ר׳ דוד ניטו

ר׳ דוד בן פנחס ניטו (1654–1728) was a Venetian-born physician, astronomer, philosopher and Haham of London's Spanish and Portuguese congregation. Educated in rabbinic learning and medicine, he practised and preached in Livorno, where he also pursued calendrical astronomy. Called to London in 1701, he became the first rabbinic leader to serve the congregation in the newly opened Bevis Marks Synagogue. His effort to explain divine providence through the language of ‘nature’ provoked accusations resembling Spinozism; ר׳ צבי הירש אשכנזי reviewed the dispute and vindicated his orthodox meaning. Nieto wrote in Hebrew, Spanish and Italian for a community containing former conversos who needed a reasoned defence of rabbinic tradition. מטה דן, also called the second Kuzari, defended the Oral Torah against Karaite and sceptical arguments and became his most enduring book. אש דת opposed Sabbateanism, while his Paschologia and communal calendars joined astronomy with practical religious calculation. He also answered Christian biblical polemic and served as physician alongside his communal office. He died in London in 1728 and was buried in the Velho cemetery at Mile End. His son ר׳ יצחק ניטו later held the Hahamship but is a separate person and record.