Spinoza was famously excommunicated after referring to an "eternal or infinite entity that we call God or Nature" (i.e. "Deus sive Natura"- Ethics, IV, Preface, 1677), whereas David Nieto was acquitted of saying: "God, and Nature, Nature, and God, is all one." Why was Spinoza condemned, and Nieto praised in the most important exoneration in history? This is answered in the conversation between Reuben and Simon, by examining the incident along with the corpus of Hebrew Scriptures, and counting the number of times the word Nature appears in it: Not once, not even during the Early Middle Ages. For that reason, Rabbi Nieto published "De La Divina Providencia o Naturaleza Universal" to make known that the vulgar term Nature replaced the classic word Providence since its adoption during modern times to connote nature in general: "With the passing of time, this name gained daily credit and began to take form in the ideas of men as a simulacrum or idol causing serious damage to the understanding and consciousness." David Nieto (Venice, 1654 - London, 1728) was the Hakham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Community in London. He was one of the most accomplished Jews of his time and was equally distinguished as philosopher, physician, poet, mathematician, astronomer, and theologian. Rabbi Nieto published in 1704, On Divine Providence or Universal Nature; The Triumphs of Poverty in 1709; Matteh Dan in 1714; The Fire of Knowledge in 1715; Recondite Notice of the Inquisition of Spain and Portugal in 1728. He died in London and is buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Mile End Road. An inscription on his grave reads: Sublime theologian, profound sage, a distinguished physician, a sweet poet, a famous astronomer, elegant preacher, subtle logician, ingenious physician, fluent rhetorician, pleasant author, an expert in languages, learned in history.
The legendary correspondence between the critic Walter Benjamin and the historian Gershom Scholem bears indispensable witness to the inner lives of two remarkable and enigmatic personalities. Benjamin, acknowledged today as one of the leading literary and social critics of his day, was known during his lifetime by only a small circle of his friends and intellectual confreres. Scholem recognized the genius of his friend and mentor during their student days in Berlin, and the two began to correspond after Scholem's emigration to Palestine. Their impassioned exchange draws the reader into the very heart of their complex relationship during the anguished years from 1932 until Benjamin's death in 1940.
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