The Excommunication of Spinoza: Trouble and Toleration in the "Dutch Jerusalem"

Author(s): Steven Nadler

Source: Shofar , SUMMER 2001, Vol. 19, No. 4, Special Issue: Sephardic Studies as an
Interdisciplinary Field (SUMMER 2001), pp. 40-52
Published by: Purdue University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42943396

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40 SHOFAR Summer 2001 Vol. 19, No. 4

The Excommunicatio
Trouble and Toleration in the "Dutch Jerusalem"

Steven Nadler

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Baruch de Spinoza, one of the most important philosophers of his time, and certainly the
most radical, was excommunicated from Amsterdam's Sefardic synagogue at the age of
twenty-four. The immediate reasons for the cherem pronounced against him remain hidden,
although there are some good reasons for thinking that he was already propounding the
heretical views that are found in his later writings. In this essay, however, I look closely at
the political context for Spinoza's excommunication, especially in the relationship between
Amsterdam's Jews and Dutch society.

In 1656, the synagogue used by Amsterdam's Portuguese Jewish congregation,

"Talmud Torah," was a large house on the Houtgracht, one of the main thoroughfares
of the city's Jewish quarter. On the sixth of Av, 5416 (July 27), the following text was
read in Hebrew from the synagogue's ark:

The lords of the ma 'amad, having long known of the evil opinions and acts of Baruch de
Spinoza, they have endeavored by various means and promises, to turn him from his evil
ways. But having failed to make him mend his wicked ways, and, on the contrary, daily
receiving more and more serious information about the abominable heresies which he
practiced and taught and about his monstrous deeds, and having for this numerous trust-
worthy witnesses who have deposed and born witness to this effect in the presence of the
said Espinoza, they became convinced of the truth of this matter; and after all of this has
been investigated in the presence of the honorable chachamim, they have decided, with
their consent, that the said Espinoza should be expelled and excommunicated from the
people of Israel. By decree of the angels and by the command the holy men, we excom-
municate, expel, curse and damn Baruch de Espinoza, with the consent of God, Blessed be
He, and with the consent of the entire holy congregation, and in front of these holy scrolls
with the 613 precepts which are written therein; cursing him with the excommunication
with which Joshua banned Jericho and with the curse which Elisha cursed the boys and
with all the castigations which are written in the Book of the Law. Cursed be he by day and
cursed be he by night; cursed be he when he lies down and cursed be he when he rises up.
Cursed be he when he goes out and cursed be he when he comes in. The Lord will not spare
him, but the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the
curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name
from under heaven. And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel,
according to all the curses of the convenant that are written in this book of the law. But you
that cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.

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The Excommunication of Spinoza 4 1

The document concludes with the warning t

neither in writing, nor accord him any favor
within four cubits of his vicinity; nor shall h
him." A Portuguese version was later enter
We do not really know what exactly occa
of Baruch (or Bento, as he was known a
twenty-three years old at the time, and had
know, had he ever composed any treatis
heresies which he practiced and taught
"monstrous deeds" he is alleged to have perf
time, already saying the kinds of things t
systematic expression in his written works
religious leader could possibly tolerate. In
which he began in the early 1660s, Spinoz
of the soul. It was precisely this, among ot
excommunications for another heretic, Ur
later reconfirmed when he moved to Ams
responsible for reading Spinoza's cherem i
been a student of the Venetian rabbi who
of da Costa, Leon Modena. In fact, Morteira
Sefardim, had vigorously argued, in a deb
among the community's rabbis, for the et
heretics.2 Moreover, all three of the commu
defense of the immortality of the soul. So
the immortality of the soul, he could not
topic.3 And in 1670, in his anonymously p
Spinoza denies the divine origin of the T
1655 - and there is good reason for think

1The document is found in the community's L

in the Amsterdam Municipal Archives, Portugue
Kasher and Shlomo Biderman, from their articl
Katz and Jonathan Israel, eds., Skeptics, Millenar

2For a study of the debate that upset the com

"Eternality of Punishment: A Theological Contr
Thirties of the Seventeenth Century," Proceedings
(1972), pp. 1-88.

