Stone lives beyond time. It is with this ink of eternity that the founder's surname, ingeniously interwoven into the passage from verse 5 of Psalm 8 and chiseled in Hebrew characters, was perpetuated on the frieze above the portico of the Great Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam: "Bishenat va'ani berob chasdecha abo beetécha lif'k"; "In the abundance of Your goodness I will enter your house (the house of Aboab)." Such splendor expresses the Jewish community's recognition of Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, who was the mastermind behind the unprecedented idea of building a new, more spacious worship space capable of dignifying the 3,000 faithful, mostly from the Iberian Peninsula, and who insisted that the previous synagogue on Houtgracht had become too cramped for a congregation with enormous aspirations.

On November 23, 1670, he delivered a sermon so inspiring and enthusiastic that his suggestion, the very next month, on December 12, became irrevocable with the purchase of land across from the Ashkenazi Synagogue, recently opened in the heart of the Jewish quarter. The cornerstone was laid on April 17, 1671, but the work designed by the experienced Dutch architect Elias Bouman, which was supposed to be completed that May, was interrupted. The Franco-Dutch War, which began in March 1672, would represent a resounding disaster for the Netherlands, with the French and English simultaneously attacking and nearly defeating them. Finally, on Friday, August 2, 1675, the inauguration of the "Esnoga" took place. It occupies practically a city block. It follows the Talmudic advice that the "House of Prayer" should be taller than the surrounding buildings and contains architectural components of the Temple of Jerusalem; it is designed as a rectangular complex, with an entrance courtyard and two immense frontal columns.

More is said about the imposing "Esnoga," which marked the pinnacle in the development of synagogue architecture: its 72 arched windows allow the infusion of natural light, and at night, 1,000 candles installed in 26 polished bronze chandeliers and in candlesticks arranged on the pews, illuminate the main hall. The numbers 26 and 72 were deliberately chosen to represent the numerical value of God. Among the distinguished guests was Romeyn de Hooghe, who would produce a series of engravings of the transcendental building and the ceremony, and like Rembrandt, the artist had a close relationship with the Sephardim. 2

The following day, Saturday, Isaac Aboab da Fonseca had the honor of carrying the Torah scroll written on parchment for the reading; it was he, an eloquent orator, the rabbi who delivered the sermon dubbed "Sermon at the Joyful Debut and Public Celebrity of the Esnoga," and he himself composed the beautiful poem "Hishki-Hizki" (My Beloved Strengthen Me), which would be set to music in the early 18th century by the Dutch composer Abraham de Cáceres, the key musician in the Portuguese community in Amsterdam. The festivities were so grand that they lasted for eight days, leaving the crowds in disbelief as they witnessed what seemed to them unusual: lavish celebrations by a synagogue in the diaspora, in fact, the largest synagogue in the world at the time. In fact, according to chroniclers of the time, the papal nuncio in Cologne, who was soon visiting the city, expressed his "horrification that the Jewish people were allowed to erect such a splendid work."

It had been for this kind of sarcasm why Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, baptized Simão, did not cement history in his native nation. What we believe about his Portuguese origins comes to us, in a small fraction, from the words of the first historian of the Portuguese colony of Amsterdam, the Cordovan Miguel de Barrios, who reached the Netherlands around 1662. Born in Castro Daire, district of Viseu, in Beira Alta, in 1605, it is admissible to assume that Isaac Aboab da Fonseca's parents, Isabel da Fonseca and David Aboab, left Portugal in the year adjacent to his birth, at the end of the period of the General Pardon, when the persecution resumed with renewed vigor. We know that they went into exile in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in southwestern France, near the Spanish border, where other New Christians settled,3 where they could secretly observe Jewish rites and customs. They undoubtedly waited for the opportunity to return to the kingdom and, presumably, they did; only after six years of indecision, in 1612, did they resolve to convert to Judaism in Amsterdam. Better this way. Much better.

Countless crypto-Jews exiled in France, who chose to return to the Catholicism of Lisbon, paid for it with a hot iron in the inquisition's dens. Some texts claim that David Aboab, whose baptismal name and Lusitanian patronymic are unknown, died in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, but since no source is provided to support this information, we will assume that the David Aboab, mentioned as a member of the Neveh Shalom (Oasis of Peace) congregation until 1638, may have been the father of Isaac Aboab da Fonseca.

