Exile in Amsterdam
Saul Levi Morteira's Sermons to a Congregation of "New Jews"
Exile in Amsterdam is based on a rich, extensive, and previously untapped source for one of the most important and fascinating Jewish communities in early-modern Europe. The leading rabbi of this community, Saul Levi Morteira (ca. 1596-1660), a master of Jewish homiletical art, was known to have published one book of fifty sermons in 1645. Recently a collection of 550 manuscript sermons in Morteira's own writing turned up in the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest. After years of painstaking study from microfilms and three trips to Budapest to consult the actual manuscripts, Marc Saperstein has written the first comprehensive analysis of the historical significance of these texts (some of which were heard, as they were delivered in the synagogue, by the young Spinoza).
Saperstein begins by reviewing the broad outlines of Morteira's biography, his treatment by scholars, and his image in literary works. He then reconstructs the process by which the preacher produced and delivered his sermons. Moving on to the community, he presents information-derived from the sermons-about individuals and institutions in Morteira's Amsterdam.
Focusing on themes Morteira considered crucial, Saperstein shows how the sermons presented an ongoing program of adult education that transmitted the Jewish tradition on a consistently high yet accessible level to a congregation of immigrants who were now assuming a Jewish identity in Amsterdam with minimal prior knowledge.
In order to illustrate and concretize, Saperstein presents in English eight previously untranslated sermons in their entirety, with full annotation.
"The book bristles with a passion for the sermonic art."
-Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Arizona State University
"Saperstein's prowess and persistence in locating, deciphering, transcribing, and translating these homiletical gems are mind-boggling."
-Herman Prins Salomon, SUNY
Marc Saperstein is the Charles E. Smith Professor of Jewish History and Director of the Program in Judaic Studies at The George Washington University.
Marc Saperstein
Winner of the 2005 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Jewish Thought and Experience
2005 / 612 pp / Monograph No. 32 / ISBN 0-87820-457-1, cloth: $49.95
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