Rabbi Moses Raphael de Aguilar (c. 1611 – 15 December 1679) was aSephardic-Dutchrabbi,Hebrew Grammatician and scholar, who wrote more than 20 books on various topics : a commentary on biblical verses, a Hebrew grammar, books onJewish law, and treatises on Aristotelian logic a classical Greek and Roman literature. He was an erudite classical scholar, an important lecturer at theAmsterdamTalmud Torah, taught at Ets Haim and ran a successful private school.

Bornc. 1611 inPortugal, his parents Abraham de Aguilar and Violante de Paz wereCrypto-Jews, who moved to the Netherlands during theEighty Years' War. It was there, that Moses briefly served as a teacher at the Amsterdam Talmud Torah, however in 1641, he, his wife Esther de Castro Tartas, his wife's nephewIsaac de Castro Tartas and about 600 otherDutch Jews, includingIsaac Aboab da Fonseca moved toBrazil, following itsDutch colonization. It was in Brazil that he became the rabbi of theMagen Avraham congregation ofRecife. Although Moses' time in Brazil was short, and following thePortuguese recolonization of the region, he alongside most of the Brazilian Jewish community returned to Amsterdam. On his return to Amsterdam, he opened a privateYeshiva where he wrote some 20 books, but only two were published in his lifetime. He died on December 15, 1679, in Amsterdam.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

He introduced his students to theTrivium, the medieval and Renaissance curriculum of Liberal Arts for the study of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric, to educate future generations in the appreciation of literary composition. His knowledge of logic assisted the teachers of his time, such as Isaac Orobio and Menasseh Ben Israel, in adding understanding and elegant style to the arguments they contributed to the Republic of Letters. He possessed a good collection of Greek sources, like Aristotle and Plato; Latin sources, including Seneca, Virgil, Quintilian Horace, and most works of Cicero; and other universal authors such as Augustine. Book Three of his Treaty of Aristotle’s Logic (p. 137) proclaims the argument of his vision.

Moses de Aguilar had many students, some notable of which are:

• Menasseh ben Israel
• Isaac Orobio de Castro
• Joseph de la Vega
• Abraham Pereyra

Some of his most famous works are as follows:^[2]

• Epitome Grammatica hebrayca – atreatise on Hebrew grammar.
• Dinim de shehita y bedica – a basic overview of the rules ofShechita.
• Zekher Rab – a collection of all theMidrashim in the Talmud.
• Sefer Hama’asim – a collection of all the stories in the Talmud.
• Tratado da Immortalidade da Alma – a book written in response to the Jewish hereticUriel de Acosta, who denied the principles of the Jewish faith.

• 1611 births
• 1679 deaths
• Sephardi rabbis
• 17th-century Dutch rabbis
• 17th-century Brazilian rabbis
• Jewish philosophers
• Crypto-Jews
• Dutch Sephardi Jews
• Rabbis from Recife
• Grammarians of Hebrew
• Portuguese emigrants to the Netherlands
• Dutch people of Portuguese-Jewish descent
• Rosh yeshivas

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata