Dr. Benjamin Musaphia

Benjamin Musaphia was a Jewish doctor, scholar and kabbalist.

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 court of the Gottorps, and a daughter was married to Gabriel Milan, who would later be appointed governor of the Danish West-Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands). Around this time, Musaphia graduated from the Padua medical school, which was regarded as the best of its kind at the time.

After Sara's death on August 7, 1634, Musaphia dedicated Zekher Rav, an adaptation of the creation myth in which all Hebrew roots are used exactly once, to her. It was first published in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1635, 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. 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 Jehiels Talmudic dictionary Aruk (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 revised version of the Talmud, which was nevertheless never published, and the manuscripts have since been lost.

In the mid-1660s, Musaphia was caught up in the Sabbatean movement, which proclaimed that Sabbatai Zevi was the new Messiah.

His brother Albert Dionis (a/k/a Alvaro Diniz) was one of the wealthiest Jews in Hamburg in 1614.

Musaphia died in 1675, in Amsterdam.

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)

A 1634 stone that almost certainly belonged to the grave of the first wife of Dr.Benjamin Musaphia (1606-1675) who advanced the knowledge of Hebrew and Aramic with his treatise Musad he-Arukh on the etymology of the words in the Talmud. This wife is the one whom Musaphia dedicated his composition to Sara Abigail Musaphia.

Websters

Other related:

After Sara’s death on August 7,, 1634 Musaphia dedicated “Zekher Rav,” an adaptation of the story of Creation in which all Hebrew roots are used exactly once.

Musaphia married Sara Abigal da Silva, daughter of Semuel da Silva in 1628

See https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheSepardicDiaspora/posts/326647592...

Dr Benjamin Musaphia, doctor, author, and jeweler made his last will 4 December 1674 in Amsterdam. Because Benjamin Musaphia is a bit rambling in this last will and sometimes vague about the precise family relations, I give here a short reconstruction of this family as I understand it from this will, written in Spanish.
Benjamin Musaphia mentions two minor daughters Ribca and Deborah, they receive vast sums of money from a capital that is in the care of Isaac Senor Teixeira in Hamburg. The capital is 24-25.000 guilders.
Musaphia mentions a daughter Hana Semach, who gets 500 guilders, plus the dowry of 7000 guilders that she already received. She will have been the wife of Isaac Semah (Arias). This couple had two children in 1674: Sara Semah and David Semah. The latter gets Musaphia’s “Libraria Sefaria”, so he can learn to read Hebrew and Latin. He is asked to take the name David Semah Musaphia, in memory of his grandfather.
Daughter Raquel Abensur gets 500 guilders, plus a dowry of 8000 guilders that she had already received. Musaphia also mentions a son-in-law “genro” Daniel Abensur. I think he must have been the one married to Raquel, as the only other children are two minor girls and Hana who was married to Isaac Semah.
Other family members mentioned are:
Sara Musaphia “minha amiga consorte” his wife. Musaphia stipulates that she may continue to live in his house with her two minor daughters.
There is a “prima”, or niece Sara Musaphia,
A “sobrinho” or nephew Jacob Musaphia who wants to marry one of the minor daughters of Benjamin,
Deborah de Andrade is the sister of Sara Musaphia, Benjamin’s wife. Deborah de Andrade will receive twelve “rixdaelders” each year. There is no mention of a husband of Deborah and this may mean that the second wife of Benjamin was Sara de Andrade.
Isaac Senior Teixeira and Moses Curiel are the executors of this last will.
THE CHILDREN OF BENJAMIN
Benjamin had four daughters, and no sons, at the time of his last will. Three of the four were born long after his first wife died (1634), yet on various genealogical websites, they have been presented as daughters of his first wife.
1. Hanna Mussaphia, born circa 1636, 18 years old, assisted by her father Benjamin Mussaphia signed a marriage ban in Amsterdam on 20 June 1657, with Isaac Semach Arias, 21 years old, merchant, from Bragança, his father still lives in Portugal. Hanna was buried in Beth Haim, Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, 23 Kislev 5435/22 December 1674. Her burial card on Dutchjewry.org remarks dryly that her husband’s grave was not found. As noted above, the couple had children David and Sara. Sara married Isaac Semah Ferro in 1675, she was buried in Beth Haim in 5494/1734.
https://archief.amsterdam/indexen/deeds/1b8781b9-ce18-4db0-9921-1e6...
2. Deborah Mustafia, born circa 1657, 20 years old, Antoni Breestraat, assisted with her mother Sara Mustafia signed a marriage ban in Amsterdam 6 August 1677, with Manual de Casseris, 29, from Hamburg, assisted with Sara Mustafia, his aunt.
https://archief.amsterdam/indexen/deeds/d783d691-3134-43f9-8c26-407...
3. Ribca Musaphia, born 1650, 17, assisted by her mother Sara Moesafia signs a marriage ban on 6 August 1677 in Amsterdam, with Jacob Moesafia, 30, from Glückstadt, who has a mother in Hamburg.
https://archief.amsterdam/indexen/deeds/b36a9334-3a47-47bf-b566-7f5...
4. Rachel, married to Daniel Abensur, son of Moses Abensur alias Paulo de Milao alias Paul Dircksen. Michal Studemund HaLévy, Biographisches Lexikon der Hamburger Sefardim has an illuminating lemma about Daniel Abensur.
THE TRUE IDENTITY OF GABRIEL MILAN
The last will of Benjamin Musaphia has another surprise. Musaphia remarks that the alias of Isaac Semach Arias is Gabriel Milan. This is none other than the famous Gabriel Milan who was governor of the Danish colony St. Thomas in the Caribbean for a short period. He was recalled and beheaded in Copenhagen. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Milan
Speculation that Gabriel Milan was related to the family de Milao can now be put overboard.
LAST REMARKS
Contrary to what MyHeritage, Ancestry, and Geni have to say about Benjamin Musaphia, we really do not know who his parents were. He certainly was not a brother of Alvaro Dinis, who was 40 years older than Benjamin Musaphia.
Benjamin Musaphia was born circa 1606/1607, not in 1587 as I argued in an earlier post.
Here and there you may read that Benjamin Musaphia was a member of the rabbinical college of Amsterdam. That would suggest that he was one of the Hahams of Talmud Tora in Amsterdam. He wasn't. But he was part of the beit din that settled internal disputes in the community. We don't know if that was a permanent position, it could be that the beit din was called together on an impromptu basis and that Musaphia was only summoned in specific cases.