Karaism and Christian Hebraism: A New Document

Author(s): Daniel J Lasker

Source: Renaissance Quarterly , Vol. 59, No. 4 (Winter 2006), pp. 1089-1116
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of
America
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1353/ren.2008.0518

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 Karaism and Christian Hebraism:
A New Document*
by D A N I E L J. L A S K E R

In September 1641 Joannes Stephanus Rittangel sent a Hebrew letter to John Selden, the
prominent English jurist and Christian Hebraist, soliciting Selden’s assistance in publishing
Karaite manuscripts. The letter’s publication here contributes both to our knowledge of the
activities of Rittangel — expert in Karaism and Professor Extraordinary of Semitic languages at
the University of Koenigsberg — and to the picture we have of Christian Hebraism in England.
From this letter and from references to Rittangel in contemporary literature, we can reconstruct
some of his activities from the time he was recorded to have been in Lithuania at the end of 1640
to his appearance in Amsterdam in late 1641. We can also appreciate how knowledge of Karaism
was spread among English Christians such as John Selden and Ralph Cudworth, and also how
that information contributed to the millenarianism of Samuel Hartlib and John Dury.

1. I N T R O D U C T I O N

T he Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, has

in its collection a Hebrew letter, written on 29 September 1641, sent
by Joannes Stephanus Rittangel (1606–52) to John Selden (1584–1654),
prominent English jurist and Christian Hebraist, with a request to help
publish Karaite manuscripts that were in Rittangel’s possession.1 This letter
is written in a flowery Hebrew style, with lavish encomia for Selden, and
its discovery contributes both to our knowledge of the activities of
Rittangel — expert in Karaism and Professor Extraordinary of Semitic
languages at the University of Koenigsberg — as well as to an appreciation
of the impact of Karaism upon Christian Hebraism in England during
the same period. It is presented here for the first time in facsimile,

*
I would like to thank the directors and staff of The Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library, Yale University, for their gracious assistance to my research, which was
carried out during my stay at Yale as the Horace W. Goldsmith Visiting Professor in Judaic
Studies. I would like to thank the Yale University Judaic Studies Program for inviting me
to spend the 2004–05 academic year at Yale. Additional research was conducted at the
Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, whose staff I also thank. This paper
could have not been written without the assistance of Gerald J. Toomer, and it benefited
greatly from the comments of Jason Rosenblatt, Adam Shear, and Joseph Yahalom.
1
The letter, whose call number is OSB (Osborn) Mss. File S, folder 14513, is incor-
rectly cataloged and is attributed to a nonexistent “John Stevens.” It is also described in the
catalogue as a request for information about the Karaites, rather than a request to publish
their works. On the Karaites and Karaism, see below, pp. 1094–96.

Renaissance Quarterly 59 (2006): 1089–1116 [ 1089 ]

1090 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T E RLY

with a transcription of the original Hebrew and an annotated English

translation.

2. T H E A U T H O R
Joannes Stephanus Rittangel was born on 2 January 1606 in Forchheim in
Bamberg.2 Rittangel’s excellent command of Hebrew and of Jewish sources
has led some people to assume that he was born a Jew, and all the early
discussions of Rittangel mention his possible Jewish background. Some
have even claimed that he was born a Catholic, converted to Judaism, and
then converted to Protestantism. It is quite improbable, though, that he
was born Jewish.3 Rittangel spent his younger years in intensive study of the
Hebrew language and of Jewish literature and is reported to have spent up
to twenty years among the Jews.4 Since he was only thirty-five when he
wrote the present letter to Selden, this figure may be exaggerated. A second
account, recording twelve years of study among the Jews of the East, is
more likely.5

2
Jöcher, vol. 3, col. 2115. As was often the case in that period, the family name is
spelled in various different forms, depending, among other things, on the language in which
it was written; in the present letter, it is written “Rittangl.” Joannes Stephanus is the Latin
form of the name as it appears in the letter; the German would be Johann Stefan. It might
be added that Rittangel’s legacy has fallen on hard times. Bayle, 1737, 4:880–81, devotes
a long discussion to him (the first edition of the original Dictionary does not have an entry
for Rittangel, although he does appear in the third edition: Bayle, 1715, 3:423–24 [citations
here will be from the 1737 edition]); Wolf, 1:475–79, 3:358–60, outlines all his publica-
tions. The Jewish Encyclopedia, 10:431, has only a short entry on him (written by Joseph
Jacobs); more recently, the list of Christian Hebraists in Encyclopedia Judaica, 8:21–67, does
not even mention him. The sad fate of Rittangel’s legacy has been noted by Rooden and
Wesselius, 131.
3
If Rittangel were an apostate, it is unlikely that he would have been praised both by
Karaites and by his other Jewish correspondents (see below, p. 1093). Pierre Bayle, who
discussed the question of Rittangel’s religious status at length, calls him a “converted Jew”
(1737, 4:880–81), but from the evidence he adduces it would seem that this was not the
case. One consideration against his having been a Jew from birth, or a temporary convert
to Judaism, is the testimony of one informant that, although Rittangel’s wife had sexual
complaints against him, his being circumcised was not one of them. See also Jöcher, vol. 3,
col. 2115.
4
Samuel Hartlib and John Dury, two Hebraists with whom Rittangel had dealings
while in England, are the source of this report. See Hartlib, 10 (cited also in Webster, 1970,
96): “twenty years wholly spent amongst the Jewes of the East, and some of the West”;
Dury, e3r: “he who in Asia and some part of Europe hath been above twenty years con-
versant with them [the Karaites].”
5
Bayle, 1737, 4:881, n. B. In his introduction to the edition of Sefer Yezខ irah, Rittangel,
1642, 3r, writes “From my youth I have sat amid the dust of the feet of the sages” (cf. Avot
 K A R A I S M A N D CHR IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1091

