea of forced conversion of his Jews. He
did not want to lose these active and useful people, but he felt
that their faith interferes with their full integration in his
country. Many Jews left for Holland, Turkey and North Africa,
but apparently the majority could not leave. The bulk of Zacuto
family remained entrenched in Portugal. They were baptised and
took names of Rodriguez and Nunez, but when some of their
descendents left the Peninsula in 16th and 17th
cc, they came back into the Jewish faith and into their old
family name. Thus Abraham Zacuto Lusitano (or Lusitanus) was
born in Lisbon in 1575, studied medicine in the Universities of
Coimbra and Salamanca, moved to Amsterdam in 1625 and became a
famous doctor and Rabbi before dying on New Year's Day 1642.
Another Zacuto, Moses or Enrique Nunez, moved to Holland in the
17th century, and his sons settled in Venice, Hamburg
and Poland. His grandson Moses Zacuto became a renowned poet and
mystic, known under the acronym REMEZ. He lived in Poland,
Amsterdam and Venice before settling in Mantua where he died in
1697. He studied philosophy under Spinoza and Jewish mysticism
under disciples of Vital, edited the Book of Zohar and
maintained the Portuguese connection as well. Other members of
the noble Zacuto family traded and wrote books elsewhere, from
Ukraine to Portugal. But let us return to our Rabbi Abraham
Zacuto.
Together with his son Samuel Zacuto left for
Tunis, and reached this safe haven after many misfortunes, being
captured twice by pirates. He pushed a heavy oar on a galley,
says the legend, until his captors discovered the extent of his
knowledge. Eventually he was duly redeemed by the Jewish
community. In Tunis, his son Samuel married into a prominent
local Jewish family, and Abraham Zacuto regained some of his
peace of mind. His knowledge of Jewish history, astronomy and
astrology were combined in his attempts to calculate the End of
Days and Coming of the Messiah. His views remained within
accepted limits, as he wrote: “Good deeds and repentance save
from grief, and Salvation will come sooner if Israel will
deserve it”. In his calculations, Zacuto predicted the end of
the world and coming of the Saviour in 1514. This belief caused
him to leave safe Tunis and wander the roads on the Empire – he
went to Constantinople, to Damascus and eventually to Jerusalem
in 1513; he lived in a theological college (Yeshiva) on Mt Zion,
and died in 1514. Thus his world ended and his soul embraced the
Messiah, as he predicted for 1514. His prophecy came true, at
least for him personally.
But before that, in Tunis he completed his
lifelong work, the historical Book of Lineage, a history of the
world from Creation to 1500 from the Jewish perspective. The
central theme of the book is the great effort of Jewish sages
crowned with the Talmud. R. Zacuto was a great expert of the
Talmud, the compendium of Jewish tradition which he learned from
R. Isaac Aboab and inherited from his ancestors who came to
Spain from Provence, France in 1305. Perfect scholars, they
studied the Torah under R. Asher ‘Rosh’, under his son R. Judah,
the Saint of Toledo, and under Rabbi Isaac Ben Shesheth. On his
mother’s side, there were many renowned scholars, too, among
them R. Samuel Valenci. His devotion to the Talmud was so great
that he considered his scientific work as subservient to his
Talmudic studies. In The Book of Lineage he attempts to
integrate his knowledge of history and geography with Jewish
tradition. Zacuto tries to synchronize Jewish and world events.
He places Hippocrates, Euclid, and Plato in the time of Mordecai
and Esther, and he synchronizes the time of Priam, King of Troy,
with the Jewish judges. Even more important, Zacuto founded
modern Jewish studies of Talmud as taught today in Jewish
theological colleges and universities. In words of his publisher
Abraham Freimann he invested huge effort and succeeded in laying
a sound foundation for the structure of Talmudic history. In a
sense, this book is a wonderful gateway to the strange world of
the Talmud, so thoroughly forgotten by mankind, and still so
beguiling.
