Tzeror HaChaim. De Termino Vitae

A discussion instigated by the Dutch intellectual Jan van Beverwyck in his work Epistolica Quaestio de Vitae Termino, (Dordrecht, 1634), questioning whether death is brought about by natural causes, or is Divinely ordained. Menasseh’s response, based on Jewish sources, argues that the span of life is not predetermined by the Deity but depends on constitutional, temperamental, and climatic influences. “Of all Menasseh’s Latin works, this was the most successful” (C. Roth, A Life of Menasseh ben Israel [1945], p. 95.)