The spirit of the eighteenth century in the anti-sabbatean polemics of Hakham David Nieto

Matt Goldish

pp. 229-243

in: The legacies of Richard Popkin, Berlin, Springer, 2008

Abstract

I had many conversations with Dick Popkin about Hakham David Nieto and his unique place in the rapidly shifting world of Jewish thought at the turn of the eighteenth century. Dick thought Nieto, as a critic of the Shabbatai Zvi movement, was an anti-enthusiastic sceptic. He was especially interested, however, in Nieto's positive stance toward both science and Kabbalah. Nieto's diplomatic solution to the problem of the age of the Zohar places him squarely in the middle of Dick's sceptical tradition. My investigations into Nieto's thought, like everything else I do, are heavily colored by both Dick's advice and his published research. This will be immediately clear to anyone who peruses the footnotes below. Yehe zikhro barukh.