3I examine this issue in greater detail in my for

and the Jewish Mind (Oxford: Oxford University

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42 SHOFAR Summer 2001 Vol. 19, No. 4

brought down upon himself the full wrat

a long defense of the divine origin of the
The list of Spinoza's possible offenses co
would like here to address the question "W
what Spinoza may or may not have been s
consider the cherem pronounced on Sp
toleration in Amsterdam, the so-called "D
the harshness of Spinoza's excommunicatio
ban as a disciplinary tool employed by the
ing with matters of orthodoxy within th
but also at the ban as a kind of diplomatic
within which the former conversos found
the use of the ban - particularly in a high
the limits of toleration in the Amsterdam
ethical, and social functions internal to th
The question of toleration within th
separated from the issue of toleration in
Portuguese conversos (or "marranos") fle
began settling in the Low Countries in re
century. There are two myths about the s
which is based on a kernel of historical tr
are variously dated between 1593 and 159
Spain, intercepted a ship containing a
Portugal. Among the passengers was the "
of her relatives. The ship and its cargo w
Duke who was commanding the British fle
they reached port, he asked her for her
Elizabeth heard about the affair, and orde
presence. She, too, was struck by Maria's
London society. Despite generous promis
entice her to stay in England, the brave a
journey to the Low Countries, where she
Queen finally relented, and gave her and

4The Tratado da Verdade de Lei de Moises , w

5There are a number of articles that exam

munication, the most thorough of which is
Excommunicated?" I take a detailed look at this q
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)

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The Excommunication of Spinoza 43

1598, after the arrival from Portugal of h

brothers, Maria married her cousin, M
establishment of the first converso (and p
A second tale more explicitly involves t
Amsterdam. Around 1602, the story runs,
bearing a number of Portuguese marr
disembarked and, after walking through t
motto (which they could not read) wri
ha 'olam ("Truth and peace are the foundatio
learned that this was the home of a Jew,
house and tried to communicate with him
Halevi called in his son Aaron, who knew
were recently arrived from Portugal and
children of Israel." Aaron responded that
Lutheran city such as Emden. He directed
to rent a particular house on the Jonkerstra
follow them there. Several weeks later, M
Amsterdam, circumcised the men, and led
While generations of Amsterdam's Sefar
behind the initial settlement of the city
mundane. Many Portuguese merchants m
greater economic and business opportunitie

6The Nunes story is first told by Daniel Lev

Portuguese Jewish community of the Netherland
ca. 1683-84). For an attempt to separate fact fr
Christiana Pieterse, Daniel Levi de Barrios als
Gemeente te Amsterdam in zijn "Triumpho del G
the Nunes wedding were published in Novem
"Baptism, Marriage, and Burial Registers," No. 66
that neither Maria nor her husband ever openly r
returned to Spain; see H. P. Salomon, "Myth or
Origin of Portuguese Judaism at Amsterdam
" Memoria para os siglos futuros : Myth and Mem
Community," Jewish History 2 (1987), pp. 62-7

7This story is first told by Moses Halevi's gran

Narracao da vinda dos Judeos espanhoes a Amster
to Barrios, these events took place around 1595

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44 SHOFAR Summer 2001 Vol. 19, No. 4

the rebellious United Provinces began bloc

Low Countries as a strategic element in th
Moreover, a good number of the Portug
northwards, and particularly to the Dutch
relaxed enforcement of religious uniformi
on the geographical distance from Iberia, bu
of Utrecht, which served as a kind of co
Netherlands: "Every individual should re
be molested or questioned on the subject
In Amsterdam in the first decade of t
Portuguese immigrants slowly and cautiou
Jewish beliefs and practices. They had to b
ities were ever vigilant. We are told that, e
Friday evening when neighbors reported
from the house in which the Jews were p
and all, and convinced that the unfamiliar
expecting a Catholic mass secretly being c
rabbi's son, after some difficulty, succeed
and not Catholics, and that the strange so
allowed to continue with their worship. A
to the famed Dutch tolerance. There w
religious thinking. But in the last decades o
the middle of the seventeenth, the only r
cities and provinces to be practiced was t
just liberated themselves from Catholic Ha
permit, at least officially, Catholic worsh
Alkmaar and Haarlem were, in 1604 an
to settle and practice their religion openly
It was well-known, by 1606, that there we
made a public request for burial grounds, a
well-populated congregations. In 1616, th
warning to the "Jewish Nation," ordering t
the Christian religion, from attempting

8This aspect of the history of Amsterdam J

Jonathan Israel in numerous articles. See especial
in International Trade, 1595-1715," Dutch J
Contribution of Dutch Sephardic Jewry to H
Geschiedenis 96 (1983) 505-35.

