David Nieto

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David Nieto (1654–1728) var ḥakhám for det portugisarjødiske samfunnet i London.

David Nieto vart fødd i Venezia i 1654 og han døydde i London den 10. januar 1728.

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He first practised as a physician and officiated as a Jewish preacher at Livorno, Italy. There he wrote in Italian a work entitled Paschologia (Cologne, 1702), in which he dealt with the differences of calculation in the calendars of the Greek, Roman, and Jewish churches, and demonstrated the errors which had crept into the calendar from the First Council of Nicaea until 1692. In 1702 Nieto succeeded Solomon Ayllon as ecclesiastical chief of the Portuguese Jews in London; and two years after his settlement in that city he published his theological treatise, Della Divina Providencia, ó sea Naturalezza Universal, ó Natura Naturante (London, 1704). This work provoked much opposition against him; and it was used by his opponents as ground for accusing him openly of Spinozism, which at that period was equivalent to atheism. However, Tzvi Ashkenazi, who was called in as arbitrator, decided in his favor (Hakham Tzvi, Responsa, No. 18).

Nieto was a powerful controversialist. In his Matteh Dan, or Kuzari Heleq Sheni (London, 1714), written in Hebrew and Spanish on the model of the Kuzari of Judah ha-Levi, he defended the Oral Torah against the Karaites, and showed that the contradictions of the Talmud lay not in essentials but in externals. (“Karaites” here does not refer to the historic Jewish sect of that name, of whom there were none in Western Europe, but to Jewish dissidents such as Uriel Acosta who cast doubt on the Oral Torah.) He waged war untiringly on the supporters of the Shabbethaian heresies, which he regarded as dangerous to the best interests of Judaism, and in this connection wrote his Esh Dat (London, 1715) against Hayyun (who supported Shabbetai Zevi).

Nieto was one of the most accomplished Jews of his time and was equally distinguished as philosopher, physician, poet, mathematician, astronomer, and theologian. A prolific writer, his intercourse with Christian scholars was extensive, especially with Ungar, the bibliographer. Nieto was the first to fix the time for the beginning of Sabbath eve for the latitude of England.

[endre] Bibliografi

• Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl., col. 881
• Kayserling, Gesch. der Juden in Portugal, pp. 325–326
• Jewish World, Dec. 19, 1879
• Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebraica iii
• Cat. Anglo-Jew. Hist. Exh. 1887
• portrait in Jewish Chronicle, June 28, 1901
• «David Nieto» på Engelsk Wikipedia

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