Thesouro dos Dinim – Source is in Portuguese, but a developing website offers some translations
- Subtitle: Que o Povo de Israel he Obrigado Saber e Observar
- Author: Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel
- Publisher: [Varies by volume], 1645-1647 – 5 vols, 835 pp.
- LOC Permalink: [None]
- Availability: this book is in the public domain, and can be accessed HERE
Review by Cecil Roth
From A Life of Menasseh ben Israel: Rabbi Printer and Diplomat. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1934, pp. 100-103.
Not long before [1651], Menasseh had been entrusted with a literary task of an unusual nature. The Marranos who arrived in Amsterdam almost daily from Spain and Portugal were entirely ignorant of the traditions and practices of Jewish religious observance... save for confused recollections handed down through generations of subterfuge, or vague conceptions based upon biblical reminiscence. When they formally reentered Judaism, it was necessary for them to learn their new religion from its rudiments upwards. In this, there was one obvious difficulty. There were indeed several admirable compendia of Jewish law in Hebrew. But the new arrivals were, almost without exception, entirely ignorant of that language, and some years were needed, at the best, before they would be able to read it with any facility.
A handbook of practice in some tongue more accessible to them was therefore an absolute necessity. Several attempts had been made to fill the need, but the results were not quite satisfactory. The wardens of the community were deeply sensible of this; and it was apparently at their suggestion, or at least after discussion with them, that Menasseh applied himself to this important task, in 1643. He worked in constant consultation with his colleague, Saul Mortara, who knew from long experience what presentation of Judaism would best appeal to these "New Christians" who were, in fact, "New Jews"... Owing to the pressure of other activities, the work progressed slowly; and it was only after two years, in 1645, that the first volume appeared.
The compendium, which was written in Portuguese (for this, rather than Spanish, was the native language of the majority of the community), was entitled Thesouro dos Dinim. It was dedicated to the wardens of the congregation under whose auspices it appeared; and it contained hearty approbations from Rabbis Mortara and Pardo. The first section dealt with the regulations governing prayer, public and private; the second, with moral duties, such as study and almsgiving; the third, with the feasts and fasts; and the fourth, with the preparation of food.
From the beginning, Menasseh had intended to round off this treatise with another section dealing with the "precepts, rites, and ceremonies touching a perfect Economy" – the laws of marriage, and of the Jewish home. The manner in which this was achieved was characteristic. For some considerable time, he did not touch it. However, on March 24, 1647, he turned his attention to it again, and worked feverishly on it (principally at night, in moments stolen from sleep) for just over three weeks. The opus was thus finished in the early hours of April 18, as he triumphantly records in one of his prefatory epistles...
Before long it had become authoritative. The claims which the author makes for it, of clarity and simplicity, are justified; and the arid details of ceremonial law are frequently enlivened and ennobled by some shrewd aphorism indicating the ethical value of each practice. Generation after generation of Marranos recently arrived from the Peninsula learned their Judaism from this succinct compilation, which was republished, in a single volume, as late as 1710.
A handbook of practice in some tongue more accessible to them was therefore an absolute necessity. Several attempts had been made to fill the need, but the results were not quite satisfactory. The wardens of the community were deeply sensible of this; and it was apparently at their suggestion, or at least after discussion with them, that Menasseh applied himself to this important task, in 1643. He worked in constant consultation with his colleague, Saul Mortara, who knew from long experience what presentation of Judaism would best appeal to these "New Christians" who were, in fact, "New Jews"... Owing to the pressure of other activities, the work progressed slowly; and it was only after two years, in 1645, that the first volume appeared.
The compendium, which was written in Portuguese (for this, rather than Spanish, was the native language of the majority of the community), was entitled Thesouro dos Dinim. It was dedicated to the wardens of the congregation under whose auspices it appeared; and it contained hearty approbations from Rabbis Mortara and Pardo. The first section dealt with the regulations governing prayer, public and private; the second, with moral duties, such as study and almsgiving; the third, with the feasts and fasts; and the fourth, with the preparation of food.
From the beginning, Menasseh had intended to round off this treatise with another section dealing with the "precepts, rites, and ceremonies touching a perfect Economy" – the laws of marriage, and of the Jewish home. The manner in which this was achieved was characteristic. For some considerable time, he did not touch it. However, on March 24, 1647, he turned his attention to it again, and worked feverishly on it (principally at night, in moments stolen from sleep) for just over three weeks. The opus was thus finished in the early hours of April 18, as he triumphantly records in one of his prefatory epistles...
Before long it had become authoritative. The claims which the author makes for it, of clarity and simplicity, are justified; and the arid details of ceremonial law are frequently enlivened and ennobled by some shrewd aphorism indicating the ethical value of each practice. Generation after generation of Marranos recently arrived from the Peninsula learned their Judaism from this succinct compilation, which was republished, in a single volume, as late as 1710.