ABSTRACT
Hesqia da Silva arrived in Amsterdam from Jerusalem in 1690 with a manuscript under his arm. It was published in 1692 as Pri Chadash, a critique of Joseph Karo’s Shulchan Aruch that questioned its authority. As a shaliach (emissary) Da Silva attempted to collect money for the poor in Eretz Yisrael, and to that end he appealed in a sermon in the Esnoga to the morals of the Portuguese congregation.