The Netherlands, that complacent land, which for 80 years (1568-1648) had struggled to free itself from Castilian subordination, was gaining countless adherents of the Protestant Reformation. It is worth remembering that, after the victory over Catholic Spain, it became the first state in Europe to guarantee freedom of religion by law, accepting the emigration of Sephardim, and according to the statutes of the then-new Republic, none of its inhabitants would have even the slightest chance of being bothered by religious judgments.

Great-grandson of the last Gaon (the highest authority in the teaching and interpretation of Jewish law) of Castile, who in 1492 had been forced to leave the Iberian zone and settle in Porto, Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, who signed himself "Abuab," joined the community located in the capital of Western Jewry, which had been founded in 1590 by Jews escaping the mad Inquisition. Isaac Aboab da Fonseca's erudition, His protégéship of the illustrious Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac ben Abraham Uziel of Fez became evident early on. He became an officiant at 14, a schoolteacher at 18, and was appointed rabbi at 21.

It is common to read that Isaac Aboab da Fonseca served as rabbi in the Beth Israel (House of Israel) community in Amsterdam; however, archival information appears to indicate that he was hired by the Neveh Shalom community. The merger of the three religious associations or communities of Portuguese Jews, which they called "congregations," Beth Yaacob (House of Jacob), and the aforementioned Neveh Shalom and Beth Israel, established in 1603, 1608, and 1618, respectively, would take place in 1639, into a single one, called Talmude Tora (Learning of the Law) by Saul Levi Mortera4, who became the primordial haham5.

Three other Sephardic spiritual leaders and sacred orators followed: David Pardo, originally from Salonica and raised in Venice; Manuel Dias Soeiro, also known as Menasseh ben Israel6, a native of Lisbon who had fled with his parents to Amsterdam via France. His father, Gaspar Rodrigues Nunes, aka Joseph Ben Israel, a descendant of Beja, had been arrested by the Inquisition in 1593, having spent three years and four months in the Inquisition's prisons, and subjected, three times, to rigorous torture, he emerged in the auto-da-fé of February 23, 1597, in which eight New Christians were garroted and burned among ninety others convicted of "Judaism." The fourth rabbis, Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, who remained the youngest of the four rabbis, at this time taught Hebrew grammar and gemara, preached evening sermons in the synagogue and assisted Saul Levi Mortera, with whom, in 1635, he entered into discord. The divergence was explained by the fact that Mortera did not consider the New Christians to be Jews and judged that they belonged to the "people of Israel" only by ethnic descent.

In Herman Prins Salomon's brilliant doctoral thesis,8 we find the basics for understanding the rationalist Mortera: "For theological purposes, he distinguished the New Christians from the Old Christians in one important detail: that of salvation. While the latter could be saved in their religion, the former would suffer eternal punishment." This theory did not please all the Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam. They classified it, Professor Herman prescribes, as ferocious, indecent, and incapable of achieving divine commiseration. A sermon that Mortera preached, perhaps in 1634 or 1634, in which he alluded, in support of Convicted of eternal damnation, the Talmudic writing that apostates "are condemned to hell forever" incited such a massive uproar that the opposition dared to obtain a resolution from the Beth Yaacob board of directors prohibiting him from expressing such ideology in future sermons. The driving force behind all this unrest, according to Professor Herman, was Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, who became a delegate of an initiated science derived from the Kabbalistic school. In keeping with this current, theologically, there were no distinctions in treatment beyond the grave, which meant that Portuguese New Christians, including committed Catholics, whether Judaizing or indifferent, were, by their ancestry, Jewish and enjoyed divine election and heavenly privileges.

Isaac Aboab da Fonseca held the philosophy that the sinner, no matter how serious his imperfections, never incurred the penalty of perpetual punishment. The physicist, yes, would risk condemnation, but the soul, which emerges from Above, would return whole and unharmed to its Source, after being purged of errors through the process of metempsychosis. Probably in 1635, he wrote the source of his talented illustration, "Nishmat Haim" (Immortality of the Soul), where he addressed two then-controversial themes: reward and punishment, which would lead him to distance himself from the views of Saul Levi Mortera and the Venetian rabbis Schemaja de Mortera and Asrja Figo. In it, he set out to reveal that truth was to be obtained from Kabbalah, not from Talmudic trends. He did not refute the divine plan of "reward and punishment," but exchanged the precept of eternal punishment for the bitter and prolonged transmigrations of sinful souls until they achieved the ablution of sins and the promised redemption. The disagreement would take a break.

