Six,
Go to bed. It is not going to get any better tonight. A piece of hard work has gone down the drain and Ona is demanding I take a beating so I'm going to bed.
I'll try again tomorrow.
Jst2laws
Uriel Acosta (TRUE STORY) Just another victim of FUNDAMENTALISM,
by jst2laws 13 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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SixofNine
Ona is demanding I take a beating so I'm going to bed.
Good for you! (So long as there is no tapping of fingers impatiently)
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Utopian_Raindrops
http://www.saudades.org/uriel.html
THE TRAGIC LIFE OF URIEL DA COSTA
By David E. Bertao
The following story is a tragic one, not only because it involves a life cut down before its time, but because it carried to the grave the unrevealed wisdom of a brave and inquisitive Portuguese mind. The hero of our story wrote down for posterity far too little for historians to get a good grasp of him. He has been called variously a philosopher, a rationalist, and a free-thinker, ambiguous terms that can mean many things. Or nothing at all.
Gabriel da Costa, as he was originally known, was born into an aristocratic family of New Christians in the northern Portuguese city of
Gabriel da Costa was an independent thinker who struggled against the religious orthodoxy of his day. His nature was to question what others took for granted. A diligent study of the Bible led him to question the Catholic Church's insistence on following certain rituals as a condition for attaining salvation. Further, from his point of view, certain material in the New Testament contradicted material in the Old Testament. Since both Jews and Christians believed in the Old Testament and only Christians in the New Testament, he came to believe in Judaism as the religion that was closest to the truth. There are two versions of what happened next.
In version 1, based on a reading of his autobiography, he carefully studied the Bible and then worked out a form of Judaism that was consistent with the Word, as he understood it. It was this Judaic philosophy that he took to .
In version 2, based on Portuguese Inquisition archives, he first adopted the variant form of Judaism once practiced by his mother's family and only when he was in did he put the final touches on his Judaic philosophy
In any case, his father died, leaving a widow with six sons all filled with a desire to convert to Judaism. But to do that in meant bringing the Inquisition down on them. So they converted their wealth into goods that could be carried and secretly embarked by ship for . Secrecy was important because all New Christians were required to obtain a special license from the king before leaving the kingdom. Once in , the entire family embraced Judaism, with Gabriel becoming Uriel, and his mother choosing Sarah. Although most published works show his name as "Acosta", he himself signed his name as "Uriel da Costa" and that is how it's shown here.
It was in that Uriel da Costa's nightmare began. Soon after his arrival, he found Judaism, as it was practiced there, to be at variance with what he had come to believe. To him it seemed rather like Catholicism, an elaborate structure based on rules and tradition. So he wrote ELEVEN THESES (1616) as an attack on rabbinic Judaism. Ordered to recant, he refused. Excommunication followed in 1623. In answer, he prepared a larger work entitled EXAMEN DOS TRADIÇOENS PHARISEAS (1624). The rabbis managed to get the local magistracy to arrest him, throw him into prison for eight or ten days, and publicly burn his books.
Excommunication was not an easy ordeal. It did not end at the doors of the synagogue. All in the Jewish community, at the risk of excommunication were ordered to refrain from any relations with him and to make his life difficult whenever they could. He later recounted how even children ridiculed him in the street and threw rocks at this windows, how his every misfortune was joy to the rabbis, and how even his brothers ignored him.
Only his aged mother stood by him in this difficult time. For this loyalty, she, too, was excommunicated. Realizing that she might not have long to live and not desiring to accord her a Jewish burial, the rabbis wrote to Venice for advice: "Therefore we desire from you in case she dies in this time of resistance if we could let her lay on the soil without burying her at all or should we bury her in consideration of her honorable sons [Uriel's brothers]." On , a "Sara de Costa" was buried in the Beth-Chaim cemetery at Ouderkerk.
Further misfortune befell him when his wife, whom he had recently married, died. He found himself isolated from Christian society because he was a Jew and isolated from Jewish society because he was an excommunicated heretic. He had no friends and did not speak the local language. Of himself he wrote: "I was naturally very pious and compassionate, in so much that I could not hear the story of any person's misfortunes without melting into tears; and had such an innate sense of modesty, that I dreaded nothing so much as to suffer disgrace." Yet suffer he did, of course.
In 1633, he sought reconciliation with the Jewish rabbis and recanted his views. A cousin acted as go-between. Although readmitted to the congregation, he had not, in fact, significantly changed his thinking. A nephew who lived with him found his preparation of meat to be not in accord with Jewish custom. And he told family members all about it. The go-between cousin, hearing this, felt betrayed, took Uriel da Costa as his enemy, and set out to do anything to hinder him in his pursuit of personal and business affairs. He spared no energy in trying to ruin Uriel's life, including stepping in to prevent an upcoming marriage.
A short time later and under suspicion, Uriel was asked for advice by two Christians who desired to convert to Judaism. He advised against it and secured a promise from them that they would not tell the rabbis. Of course, that is exactly what they did.
Excommunicated again, he was ostracized by 's Jewish community for seven years. In 1640, unable to endure the situation any longer, he reapproached the rabbis for readmittance. His public recantation, enduring 39 lashes with leather thongs across a bare back, and being forced to prostrate himself so that the entire congregation could trod on him as they left the synagogue left him so demoralized and depressed that he was unable to live with himself. After writing his autobiography, EXEMPLAR HUMANAE VITAE (1640), he set out to end the lives of both his cousin and himself. Seeing his relative approach one day, he grabbed a pistol and pulled the trigger. It misfired. Then he reached for another, turned it on himself, and fired, dying, they said, a terrible death.
Uriel da Costa is sometimes viewed as a hero in the fight against religious intolerance. Certainly he was a martyr in it. Central to his belief was that religion was disruptive of natural law, and a source of hatred and superstition. What he advocated was a faith based on natural law and reason. In this, he is thought to have inspired the great philosopher Spinoza, who was eight years old at the time of the suicide.
Perhaps the real "story" for most of us is this: How far are we willing to go and what are we willing to give up for our beliefs. In the introduction to her translation of the Gutzkow tragedy, URIEL ACOSTA, Sarah Dorsey wrote:
"It is not in condemnation of Jews I have translated this book, but because it interested me, and because all over the earth - wide as humanity itself - extends the struggle of bold thought with blinded prejudice, and everywhere the consequences are evil when prejudice prevails.
"Every man who thinks must sympathize with Acosta. The man who seeks humbly and reverently for truth must, perhaps, ever be a martyr in some way, in a world struggling to free itself from superstition ..."
The suffering of Uriel da Costa stands as a tragic example of what can happen when freedom of thought and freedom of worship are taken away.
D.E.B.
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bikerchic
Oh my! Utopian_Raindrops has done gone and showed you up J-2, leave it to a woman to do a man's work whilest he is sleeping!Bawahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
Very interesting story, I enjoyed the read. Strange how so long ago things stay the same no matter how much people think history has changed for the better, among some "societies" it's the same 'ol thing different era.
Craig and I are looking forward to seeing you and joy whoot,whoot, yeah we've heard you two are real party animals, hope we can keep up!
Utopian_Raindrops did you see pettygrudger was paging you? You've been missed around here and nice to hear from you, hope you are here to stay.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/55758/1.ashx BTW thanks for coming to jst2's rescue(LOL rubbing it in) I enjoyed the read.
Kate