He was a true Renaissance man, open to facts
and new ideas as well as attached to tradition. He included in
his Book of Lineage some controversial (for his time) ideas and
facts. He accepted the great Jewish Gnostic Elisha as an
important sage, saying: remember his wisdom and forget his
faults. He published the story of the Zohar, how this great book
of Jewish mysticism was found in Spain. For this reason, his
book was banned for ten years by the Rabbinic authorities and
remained out of print for a hundred years, being spread in
carefully observed manuscripts. In the 19th century
Zacuto was rejected by Heinrich Graetz, an “enlightened” Jewish
historian who loathed Orthodoxy and Rabbinic Judaism. His hatred
of Zacuto spilled over onto his first publisher, the learned Dr
Shullam: Graetz accused him of wasting the money of a wealthy
Jewish widow on such an unworthy project as publication of the
Book of Lineage. With his usual venom, this secular modern Jew,
Graetz, wrote of R. Zacuto: '(A) man of limited understanding,
unable to rise above the superstition of his day,… he failed to
give a complete sketch of the sufferings of the Spanish and
Portuguese Jews.’ His own idea of ‘complete sketch’ was much
whining and many colourful epithets like cruel, bloodthirsty,
innocent, etc. The cool style of Zacuto and his allegiance to
the faith of Israel were equally foreign to him and to subsequent
secular Jewish historians.
Nowadays, we are ready to accept history for
what it was, without attempting to re-write it. Here we find a
great friend and councillor in the towering figure of this sage
spanning the gap between the Middle Ages and Modernity.
The Book

Editor’s Preface
This project was realised, despite immense
difficulties, thanks to guidance and inspiration provided by Dr
Vladimir Rozenblit whose interest in the Jewish history and
tradition moved us forward. His hands-on involvement brought
this work to conclusion after some five years of efforts by many
scholars, sages and translators; though the final responsibility
for the text in front of you lays with the editor and
translator, Israel Shamir.
The Book of Lineage
was a life-long work of R. Abraham Zacuto, commenced in 1480s in
Salamanca and completed probably in 1504 or 1505, half a
millennium ago, in Tunis. Its first printed edition came out
half a century later in Constantinople, published by the great
scholar Dr Samuel Shullam, who added his own pertinent and
amusing remarks always beginning with ‘Samuel Shullam said’.
They appear in our translation in square brackets. In the
copyright-free world of 16th century some parts of
the text were removed and replaced with a potpourri of other
historical chronicles, namely, the Antiquities of
Josephus, Josippon, Seder Olam etc; but numerous MSS of the Book
of Lineage found their way to the Hebrew reader; they contained
the parts removed by the first and subsequent publishers. The
Medieval Hebrew/Aramaic text of the Book of Lineage we
used was established by Herschel Filippowski (Edinburgh 1857) by
skilfully combining the MSS and the printed versions. He also
added his interesting notes; they appear marked with his acronym
ZHF. Though Filippowski planned to produce a companion volume of
sources to the book, it was never published. Still his copy
based on the Oxford MS remained the best scientific text of the
book and it was republished with extensive notes by Abraham Haim
Freimann (Frankfurt am Main 1924). Freimann added The Chronicles
of the Kings of Israel and the Kings of the Nations, previously
published by Abraham A. Neubauer, subtitled ‘Part Six of the
Book of Lineage’, though the division into six parts was done by
Filippowski (as he says in his Introduction) and was discarded
in this edition. The polylogue feeling was reinforced by
introduction of marginalia by R. Jacob Emden, an important
German Talmudist (1697 – 1776). His notes are partly retained
here, in square brackets, marked ‘Yavetz’ (Jacob b. Zvi). There
are notes by scholars Dov Goldberg, Thomas Glick and others. We
used the text republished with many sources revealed in 2004 by
Yarid Sefarim of 6, Mea Shearim, Jerusalem. This was also
prepared with the grant of Zacuto Foundation.
R. Abraham Zacuto lived in the world that was
not obsessed with uniformity and homogeneity. He did not
hesitate to spell a word or name in a few different ways on one
page. That was the rule in his times: no fixed spelling emerged
until advent of printing. Manuscripts did not allow for
absolutely precise copy; they always varied. Besides, the names
of the Jewish sages are often quite similar: e.g. Rab, Rabbi,
Raba and Rabah, or Zera, Zeira, Zeiri etc. As a guidance, we
used the great translation of Talmud by Soncino, but Soncino
also escapes uniformity and a Hebrew name may have a few English
equivalents. These are the rules of this translation:
A reference to the Talmud by default is to
the Babylonian Talmud (Bavli), while a reference to the
Palestinian Talmud (Yerushalmi) is marked PT. Almost
always the majority reading of Soncino is preferred. Thus a
reader armed with Soncino (available and searchable online, on a
CD and in hard copy) should be able to find the relevant text.