Dutch Brazil would call him, at the age of 37, to lead the Portuguese-Jewish community in Recife, "Kahal Kadosh Zur Israel" (Holy Rock of Israel Community). The foundation of the journey of a man who placed everything in the hands of divine Providence had only one character: spiritual. The missionary outreach of the Jews symbolized the essential clause for the manifestation of the messianic season. Perhaps for this reason, later on, we find him, albeit with a measured expression, Shabbethai Zebi, the Jew who claimed to be the long-awaited Messiah. When the false messiah burst in, the three rabbis Aboab da Fonseca, Menasseh Ben Israel and Moses Raphael de Aguilar, advocates of the same preaching opinions, The Jewish community and diaspora sponsored the message, and this acquiescence, in a way, pushed the community's acquiescence, which, for its own reasons, had considerable influence on the Sabbatian movement. Shabbetai Zebi's conversion to Islam on September 15, 1666, shocked all his supporters, although some remained who, for a time, awaited the messianic signs, which, in the end, never came.

In the commentary on the five Books of Moses – Paraphrasis comentada sobre el Pentateuch, which Aboab da Fonseca translated from Hebrew into Spanish in 1681 at the age of 76, he stated that the dispersion of the Jewish people had the particularity of being both conservative and missionary. The mission, which would transform him into the first rabbi of the entire American continent and the introducer of Hebrew literature in the New World, dates back to the time when Pernambuco, and other captaincies, were under Dutch rule (1630-1654).

The congregation for which he selflessly worked was essentially organized by thousands of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, and also from Northern Europe, who had moved there as a result of the religious tolerance guaranteed in those empires, supported by the "Regiment of the government of the conquered or conquered squares" granted by the States to the Dutch West India Company, dated The Hague, on October 13, 1629, which allowed those who resided in the lands where Dutch sovereignty would be established, whether Spanish, Portuguese and natives, Catholic or Jewish, "not to be molested or subject to inquiries into their consciences or in their private homes."

The number of Jews settling in Recife was so great that the Political Council, on November 9, 1635, made the decision: "Since the size and area of Recife is too small to accommodate free traders in their needs and business, it was decided to sell a plot of land measuring eighty feet long and sixty feet wide, located outside the gates where the goat-keeping (Bochenwacht) is customary, to Mr. Duarte Saraiva, a free merchant here, for the price of 450 reais and eight, so that he may build a house according to his taste, or sell the land or the house and land for his profit." The land, located in the north of Recife, which had meanwhile grown so much due to the construction that was being carried out, gave rise to Rua dos Judeus (present-day Rua de Bom Jesus), a name maintained until the expulsion of the Dutch from the region. Duarte Saraiva's residence, known as David Senior Coronel, Portuguese by birth, and whose son, Isaac Saraiva, was a rabbi and schoolteacher among the Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam, it operated as a synagogue in 1636, before the construction, possibly between 1640 and 1641, of the building that would definitively establish the first synagogue built from scratch in the Americas, Kahal Kadosh Zur Israel. With 600 families, the Jewish community of Recife, which represented 50 percent of the civilian population, which numbered around 3,000, was completed with the arrival of Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, who arrived in 1641 or 1642, accompanied by Rabbi Moses Raphael Aguilar, and remained at the head of the congregation, acting as a spiritual guide. Throughout its nearly two decades of existence, Kahal Kadosh Zur Israel preserved a model community structure, with exemplary institutions, charitable societies, a cemetery, and a mikveh.