Although we do not know when Rittangel began his sojourn among

the Karaites, we do know when he ended it. He is mentioned in a Karaite
historical work as having visited Troki, the main Karaite center of
Lithuania, in 1640–41. The author, Mordecai ben Nisan (d. 1709), re-
sponding to an inquiry by the Christian Hebraist Jacob Trigland (1652–
1705) in 1699, writes the following about Rittangel: “Every sage and
scholar among the Christians and the Germans all admit that the true
original religion, which was received on Mt. Sinai by ‘the faithful one of
God’s house’ [that is, Moses: see Num. 12:7], is found among the Karaites.
For instance, in the year 5401 [1640–41], a German sage named Rittangel
visited the holy community of Troki. His soul cleaved to the Karaite
religion, he studied their books intensely, and he visited all the places
where the Karaites live. He used to praise exceedingly the religion and its
books in his writings, which he wrote from community to community.
May his memory ascend for good before the God of the spirits [Num.
16:22]!”6
Apparently it was from Lithuania in late 1640 or early 1641 that
Rittangel set out to take up his position of Professor Extraordinary of
Semitic languages at the University of Koenigsberg, where he was elected
to the professorship on 5 November 1640.7 Before arriving at his final
destination, Rittangel intended to stop in Amsterdam to publish his edition
and Latin translation of Sefer Yezខ irah (The Book of Formation), one of the
classic books of Jewish mysticism. On the way, however, his ship was
attacked by “Dunkerkers,” or maritime pirates, and he ended up against his
will in England in early 1641.8 During his time in England, he became very
well known among the small but influential group of Christian Hebraists,
men such as Samuel Hartlib (ca. 1600–62), John Dury (1596–1680),

1:4). Perhaps, then, he did begin his studies with the various Jewish communities at age
fifteen.
6
Mordecai ben Nisan, 1830, 6a; 1966, 37.
7
Rooden and Wesselius, 140.
8
Dunkirk privateering must have been a major problem at the time, since it was
discussed in the British House of Lords on 18 June 1641 (along with French piracy): see
Journal of the House of Lords, 4:279–80. In his introduction to his edition of Sefer Yezខ irah,
Rittangel, 1642, 3v, calls what happened to him and his manuscripts a “disaster” (Hebrew
’ason; the Latin says that the manuscripts perished without indicating the reason). Hartlib,
10, provides the information that this disaster was piracy, an event which he understood as
a sign of divine providence: see also Webster, 1970, 96. Popkin, 1988, 7, writes that
“Rittangel turned up in London as the result of a shipwreck”: this would seem to be
inaccurate.
1092 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T ERLY

Ralph Cudworth (1617–88), and Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670), to

whom he imparted his knowledge about the Karaites.9 After spending some
time in London, Rittangel went to Cambridge. It was there on 29
September 1641 that he addressed the letter to John Selden; by late 1641
he was already in Amsterdam.10 His edition of Sefer Yezខ irah was published
there in 1642, he conducted a Hebrew correspondence with a Jew in
Amsterdam concerning the meaning of Gen. 49:10 (the Shiloh passage),
and soon afterwards he made his way to Koenigsberg. In March 1648 he
went to visit the Karaites in Persia.11 He died in October 1652.12
Rittangel was a prolific writer. His compositions include the edition
and Latin translation of Sefer Yezខ irah;13 the exchange of letters concerning
Gen. 49:10;14 an edition of the Passover Haggadah with Latin and German
translation;15 a German translation of the Hebrew prayerbook, with a long
introduction about the Jewish liturgy, including passages in Greek, Arabic,
and Syriac;16 and three works of Christian theology published posthu-
mously.17 In addition, according to his own testimony, he wrote hundreds
of letters to Jews all over the world.18 He was, however, never able to
publish any Karaite treatises.

9
Hartlib, Dury, and Cudworth will be mentioned below; for Comenius, see Blekastad,
(index, s.v. Rittangel).
10
Wall. When Constantijn l’Empereur wrote to Rittangel in January, 1462 (see
Rooden and Wesselius), he wrote to Rittangel in London, but presumably the latter had left
England by then; see below, p. 1099, with n. 47.
11
This was reported by Cyprian Kinner in a letter to Samuel Hartlib written 20 May
1648, preserved in the Hartlib papers in Oxford, 1/33/33A–24B.
12
Jöcher, vol. 3, col. 2115. Wesselius, 1988, 207, maintains that Rittangel, whom he
calls an “eccentric scholar,” was not a real professor since he lacked academic training; the
title professor extraordinarus at Koenigsberg “was hardly a very lofty position.” Furthermore,
he apparently corresponded in Hebrew with English dignitaries in 1639–40, before the
incident with the pirates, inquiring about the possibility of coming to England, indicating,
perhaps, that his arrival in England was not totally unforeseen or unintended.
13
Rittangel, 1642.
14
Wagenseil, part 1, 327–73 (with Latin translation). An English translation is available
in Rankin, 89–154.
15
Rittangel, 1644.
16
Rittangel, 1652.
17
Rittangel, 1698 (against Arianism); Rittangel, 1699 (biblical, rabbinic and Kabbal-
istic proofs of Trinity and Christ, each prefaced by Vander Waeyen with extravagant
introductions); Rittangel, 1700. A fuller description of Rittangel’s publications can be found
in Wolf, 1:475–79; 3:358–60. Bayle, 1737, 4:880, n. A, states that Vander Waeyan re-
published Rittangel’s works, but I have found no reference to earlier editions which may
have been published in his lifetime.
18
See below, p. 1093.
 K A R A I S M A N D CH R IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1093

For all of Rittangel’s intellectual accomplishments, he apparently had

an abrasive and difficult personality. For instance, although Dury learned
everything he knew about Karaites from Rittangel, he dismissed Rittangel
as a possible candidate to translate Kabbalistic books because his disposi-
tion made him impossible to deal with.19 A Christian Hebraist in
Amsterdam, Johannes Moriaen, also complained about Rittangel’s charac-
ter.20 Rittangel’s domestic relations with his wife were none too smooth,
either.21 An example of Rittangel’s personality can be seen in his exchange
of letters with a Jew of Amsterdam. In defending the beauty of his hand-
writing, Rittangel recalled the hundreds of letters he had written to Jews
around the world in Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Germany, Turkey, Egypt,
Constantinople, and Cairo.22 He claimed that not only were his correspon-
dents capable of reading his letters, they all praised him excessively, even
saying, “From Johanan to Johanan, there arose none like unto Johanan
Rittangel.”23 As to his correspondent, Rittangel assumed that he was typical
of the Spanish Jews, calling him “a descendant of an impure and mongrel
family.”24