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The Excommunication of Spinoza 45

having sexual relations with Christian w

central legislative body for the province,
decide for itself whether and under what
if a town did decide to admit them, while
quarter, it could not compel them to wear
jurist Hugo Grotius put it, "Plainly, God des
here rather than elsewhere? . . . Besides,
service to us by teaching us the Hebrew lan
council finally followed suit and officially
practice their religion, with some restricti
rules against intermarriage and various so
The society in which the Jews found t
polity represented in the social interiors o
Ruisdael. Although, as of the signing of
with Spain had ceased, internal struggles o
United Provinces. On the one hand, there
deviation from doctrinal orthodoxy, especi
there were the so-called "Remonstrants,"
denied the strict doctrine of predestination
Church and university faculties quickly
Stadholder from the House of Orange side
Advocate (or principal officer) of the Stat
with his liberal followers, if not Remonst
attitude towards the Arminians. The forc
the time being, and the Synod of Dort of
from the Calvinist Church. A general
beheaded, and the harassment of Remonst
I suspect that part of the reason for Ams
was the strength of anti-Remonstrant fee

9See Arend H. Huussen, "The Legal Position o

Jewish History 1 ( 1 984), pp. 3 1-5 1 . For the histo
as a whole, see H. Brugmans and A. Frank, Gesch
and Jozeph Michman, Hartog Beem and Dan
gemeenschap in Nederland (Amsterdam: Joo
Mansfeld, De Sefardim Amsterdam tot 1795 (Hi

10For a comprehensive study of Dutch theolo

Jonathan Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise
University Press, 1995). See also J.L. Price, Hol
Century: The Politics of Particularism (Oxford:

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46 SHOFAR Summer 2001 Vol. 19, No. 4

exercised there by the strict Calvinist pred

camp in the Arminian controversy seemed
The outcome of the affair strengthened
elements in the Calvinist Church. Any kin
suspect than usual, and Jews, Catholics, an
generated by counter-Remonstrant force
their order warning the Jews not to make a
to regulate their conduct, and when it gra
condition that they keep to a strict observan
were, in part, efforts to insure that the J
religious matters, kept to themselves.
Thus the recently resettled Jews found
were refugees living in a society torn by
allowed to practice their religion. But the
told them to keep their house clean: enfo
affairs stray into ours. This must have left
a very strong desire to be cautious, to insur
community that would attract the attenti
down upon themselves any unfavorable ju
This was the situation around 1620, twel
out the intervening and subsequent years,
profile. In the regulations composed in 16
congregations into one, called Talmud Tor
decreed that there should be no public we
be offended by the display and the Jews b
was also, in accordance with Amsterdam's
Jews from discussing religious matters wit
them to Judaism, for this might "disturb
renewal of a prohibition that a joint board
1630, and violation of the regulation was p
In 1632, the governing board of the Sef
ben Israel for publishing a Latin translatio
tries to reconcile apparent contradictions
published in Spanish with the community'
for a Latin version, the Leiden theologica
they should not give Menasseh permission

nSee Arnold Wiznitzer, "The Merger Agreem

Torah of Amsterdam," Historia Judaica 20-21 (

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 The Excommunication of Spinoza 47

of "Jewish fables." Menasseh published it

leaders, who sought to prevent the publicat
Calvinists.

