Can anything surprise us anymore? A madman with no political experience who boasts of sexually assaulting women is elected president of the United States, and the only thing that keeps him from doing irreparable harm to the American republic is his own stupidity and incompetence. A rabid mob of citizens, incited by his lies and the misinformation promulgated by right-wing pundits, attacks and ransacks the United States Capitol while Congress is in session. In America, books are being banned from libraries and schools. Meanwhile, the planet is on what seems to be an irreversible path to environmental disaster, while a global pandemic continues to rage and disrupt our social, economic, and political welfare. Conspiracy theories are everywhere. And none of this is keeping billionaires from devoting their immense wealth to a competition that involves sending themselves (on round-trips, alas) into space. We deserve to be the least surprisable, the most jaded and disabused, people who ever lived. And yet, out of a usually quiet corner of the beautiful, peaceful, and tolerant city of Amsterdam, late in the year of 2021, came this gem of a letter, addressed by a prominent Dutch rabbi to an Israeli-American professor of philosophy: Amsterdam, 28 November 2021 / 24 Kislev 5782 To the attention of Professor Yitzhak Melamed, The chachamim [rabbis] and parnassim [lay directors] of Kahal Kados Talmud Torah [Talmud Torah Congregation] excommunicated Spinoza and his writings with the severest possible ban, a ban that remains in force for all time and cannot be rescinded. You have devoted your life to the study of Spinoza’s banned works and the development of his ideas. Your request to visit our complex and create a film about this Epicouros [heretic] in our Esnoga [synagogue] and Yeshiva (Ets Haïm) is incompatible with our centuries-old halachic, historic, and ethical tradition and an unacceptable assault on our identity and heritage. I therefore deny your request and declare you persona non grata in the Portuguese Synagogue complex. The letter is signed by Rabbi Joseph Serfaty of the city’s Portugees-Israëlitiesche Gemeente (Portuguese-Jewish Community), who closes by wishing Professor Melamed “a meaningful Chanuka.” As the Dutch might say, Wat in Godsnaam?! 
In the spring of 1656, Bento de Spinoza was not yet the infamous philosopher, the bold and radical thinker who would scandalize Europe by identifying God with Nature, denying the possibility of miracles, and proclaiming the Bible to be a “corrupt” and “mutilated” collection of human writings whose only value is that its stories are morally edifying. At this point Spinoza was, in fact, an importer of dried fruit — just another merchant from a prominent family in Amsterdam’s Sephardic community, the same community that Rabbi Serfaty now serves. Just a few years earlier, at the age of twenty-one, when his father Michael de Spinoza died, Spinoza had to cut short his formal schooling and take over the family business. As far as we can tell from the extant documentation, everything was fine. Spinoza was still donating (or at least pledging) his semi-annual dues and charity payments to the Talmud Torah congregation, although the amounts were gradually diminishing. An indication of a loss of faith? More likely just a consequence of the serious debts that he had inherited from his father. To all appearances, Bento was still an upstanding (if financially struggling) member of the community. Thus, what happened next comes — to us, at least — as a bit of a shock. On July 27, 1656, or the 6th of Av, 5416 on the Jewish calendar, the following ferocious proclamation was read out from in front of the ark of the Torah in the congregation’s synagogue on the Houtgracht, the “Wood Canal,” filled in during the nineteenth century and now the Waterlooplein, site of the city hall, the opera house, and a flea market. The Senhores of the ma’amad make known to you that having for some time reports of the bad opinions and acts of Baruch de Spinoza, they have endeavored by various means and promises to turn him from his bad ways. But being unable to effect any remedy, on the contrary, each day receiving more information about the abominable heresies which he practiced and taught and about the monstrous deeds which he performed, and having many trustworthy witnesses who have reported and testified on all of this in the presence of the said Espinoza, who has been found guilty; after all of this has been examined in the presence of the rabbis, they [the members of the ma’amad] have decided, with their [the rabbis’] consent, that the said Espinoza should be banned and separated from the Nation of Israel, as they now put him under herem with the following herem: With the judgment of the angels and with that of the saints, we put under herem, ostracize, and curse and damn Baruch de Espinoza, with the consent of Blessed God and with the consent of this entire holy congregation, before these holy scrolls, with the 613 precepts which are written in them; with the herem that Joshua put upon Jericho, with the curse with which Elisha cursed the youth, and with all the curses that are written in the law. Cursed be he by day and cursed be he by night; cursed be he when he lies down and cursed be he when he rises up. Cursed be he when he goes out and cursed be he when he comes in. Adonai will not forgive him. The fury and zeal of Adonai will burn against this man and bring upon him all the curses that are written in this book of the law. And may Adonai erase his name from under the heavens. And may Adonai separate him for evil from all of the tribes of Israel, with all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law. And you that cleave unto Adonai your God, all of you alive today: We warn that no one should communicate with him orally or
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