Editing Benjamin Musaphia

{{Short description|Jewish doctor, scholar and kabbalist}}
'''Benjamin ben Immanuel Musaphia''' (c. 1606 – 1675), also called '''Benjamin Musaphia''', '''Binyamin Moussafia''' or '''Mussafia''' and '''Dionysius''', was a Jewish doctor, scholar and [[Kabbalah|kabbalist]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=MUSSAFIA (MUSAPHIA), BENJAMIN BEN IMMANUEL - JewishEncyclopedia.com |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11244-mussafia-musaphia-benjamin-ben-immanuel |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref>

Musaphia was probably born in [[Spain]].  He married Sara Abigail da Silva, daughter of Semuel da Silva, in 1628. Their sons and grandsons joined the [[Duke of Holstein-Gottorp|court of the Gottorps]], and a daughter was married to [[Gabriel Milan]], who would later be appointed governor of the [[Danish West Indies]] (now the [[United States Virgin Islands]]). Around this time, Musaphia graduated from the [[University of Padua]] medical school, which was regarded as the best of its kind at the time.

He was a Hebrew lexicographer and philologist.<ref>{{Citation |last=Kaplan |first=Yosef |title='El Sabio Jacob Abendana' and the Spanish Translation of the Mishnah |date=2022-05-26 |work=The Mishnaic Moment: Jewish Law among Jews and Christians in Early Modern Europe |pages=132–154 |editor-last=van Boxel |editor-first=Piet |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/43094/chapter-abstract/361563146?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=2025-05-04 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oso/9780192898906.003.0006 |isbn=978-0-19-289890-6 |editor2-last=Macfarlane |editor2-first=Kirsten |editor3-last=Weinberg |editor3-first=Joanna|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Publications ==
After Sara's death on 7 August 1634, Musaphia dedicated ''[[Zekher Rav]]'', an adaptation of the [[creation myth]] in which all [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] word roots are used exactly once, to her. It was first published in [[Amsterdam]], [[Netherlands]], in 1635,<ref name="Heller-2021" /> and a second edition with a [[Latin]] translation was published in [[Hamburg]] in 1638.

Another work was published in 1640, namely ''[[Sacro-Medicæ Sententiæ ex Bibliis]]'', a medical treatise containing about 800 sentences on medicine. It contained a section on [[alchemy]] that created some stirring at the time. Musaphia also dedicated a work on ebb and flow to [[Christian IV of Denmark]] in 1642.

== Career ==
In 1646, while living in [[Glückstadt]], [[Holstein]], Musaphia was appointed royal physician to the Danish court by Christian IV.

Around 1648, probably in connection with the death of Christian IV, Musaphia went to Amsterdam and joined the college of rabbis. In 1655, he published an extended version of [[Nathan ben Jehiel]]'s [[Talmud]]ic dictionary ''Aruk''<ref name="Heller-2021" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Freudenthal |first=Gad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JgSL_SknwIYC&dq=binyamin+musafia&pg=PA398 |title=Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures |date=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-00145-9 |language=en}}</ref> (ca. 1100), titled ''Musaf he-'Aruk'', detailing many Jewish customs. The preface states that he had been collecting this information since a young boy. Musaphia was also working on a commentary of the Talmud in 1702, which was never published, and the manuscripts have since been lost.<ref>{{Citation |last=Miert |first=Dirk van |title='To the advantage of the Republic of Letters'? Guilielmus Surenhusius's Projects, Plans, and Collaborations Beyond the Mishnah |date=2022-05-26 |work=The Mishnaic Moment: Jewish Law among Jews and Christians in Early Modern Europe |pages=0 |editor-last=van Boxel |editor-first=Piet |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/43094/chapter-abstract/361565646?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=2025-05-04 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oso/9780192898906.003.0016 |isbn=978-0-19-289890-6 |editor2-last=Macfarlane |editor2-first=Kirsten |editor3-last=Weinberg |editor3-first=Joanna}}</ref>