Even as late as the mid- 1 650s, over thirty years after being granted the right to live
openly as Jews, there is still evident a certain nervousness among the Portuguese
regarding how they were perceived by the Dutch, particularly with respect to the
appearance of loyalty and obedience to the Republic. This may explain why the
community refused to associate openly with the efforts, led by Menasseh ben Israel, to
reestablish a Jewish community in London. This project was initiated soon after the
close of the first Anglo-Dutch war, and the Jews may have been afraid not only of the
suspicion of treason, but also of the appearance of conflict of interest: are these resident
aliens - for such was still their legal status - more committed to their Judaism or to the
well-being and security of the Dutch Republic?
So the Jews needed (or at least felt they needed) to keep things in order. The most
powerful and efficient instrument for maintaining discipline and enforcing conformity
within the community was the ban, or cherem , a form of punishment exercised by
Jewish communities upon their members that goes back at least to the second century.
This was punishment by ostracism, and the punished person was denied a part in
community life, to one degree or another, depending upon the seriousness of his or her
offense. The punishment often lasted just for a day or two, until the person expressed
remorse, asked forgiveness, and (usually) paid a fine. Sometimes the period stretched
on for several weeks, months, or even years. Only rarely was the ban never rescinded,
in effect becoming a ban for life. For the designated period of time, the banned person
might be forbidden to be called to the Torah or performing any commandment in the
synagogue, or from being appointed to any communal office. A more serious
transgression might warrant exclusion from any minyan.
The Amsterdam Portuguese commuity was not shy about using the ban, and did so
thirty-six times between 1622 and 1683. 12 On fifty other occasions they threatened to
use it, hoping to deter specific transgressions. The power of excommunication was
vested in the ma 'amad, or governing board of laymen, whose members were called
parnas sim. They regularly consulted with the rabbis on matters related to excommuni-
cation - especially if it was a question of religious heterodoxy - but they were not
obliged to do so. The right of the Amsterdam parnassim to excommunicate members

12The records of excommunication are all contained in the community's Livro dos Acordos. The
most important and most extensive research on the use of the cherem by the Amsterdam congregation
has been done by Yosef Kaplan; see especially his "The Social Functions of the Herem in the
Portuguese Community of Amsterdam in the Seventeenth Century," Dutch Jewish History 1 (1984),
pp. 111-55.

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48 SHOFAR Summer 2001 Vol. 19, No. 4

of the gemeente went virtually uncontes

Menasseh ben Israel protested, claiming r
rogative belonged exclusively to the rabbis.
his impertinence he was excommunicated,
Excommunication was, in many cases,
regulations to violations of specific rules. 13
bring a ban were, first of all, those regar
synagogue, the organization of a minya
observance of the holidays. Then there w
for gambling or for lewd behavior in the
the ban included rules against marrying in
the presence of a rabbi, and bigamy. Ther
political structure of the community. For
disobeying a decision of the governing
bannable activities included making public
community, especially the rabbis; ma
Portuguese ambassador; writing letters to
religion, which might jeopardize the reci
descent - by putting them under suspicion
without permission; and removing a book
permission. The ban was also attached to r
gentiles, circumcision of gentiles without
cutting the hair of gentile women. In 163
disobeying and insulting a member of th
street. The ban was lifted after four days
a fine. Jacob Chamis was excommunicated
man without permission. Judah Coem wa
unknown offense. Joseph Abarbanel was ex
was kosher but from an Ashkenazic butch
more serious than any of these. He received
of the ban is remarkable for its passion an
that the community recognized that the
opinions - such as denying the divine orig
God's law - would warrant excommunicat
be easily found in the Talmud, Maimonide
of Rabbi Joseph Caro.

13For a discussion of excommunicable offenses,

see Kaplan, "The Social Functions of the Herem

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The Excommunication of Spinoza 49

In sum, the cherem was used widely to e

thought becoming to a proper Jewish com
in matters of everyday behavior, but als
expression of ideas. All of these would be p
founded by the descendents of conversos
practice for so long and who had only re
reeducated in the norms of Judaism. Such
Judaism, and thus in compensation might
to rigorous means (or at least threats ther
Sefardim did use the threat of excommuni
congregations (for example, those in H
measures. Even if we put aside speculation
the community had to work hard to main
of Jews whose faith and practice were still
of centuries of Iberian Catholicism; for e
may still have been tempted to continue
embellishing their celebration of the Puri
Thus, it is true that toleration within the
directly related to its status as a communit
But this must be supplemented by my ea
here - that there is also a direct connection
and toleration in Amsterdam and even Du
Dutch toleration. To be sure, after 1650 D
political upper hand, and the period of th
end of the decade. But the winds of Dutch
shifty, subject to sudden and radical chang
fairly cautious about putting too much c
wanted to reassure their Dutch hosts tha
ordered, and orthodox one. Thus, their u
maintaining internal communal discipline
communicate such reassurance.

This brings us back to Spinoza, whose excommunication was a public act of the
highest order. Spinoza came from a prominent merchant family in the community. His

14An important study of the various tensions and problems facing this community is Yosef
Kaplan, From Christianity to Judaism: The Story of Isaac Orobio de Castro (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1989).