3. T H E R E C I P I E N T

John Selden was a leading English man of letters and Hebraist. His pub-
lications on civil government, natural law, the calendar, and religion drew
greatly upon Jewish sources. Since there were no Jews in England in
Selden’s time, at least not openly, his extensive Hebraica knowledge must
have been derived solely from Christian teachers and from his own
self-education, or perhaps resulted from contact with the few Spanish-
Portuguese conversos who had managed to enter England.25 Selden was

19
Turnbull, 262.
20
Wall, 124–25, 129; Young, 44–47.
21
Bayle, 1737, 4:881, n. B.
22
See below, p. 1102.
23
Wagenseil, pt. 1, 371; Rankin, 138. It is unclear from this expression, borrowed from
a similar statement about Maimonides, as to which Johanan reference is made. Rankin, 226,
assumes that the first Johanan is the mishnaic teacher Johanan ben Zakkai, and not John
the Baptist (which latter was Wolf’s opinion: 1:479).
24
Wagenseil, pt. 1, 371; Rankin, 138: “mi-mishpahខ at pesulah ve-ha-kil’ayim.”
Rittangel states that this evaluation of Spanish Jews was that of the Jews of Poland,
Germany, Lithuania, and Russia, who refused to intermarry with them.
25
On Selden’s Judaic erudition, see Rosenblatt, 1–13. Although some converso Jews of
Iberian extraction were present in England in the first half of the seventeenth century, they
could not live openly as Jews: see Roth, 135–44.
1094 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T E RLY

involved in English political life as well, and when Rittangel corresponded

with him, he was a member of the Long Parliament, reference to which is
apparently made in the letter. Undoubtedly, Rittangel believed that Selden,
whom he apparently knew only by reputation, was ideally placed to help
him in his attempt to publish Karaite treatises.26
We have no idea whether or not Selden received this letter, and
Rittangel’s plans of publishing Karaite texts did not materialize.27 Never-
theless, as we shall see below, Selden did benefit from Rittangel’s presence
in England and his having brought Karaite treatises with him. His treatise
on the calendar, De Anno Civili & Calendario Veteris Ecclesiae seu
Reipublicae Judaicae (1644),28 discusses the Karaites at length, and his
important composition on Jewish marriage, Uxor Hebraica (1646),29 is a
Latin account of Jewish marriage practices, including those of the Karaites.
In both these works, Selden cites Judah Fuki ben Eliezer’s Shacar Yehudah
(Gate of Judah) as his source of knowledge about Karaite marriage practices.
He received this book, as well as a manuscript of Elijah Bashyatchi’s law
code, Adderet Eliyyahu (Cloak of Elijah), from Ralph Cudworth, who him-
self most likely received it from Rittangel.30

4. T H E K A R A I T E S

Karaism is the longest surviving form of sectarian Judaism, apparently

taking its name from the Hebrew root “to read” (k.r.’.), because Karaites are
said to read the Bible (Mikra’ ) literally without accepting the rabbinic
concept of an Oral Torah, embodied in the Talmud, given by God to
Moses simultaneously with the Written Torah. Although this description
of Karaism is simplistic, it is true that the Karaite reading of the Bible led

26
For an account of Selden’s Hebraism, see Rosenblatt.
27
Gerald J. Toomer, in an email to me dated 29 November 2004, writes “I am inclined
to doubt that Selden ever saw this particular document: it is not addressed to his domicile
at Whitefriars. It is of course possible that this is a fair copy kept by Rittangl, and that he
sent another copy to Selden. If so, there appears to be no trace of it either in preserved
documents or in the published works of Selden.”
28
Selden.
29
See Ziskind; Selden’s life and works are discussed in the introduction, 1–30.
30
Selden transcribes the name of the first author, whose family name was Chelebi, as
“Poki.” For Selden’s use of his treatise, which was the fourth printed Karaite book
(Constantinople, 1581), see Selden, 6. On 10, Selden thanks Cudworth for providing him
with Karaite literature; see also xi, where Selden mentions Rittangel as a Christian Hebraist
but does not supply any additional information. For Cudworth’s possession of Bashyatchi’s
book, see n. 54 below.
 K A R A I S M A N D CH R IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1095

to religious practices which distinguished their communities from those of

the majority, who followed rabbinic law (known, in the context of
Karaism, as Rabbanites).
Karaite origins remain a mystery. The Rabbanites generally attributed
its founding to the eighth-century Anan ben David, a disappointed can-
didate to be exilarch (head of the Babylonian captivity) whose pique and
anger caused him to secede from normative Judaism. Karaites claimed that
their form of Judaism is the original one, and that the schism between the
two groups of Jews had its origins in the Second Temple period, when the
Rabbanite concept of the Oral Torah was invented. Modern research has
demonstrated that Anan was most certainly not the founder of Karaism;
opinion remains divided as to how much, if any, connection there is to
Second Temple groups or whether Karaism is purely a medieval move-
ment.31 No matter what their origins, by the tenth century the Karaites
were a well-organized alternative to rabbinic Judaism, and in their Golden
Age in the land of Israel between the tenth and eleventh centuries they
created parallel institutions which developed their own brand of law, ex-
egesis, linguistic studies, polemics, and historiography.32
Karaites began making their way into Byzantium in the tenth century,
into the Crimea by the thirteenth century, and into Eastern Europe by the
fifteenth century. In addition to the Karaites of Lithuania, Rittangel most
likely visited Karaite communities in the Ottoman Empire. By the first half
of the seventeenth century the Karaite presence in these locations was
firmly established, even if relatively small. Their libraries held a large col-
lection of Hebrew literature, including works from the Golden Age
translated from Arabic; from the Byzantine period (the eleventh to the
sixteenth centuries); and works produced by Crimean and Eastern
European Karaites. Although the Karaites had intellectual contacts with the
Rabbanites, their communities were generally separate, employing a ver-
nacular Turkic language rather than the Germanic Yiddish of Ashkenazic
Jewry. There was probably little, if any, intermarriage.33