H corresponds to Heh, while A corresponds to
Alef. Thus Raba רבא
ends with Alef, while Rabah
רבהends with Heh.
זירא is
Zera, while זעירא
is Zeira. Wherever feasible, H is employed for both Heh and
Heth, following the usual Scripture spelling. Taw is usually
represented by TH. We tried to avoid using apostrophes and
special signs for Ayin and Alef. The names that appear in the
Bible pertain the spelling of King James Bible.
As for titles, we use R. for Rabbi and Rab.
These titles are given in full whenever it is necessary to
distinguish a Babylonian Rab from a Palestinian Rabbi. Following
Buber, we used Master and Disciple for the most important
interrelation of the sages rather than ‘teacher-student’.
There are very few abbreviations excluding
the usual abbreviations of the books of the Bible, and the
honorific titles: for the dead, that is ‘obm’ – ‘of blessed
memory’ or similar; and ‘pbuh’ – ‘peace be upon him’. Only
two-word-long titles of the tractates of Talmud are abbreviated,
thus AZ is Avodah Zarah; MK is Mo’ed Katan; BK is Baba Kama; BM
is Baba Metzia, BB is Baba Bathra; RH is Rosh Hashana.
The Soncino translation of Talmud was used
for the relevant quotes, unless they had to be modernised, and
for spelling of Hebrew names. For non-Jewish names, the spelling
of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was preferred wherever
available.
There are very few transliterated (not
translated) words in the text, as we tried to make this book
accessible to an English reader. The usual terms of Jewish
faith, e.g. Torah, Halizah, Trefa etc. can be found in Soncino
Talmud Glossary, also available online.
Quote marks are used sparingly, for they were
not employed in our sources. Instead of attempting uniformity
and abundant but misleading lucidity (this would lead us to
employing up to five kinds of quote marks) we tried to achieve a
user-friendly translation blurring somewhat vague distinction
between a direct and indirect quotation.
The titles of Talmud and Mishna Tractates are
transliterated and italicised, thus Shabbath is the
Tractate, while the day is called Sabbath, as usual. The names
of Hebrew books are usually transliterated, unless well known in
their translated name, e.g. Introduction to Mishna by Rambam,
but Menorath ha-Maor by R. Aboab.
Round brackets ( ) are employed to facilitate
reading, and the words in these brackets are an integral part of
the text. Square brackets [ ] are employed to show logically or
grammatically needed words; or those present in the source (the
Bible, the Talmud, the Book of Tradition and other sources); or
available in other MSS and earlier printed editions, as well as
marginalia of R. Jacob Emden, notes of Herschel Filippowski,
Abraham Freimann and Samuel Shullam. The dates in the square
brackets are supplied by us as a guidance only; a year by
default refers to the current Gregorian calendar. AD and BC are
omitted when obvious. AM is Anno Mundi, i.e. year since the
Creation; usually it refers to the Jewish calendar, but in the
Chronicles this is often a reference to the older Christian
calendars based on calculations of St Augustine and Isidore of
Seville. While the world was created, according to the Jews, on
Oct. 7, 3761 BC, the Christians moved it back to 5199.
Our main problem was embedded in the frame of
reference. Rabbi Zacuto knew his Talmud by heart, and he wrote
for equally endowed sages. A word or two would suffice for such
a reader to remember an amusing or exciting episode. He had no
need to tell the stories, as they were known to his readership.
We wished to create a book for a lay reader; thus we had to
narrate some of episodes. Usually these stories are relegated to
the notes on the margins. Some of them were so delightful that
it was difficult to stop. But otherwise this book would grow
well over thousand pages. But hopefully our reader will feel
encouraged by this presentation of the wisdom and wit of the
Jewish sages, and will delve into the sea of Talmud. This was
the greatest wish of Rabbi Abraham Zacuto.
INTRODUCTION
TO THE COMPLETE BOOK OF
YOHASSIN
By
Abraham Haim Freimann
1.
LIFE OF RABBI ABRAHAM ZACUTO
The family of the
author of The Book of Yohassin is known under names of
Zacut or Zacuto, Zakuto, Zakudo in various spellings. At first,
Zacut family resided in France. When in 5066/1305 the Jews were
expelled from France, they moved their tents to Spain, among
them, notably, The Rosh.
