Exame das tradições phariseas. Facsimile of the Unique Copy in the Royal Library of Copenhagen. Supplemented by Semuel da Silva's Treatise on the Immortality of the Soul. Tratado da immortalidade da alma
Exame das tradições phariseas. Facsimile of the Unique Copy in the Royal Library of Copenhagen. Supplemented by Semuel da Silva's Treatise on the Immortality of the Soul. Tratado da immortalidade da alma
Da Costa's long-lost book rejects the divine origin of the rabbinic tradition. His insight was that what he calls Pharisaism is irreconcilable with the religion of the Pentateuch and therefore cannot derive from the same source. He claims, for example, that the Law of Moses does not allow for a belief in an afterlife for individual human beings. Concomitantly he denied the Mosaic origin of the notion of eternal punishment. The rabbinic reading of the Mosaic Law appeared to him almost as great a falsification as the Christian one. Yet there could be no reversion to Christianity and despite his deep rift with the synagogue he still believed in ultimate redemption for the Jewish people. As he so dramatically declares in his closing sonnet, Israel's rehabilitation depends on its shedding man-made doctrines, and holding fast to the Law in its purity.
The retrieval in 1990 of what is probably the sole surviving copy of Uriel da Costa's book, outlawed and burnt in 1624, is an almost miraculous boon for humanity. Da Costa's "Exame," supplemented by da Silva's "Tratado," merits a prominent place in the history of thought, Judaism and Portuguese Literature.
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