Epístola invectiva contra Prado (A Harsh Epistle against Prado)

Prologue

“Ignorance is a sickness without remedy if it is allied with arrogance,” said a Greek philosopher, and quite rightly so, because the rational soul, submerged since its origin in the gross materialism of the human body, had no knowledge or information concerning the mighty hand of its creator, nor can it obtain them until, by extrinsic instruction, they are communicated to it by the internal and external senses. It is, thus, the divine doctrine which is the sole remedy that enables human understanding to recover from the shameful malady of ignorance. In order for this remedy actually to take place, it is necessary for the comprehension to be persuaded that it does not know the thing of which it is ignorant, since, if it believes that it is not ignorant of that which it does not know, it will not accept doctrine, nor will it yield to the useful and necessary instruction in which the salutary cure for its innate indisposition resides. This readiness to be instructed, this humble willingness to receive teaching, is generally called docility, and this is what Solomon asked of God when He opened up to him the treasures of His omnipotence; because Solomon knew that the sole means of acquiring knowledge is to submit oneself to be taught, is to humble oneself to receive instruction from the One who can transmit it.

But if one’s understanding is persuaded that it already knows the thing of which it is ignorant, and that it does not require further information, and that no one is capable of teaching it, then it must remain in the abyss of its ignorance; arrogance hinders it from taking the cure, which consisted of religious doctrine, and if this is rejected, there is no hope of gaining health for a mind that is sick with what it does not know.

Those who withdraw from idolatry to the provinces where liberty is permitted to Judaism are of two kinds:

The ones who, upon arriving at the desired port and receiving the sacred covenant, employ all of their will in loving the divine law, striving (as much as the power of their understanding allows it) to learn what is necessary to religiously observe the sacred precepts, laws, and ceremonies which, during that same captivity, they and their elders forgot. They listen humbly to those who, having been raised in Judaism and learned the law, can explain it. They make themselves (as much as they can) open to the laudable ways, traditions, and customs that Israel observes throughout the world, each according to his station and possibility, so as to arrange his life in the service of God and to avoid the errors which were previously occasioned by ignorance. They became sick with ignorance; but, since they were not attended by the horrible sickness of arrogance, they were easily cured, tasting the sacred and healthful medicine which the mercifulness of their brethren offers them; for, upon their arrival, from the greatest rabbi to the simplest layman, all strive to teach them so that they should not err in the observance of the divine law.

Others come to Judaism who, in the lands of idolatry, studied some profane sciences such as logic, physics, metaphysics, and medicine. They arrive no less ignorant of the law of God than the former, but filled with vanity, arrogance, and haughtiness, persuaded that they are most learned in all subjects, that they know it all; and even though they are ignorant of what is most essential, they believe that they know everything. They enter under the happy yoke of Judaism, they begin to hear from those who know the things of which they are ignorant, and their vanity and arrogance do not permit them to accept the teaching in order to emerge from ignorance; it seems to them that they are denigrating their scholarly reputations if they allow themselves to be taught by those who really are learned in the sacred law; they affect great knowledge in contradicting that which they do not understand, although all of it is true, all is holy, all is divine. It seems to them that making sophistic arguments without any foundation proves that they are clever and well versed. And the worst of it is that they are considered to be so among some who, either due to their few years or their innate indisposition, fancy themselves wise. And even though they understand nothing of what the stupid philosopher says against the law of God, they act as if they understand it, in order to not confess that they do not understand it and thus pass for men of understanding. In the end, they make the philosopher more arrogant. Their arrogance increases and with it, their impiousness, so that within a short space of time they fall into the abyss of apostasy and heresy, both the ignorant philosopher and those who enthusiastically spread his doctrine. This entire miserable precipice had its origin in the ignorance of a student or a physician, whose arrogance did not allow him to understand the divine antidote of the doctrine of our sages and teachers, past and present. And since one [Baruch Spinoza], with a great scandal for our nation, attained his extreme ruin by such steps and infected others who, from outside Judaism, gave credit to him and his stupid sophisms, it seemed to me necessary and acceptable for the pious to contest those opinions which his maliciousness sought to introduce into the souls of the credulous [i.e., gullible], and to reply to the propositions that he advances in the form of supposed questions.