The R. Abraham Zacuto the Elder was the descendent of those
refugees and he left his good name to his grandson R. Abraham
Zacuto the Second. The latter’s son R. Samuel Zacuto was the
father and master of the author of the Book of Yohassin.
R. Abraham Zacuto, the
author of the Book of Yohassin, refers to his ancestors
as to people that “withstood the Castilian persecutions for
their faith in the Blessed Creator and His Torah.”
In the days of the
persecutions in the year 5151/1391, there was R. Moses Zakudo.
His master, R. Judah, son of The Rosh, the Saint of Toledo who
was martyred for his faith, dispatched R. Moses Zakudo to R.
Isaac b. Shesheth [Barfat], the author of famous responsa of
that name. His mother’s family was of noble descent as well and
“never left the study of the Torah since the days of old.”
Among his maternal
ancestors, there was renowned R. Samuel Balansi [Valenci] the
greatest in knowledge and wisdom of the R. Isaac Abuhab’s
disciples. He died five years before the Expulsion from Spain,
being 52 years of age.
R. Abraham Zacuto b.
R. Samuel b. R. Abraham was born in Salamanca in Castile about
5200/1440. In his youth, he studied Torah under guidance of his
father Samuel who was apparently a R. [haham] and received the
rabbinic tradition from the late ancestors and masters OBM. R.
Abraham quotes his father as the source, [for instance] why the
sons of Rab Papa
are mentioned after completion of a tractate? His father told
him, he heard it is good for memory to invoke their names seven
times, as we mention Elijah [the Prophet] OBM following the end
of Shabbath.
When R. Abraham was
six or seven years old, he saw in person the old R. Isaac
Campanton (d. 1463), the chief R. of the Castilian community who
was called Gaon by his contemporaries (the usage of the
title was not common in those days). The outlook of “the meek
pious man with the Holy Spirit of God” impressed the child
greatly. In the old age he wrote, “Whoever saw him saw the face
of Divine Presence.” But the real master of R. Abraham was R.
Isaac Abuhab, “the sharp-wit innovator.” He had many disciples
and authored a book of the Four Columns, which remained
uncompleted. He was the source of R. Abraham Zacuto's knowledge
of the Talmud, of Poskim
and of the Kabbalah wisdom. R. Abraham Zacuto knew inside out
all Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, as we see the
Sefer Yohassin. His greatness and wit are seen in
his own replies in the discussion on Maimonides [as quoted by
Maharal b. Habib, Responsa 19].
His native Salamanca
was the capital of [mundane] learning of his days. R. Abraham
read astronomy and mathematics in the Salamanca University. He
succeeded in his studies and became a famous astronomer. The
bishop of Salamanca, an adept of astronomy, became aware of his
abilities and nominated him a professor of the Salamanca
University. R. Abraham taught in the University and many of his
disciples, Christians and Jews, became prominent scholars. One
of them, Augustine Ricci, gained renown as a famous astronomer.
In those days, R.
Abraham Zacuto compiled his great work on astronomy by orders of
the Bishop of Salamanca. His astronomic tables seemed
miraculous to his contemporaries. His first publisher R. Samuel
Sholem wrote in his introduction, “All preceding tables of
Gentiles were as naught and the Gentiles broke and discarded all
previous tables and adopted his wonderful creation forever and
ever.” R. Abraham Zacuto also improved the astrolabe and made
it of copper instead of previously used wooden astrolabes that
were not precise enough. His innovations and discoveries made
him well known.
It seems R. Abraham
Zacuto had dealings with Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of
America. Columbus stayed in Salamanca and apparently, R.
Abraham Zacuto showed him some astronomic books including the
book supposedly written by R. Abraham Ibn Ezra.
R. Abraham Zacuto was among the very few scholars who believed
in successful completion of Columbus' journey. The contemporary
scholar Gaspar Correa quoted in his book the following opinion
of R. Abraham Zacuto: “The Land of India is exceedingly remote
and seas and lands separate us from it; still whoever will risk
the journey unavoidably will reach it.”
R. Abraham Zacuto's tables always accompanied Columbus in all
his travels and once, during his last voyage to America in the
AM 5264/1504 they saved his life.
