Creator Bio
Moses Raphael d’Aguilar
ca. 1620–1679
A Sephardic rabbi and author in Amsterdam, Moses Raphael d’Aguilar might have been born in Portugal to a family of New Christians and returned to Judaism in childhood. He accompanied Isaac Aboab da Fonseca to Brazil, where he lived from 1642 to 1654, serving as the cantor of the Jewish community in Recife. After his return to Amsterdam, he taught in the seminary of the community and was appointed to the rabbinic court. Among his many writings in Hebrew, Spanish, and Portuguese, most of which remain in manuscript, are works on logic, rhetoric, and theology.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
Consulta sobre o uso das pinturas (Inquiry into the Use of Paintings)
Since the law prohibits one, in no uncertain terms, from depicting figures, the question one may ask is how Jews have had all manner of paintings in their homes? And it is not enough to say that only…
Primary Source
Breve discurso contra a doctrina de Calvino (Short Discourse against Calvin’s Doctrine)
What Calvin alleges as substantiation for his pseudo-doctrine that men are prevented from doing good deeds and engaging in the truth because of their corrupt nature, arising from Adam’s sin and that…