Thus, in Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, it found a fortunate and resourceful framework to employ its experience and supernatural wisdom. He developed a vast plan of rabbinic and social work, and conceived the religious schools Talmud Torá (Learning the Law), intended for children under 13, and Etz Hayim (Tree of Life), aimed at those older, which operated in the buildings adjacent to the synagogue. It operated in a variety of capacities, standing out for its transcendental elocutions on Jewish principles and practices, whose triumph was not merely linked to the reality of mastering the Portuguese language, but to its vast knowledge and genuine rhetoric. Alongside these activities, he continued his literary endeavors; with the participation of Rabbi Moses Raphael Aguilar, he wrote the work "Miimei Yehuda," which deals with the cultural life of Brazilian Jews and describes the Jewish customs of Pernambuco. The prosperity of the Jewish community, however, would be calculated with the return to Amsterdam of its benefactor, Count João Maurício de Nassau, who had administered the region between 1637 and 1644. Then, the following year, in 1645, the Pernambucan Insurrection broke out, led by João Fernandes Vieira, who advocated the evacuation of the Dutch.

In August and September, Recife was isolated, leaving its inhabitants without access to food. The German Johan Nieuhof, who lived in that city between 1640 and 1649, attests that "Cats and dogs, of which we had abundance at that time, were considered fine delicacies. Blacks were seen digging up half-rotten horse bones to devour them with incredible greed." The tragedy It is poignantly recounted in the poem-prayer composed in Hebrew by Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, "Mi Chamocha?" (Who is like You?), with heartbreaking verses that describe the hardships of the community during the siege imposed by the Portuguese-Brazilian fleet: "Who is like You? Who is like You? God of gods, my Lord, Most High, You rest in my home. For my sins I was abandoned in a distant nation. God remembered the king of Portugal, whose wrath terrified us. May God fall upon his nobles and army commanders. Outside, the sword sowed death; inside was terror, for there was conspiracy both within and without. Bastards and mamelukes, my persecutors and traitors, reveal my secrets to my enemies, and treacherously want to surrender my fortress. This angers my soul. My heart ached from so much waiting." Added to this was the long delay in the promised aid, hunger, and rationing, with the redistribution of usual rations. The body was reduced to flesh and bones due to hunger. Bread was heavy and rationed. My people became accustomed to substituting fish for bread, even when their intestines began to resented it. “This is the day we long for to assault the rebellious people,” the enemy said, “to take their homes and all their possessions. The day of their ruin is approaching; they have been abandoned by their god. We see their end. And we did not have sufficient means to defeat them. God heard all this and was angry, but calm toward His people, and covered them with His great goodness. Happy are the people who trust in Him.”

The situation had to reach its peak of unsustainability, with no horses, cats, dogs, or rats left to be eaten, for the Dutch ships Gulden Valk and Elizabeth, carrying soldiers and supplies, to dock. This June 22, 1646, which in the Jewish calendar corresponds to the 9th day of the month of Tammuz in the year 5406, was established by Aboab da Fonseca as the "Day of Thanksgiving," on which the Jews of Brazil were to sing "Shir ha'haim" (Song of Life) and perform acts of charity. The arrival of the ships is explicit at the end of "Mi Chamocha?", composed in the biblical style of the time: "On the ninth day of the fourth month, two ships from the Netherlands brought salvation to my people. If they had not arrived in time, no one would have escaped. Record all this and be remembered, my gathered together, that on that day God's favor was revealed. Remember the miraculous journey. Call upon His name with praise. I will sing to God His Majesty the day He drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea and saved His people. His Name will not be forgotten by His people. 

He saved us from the field of death and spread His cloud over us to ensure our salvation, and did not fail to illuminate our path with His brightness and bright fire. And my people sang as they walked throughout the land: there is none like You among the gods." The Dutch, after the failure of the battles of the Guararapes Mountains (1648 and 1649), had no choice but to lay down their arms, which would happen on January 26, 1654. The Calvinist preachers, since the outbreak of the insurrection, had left in a hurry, but Rabbi Aboab da Fonseca remained there until the last Jew left Recife. After the expulsion of the Dutch, the Jews had been given a three-month period to leave or convert. Ruling out the second option, almost everyone abandoned Recife in 16 vessels, most bound for "Jerusalem of the West," as pampered Amsterdam was called. A mishap would bring a happy ending; one of the ships, the Valk, was lost in a storm. Legend has it that pirates looted and burned it in the Caribbean and that Jacques de la Motte, a French pirate, freed four couples, two widows, and 13 children and took them to New Amsterdam, then a small Dutch East India Company outpost on Manhattan Island.