31
Anan’s followers were known as Ananites; they eventually coalesced with the group
known as Karaites, who then retroactively adopted Anan as one of their own as pater
ecclesiae. See the analysis provided by Gil. For an analysis of the differing Rabbanite and
Karaite perceptions of Karaite origins, see Lasker, 1989.
32
Much useful material about Karaites and Karaism can be found in Karaite Judaism.
33
In recent years, with the opening of archives and libraries in the former Soviet Union,
our knowledge about these Karaite groups has expanded tremendously. In addition to
material in Karaite Judaism, Shapira should prove to be an important source concerning
Eastern European Karaites.
1096 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T ERLY

Starting in the sixteenth century, the Karaites were the object of great
curiosity among Western European Christian Hebraists.34 Since Karaites
did not follow standard rabbinic Jewish practices, and eschewed the
Talmud, which the Christians attacked as blasphemous and heretical, they
were seen as following a purer form of Judaism. For Protestants in
particular, Karaism was considered a Protestant form of Judaism as
compared to Phariseeism (Rabbanism), which they deemed to be
Catholic.35 Rittangel, who traveled to the various Karaite communities in
Lithuania and locations further east, was one of the first academic students
of Karaism, and he provided his interlocutors with much coveted infor-
mation about this group.

5. T H E C O N T E N T S O F T H E L E T T E R
Despite the piracy at sea and the loss of most of his manuscripts, Rittangel
evidently retained some of the Karaite works he had accumulated in
Eastern Europe, and it was these that he wished to publish. Perhaps he had
promised the Karaites to work toward printing their treatises when they
gave, or sold, him their manuscripts. In any event, he mentions in the letter
that the Karaites are pressuring him to publish these treatises, and he feels
duty bound to see through the project. Rittangel himself, however, had no
means of his own. Therefore, he turned to Selden.36
Although printing was almost two hundred years old at the time of
Rittangel’s letter, only four Karaite books had been printed until then, the
last of which in 1581, sixty years previously. It has been suggested that the
community’s inherent conservatism may have impeded their use of

34
For a comprehensive overview of relations between Karaites and Christian Hebraists
in the early modern period, see Kizilov. See also Popkin, 1981; Fenton.
35
See, for example, Berg.
36
In a letter recounting his journey to Lithuania, most likely written for the King
of Poland between 1646 and 1648, Rittangel complains that he was not able to purchase
manuscripts from the Karaites because of their high price: the Karaites wanted twenty-five
Reichsthaler per manuscript, merely for permission to make copies. This report, preserved
in the Hartlib letters in Oxford (1/33/63A-B), seems to be inconsistent with what Rittangel
wrote in the letter to Selden, as well as with his having provided Karaite manuscripts
and Judah Fuki’s book to Ralph Cudworth. Perhaps Rittangel himself had very few
Karaite compositions, but he believed that if he could exact a promise from Selden
to publish Karaite books, the Karaites with whom he was in contact — who had entreated
him to help them — would have provided him with additional texts. I would like to
thank Mikhail Kizilov for drawing my attention to the significance of this account and
for discussing its problems with me in a series of emails dating 30 January–2 February
2006.
 K A R A I S M A N D CHR IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1097

the printing press, but the efforts made by the Karaites to publish their
literature, as reported by Rittangel, would indicate that other factors stood
in the way of the printing of Karaite books. These factors were most likely
either economic — namely, the market for Karaite books was small — or
ideological — namely, Rabbanite Jews, who would have been reluctant
to publish Karaitica, ran most of the Hebrew printing presses.37 The
Karaites may have assumed that, unlike Rabbanites, Christian Hebraists
would be sufficiently interested in their literature to make efforts to pub-
lish it.
As mentioned by Mordecai ben Nisan, Rittangel had a high regard for
the Karaites. In this letter, Rittangel praises them for avoiding the mystical
ways of the Pharisees and for interpreting the Torah in an exact manner,
including the reasons for obscure commandments, such as the red
heifer.38 He apparently accepted the Karaite claim that they were not a
medieval heresy, since he states that they had been around for 1,900 years.39
Rittangel hopes that, in addition to seeing to the publication of their
books, Selden will assure that the good reputation of the Karaites be spread
among the elite: “May he surely mention their cause for good, whenever
they are discussed in proper society among the nobles of the Kingdom.”40
It is possible that Rittangel believed that publishing Karaite exegesis
and attacks on the Talmud would also help demonstrate the weak-
ness of Rabbanite Judaism, thus easing the way to converting Jews to
Christianity.41
In the present letter, Rittangel mentions the Karaite works which he
thought would be useful to publish: the compositions of Rabbi Enoch, the
writings of the author of ‘Ezខ Hayyim (The Tree of Life), Aaron ben Elijah
(d. 1369) and other worthies, and a refutation of the entire Talmud. Rabbi
Enoch is unknown to me and is not mentioned in any of the standard
works of Karaite bibliography.42 Aaron ben Elijah’s The Tree of Life is a

37
For information about Karaite printed books, and factors behind the small number
of such publications, see Walfish.
38
Rittangel himself was interested in Jewish mysticism, as his edition of Sefer Yezខ irah
indicates. He also used the Kabbalah to prove the truth of Christianity in his posthumous
Veritas religionis Christianae.
39
A review of Karaite historiography can be found in Astren.
40
Curiously, Rittangel seems to confuse Karaites and Samaritans in Sefer Yezខ irah: see
Rittangel, 1642, 33.
41
The conversion of the Jews was a major motive behind Christian Hebraism, and
Rittangel’s colleagues in England believed that he could help them accomplish that goal: see
Popkin, 1984.
42
Such as Lutski 1966 and 2001–02 (the latter also in Mann, 2:1409–43).
1098 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T ERLY

