Jacob Ṣemaḥ (ca. 1578–1667), an erudite physician-kabbalist, was raised amongst the conversos of Viana de Caminha in northwest Portugal. He fled the country in his mid-thirties to live openly as a Jew, arriving first in Salonica. Ṣemaḥ was responsible for the consolidation of the Lurianic literary corpus in the second third of the seventeenth century. His contribution, I argue, should be situated in the broader context of a scholarly curriculum vitae that began decades before his flight from Portugal, as Ṣemaḥ embraced Jewish life as a humanist. Coupled with his natural gifts and genius, Ṣemaḥ’s humanist education served him remarkably well in his new life. The interesting question is therefore not “how might he have learned Torah in Portugal” but “how did his Portuguese educational background affect—indeed, effect may be the more apt term—his Jewish scholarship?”

Jacob Ṣemaḥ（约 1578-1667 年）是一位博学的医师-卡巴拉学者，在葡萄牙西北部的 Viana de Caminha 的皈依者中长大。他在 30 多岁时逃离这个国家，以犹太人的身份公开生活，首先抵达萨洛尼卡。Ṣemaḥ 负责在 17 世纪下半叶巩固 Lurianic 文学语料库。我认为，他的贡献应该放在更广泛的学术履历背景中，该履历始于他从葡萄牙逃亡前几十年，因为 Ṣemaḥ 以人文主义者的身份接受了犹太人的生活。加上他的天赋和天赋，Ṣemaḥ 的人文主义教育在他的新生活中为他提供了非常好的服务。因此，有趣的问题不是“他如何在葡萄牙学习妥拉”，而是“他的葡萄牙教育背景如何影响——事实上，效果可能是更贴切的词——他的犹太学术？”