In his 1960 book *The Jews in Colonial Brazil*, based on the manuscript *Providencia de Dios con Israel* by Saul Levi Mortera, the Viennese historian Arnold Wiznitzer recounted the saga of this group of 23 passengers from Recife who encountered Spaniards who feared they would hand them over to the Inquisition. In Jamaica, however, they were rescued by the Gauls and, with them, headed for New Amsterdam aboard the Sainte Catherine. Before the Jewish New Year, in September 1654, they founded the first Jewish community in what would become New York City, where, as José António Gonçalves de Mello reports, the Ashkenazi11 Jacob Barsimson had already settled. Back in the Sephardic community of Amsterdam, Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca is given the place he had occupied in the Jewish community, as attested by the note written in Portuguese in the minutes book of the Talmud Torah congregation – «Book of Agreements of the Nation Escamot and Elections of the K.K.T.T that el Dio augmente» – Book of Agreements of the Nation, Regulations and Elections of the Holy Congregation Talmud Torah that God increase it, covering the period of the Jewish year 5398 to 5440, 1638 to 1680: «In view of his present and past merits, and why He is beloved by his congregation in general, and was hired for the following service: as haham of the holy congregation, with a vow among the four rabbinical vows, as a teacher in the Talmudic school for advanced students, replacing Mortera, and as a preacher, once a month in divine service and, if necessary, also at night, during the winter season. He will receive an annual salary of 450 florins.' He resumes teaching the Gemara class and another, which dealt with medieval commentaries on the Talmud – Tosafot – teaching in the Torá Or (Light of the Torah) rabbinical schools and in the Yeshivá Keter Tora, created by the Pinto brothers, Isaac and Arão, sons of David de Pinto, who was among the ten richest Portuguese in Amsterdam.

His broad and penetrating knowledge and the evidence of having achieved an astonishing level of proficiency were enough to earn him the election in 1656 as Rosh Yeshiva—rector of the Talmudic academy—of the Yeshiva Torah, founded by the philanthropists Efraim Bueno, a renowned physician, and the long-suffering Abraham Pereira. The community's life, both religious and secular, rose to a superb level, transforming itself into a center of Jewish studies in the Western Sephardic sphere and a focus of intellectual effervescence, bringing together many rabbis, scientists, philosophers, artists, merchants, and bankers, who contributed enormously to the flourishing of the Netherlands from the Golden Age onward. The Ets Haim Library (Tree of Life)/Montezinos Bookstore, the oldest Jewish library and the richest collection of 17th- and 18th-century Jewish history, founded in 1616 to support studies provided by the Seminary of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, reflects over 400 years of Portuguese culture in the Netherlands and embodies the memory of a community that withstood the fires of the Iberian Peninsula.

Most of the religious literature in Spanish and Portuguese intended for the guidance of the Sephardic communities bore the imprint of the Amsterdam press. The aforementioned rabbinical schools were uniquely sublime. The breadth of instruction was not restricted to Talmudic subjects but also encompassed Hebrew grammar and poetry. A notable scholar of theology and metaphysics, kabbalist, poet, exegete, and polyglot, Isaac Aboab da Fonseca's Academy produced venerated disciples, trained rabbis who served as officials in numerous Sephardic communities in Western Europe and the Mediterranean countries, and produced prominent writers and poets. His literary heritage, replete with mystical and practical symbolism, also included mournful supplications, speeches for festive celebrations, elegies, the poem "Triumph of Moses", a book of prayers in Hebrew and Spanish (Amsterdam, 1687), endless Hascamot (Regulations), a treatise on the 13 Principles of Faith by Moses ben Maimonides12, of delicate reading, holds the mystical and poetic distinctive.

