Judah Leon Templo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jacob Judah Aryeh Leon Templo (born 1603 in Hamburg, died after 1675) was a ḥakam, translator of the Psalms, and expert on heraldry, of Marano descent.

He was son of Abraham de Leon. He became ḥakam in Middelburg and, after 1643, in Amsterdam, where he was engaged also as teacher in the Talmud Torah. He vocalized the entire Mishnah which was printed in 1646 at the establishment of Manasseh ben Israel, with the anonymous collaboration of Adam Boreel.

Jacob Judah caused a great stir by a plan, drawn by him, of Solomon's Temple. It was exhibited before Charles II of England. The author published a short, comprehensive description in Spanish entitled Retrato del Templo de Selomoh. (Middelburg, 1642). This was translated into Dutch in the same year; into French in 1643; and by himself into Hebrew in 1650, with the title Tabnit Hekal. Duke August of Brunswick, and more particularly his wife Elizabeth, wished a German translation of this description and entrusted the task to Johann Saubert of Helmstädt. Some one else published such a translation in 1665, and Saubert therefore wrote a Latin translation in that year. An English version appeared in 1778, done by M. P. Decastro, a relative of Templo's, and in whose possession the plan was then held.

In 1647 Jacob Judah wrote Tratado de la Arca del Testamento (Amsterdam, 1653). His treatise on the cherubim, their form and nature, written in Latin in 1647, appeared in Spanish under the title Tratado de los Cherubim (Amsterdam, 1654); and his description of Moses' tabernacle, written in 1647 in Dutch, was published under the title Retrato del Tabernaculo de Moseh (Amsterdam, 1654), and in English (1675). His last work was a Spanish paraphrase of the Psalms, which was printed with the text, under the title Las Alabanças de Santitad (Amsterdam, 1671), and, as is stated in the introduction, was written in seven months. The work was dedicated to Isaac Senior Teixéyra, financial agent, in Hamburg, of Queen Christina of Sweden, and was praised by many ḥakamim, scholars, and poets in Hebrew, Latin, and Spanish verses.

Jacob Judah wrote also a dialogue (Colloquium Middelburgense) between a rabbi and a Christian scholar on the value of the Christian dogmas; and he left in manuscript Disputaciones con Diferentes Theologos de la Cristiandad.

He was a skilful draftsman. The coat of arms of the English Grand Lodge of Masons with the motto , now "Holiness to the Lord," is the work of the "famous and learned Hebrewist, architect, and brother, Rabi Jacob Jehudah Leon." He drew also more than 200 figures and vignettes to illustrate Talmudical subjects, which his son Solomon gave to Surenhusius for his Latin translation of the Mishnah.