Columbus visited
Veragua, where he found plenty of gold. After leaving Veragua,
his fleet suffered from a terrible hurricane and in terrible
plight, he reached Jamaica. Caciques (native chiefs) were
hostile and did not want to provide him and his people with food
so they were on the edge of starvation. Columbus conceived a
trick to save his life. R. Abraham Zacuto's tables told him
there would be soon (on 29 of February 1504) a lunar eclipse.
Columbus assembled the Caciques and promised he will put a spell
on them by withdrawing the moonlight. During the eclipse the
Cazics were frightened and prayed to Columbus to remove the
spell. Columbus pretended praying to his God, the eclipse
passed and since then the Caciques respected him and provided
with all he needed. It is written in the book on Columbus'
voyages.
The copy of R. Abraham
Zacuto's tables with marginalia of Columbus is extant in the
Colombian library in Portugal.
Besides his
astronomical investigations, R. Abraham Zacuto dealt also with
astrology that he trusted and believed in. He was not above
belief in demons and other superstitions. In his book, he wrote
about a Gentile whom he met in Salamanca. The Gentile's voice
was heard from the roof of the building though he sat quietly
inside the house. He also reported that certain Jewish women
could prophecy in his presence.
Later R. Abraham
Zacuto apparently moved to Saragossa and taught in the
University, while his wisdom and knowledge grew.
In AM 5252/1492, the
Castilian king Fernando ordered to expel all Jews of Spain. R.
Abraham Zacuto was forced to leave his home country. He saw
those righteous people who preferred to kill themselves and
their children rather then be forced to transgress the
commandments of the Lord. R. Abraham Zacuto moved together with
his master R. Isaac Abuhab to Portugal and settled in Lisbon the
capital of the country. Seven months later his master died and
R. Abraham Zacuto lamented him by quoting the verse See, I am
sending an angel ahead of you (Ex 23:20).
The fame of R. Abraham
Zacuto preceded his arrival to Portugal and King Joao II who was
a keen adept of astronomy and engineering provided him with a
university cathedra. The king liked R. Abraham Zacuto and gave
him the honorable title The Royal Astronomer. When the king
visited Turi di Tombo in AM 5254/1494 he presented “Abraham the
Astrologer” with ten golden coins.
It is written in the
book of Nishmath Chaiim,
once the King Joao came to try R. Abraham Zacuto's wisdom by
riddles. He said he intended to travel to Iborra and demanded
to read by stars through which gate he will enter Iborra. R.
Abraham replied, “Whatever I will say, you will enter by other
gate.” The King said, “No, put your divination in writing and
seal it with your own seal.” He brought clean sheet of paper
and wrote, “The King will open a new gate and enter through
it.” So it was - the king wanted to prove that his fortune
telling is false and broke a new gate into the city and entered
through it. As he entered, he opened the R. Abraham Zacuto’s
letter and read it aloud and it was a miracle in his eyes.
Another time the King
invited R. Abraham Zacuto to his room and enquired what the
distance between earth and heaven is. He gave the answer. In a
year time, the king raised the roof of the room by one and a
half cubit and asked R. Abraham, “Tell me, Astronomer, what the
distance between the earth and heaven is, as I forgot [your
answer]. The wise man replied, [Since then] the earth was
raised or the heaven descended.”
After demise of Joao
II, his grandchild, Dom Manuel sat on the throne of Portuguese
kings. He nominated R. Abraham Zacuto to be his astronomer and
secretary. In AM 5256/1496, the tables of R. Abraham Zacuto
were published in Liria, in the printing house of Master Samuel
di Ortas. They spread in all lands of East and West, “in the
countries of Edom and in the lands of Ishmael.”
R. Abraham Zacuto wrote about it: “I have been in the kingdom of
Spain and in other Christian kingdoms when my books on Astronomy
were published and people said “[it is written by] R. Abraham
Zacuto of Salamanca. I am entitled to be proud of it as our
Sages OBM said: “What is the wisdom that the Gentile nations
appreciate?” and they meant the calculations of stars of Zodiac
and of periods of time. I bear witness to heaven that they
glorified [the people of] Israel for it”
It was said that R. Abraham Zacuto's advice on wisdom of stars
to the Gentile nations and their kings is as good as Ahitophel's
advice of old.