In 1646, in Recife, he recorded the afflictions, incited by the Portuguese reconquest, accentuated in the previous year, and he created a narrative in the form of a hymn Zecher Assiti Leniflaot El (In Memory of the Wonders of God), which is a composition praising the acts of God: “Memorial in the name of God, for the tears have ceased / I will sing in my living city with all my joy / I will also sing of His mercy, if they do not cease / A song not according to His size but with all my strength / For who could exalt His lofty Wonders / Above all creation above and below my moon? / It will be as a remembrance to praise the Name of God for the congregation of the Exalted God and Rock of Israel.” Around 1647, he produced Melechet ha-Dikduk (The Art of Grammar), still preserved in manuscript, a compendium of Hebrew grammar that provided access to the Babylonian Talmud, which was only available in Aramaic. At the express request of Abraham Cohen de Herrera, a distinguished Kabbalist, Aboab da Fonseca translated from Spanish into Hebrew two works that had never been printed before, "Puerta del Cielo" and "Casa de Dios," under the title Sha'ar Ha Shamayim (Gates of Heaven), published in 1655 by the important Venetian printer, resident in Amsterdam, Emanuel Benveniste.

Once again, the suffering of the years 1645-1654 in Dutch Brazil is not forgotten, as we confirmed in the introduction: "It had been decreed in Heaven, and the troops spread out across the field and bush, sometimes in search of spoils, sometimes in search of lives, which the enemy aimed at total extermination through his armies from lonely lands. Many of us were killed, others perished from starvation—may they rest in peace. We are few left, yet exposed to death and humiliation..." A brilliant speaker, his 886 sermons overflowed with content and attracted a diverse range of people, including Father Antônio Vieira. It is truly fascinating to meditate on the Jesuit's relationship with the Jews, a relationship, albeit informal, subject to severe punishment. The commitment and directness with which he defended those persecuted by his Church is truly exceptional. This interest was not limited to survival. 

Economic and political framework of the kingdom, but, above all, it embraced ideological foundations inherent in the predestination of the universe. We move to 1643, when he drafted, without signing, the letter published in print, "A Proposal Made to King John IV, Describing the Miserable State of the Kingdom and the Need to Admit the Jewish Merchants Traveling Through Various Parts of Europe." The Holy Office ordered the pamphlet to be recalled, but the monarch gave it no further consideration. His quick diplomatic mission to the Netherlands in 1647, which consisted of redeeming Pernambuco from Dutch rule, had failed, but Father António Vieira, instead of lamenting the lost time, took the opportunity to communicate with the Portuguese Jewish communities and discuss with them the hypothetical return of their members to Portugal. There was no one who did not miss their homeland, but, lacking autonomy of conscience, the journey was decisively rejected. Out of modesty, Menasseh ben Israel and Father António Vieira did not correspond, which does not invalidate their firmness in meeting and mutual admiration. The Porto bibliographer António Ribeiro dos Santos (1745-1818), a man of vast culture, recorded: "Father António Vieira heard him preach several times, marveling at his great judgment and his broad and excessive wisdom, often saying that Menasseh said what he knew, and that Aboab knew what he said."

Menasseh not only said what he knew but also did what he said. In 1651, he sent an open letter to Oliver Cromwell requesting permission for Jews to enter England, who had not set foot on English soil since being expelled by Edward I in 1290. He received an encouraging response from the austere Cromwell: although they would not enjoy special status, he would not place any obstacles to the arrival of Jews. And so it was. Gradually, they established themselves, and later, in 1701, the imposing Bevis Marks Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue was inaugurated. After the departure of Menasseh ben Israel and his son for London on the second day of September 1655, and the misfortune that befell them—they both died—Aboab da Fonsica took over some of their duties. After the death of Rabbi Saul Levi Mortera, on February 7, 1660, he took over as president of the Rabbinical Court, the same entity that had excommunicated, on the morning of July 27, 1656, three days before the annual fast commemorating the destruction of the two Temples, for what the judges considered to be “horrendous heresies”, the one that the world would acclaim as a One of the greatest philosophers of all time, Benedict de Spinoza.

Despite the sea that disarticulated Mortera and Aboab da Fonseca, regarding the generic concept of the soul, both agreed that the resplendent substance, in its essence, is immortal. Unlike Spinoza's philosophy, founded on a pantheistic conception of reality, which claimed that the soul is mortal and expires with the body. Among the records of the Talmud-Torah community, it is confirmed that Aboab da Fonseca was one of the judges of the aforementioned Rabbinical Court and the one who read the Herem's sentence—excommunication—that dreadful ruling, which cannot be read without a shudder, was written in Portuguese, the language generally used in everyday life, while Spanish served for scientific publications, prose, and lyre. This delight in frequently using the language of the Portuguese nation is evident in the community's decisions and warnings, in sermons, in wedding ceremonies, in abundant eulogies, in writings dedicated to strengthening the faith of the exiles, and on the tombstones of the Ouderkerk Jewish cemetery. Although all the prayers recited in the "Esnoga" are in Hebrew or Aramaic, one of its characteristics—the use of the Portuguese language—prevailed without limit.