philosophical work; he also wrote a commentary on the Torah, Keter Torah

(The Crown of the Torah), and a legal compendium, Gan ‘Eden (The
Garden of Eden). Having read his views in Judah Fuki’s work, Selden
mentions him in Uxor Hebraica.43 The last work, a refutation of the
Talmud, is also unknown, but is mentioned by Ralph Cudworth as
“Refutatio totius studij Talmuici” in a letter to John Selden written in
April 1642. This book was in the possession of Rittangel, whom
Cudworth calls “my learned ffreind,” and who was making an attempt to
publish it.44
It is impossible to know how realistic Rittangel’s attempt to interest
Selden in publication of the Karaite manuscripts was. He obviously felt that
flattering Selden would help his cause, since half the letter is devoted to
praising Selden in flowery language. Rittangel uses both biblical and rab-
binic expressions, artfully joined together to describe Selden in the most
exaggerated terms. He also blesses Selden with good fortune, while refer-
ring to himself in a most self-deprecatory manner. Although this form of
expression may be more a function of convention rather than of adula-
tion, the language is nevertheless quite expressive. Flattery, however, got
Rittangel nowhere, since nothing ever came of his request. Selden probably
had more important things to do, as England was about to be embroiled in
a civil war. On 17 January 1642, less than four months after the date of the
letter, Selden was one of a committee of twenty-two appointed to examine
Charles I’s (1600–49) violation of the privileges of Parliament and to
petition the king for the payment of damages to John Pym (1584–1643),
John Hampden (1595–1643), and others unjustly accused of treason. Pub-
lishing Karaite texts could not have been a high priority for him at that
time.45

43
Ziskind, 43, 55, 58 (Ziskind, 58, n. 70, confuses Aaron ben Elijah [the Younger]
with Aaron ben Joseph [the Elder]). All of Aaron’s books were subsequently published: ‘Ezខ
Hayyim, ed. Franz Delitzsch and Moritz Steinschneider, Leipzig, 1841 (and a Karaite
edition, Gözlow, 1847); Gan ‘Eden, Gözlow, 1864 (reprint, [Ramla?], 1972); and Keter
Torah, Gözlow, 1866 (reprint, Ramla, 1972). For a general overview of Aaron, see
Frank.
44
In an email to me on 26 November 2004, Gerald J. Toomer kindly sent me a copy
of his transcription of this letter, which is in the Bodleian Library, ms. Selden supra 109,
f. 272. The Karaite anti-Talmudic composition is also mentioned in Rittangel’s account of
his journey to Lithuania: see above, n. 36. According to Rittangel, this refutation of the
Talmud included the claim that Karaites tried to save Jesus from the Pharisees, who
persecuted and killed him.
45
In an email to me on 8 June 2006 Jason Rosenblatt suggests that another possible
reason for Selden’s lack of support for Rittangel — even assuming he ever received the
 K A R A I S M A N D CH R IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1099

It should be noted that Rittangel’s appeal to Selden was not his only
attempt to find a sponsor to publish books during this time. He also
wrote twice from England to the leading Christian Hebraist of Leiden,
Constantijn l’Empereur (1591–1648).46 We do not have these letters, but
we do have a response in Hebrew written by l’Empereur to Rittangel in
January 1642, in which l’Empereur says that he is unable to help; after all,
he could not get the publishers in Holland to publish his own works, since
they were interested only in making money by publishing works which
would appeal to the ignoramuses. He does suggest, however, that
Rittangel send him a few sample pages of his works as well as a copy of his
edition of Sefer Yezខ irah, which was eventually published in Amsterdam in
1642.47

6. RITTANGEL, KARAISM, AND CHRISTIAN HEBRAISM

IN ENGLAND
As noted above, Karaites were a source of fascination for Christian
Hebraists. Since there had been a long Christian tradition of denigrating
the Talmud and the Jews who followed it, the discovery of non-Talmudic
Jews was considered a great find.48 Protestant Hebraists were especially
pleased to discover that there existed a scriptural form of Judaism, which,
they believed, mirrored their own scriptural form of Christianity. Christian
interest in Karaism began in the sixteenth century and lasted a few hundred
years. Much of Karaite historiography was developed in response to
Christian inquiries.49
Rittangel played an important role in English Christian Hebraist in-
terest in Karaites. Although Rittangel was in England for less than a year,
he made a great impression on the Christian Hebraism community there.
Samuel Hartlib, for instance, hoped that Rittangel could help in his edu-
cational plans. Hartlib was interested in establishing an institution to

letter — is that, as a partisan of the oral law, Selden would not have found Rittangel’s
advertisement of Karaite attacks on the Talmud attractive. Although in his published works
Selden deals sympathetically with Karaite laws and customs, he was quite favorable to
rabbinic Judaism and may have rejected Rittangel’s anti-Rabbanism.
46
On l’Empereur, see Rooden.
47
Rooden and Wesselius. Although the letter was addressed to Rittangel in London, by
January 1642 he was probably in Amsterdam, something which l’Empereur, in Leiden,
perhaps did not know at that time.
48
The first public attacks on the Talmud began in 1240 in the Disputation of Paris,
although there were older Christian traditions of antagonism to this repository of Jewish
tradition: see Merchavia.
49
For a general overview of Christian interest in Karaism, see Fenton.
1100 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T ERLY

promote the conversion of the Jews as part of his millenarian ideas,

and he believed that the presence in England of three eminently quali-
fied Hebraists was providential. The first two were Dury and Comenius;
the third was Joannes Stephanus Rittangel.50 Hartlib had the following
to say about Rittangel: “The third man [Rittangel] whose studies and
conversation hath beene these twenty yeares wholly spent amongst the
Jewes of the East, and some of the West, to know all the mysteries of their
learning, and what course may be taken for their conversions, who speaketh
their language more readily than his mothers tongue, and who is perfectly
versed in their Authors, is come hither by a meere providence; wholly
against his owne purpose, and without all mens expectation that knew him,
having been evill entreated by the Dunkerkers, and robbed at Sea, whiles
hee was going to another Countrey.”51 Hartlib believed that the three
Hebrew experts working together could also find ways of presenting
Christianity to Jews in a more attractive form than had hitherto been
done.52
John Dury seems to have had less hope for the Rabbanite Jews of
Western Europe, since, in light of his contacts with Rittangel, Dury’s
millenarian expectations were focused on the Karaites. He had learned
everything he knew about the Karaites from Rittangel, who, Dury re-
counted, had spent twenty years among them. Dury’s understanding of the
Karaite contribution to the eschaton is found in an introduction he wrote
to Thomas Thorowgood’s Jewes in America, a book intended to demon-
strate that the Native Americans were actually Jews.53 Dury had learned
from Rittangel that the Karaites were like the Protestants, and that they
were the mortal enemies of the Pharisees, who were like the Catholics. In
fact, the Karaite beliefs about the Messiah were not much different than