15These radical changes in political direction were called wetsverzettingen and encompassed
overhauls of local and province-wide offices.

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 50 SHOFAR Summer 2001 Vol. 19, No. 4

father ran an importing business, dealing mo

took over the family business when his fathe
accounts of his youth and education, Spino
seems fairly certain that by the early to m
behavior) had turned away from the norms
later than 1655 that he began entertaining
excommunication. 16
To repeat, this excommunication was a p
believe, the Jewish community's way o
predikants : "Look, we can keep our house
a way of demonstrating their conformity t
council, that they should keep their membe
this cannot be all there is to it, for there w
who, by descent, technically (ethnically) b
were no longer (or perhaps never had been)
gogue was infrequent at best, they rarely c
formed so important a part of the commun
commitment to carrying out the mitzvot w
many Jews who frequented the city's taver
the food were likely to be kosher. While m
threatened with, and indeed punished by, ex
extreme prejudice which we find in the tex
Now Spinoza was almost certainly saying t
not just by Jews but by any devout Christi
central to the doctrines of the Calvinist pr
was also a way of demonstrating not just th
Jewish conduct, but also that the Jewish co
stripe.
What may have made the lay leaders of the congregation particularly nervous in the
1650s were certain battles that were initially tearing apart the Dutch universities, but
that eventually spread across intellectual, religious, and political society at large. In
1647, the curates of the University of Leiden forbade its professors in the faculties of

16The most important collection of documents related to Spinoza's early life is A. M. Vaz Dias
and W. G. van der Tak, "Spinoza, Merchant and Autodidact," in Studia Rosenthalia 16 (1982).

17There was a great deal of mercantile and social mixing between the Jews and the Dutch; the
Jewish quarter was no ghetto. The Dutch were frequent visitors to the synagogue, and the Jews were
often found frequenting the city's cafes. There can be no question that the Dutch were aware of - and
even took an interest in - momentous events in the Jewish community.

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The Excommunication of Spinoza 5 1

philosophy and theology to mention Descart

debates. Cartesian philosophy was soon ban
1 656, just before Spinoza's excommunicatio
ordered all professors of philosophy, "f
propagating the philosophemata drawn fro
give offense to a number of people." The Ca
was at one its periodic peaks in the year of
We do not know exactly when Spinoza be
and it could have been as early as 1654. It i
1655-56, Spinoza was publicly expressing C
to be engaged in the study of Cartesian ide
on the anti-Cartesian activity among the Du
it clear to the Calvinist powers-that-be th
Cartesians. This would give us a most direct
toleration within the Portuguese Jewish comm
cue from the restrictive attitudes and actio
troublesome - Dutch camp.
The view that I have really only sketched o
the excommunication of Spinoza, and when
toleration within the Amsterdam Jewish co
importance of the broader Dutch political
purposes it may have served, the cherem wa
of Amsterdam to reassure the Dutch that the
Jewish community in their midst. Let m
speculating on a rather interesting juxtapo
Spinoza published his radical and, to rel
Theologico-Politicus. On November 1 6, 1 67

18For a study of the fortunes of Descartes in th

the Dutch (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univers
Nederlands Cartésianisme (Amsterdam: Noord-Ho

19Yirmiyahu Yovel has argued against the plau

excommunication; see "Why Was Spinoza Excomm
46-52. He relies, in his argument against an over-sim
by the 1650s, the political power of the strict Calv
of De Witt was in the ascendency. But Yovel und
Netherlands were conscious of the instability of th
for this reason, "the question must remain open
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1958), Lewis Feuer offers a
context for Spinoza's cherem ; see chapter 1.

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52 SHOFAR Summer 2001 Vol. 19, No. 4

of Amsterdam a request from the Portugu

new synagogue, the magnificent one still i
needed a building that would be large eno
which at this point had reached over 250
request, fighting for seats, and the "unple
we cannot pay attention to praying to our
the community submitted a request to the
the regulations adopted by the communit
merged. In this second request they include
to excommunicate "unruly and rebellious p
two requests? Is the second request a g
Amsterdam regents that the same communi
synagogue also has provided its leaders
Spinoza's own motto, caute - caution -
Amsterdam Portuguese Jewish community

20The texts are found in Jaap Meijer, Beeldvo

Vroege Spinoza-Biografie (Heemstede, 1986), p

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