He is described by [[Heinrich Graetz]] as a semi-[[Baruch Spinoza|Spinozist]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Graetz |first=Heinrich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=laM3DwAAQBAJ&dq=benjamin+musaphia&pg=PT177 |title=History of the Jews, Vol. 5 (of 6) |date=1901 |publisher=Litres |isbn=978-5-04-082681-0 |language=en}}</ref> He wrote a letter of homage to [[Sabbatai Zevi]] on his declaration of being the [[messiah in Judaism|messiah]]. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Grunewald |first=Jacquot |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uM8vAQAAIAAJ&q=binyami+moussafia |title=Ils sont fous, ces Juifs |date=1993 |publisher=A. Michel |isbn=978-2-226-06534-6 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Karpeles |first1=Gustav |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g55BAAAAYAAJ&dq=benjamin+moussafia+sabbatai&pg=PA521 |title=Histoire de la littérature juive |last2=Bloch |first2=Isaac |last3=Lévy |first3=Émile |date=1901 |publisher=E. Leroux |language=fr}}</ref> He became an enthusiastic advocate of the [[Sabbatean movement]].<ref name="Heller-2021">{{Citation |last=Heller |first=Marvin J. |title=Benjamin ben Immanuel Mussafia: A Study in Contrasts |date=2021-08-03 |work=Essays on the Making of the Early Hebrew Book |pages=208–224 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004441163/BP000017.xml |access-date=2025-05-04 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004441163_010 |isbn=978-90-04-44116-3|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ben-Ur |first=Aviva |date=2015 |title=Kabbalistic Pharmacopoeia: Well-Being in the Atlantic Jewish World |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/582243 |journal=Jewish Quarterly Review |volume=105 |issue=2 |pages=145–153 |doi=10.1353/jqr.2015.0010 |issn=1553-0604}}</ref> His work was discussed by [[Jacques Basnage]] and [[Menahem Amelander]], the latter of whom including the fact that his commentary on the [[Gemara Yerushalmi]] had not been published as of 1741.<ref name="Wallet-2012">{{Cite journal |last=Wallet |first=Bart |url=https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/1337025/103755_08.pdf |title=Links in a Chain: Early Modern Yiddish Historiography in the Northern Netherlands (1743-1812) |date=2012-01-01 |journal=Universiteit van Amsterdam [thesis, fully internal] |language=en}}</ref>

He is said to have assisted Spinoza with his return or repentance to Judaism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rosenfeld |first=Gavriel D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-1fWDAAAQBAJ&dq=binyamin+musafia&pg=PA115 |title=What Ifs of Jewish History |date=2016-09-08 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-03762-5 |language=en}}</ref>

He also researched the ocean tides.<ref>{{Cite book |last=LINDO |first=E. H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9VYHMxlH0oMC&dq=Benjamin+Musaphia+portuguese&pg=PA368 |title=THE JEWS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL |date=1848 |language=en}}</ref>

== Personal life and family ==

His brother Albert Dionis was one of the wealthiest Jews in Hamburg in 1614.<ref>Terslin, Milan, 9</ref>

Musaphia died in 1675,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Zunz |first1=Leopold |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7hAaEQAAQBAJ&dq=binyamin+musafia&pg=PA285 |title=The Itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela: Vol. II |last2=Asher |first2=Adolf |date=2024-08-15 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-3-368-89573-0 |language=en}}</ref> in Amsterdam.

== Sources ==
* H. C. Terslin, ''Guvernør over Dansk Vestindien Gabriel Milan og hans Efterkommere'' (Helsingør, 1926)
* Hauch-Fausbøll, ''Jødernes Færden og Ophold i den Danske State i 17. Aarh.'' (Tidsskrift for Jødisk Historie og Literratur II)
* [[Meyer Kayserling]], ''Jødernes Historie''
* J. Margolinsky, ''Benjamin Musaphia'' (Tidsskrift for Jødisk Historie og Literratur III)

== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{JewishEncyclopedia|title=MUSSAFIA (MUSAPHIA), BENJAMIN BEN IMMANUEL|url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11244-mussafia-musaphia-benjamin-ben-immanuel}}

== External links ==
* [http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1025&letter=M  ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' article]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12017898&dopt=Abstract The medical school of Padua and its Jewish graduates]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20041118020245/http://www.seforimonline.org/seforim3.html ''Zecher Rav'']}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Musaphia, Benjamin}}
[[Category:17th-century Danish Jews]]
[[Category:17th-century German Jews]]
[[Category:Danish alchemists]]
[[Category:Danish Sephardi Jews]]
[[Category:Dutch alchemists]]
[[Category:Kabbalists]]
[[Category:Jewish Dutch writers]]
[[Category:Spanish Jews]]
[[Category:Danish people of Spanish descent]]
[[Category:Dutch Sephardi Jews]]
[[Category:German Sephardi Jews]]
[[Category:1675 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:17th-century alchemists]]