50
On Hartlib’s educational initiatives, see Webster, 1970. On the general background
of the time, see Webster, 1975.
51
Although the treatise in which this comment appears is anonymous, it is pretty well
established that Hartlib was the author (Trevor-Roper, 250, however, attributes it to Dury).
Rittangel is not mentioned by name in the text, but his name appears in the margins: see
Hartlib, 10 (Webster, 1970, 96). Rittangel had left England by the time this pamphlet was
published in 1642.
52
Hartlib’s interest in Rittangel can be seen in the large number of times the latter is
mentioned in Hartlib’s correspondence. These letters are at Sheffield University Library and
have been issued as an electronic resource by the Humanities Research Institute, University
of Sheffield, 2002. A number of these letters were published by Wall. On the proposed
institution, see Popkin, 1984.
53
Dury, e2r–e3. Popkin, 1986, 221–27, points out that by the time of the London,
1660, edition of Jewes in America, Dury’s “Discourse” had been dropped from the book,
and Dury had changed his mind about the role of the Karaites.
 K A R A I S M A N D CH R IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1101

those of the “better sort of Christians.” Dury predicted that the second
coming would be preceded by the battle of Armageddon, in which two
great armies — the Protestants from the West and the Karaites (at the head
of the ten lost tribes) from the East — would converge on Jerusalem and
triumph over the heathens (including the Catholics, the Muslims, and the
Pharisees).
Ralph Cudworth, who provided Selden with Karaitica, was himself
interested in the subject. In his Discourse Concerning the True Notion of the
Lords Supper, which was published in the year after Rittangel’s stay in
England, he contrasts Karaite interpretations of the biblical precepts about
the paschal sacrifice with the Rabbanite ones as part of his explanation of
the Last Supper. Cudworth mentions a Karaite manuscript which was
missing both its beginning and its end: he may have seen such a manuscript
in Rittangel’s collection.54
Rittangel made a decisive contribution to Selden’s knowledge of the
Karaites as well. Although before 1641 Selden had already published works
which summarized Jewish beliefs and practices, none of them dealt with the
Karaites. The first of his publications that took the Karaites into account
was the one on the Jewish calendar, De Anno Civili et Calendario Veteris
Ecclesiae seu Reipublicae Judaicae (1644), after he had received Karaite
texts from Ralph Cudworth, who apparently had received them from
Rittangel.55 At the time that Selden wrote De Anno, he had been working
on treatises concerning the Sanhedrin and Jewish marriage; in light of his
new discovery of the Karaites, he interrupted work on these books to
compose the treatise on the calendar, which includes his most sustained
discussion of Karaites. The Karaite calendar is one of the features of their
religion which distinguishes them from the Rabbanites, and Selden devotes
a large section of his work to a description of this calendar. In addition,
Selden described Karaite marriage practices in detail in a number of chap-
ters in his work on Jewish marriage, Uxor Hebraica; these sections are
dependent upon works whose origins were in Rittangel’s stay among the
Karaites. Thus, even though Selden was not able to facilitate Rittangel’s
desire to publish Karaite manuscripts, he benefited from Rittangel’s knowl-
edge, and Rittangel’s sojourn in England made an important impact on
Selden’s Hebraic research.56
54
Cudworth, 26–30. From the citation on 30, it would seem that Cudworth’s manu-
script was Elijah Bashyatchi’s Aderet Eliyyahu: see Bashyatchi, 61r.
55
See n. 30 above.
56
Berti, 115–16, makes reference to Selden, Cudworth, and Rittangel, but she is not
aware of the part played by Rittangel in Cudworth’s supplying of Karaite literature to
Selden.
1102 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T E RLY

7. T H E L E T T E R , T H E T R A N S C R I P T I O N , A N D
THE TRANSLATION
The letter is written on one large sheet of paper, 40 cm. x 30 cm.,
folded in half. Pages 3 and 4 contain the letter itself. The entire manu-
script was folded five times horizontally. The second fold from the top of
page 1 bears the address label and traces of the wax seal, and the third fold
from the top has been cut out. Page 2 is blank. Age damage exists, mainly
on the folds. Photographs of the letter are provided in the appendix to this
article.
The language of the letter is Hebrew, a language often employed by
Christian Hebraists to communicate with each other, especially when they
had different native languages. We have a number of examples of Hebrew
letters written by non-Jewish Hebraists, and Johann Buxtorf the Younger
even published a guide to writing such letters. The guide, which includes
sample letters for various occasions, employs the same ornate language that
is characteristic of the present letter.57
Rittangel’s handwriting is very clear, and the only illegible parts of the
letter are those which have been damaged, either by folding of the letter or
by deterioration. In the polemical exchange of letters with a Jew from
Amsterdam, the latter accused Rittangel of having poor penmanship.
Rittangel’s writing was so poor that the Jew claimed he had to find
someone to transcribe Rittangel’s letters so that they would be legible.
Rittangel responded that although he wrote his first two letters in cursive
script (Kurrentschrift in German), the third letter was written in square
characters, as is done in printed books.58 The present letter is mostly in
square characters. Its clarity demonstrates that, indeed, Rittangel’s
handwriting was exceedingly lucid.59
The language is florid, using a combination of biblical and rab-
binic Hebrew idioms. Rittangel obviously knew Hebrew well, and he
expected his recipient also to understand the language. This is only
one indication of the high level of Hebrew literacy among Christian
Hebraists.