In the middle of the prayer, entirely in Hebrew, which begins with the words hanoten teshua ("He who grants salvation"), addressed "to our lord the king," without elaboration, the titles of the members of the royal family and the municipal authority of Amsterdam are solemnly announced. In Portuguese, we also learn of acts of benevolence, both social and judicial, exercised by Aboab da Fonseca, and that the members revered him. Many poems, speeches, and honors bestowed upon him attest to the respect and admiration he enjoyed in all circles. He managed to get his decisions passed, and when bitter antagonisms arose in community proceedings, his conciliatory personality played a decisive role in resolving the conflicts that were disrupting serenity. It seems that there were coreligionists who, at a certain point, disregarded the congregation's administrators, but nevertheless recognized the authority of the rabbis. In all the disputes, which extended to unimaginable fronts—the prohibition on buying poultry from Ashkenazi Jews, the choice of marital partners, the place assigned in the Esnoga, and a prayer text for the soul of David of Mercado—Aboab da Fonseca stood firmly by the board—Mahamad—and tried to restore peace. In 1681, he interceded through a court decision to calm the discord in the charitable Brotherhood Maskil el Dal (Aid to the Poor); in 1683, from the synagogue pulpit, he helped to calm and, avoiding further commotion within the community, managed to have his conciliatory decision reign over a discord arising from the method of electing new directors to the Congregation's Council.

During the long time he ministered to the community, Aboab da Fonseca represented, for many, a source of wisdom, a fundamental reference, and a source of strength. In the last years of his life, he lost his sight, but even though the clarity of his eyes dimmed, "He saw the light better through study and contemplation," said the poet and Rabbi Salomon d'Oliveira. Focused on his studies until the end, he maintained the hallmark of the wise: Humility. In the prologue to the magnificent Commentary on the Pentateuch, published by Jacob of Córdoba, his irremediable modesty attempts to detract from his merit for adding commentary to the translation of the Pentateuch: "... The largest part is taken from the most famous authors in my library." The stature and intensity of Aboab da Fonseca's intellectuality are symmetrical to the list of books in his library, put up for auction after his death. From the catalog printed in 1693 by David Castro Tartas, we discover that he owned over 400 books; 18 manuscripts and 373 books in Hebrew, 53 in other languages, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and French, on various subjects—Kabbalah, History of Portugal, Geography, Greek and Latin classics, and philosophical works by authors such as Moses ben Maimonides and Aristotle. On the day of his funeral, at his graveside, Salomon d’Oliveira used the metaphor of a shattered clock to convey the irreversible symbol that the departure of the haham reproduced: “The clock no longer works, the wheels have fallen off, and the strings are broken.”

Widowed twice, Aboab da Fonseca wanted to be buried next to his first wife, Ester, with whom he had two children: David, a diamond cutter, married to Rachel Velosino, born in Brazil, daughter of the officiant of the Tzur Israel congregation of Recife, Jehosua Velosino; and Judith, who married the scholar Daniel Belillos, professor at the Etz Haim school in Amsterdam13 and rector of the rabbinical academy, son of the New Christian Baltazar da Fonseca of Recife, who returned to Judaism after the Dutch conquest, adopting the name Samuel Belillos. On the tombstone, on the left side, it reads: "The grave of the very wise and excellent rabbi (...) spiritual head and leader of theological studies in the Holy Community in Amsterdam, who was called to the divine fields of heaven on Saturday, the 27th of Adar II in the year 5453 (April 4, 1693). For 50 years he was the head of that community and reached the age of 88.' With his body buried, his memory would continue to live on in the literary sense as well. So important was his legacy that for many decades the name Isaac Aboab da Fonseca and the year that dictated his death appeared in the "Ketubot," Jewish marriage contracts.