Saul Levi Mortera
Saul Levi Mortera was born in Venice, of Ashkenazic origin. In 1612, he left for Paris as assistant to Elijah Montalto, Jewish (former converso) physician to the French queen. In 1616, Mortera escorted Montalto’s body to burial in Amsterdam and subsequently settled there. He soon rose to prominence and was appointed a ḥakham. He was the head of the Keter Torah confraternity. Baruch Spinoza was one of Mortera’s students, and later Mortera was a member of the rabbinic court that excommunicated Spinoza. In 1645, Mortera’s students published Giv‘at Shaul (Hill of Saul), a selection of his sermons, which includes a short biographical sketch. Five hundred and fifty of his Hebrew sermons are held in manuscript by the library of the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest. A Hebrew work by Mortera on the immortality of the soul has not survived, and only fragments of his responsa have reached us. He also wrote a Portuguese work defending the divine origin of the Hebrew Bible.
Content by Saul Levi Mortera
Primary Source
Giv‘at Shaul (The Hill of Saul)
Primary Source
Breath of Life
Primary Source
Tratado de la verdad de la ley de Moseh y Providencia de Dios con su pueblo (Treatise on the Truth of the Law of Moses and the Providence of God with His People)
Primary Source
Triumfo de la Sagrada Ley: En repuesta a diversas questiones hechas por un fraile de Ruan (The Triumph of the Sacred Law: In Response to Various Questions Posed by a Cleric of Rouen)
Related Guide
Early Modern Rabbis and Intellectuals on the Move
Carrying books and knowledge, itinerant rabbis and scholars traveled between communities, facilitating cultural exchange.
Related Guide
Early Modern Spiritual Ideologies
Early modern Jewish spiritual life encompassed diverse elements, including theology, ethics, liturgy, and messianism.
Related Guide
Education and Scholarship
The early modern period featured educational reforms, anti-Christian polemics, and growing Jewish university participation.