57
Buxtorf; for other examples of Hebrew letters written by Christian Hebraists, see
Weinryb; Bekkum; Wesselius, 1990.
58
Wagenseil, pt. 1, 370; Rankin, 137: “ketav metushtash va-’otiot ‘agulot.” In the
present letter, Rittangel writes that the Karaite manuscripts are written in cursive script
(metushtash).
59
I have been unable to consult six Hebrew letters written by Rittangel, preserved in
Hamburg, for either content or clarity of the handwriting; see Krüger, 850; Wesselius,
1988.
 K A R A I S M A N D CHR IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1103

The following transcription of the letter is as faithful as possible.

Letters that are missing because of damage have been indicated by question
marks. Reconstructed letters have been put inside square brackets; words
written above the line in the original have been indicated by round brack-
ets. Cross-outs have been indicated by xx. The lines of the original have
been preserved in the transcription.
The translation attempts to capture the stilted flavor of the original by
being as literal as possible. Words added to facilitate understanding have
been added in square brackets. Annotation of the English translation,
mostly biblical references, has been kept to a minimum.
B E N -G U R I O N U N I V E R S I T Y O F T H E N E G E V

8. THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE LETTER

1104 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T E RLY
K A R A I S M A N D CHR IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1105

60
1106 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T E RLY
 K A R A I S M A N D CHR IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1107

9. THE TRANSLATION OF THE LETTER

Address:
To his most celebrated lordship, the most famous, most excellent, and most
learned man, Lord John Selden, lawyer and philologist, greatly to be hon-
ored.61
He has entered into the innermost parts to serve the King of the worlds,
in order that many people should be kept alive62 through the divine abun-
dance and the simple will of the Supreme God. The Lord his God is with him
and the shout of the King is in him,63 to bring his abundance upon us, since
he has penetrated the hiding place of his power.64 In his temple all cried:
glory.65 Blessed is he to whom such blessings fall.66 His dew is the dew of
light.67 May my mouth speak the praises of his glory. The finest gold is placed
on his head.68 His teaching drops as the rain; his speech distills as the dew.69
His locks are [wet] with the drops of the night.70 He illumines my darkness
in the night, for the light dwells with him71 in the mysteries of the Torah. In
the sea of his wisdom blows the wind of knowledge of the holy, [the wind]

61
In Latin; the last phrase is an abbreviation of Plurimum Venerando.
62
Gen. 50:20.
63
Num. 23:21.
64
Cf. Hab. 3:4.
65
Cf. Ps. 29:9.
66
Cf. Ps. 144:15.
67
Cf. Isa. 26:19.
68
Cf. Song of Sol. 5:11.
69
Cf. Deut. 32:2.
70
Cf. Song of Sol. 5:2.
71
Cf. Dan. 2:22.
1108 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T ERLY

which draws upon us a thread of grace from the Supreme God. Is this person
not the exalted noble who sees the vision of the Almighty?72 The lofty master;
the genius; the wonder of our generation, who has acquired wisdom73 with
wisdom and greatness; our honored teacher and rabbi, Rabbi74 Seldenus,75
may the Lord increase his peace, tranquility and health, honor and dignity,76
thus a thousand times over.77 May scripture be fulfilled for him: you shall
know that your tent is safe.78
I have heard about his excellency my great lord that he is a man of valor
and of great deeds, that he is an expert in the Torah of our Lord, and that the
paths of heaven are clear [to him].79 He also illumines and clarifies the heart
of our brethren who live with him, with his pleasant words, which are sweeter
than the drippings of honeycomb,80 like the sun as it rises in its might.81 I
rejoiced like one who finds great spoil82 that the spirit of wisdom and the spirit
of advice and the spirit of understanding83 have passed over his face. I have
said in my heart: blessed is he who has given his wisdom to flesh and blood,84
for he is one of the chosen of the world85 who magnified the Torah by
revealing the secrets of the lofty sciences, both the ways of the world86 and the
secrets of the elements. [He knows how] to provoke questions and doubts, as
the mountains and the valleys, concerning perplexing perplexities of the physi-
cal, intelligible, and divine sensibilia. [He can do so] with hypotheses and clear
proofs. Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac,87 and Aramaic are built like an arsenal88 on his
sweet tongue. After I had seen his pleasant and honorable compositions, I said:
is this not he who sees the vision of the Almighty,89 a man of strength, unique

72
Num. 24:4.
73
Cf. Prov. 16:16.
74
This expression is ordinarily used in rabbinic literature as a form of address to a
distinguished rabbi.
75
In Latin.
76
Cf. Esther 6:3.
77
Cf. Deut. 1:11.
78
Job 5:24.
79
Based on the statement of the third-century Amora Samuel that the paths of the
heavens were as clear to him as the streets of Nehardea, his place of residence (Babylonian
Talmud, Berakhot 58b).
80
Cf. Ps. 19:11.
81
Judg. 5:31.
82
Ps. 119:162.
83
Cf. Isa. 11:2.
84
The traditional Jewish blessing recited upon seeing a non-Jewish sage.
85
Cf. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 97b.
86
Cf. Hab. 3:6.
87
Hebrew: Ashuri.
88
Cf. Song of Sol. 4:4.
89
Num. 24:4.
 K A R A I S M A N D CHR IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1109

in his world and his generation, in power and strength.90 His words are logical
and straight to him who understands,91 and desirable and acceptable to the
opinion of the saints. They are all sweet, reasonable to the heart, and can be
understood with easy reasoning. Pleasant to the students ???, acceptable to the
ear of those who hear them. All this is in addition to the rest of his other
excellent virtues, which are too many to be counted, as can be seen clearly by
the eyes of each person who desires to learn.
Since my lord is also a great nobleman who sits at the entrance of the
eyes,92 sitting in the Parliament93among the distinguished gathering, [and
since he has the ear of] the kingdom with his generous spirit, to open the
hidden storehouses of the word of the king, may his glory be uplifted and may
his kingship be raised to heaven for him [and] his descendants after him, for
ever and ever and ever;94 [therefore] I have come before his supreme excellency
as a reminder and not as an advisor, for one does not advise those who already
have sound advice concerning truth and justice. [My intention] is to cause the
voice of the cry of some of the children of Israel of the Karaite sect, who live
in faraway lands, to be heard on high,95 concerning the writings of their early
sages, who were of old, men of good renown,96 for at least the last 1,900 years
or more. [The Karaites] bound their strength to offer true interpretations and
did not go after the vipers,97 not making mistakes with the Pharisaic letter
combinations or permutations or numerical equivalents of the letters.98 Their
delight was solely for the Torah of the Lord,99 and their efforts were by means
of lively and correct rhetoric, in order to show the correct intention of scrip-
tures, pursuing truthful examination, as I have seen in a number of their
pleasant and honorable compositions, which have remained with them in
cursive writing.100 I have raised the eyes of my intellect toward them and

