Isaac Abravanel, the most famous Portuguese Jewish figure, was born in Lisbon in 1437 to a family from the Jewish aristocracy of Seville. He was Minister of Finance under the portuguese King Afonso V and an eminent philosopher and Bible exegete. He served the Crown with his financial talent, without ever neglecting his study of the Holy Scriptures. In addition to the philosophical, theological and biblical studies for which he had been prepared by the Lisbon rabbi Joseph Hayun, Abravanel was well acquainted with Greek and Arabic history and philosophy. As a polyglot - in addition to Portuguese and Spanish, he spoke Hebrew, Latin and Italian - he had access to various documents and sources. From a financial point of view, together with Guedelha Palaçano and Moisés Latam, he also made an important contribution to the king in the war against Castile. His political career in Portugal peaked between 1478 and 1481, as did his fortune. The father of three sons and two daughters, and despite his many political and financial commitments, Abravanel maintained his exegetical work, namely commentaries on the early prophets and a critical reading of Maimonides. His residence thus became a centre for intellectual debate and also for deciding the most important issues concerning the fate of Portuguese Jews, at the head of which he had been placed. All this ended with the death of King Afonso V in August 1481. His son and successor, King João II, radically changed his father's policy towards the nobility, dealing a decisive blow to the power of the great feudal lords, limiting their economic and judicial powers and centralising them in the Crown. Among these was the Duke of Bragança, holder of a third of Portuguese land and key positions in the power of the state. His friendship with the Duke left Abravanel in an uncomfortable situation and he decided to leave Portugal for Spain. In May 1485, he was sentenced in absentia by King João II to "cruel natural death, and as long as he is found and seen in these kingdoms, he should be hanged and die on the gallows, and be there forever". A man of deep faith, Abravanel interpreted this tragedy as divine punishment for neglecting the Scriptures and devoted himself intensely to writing his biblical commentaries. But this interregnum didn't last long. In mid-March 1484, he was summoned to the presence of the Catholic Monarchs in Tarragona. Spain was still at war with the Arab kingdom of Granada and the Crown needed funds to stop it. Knowing Abravanel's reputation as a former financier to the King of Portugal, he began to serve the Catholic Monarchs, reorganising the state's finances and managing the fortunes of many of Spain's nobles. |
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By 1491, he had already become the Queen's financial agent, enjoying the trust of both sovereigns, to whom he was also the spokesman for the Jewish community. Continuing to write his biblical commentaries, Abravanel was far from imagining that a year later he would be confronted and involved in one of the Jewish world's greatest tragedies. The persecutions that began in 1391 with forced conversions had been drastically aggravated by the "Blood Cleansing" laws instituted in 1449 and the establishment of the Inquisition Court in 1478, which had already put converts and Jews to death by fire in autos-de-fé. Despite this, and even after Granada was taken from the Moors in January 1492, no one foresaw the decision that the Catholic Monarchs would take, which would be the decisive step towards the destruction of Iberian Jewry: on 31 March of that same year, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile secretly signed the decree to expel all Jews from their respective kingdoms, as well as from other Spanish possessions such as Mallorca, Sicily and Sardinia. The choice was banishment or baptism. Isaac Abravanel, together with Rabbi Abraham Senior and other members of the Jewish elite, tried to overturn the expulsion measure. With the queen, to whom he was closest, Abravanel tried to dissuade her in an audience, later recounted in his commentary on the Book of Kings, to which the sovereign replied, "Do you believe that this comes from us? It was God who put this plan in the king's heart." The Edict of Expulsion was published on 1 May 1492, sparking panic among the Jewish population, who were still waiting for it to be revoked. Many took refuge in Portugal, others went to the Ottoman Empire, and others converted. The kings tried everything to keep Isaac Abravanel, Abraham Senior and his son-in-law Meir Melamed, as well as the most prominent Jews in the community in Spain, through conversion. But Abravanel resisted and decided to accompany his ill-fated brothers into exile. Portugal was out of the question after everything that had happened. So he left for Italy on a long journey that ended in Venice in 1503, dying aged 71 in 1508. Wherever he settled, especially Naples, Palermo and Messina, Abravanel was always noted for his work as a financier, biblical commentator and philosopher. Three of his works were printed and published in 1505 in Constantinople. On his death, he was honoured by the Venetian authorities and Jewish communities. As Roland Goetschel writes, "this double honour reflected the dual vocation of a man who knew how to combine the particular and the universal, politics and theology, thought and action". |
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