Dear Natan,



The answer to your question lies in the field of human psychology — man stops his ears to keep from hearing things which stand opposed to his will or distorts facts to satisfy his whims. This phenomenon is well known.

But to show how complex things are, we will bring the illustrative and fascinating example of the rational and reasoned Portuguese converso and how he dealt with his social isolation as a rationalist in a world of people of faith who rejected reason.



Uriel de Costa was a converso Jew from Portugal, a member of a prominent family. He studied the law and was treasurer of his hometown church. This is what he wrote in his autobiography:

Since I could find no comfort in the bosom of the Catholic faith and due to my desire to pin my hopes on something, I began to investigate the teachings of Moses and the prophets…Because I had faith in Moses I reached a decision that I was obligated to follow his teachings, since he, as he said, received everything from the mouth of the Divine and called himself a simple messenger; he was forced by the very Almighty to bear his message. (That is how they fool the children.) For this reason, knowing that in the country of my birth (Portugal) there was no liberty to approach this religion (Judaism) in any fashion, I conceived of leaving my home. (In 1616 de Costa left for Hamburg, openly joined the Jewish faith, and began to engage in criticism of Jewish institutions)…After a number of days I noticed that the laws and customs of the Jews have very little in common with the laws commanded to us by Moses. (Because of his criticism of institutional Judaism de Costa was excommunicated by the Jewish community. To be free of the social isolation he was sentenced to, he begged forgiveness, but did so only to “externally connect to these people, to imitate their actions and to be as an ape among the apes.” De Costa was excommunicated again and again asked forgiveness in front of the public in synagogue, in a humiliating ceremony which he described in the following words.) I entered the synagogue, which was full of men and women who had gathered as for a popular pageant. When the time came I ascended the stage which stood in the center of the synagogue for speeches and other ritual purposes and I read aloud the speech which they had prepared, which included a statement that I deserved a thousand deaths for the sins which I had committed, for desecrating the Sabbath and desecrating the religion which I had so gravely sinned against, to the extent that I had pushed away others who had sought to join Judaism, and that as a sign of my remorse I was prepared to surrender to their orders and do all they demanded of me, that I swore to do all this and never repeat my evil actions. When I was done I left the stage and their holy president approached me and whispered in my ear that I should go to one of the corners of the synagogue. I went to the corner and the sexton commanded me to take the clothing off of my body. I stripped down to my belt and put a kerchief upon my head, took the shoes from off my feet. I wrapped my arms around one of the pillars and then the sexton approached and tied my hands to the pillar. After this the cantor approached and hit my ribs, using a leather strap, gave me forty lashes less one, all in strict accordance with tradition. According to the command of the torah it is forbidden to go beyond the number of forty lashes, and since these people are so precise and follow the commandments so closely, they are extremely cautious lest they transgress the law and the commands. Between lashes they recited chapters of Psalms. When this was over I sat upon the ground and some lecturer or wise man approached me — how ridiculous are the customs of mortal men — to remove from me the excommunication, and at once the gates of heaven, which had been locked in my face until now, were opened to me. Then I donned my clothes and went to the entrance of the synagogue, lay down on the floor with the sexton near my head, and all those who left the synagogue passed over my body; they lifted their legs and passed over the lower part of my thighs, all as they were, young and old. No ape could carry out actions with less meaning and with more ridiculousness. When this, too, was over and there was nothing left, I rose from the floor and the sexton, who the whole while stood by my side, cleaned the dust from me lest anyone say that I was not properly treated, for after the lashes they shook me off and fluffed my hair, and let me go home.

N.B. Shortly thereafter he took his own life.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet