MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL, Tzeror Ha'Haïm. De Termino Vitae. Amsterdam, 1639. In-12, period Dutch binding in parchment. Minor damage. Sought-after first edition of one of the first books printed "at his own expense and on his own presses (Typis et sumptibus auctoris)" by Menasseh ben Israel, the rabbi of Amsterdam's Portuguese congregation, undoubtedly one of the best-known Jews in the world during his lifetime in the 17th century. A famous Amsterdam rabbi, he was in all probability one of Spinoza's teachers, with many passages printed in his famous Hebrew minuscule typeface. This book is a contribution to the debate on whether death is caused by natural causes or ordained by God. The Dutch intellectual Jan van Beverwyck had opened the debate in his Epistolica Quaestio de Vitae Termino, fatali an mobili (Dordrecht, 1634). Menasseh's answer, based on Jewish sources, asserts that the duration of life is not predetermined by divinity, but depends on natural, temperamental and climatic causes. A man's life can be shortened by sin or prolonged by virtue. The influence of the cosmos on a person's life can, according to him, be overcome by a well-regulated life. Keywords: judaica, jew, jewish, hebrew, rabbis, jewish, torah, hebrew, hebraica, judaism, synagogue, zionism, pessah, pessach, haggada, haggadah, hagada, hagadah, passover, menora, menorah, hannuka, hannuca, hannoucca, hanouccah, torah, juden, israélite, Israël, antisemitism, antisémitisme, dreyfus, meguila, sepharade, sefarad, ketouba