Uriel da Costa
Videos
Uriel da Costa was a Portuguese Sephardi philosopher who was born a New Christian but returned to Judaism, whereupon he questioned the Catholic and rabbinic orthodoxies of his time. This led him into conflict with both Christian and rabbinic institutions: his books were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum and he was excommunicated by several Jewish authorities. His iconoclastic life culminated in suicide in c. 1640.
Uriel da Costa's excommunication (1888) by Meijer de Haan took 8 years of work, created a huge backlash, and disappeared shortly after and still not extant.
Exemplar Humanae Vitae, by Uriel Acosta.
Imagined portrait of da Costa instructing the young Baruch Spinoza, by Samuel Hirszenberg (1901)
Sadducees
Videos
The Sadducees were a sect of Jews active in Judea during the Second Temple period, from the second century BCE to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The Sadducees are described in contemporary literary sources in contrast to the two other major sects at the time, the Pharisees and the Essenes.
The Pharisees and the Sadducees Come to Tempt Jesus by James Tissot (Brooklyn Museum)