pure inventions. It is by way of fitting the foot to the shoe or fashioning a shoe into which any foot can go.144 Anyone may discover anything he wishes by such means and prove any falsehood and any outlandish notion. Such methods may be employed to prove and disprove one and the same thing. How heavily this attack bears upon Messianic calculations becomes clear when one realizes how largely dependent that pseudo-science was upon the technique of Gematria in all its ramifications. 25. Simeon Luzzato (d. 1663), the friend of Leon Modena, unequivocally asserts his opposition to construing the prophecies of Daniel so as to make them apply to the present exile. He belongs to the historico-scientific group of Biblical interpreters. "It is apparent that Luzzato was a thinker and a believer as well; he did not share Manasseh ben Israel's dream that the Ten Tribes still exist together in some part of the world. He maintained that Daniel's revelation refers not to a future Messiah but to past historical events."145 26. Solomon Ephraim of Łęczyca (d. 1619), preacher at Prague, whose book of sermons, Sifte Da'at, printed in Prague, carries the date in its colophon '"'W'D 'x']"(= 1610-11), "May the Messiah Come," devotes much space to the subject of Redemption. He believes firmly that there is a fixed time for the coming of the Messiah. The merit of the generation may hasten his advent, but the sins, even if universal, will not postpone it beyond the appointed hour. 146 Elaborating upon the Rabbinic saying that Jacob wished to reveal the future to his children, but it was suddenly withdrawn from him, he says that great harm might be caused by revealing the time of the end, for the men who would know that the Messiah would not appear in their lifetime would not pray to God for His coming, and the men who would know that the Messiah would come in 144 Ibid., p. 24. 145 J. E., VIII, p. 227. 146 пу п, ed. Prague, p. 94a. their lifetime would not find it necessary to pray for him. This is exactly what happened in Egypt when the exact duration of the exile was made known. Those living in the years prior to the fixed time of the Exodus made themselves thoroughly at home in Egypt and built for themselves beautiful and permanent homes, as if the Messiah would never come, even as some Jews are doing today.147 God desires His children to turn to him in prayer and repentance. The revelation of the end would render this impossible. The author follows closely the reasoning of Isaac Arama148 whom he quotes on this subject.149 In his 'Ir Gibborim the author sums up his position in the form of a clear prohibition: "It is forbidden to search and inquire after the coming of the redeemer . . . for if he does not appear at the expected time the people will despair of him. The matter does not depend upon calculation but upon repentance and good deeds."150 27. Manasseh ben Israel was opposed to Messianic calculations. In his Mikweh Yisrael151 he writes: "It is given to none to know the time thereof (the Return), neither is it revealed to Rabbi Simeon ben Johay, the author of the Zohar: because that God hath reserved that mystery to himself, as Moses saith, 'It is hid with me.' And Isaiah in chapter 63.4. 'For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year in which the redemption shall come.' Which the Rabbins thus interpret, 'I have revealed it to my heart and not to angels'; and elsewhere, 'If any man tell you when Messiah shall come, believe him not.' So also the angel saith to Daniel, chap. 12.9, 'All things are closed up and sealed to the time of the end.' Therefore all those, who search after that time, as Rabbi Seadiah, Moses Egyptius (Maimonides), Moses Gerundensis (Naḥ 147 Ibid., p. 27c, d. 148 See supra, p. 220. .258 .ed. Warsaw, p ,מקראות גדולות in the ויחי .on Par כלי יקר See his 149 .ed. 1580, p. 28a ,עיר גבורים 150 151 Spanish, Amsterdam, 1650; English, London, 1650, trans. Moses Wall, third ed. 1652. This last edition, printed in Lucien Wolf's Manasseh ben Israel's Mission to Oliver Cromwell, London, 1901, is quoted here. manides), Selomoh Jarchi; Abraham bar Ribi Hijah, Abraham Zecculo (Ab. Zaccuto) Mordehai Reato (Mor. Dato), and Isaac Abarhanel, have been mistaken; for that they would go beyond human capacity, and reveal that which God concealed. And even to Daniel himself (to whom was made known the secret of the change of the four Monarchies) it was so revealed to him, that he confessed he did not understand it. Our Ancients did point at this from the letter (m) in Is. 9.7 where he saith 'Of the increase of his government:' which (m) in the Hebrew, being such an (m) which they write only in the end of words, and a closed letter, yet is put in the middle of the word, against common practice; because that the time of the fifth Monarchy shall be hid, till the time when it shall begin."152 This probably accounts for the fact that Manasseh does not even attempt to harmonize the conflicting apocalyptic passages of Daniel in his Conciliator. 28. Moses ben Menahem (Präger, end 17 c.), author of two Kabbalistic works, Wa-Yakhel Moshe (a treatise on the Zohar in the style of the Lurianic Kabbala), and Zera' Kodesh, states in his Introduction to the former work that his purpose in writing the book is to hasten the day of the coming of the Messiah by means of popularizing among Israel those Messianic teachings of the Kabbala which are potent enough to effect the advent. He believed with the earlier Kabbalists that the study of Zohar was of sufficient merit to bring about the Redemption:153 "The sin of not knowing the true (Kabbalistic) method of praying is sufficient to delay the days of the Messiah, the rebuilding of the Temple and the ingathering of the people."154 He was convinced that Israel would never leave the exile unless it studied Kabbala.155 He, nevertheless, bitterly denounced those charlatans who, using the art of Gematria and Notarikon, delude 154 Ibid., p. 4b. .(ibid., p. 11b) ואין אנו יכולים למיפק מגלות אלא בלימוד הזה 155 the masses with fictitious promises which they received neither from the earlier nor from the later Kabbalists. These men dare to reveal the future and calculate the end and confuse and mislead the people. Concerning them and their kind the prophet said, "They have seen vanity and lying divination."156 They make a living out of it. Their lying prophecies have more than once thrown the people into terrible confusion and despondency."'157 Moses ben Menaḥem undoubtedly refers to the Shabbetai Zebi fiasco, and his sentiments may be taken to represent the reaction which set in after the tragic collapse of the Shabbetian movement, which was so largely built upon the extensive Messianic calculations of the seventeenth century. The opinion of this Rabbi is highly important. He was an extreme Kabbalist of the Lurianic school. Through Kabbalistic incantation he is credited with having exorcised an evil spirit from a lad in Nikolsburg. 158 He regarded Luria as being higher than an angel, and as having revealed more truth than any prophet in Israel.159 and yet he so vehemently attacked the whole adventist enterprise. Evidently the Shabbetian affair had sobered the minds even of some of the most extreme Kabbalists. 156 Ezek. 13.6. 157 Op. cit., p. 16. 158 See ' 'ʼn nwy», App. to 7p y, ed. Fürth, 1696. .p. 7a ויקהל משה 159 |