ABOAB, ISACCO, da FONSECA. - Rabbi, born at Castres d'Aire (Spain) in 1605, died in 1693.
He was scarcely 7 years old when his parents, in order to escape the Inquisition, were obliged to move to St-Jean-de-Luz near the French border. After his father's death, his mother took him to Amsterdam, where he studied with the celebrated Manasse ben Jisrael under Rabbi Isacco Usiel. At the age of 21 he was appointed rabbi of the Sephardic community of Amsterdam. In 1642 he emigrated with other coreligionists to Pernambuco in Brazil, then a Dutch possession. When the Jews were expelled from Brazil, A. returned to serve as rabbi and director of the Talmudic Academy in Amsterdam. In 1656 he was a member of the council that pronounced the excommunication against Spinoza. He was also among the signatories of an address of homage directed to the pseudo-messiah Sabbataj Zevi. He was an outstanding preacher; according to tradition, the Jesuit Antonio Vieyra, who attended the sermons in the synagogue, is said to have remarked: « Manasse says what he knows; A. knows what he says ».
A. translated from Spanish into Hebrew the cabalistic writings Puerta del Cielo and Casa de Dios, and published a Parafrasis comentada sobre el Pentateucho, Amsterdam 1681.