When michael's eldest son, isaac, died in September of 1649, Spinoza was about to turn seventeen. This means that, if all was going well, he would have been entering the first level of the upper classes at Talmud Torah, the fifth grade. At this time it was being taught by Rabbi Menasseh, although he would soon be relieved of these duties by Judah Jacob Leao (also known by the nickname ‘Templo’, because of his almost fanatical devotion to building a scale model of Solomon's Temple). Until early in the twentieth century, it was assumed that Spinoza went on to complete his schooling through the upper grades and, thus, trained to be a rabbi. This may be just what his father had in mind for his second son. In light of his service to the community's educational boards, we know that Michael cared a good deal about education; and Bento must have been a naturally gifted student. What greater source of honor and pride for a former marrano than to have his son become a chacham? What greater achievement for a young Jewish man of Spinoza's intelligence?

If Spinoza did indeed have rabbinical aspirations, it would add much drama to the story of his eventual fall from grace. On the basis of documents that he discovered in the Amsterdam Jewish archives in the 1930s, however, Vaz Dias has shown that Spinoza was not, in fact, attending the highest class, or medras – that taught by Rabbi Mortera and including advanced lessons in Gemara and readings in rabbinic and philosophical literature – when he should have been, in the early 1650s.