During his sojourn in
Portugal, R. Abraham Zacuto came to new conclusion about the
origin of storms and gales in the equinoctial regions. His
investigations proved it is possible to reach India by
circumventing Africa.
In AM 5257 [1496 CE], King Manuel equipped the fleet under
command of Vasco di Gama to search for the way to India. Before
his departure, Vasco di Gama sought R. Abraham Zacuto's advice
in presence of his sailors.
King Manuel invited R. Abraham Zacuto to the city of Beja and
the astronomer told him that India soon would belong to
Portugal. It became true, as we know.
In AM 5257 [1496 CE],
the Jews of Portugal were expelled as well and R. Abraham Zacuto
left the country together with his son Samuel. R. Abraham
Zacuto wrote about it: “God granted me and my son Samuel the
privilege (zechuth) to glorify and sanctify His Name. We
came to Africa and twice we were made prisoners. God in His
great mercy to His pious ones will provide me and my offspring's
posterity to worship His blessed Name.”
R. Abraham Zacuto went
with many other exiles to Africa and settled in Tunis, there was
“a big community, wealthy people and great believers in the
tradition [Kabbalah] of Torah.”
Among the Portuguese exiles in Tunis, there was R. Moses Alaskar
as well. The troubles and destitution caused by exile wore down
the strength of R. Abraham as he admitted: “For my sins, for all
these destruction and captivity and lack of food, I have nor
strength, no wisdom, neither sense of distinction”.
In Tunis, R. Abraham
Zacuto completed his Sefer Yohassin but he was short of
[reference] books, as there were no books in Tunis except what
the exiles brought with them. R. Abraham Zacuto stayed in Tunis
for a few years but apparently he could not find peace for his
soul and left for the Middle East, to Turkey and at the end of
his days to Syria and to Land of Israel. He settled in
Jerusalem and died there in AM 5275/1515.
Among colleagues of R.
Abraham Zacuto, there was the perfect scholar R. Abraham ha-Levi
Bokart, mentioned by R. Abraham Zacuto in Sefer
Yohassin.
It appears he is identical with R. Abraham b. R. Eleazar
ha-Levi, R. Abraham Zacuto” brother in law who wrote a few books
on Kabbalah, including Galya Raza (Disclosing
Mysteries) and Sefer Zikaron (The Book of Memory). Among
his better-known disciples, there was R. Joseph Vecinho, the
physician to the King Joao III and a member of the Lisbon
Junta. The Junta was the group of scientists, astronomers and
navigators. R. Joseph was a colleague and an adviser of
Columbus. He translated the explanation of R. Abraham Zacuto’s
Tables into Latin. R. Abraham Zacuto’s grandson, R. Abraham
Luzitanus, was a great physician and a wise man.
2.
THE BOOK OF YOHASSIN – GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Hebrew medieval
historical literature is rather lean and mean. The
historiographers described events and tales, marked years and
dates but they could not present events and personae dramatis
within the whole historical and spiritual context of their
times. They could not express the rise and fall of spiritual
movements or show us some great historical personage by making
him alive through exaltation of their own spirit. They could
not integrate the details into a united and live presentation.
Such purposes were foreign to the historiographers, as they did
not consider history as a separate independent branch of
knowledge. The historiography was not writers” art, they
thought. They intentionally limited their scope: some described
the miracles to enhance the faith and arouse the spirit of
believers, some preferred to dispute with Christians and free
thinkers by compiling the traditions of transmission of the Oral
Torah and Kabbalah. They usually considered their work
as subsidiary to the establishment of the Halachah, the
Rule of Torah. It was necessary to know the lives and times of
the sages of Talmud and Mishna in order to determine who
preceded whom and whose judgment prevails according to the rule
of the oldest decision.
The Book of
Yohassin conforms to the rule. The main intention of R.
Abraham Zacuto as the author of the book was to help the Talmud
scholars, as he states openly in his foreword. That is why R.
Abraham Zacuto concentrates his attention and efforts on the
first articles in the book dealing with the Talmud
personalities. He writes at length about the Sages of Israel
and tries to establish rules of preferment of Judgment. His
second aim was to support the Jewish side in disputes with
Christians and he frequently refers to the opinions of Christian
laity and clerics and of Jesus himself. Chapter six of his work
contains much of the Jews-versus-Christians polemics.