90
Cf. Ps. 68:36.
91
Cf. Prov. 8:9.
92
Cf. Gen. 38:14 (referring to Tamar, sitting at the entrance of Einayyim).
93
Hebrew gazit, or the chamber of hewn stones where the Sanhedrin sat; the translation
“Parliament” follows the suggestion of Jason Rosenblatt (email to author, 9 November
2004).
94
Cf. Dan. 7:18.
95
Cf. Isa. 58:4.
96
Cf. Gen. 6:4.
97
Namely, the Rabbanites, using a common New Testament appellation of the
Pharisees.
98
These are exegetical techniques of the Kabbalists, techniques generally eschewed by
the Karaites.
99
Cf. Ps. 1:2.
100
Hebrew metushtash, “blurred.” Rittangel used this word to describe the manner of
informal writing when compared to the square characters used in printing; see Wagenseil,
pt. 1, 370 (translation, Rankin, 137).
1110 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T ERLY

investigated all their commentaries which have reached me: all their exacti-
tudes, their letters, their lines, and their elements, both essential and
accidental. I have researched every single composition, according to my mea-
ger [abilities], both large and small, subject and desired predicate, and the
middle terms of their syllogisms. I investigated every principle and cause by
which all things move and rest, either essentially or accidentally, with logical
analogies and demonstrations in all their parts and aspects, and I saw that
some wonderful matters, the words of the living God,101 were in their mouths,
especially in the compositions of Rabbi Enoch102 from 900 years ago, who
went out with the pen of a ready scribe103 to his army to fight the war of the
holy and perfect Torah of the Lord, with signs and wonders inscribed on his
flag and on his army. He did so easily and quickly, [taking] sweet things from
the hidden treasures of the king, because he had ten portions in every science.
In addition, [I saw] the writings of the author of The Tree of Life,104 and other
praiseworthy men, noble and excellent in the virtues and splendor of the
hidden secrets of exalted sciences, as well as many advantages concerning great
wondrous matters which are sealed with the mysteries of the secret ways of
their exalted wisdom. They have opened gates which until now were too
remote and closed to the Pharisees, concerning the reasons for the sacrifices,
the secret of the red heifer, and other secrets of the Torah, which I am
prevented from providing here, both because of time constraints and the haste
of the courier.105 There is also a very honorable composition, which they wrote
against the entire Talmud, with clear proofs and great arguments, with lucid
syllogisms and close to the intellect.106
When I was in their land, and even outside their land, they wrote to me
a number of letters and beseeched me with an emphatic request to make an
effort for them so that the wells of [their knowledge?] be dispersed outside [of
their communities], by printing [their books] in the light of the day. There-
fore I appeal to you, bowing deeply before his majestic glory, for he is like an
angel of God, in the midst of those who sit in the Parliament, so much so that
every exalted matter, dependent upon the sweetness of the Hebrew language,

101
Jer. 23:36.
102
I am not familiar with this author; he is not mentioned in Karaite lists of authorities,
such as those in Mordecai ben Nisan’s Dod Mordecai or Simhah Isaac Lutski’s ’Orah
Zខ addiqim.
103
Cf. Ps. 45:2.
104
Aaron ben Elijah, d. 1369, author of ‘Ezខ Hayyim (The Tree of Life), a philosophical
treatise; Keter Torah (The Crown of the Torah), a commentary on the Pentateuch; and Gan
‘Eden (The Garden of Eden), a law code.
105
If this is to be taken literally, Rittangel intended to send this letter with a courier who
was about to leave, as a result of which he could not write a longer letter to Selden.
106
This is undoubtedly the same as a book mentioned by Ralph Cudworth in a letter
to John Selden from 12 April 1642 as “Refutatio totius studij Talmudici.” This work is
unknown.
 K A R A I S M A N D CHR IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1111

is not hidden before him. May he surely mention their cause for good,
whenever they are discussed in proper society among the nobles of the king-
dom, such that a decree go forth with a command from the inner chambers
of the treasuries to hasten their desire, by order of the king107 of the eternal
kingdom. And may my lord who stands on the Lord’s watch108 annul in his
exalted wisdom all the alien arguments and the bothersome and opposing
reasons, so that [these compositions] see the light of the day, to bring merit
to the many, to us, and to our children109 after us, for it appears to me that
the merit of many depends upon them. With this I will end my words. The
Lord will keep you from all evil.110 At this time, when there is not even a
minute without a plague, may no evil befall your tent.111
Written in the city and exalted University112 of Cambridge.113
The 29th of September, Year 1641.114
To your honorable, glorious excellency.
From the slave of slaves the youngest amongst those who put their
shoulder to your work.115
Joannes Stephanus Rittangl
Professor Extraordinary of Oriental Languages in the Academy of
Koenigsberg.116

107
Cf. Esther 3:15; 8:14.
108
Cf., for example, Lev. 8:35.
109
Cf. Deut. 29:28.
110
Ps. 121:7.
111
Hebrew, ein regac beli negac u-le-’ohalkha lo ye’uneh kol pegac: this should be taken as
a poetic expression and not as an indication that there was an epidemic occurring at the
time.
112
Hebrew, yeshiva.
113
In Latin.
114
In Latin.
115
The Hebrew uses the third person out of respect.
116
The signature is in Latin.
1112 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T E RLY

Appendix: Reproductions of Rittangel’s Letter

K A R A I S M A N D CHR IS T IA N HEB RAISM 1113
1114 R E N A IS S A N CE Q U A R T E RLY
 K A R A I S M A N D CHR IS T IA N HEB RAISM
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Bayle, Pierre. Dictionaire Historique et Cri-
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