The Dedication of the Esnoga, the Great Synagogue of Amsterdam

David de Castro Tartas

1675

. . .  with the Torah scrolls [sefarim] . . . encircling the Esnoga, accompanied by torches, the kindling of lights which adorn the building; with pleasant choruses of music, with celebrated instruments, and with divine lyrics whose harmony was so delicate [suave] and angelic that it felt like a house where God is present . . . and in order to imitate the dedication of the Holy Temple, there were eight days of festivities, always with the same solemnity, accompanied each day by a sermon given by the rabbis of the congregation. [ . . . ]

I assure you my benevolent reader, that these [celebrations] were more like holidays [Pascuas] with liberty in the Temple than festivities of captivity in a Synagogue.

Translated by Ronnie Perelis.

Credits

David Tartas, from Sermoes que pregarão os doctos ingenios do K.K. de Taalmud Torah des ta cidade de Amsterdam [Sermons preached by the wise scholars of the K. K. of Taalmud Torah of the city of Amsterdam], 17th century.

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To commemorate the dedication of the new and very grand Portuguese synagogue of Amsterdam, printer David de Castro Tartas put together a commemorative pamphlet in Portuguese of sermons that had been given during the festive eight days of dedication. The synagogue was built after half a century of open Jewish life in Holland and became a fixture of public life in cosmopolitan Amsterdam. His introduction to the pamphlet captures the values, sentiments, and hopes of the community upon reaching this major milestone. In this excerpt, Tartas offers a glimpse of the pageantry of the eight days of dedication, describing how the congregation entered.

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Creator Bio

David de Castro Tartas

1630–1698

David de Castro Tartas was a printer in Amsterdam from 1663 to 1695 and the publisher of rabbinical writings, including prayerbooks, in Hebrew, Spanish, and Portuguese. Between 1662 and 1701 his press printed the Gazeta de Amsterdam, considered to be the first Jewish newspaper. He was one of three sons of Portuguese New Christians who fled Portugal and eventually moved to Amsterdam to live freely as Jews. De Castro Tartas worked for the printer Manasseh ben Israel in Amsterdam before setting up his own press in 1662. In 1678, he became a member of the Amsterdam Printers’ Guild, competing with other well-known Jewish printers of the time. In 1684, de Castro Tartas published a lavish edition of Mikhlol Yofi (God Shines Forth), a grammatical commentary on the Torah, Joshua, Judges, and Chronicles. With approbations from the famous Christian Hebraist Johann Buxtorf and from four professors in Leiden, it marks the first time a Jewish press sought to attract Christian subscribers by including a Latin title page and Latin approbations in a Hebrew book.