The Book of
Yohassin exceeds all previous historiographic writings by
its completeness and perfection of the first chapters dealing
with the Mishna and Talmud personae. R. Abraham Zacuto invested
huge effort in it and succeeded to lay a sound foundation to the
structure of the Talmudic history. R. Moses Haggis was right
saying, “If you wish to quench your thirst and to find the
origins and descent of the Sages of Mishna and Talmud and to
learn everything about them, their names and their virtues, keep
close to your heart this pleasant book and it will encourage
your spirit to study the Oral Torah” (Mishnath Chachamim,
625).
The author named his
book Sefer Yohassin – the Book of Lineage but his
provisional title was Sefer Chassidim – the Book of Pious
or Sefer Kedoshim – the Book of Saints. In his
Conclusion he writes, “That is why I compiled together The
Book of Saints and the Book of Lineage, to pay
tribute to the wise and holy people of Israel.”
R. Abraham Zacuto
invested “many labors” and worked for many years. The
scientists are still divided as to the year when the book was
written. Zunz presumes the book was completed in the year AM
5262/1502 but the majority of experts prefer the year AM
5264/1504 (Graetz, Keizerling, etc). The author of Zemach
David gives the year AM 5263 [1503 CE]. Lev considers the
chapter 6 being written in AM 5264 [1504 CE], while previous
chapters were written in preceding years. In the chapter 3,
there is a reference, which was missed by scholars. On page
204a, R. Zacuto writes, “This year is a thousand-year
anniversary of the completion of Talmud and 73 years since the
demise of The Rosh.” By R. Zacuto’s counting, it is the year AM
5259 [1499 CE]. Still there is no need to choose a specific
year, as it appears that R. Zacuto wrote some chapters in
Portugal before the Expulsion, while other chapters were
composed in Tunisia.
The best proof can be
found on folio 22a, where he states that in Tunisia he had just
a few books, namely Nezikin the Jerusalem Talmud
and the Midrash Levitcus Rabba, etc. In his first
chapters, he freely quotes all tractates of the Jerusalem
Talmud and all Midrash Rabba books. It proves that
he wrote his book over number of years. Various chapters were
composed at different dates. Answer that is more precise we can
find by inspecting his other books. In the introduction to his
Astronomical Tables or Perpetual Almanac, R. Zacuto promises to
compose a book on the Sages of Mishna and Talmud. The
introduction to the Book of Yohassin also states that he
considered the book as a certain supplement to his previous
books on astronomy. He writes, “This book is similar to the
books on wisdom of numbers and stars and a virtuous deed causes
other virtuous deeds.” It means that R. Zacuto started this
book after completion of his Opus Magnum in the year 5238/1478.
In the year 5270/1510, R. Abraham of Trotial composed his book
of Kabbalah and he quotes frequently the Book of
Yohassin.
It proves the Book of
Yohassin was composed between 5240/1480 and 5270/1510.
During those years, R. Abraham Zacuto collected the vast
material for the book and carefully presented it in the first
three chapters on the sages of Mishna and Amora. The following
chapters were written hastily after the Expulsion and the author
had no time to arrange them properly and left it as an
uncompleted compilation of various and contradictory sources.
R. Abraham Zacuto
tried to correct the errors of preceding scholars on
Transmission and related topics and frequently argued with
Maimonides and with R. Abraham ibn Daud, the author of
Kabbalah book. He modestly assesses his efforts in this
field, “Sometimes a small candle is better to look for holes and
cracks than a great luminosity.”
The last chapters of
the Book of Yohassin have great historical value, as for
instance the narrative on Book of Zohar. The Book of Yohassin
is our only primary source on the matter as the other writers
just quoted the book of R. Zacuto. Nevertheless, the first
chapters dealing with the Mishnah and Talmud scholars are also
important as R. Zacuto compared various manuscripts and printed
books to present the reader with correct versions. The latter
glosses are also important, especially those by the first
publisher R. Samuel Sholem who quoted many old and otherwise
lost, books.
For many years, the
Book of Yohassin was the most important of historiographic
Jewish books. The previous generations of our forefathers in
the darkness of the Diaspora read this book to enliven their
souls. Despite the reassessment of modernity, the Book of
Yohassin remains an important step on the road from the mist of
tales and legends to the light of scientific exploration.
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