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The Hebrew inscription on blank facing title page states that the book is a gift to an unnamed Bar Mitzva boy from Rabbi Itzik Lipman Buhtal and thet the Bar Mitzva ceremony will be held on the holy Sabbath of the Kedoshim Bible portion will be read [= 13 day in the month of Iyyar, the Sabbath when Leviticus XIX, XX] in the year [5]592 [= May 13, 1832 C.E.]. Mate Dan Kuzari, khelek sheni is a book of philosophy. It is the third edition. Title within typographic border. Approbation from R. Arye Leib Ginsburg, the rabbi of Metz, author of "Sha'agatArye." Arranged in the form of a debate. Built entirely on the basis of "know what to answer." The author was the leader of the London Sephardic community. Rabbi David Nieto, a native of Venice was both a rabbi and a medical doctor in Livorno before moving to London. He was fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Hebrew, and Latin and was a brilliant and cosmopolitan man who was ideally suited to lead the diverse Sephardic community in England's capital. London's Sephardim had at the beginning of the 18th century achieved the building of a synagogue (1701, Bevis Marks). Those controversial treatises actually in Hebrew were and are particularly rare. NIETO, DAVID (1654 1728), philosopher and haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London (1701 1728). Having studied medicine at the University of Padua, Nieto functioned as dayyan, preacher and physician in Leghorn before going to London. He was proficient in languages and an astronomer of some repute. His calendar (1717) served the London community until the 19th century as a guide for the Sabbath and festivals. His works indicate that he was fully aware of the religious currents and crosscurrents of his time, including *Spinozism, Deism (see conceptions of *God), and Shabbateanism. MATTEH DAN (1714), his magnum opus, devoted to a defense of the Oral Law against the attacks of ex Marranos to whom the rabbinic tradition was both novel and unacceptable, has frequently been reprinted as a defense of rabbinic Judaism (last edition: Jerusalem, 1958). ESH DAT (1715) was directed against the Shabbatean heresiarch, Nehemiah Hiyya Hayon. Previously, Nieto had published PASCALOGIA (1702), dealing with the date of the Christian Easter in relation to that of the Jewish Passover, and DE LA DIVINA PROVIDENCIA (1704). The latter was an elaboration of a sermon Nieto had delivered to combat the deistic notion of a "Nature" apart from God Nieto identified Nature with God; and, although he made it clear that he had NATURA NATURANS, and not NATURA NATURATA (see *Spinoza) in mind, he was accused of Spinozistic leanings. Nevertheless, "Hakham Zevi" Ashkenazi (cf. his responsum number 18) ruled in his favor. Nieto's REPLY TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF CRANGANOR, published posthumously in 1729, controverts the christological interpretation of the Bible. In his writings, Nieto gives evidence of wide reading in science and the humanities. He argues for the compatibility of Judaism and scientific investigations. Nieto is also one of the very few Jewish theologians who used the argument de consensu gentium to establish the dogmas of God's existence and of retribution. Seller Inventory # 007088
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