 Among his most distinguished pupils were Baruch Spinoza, Moses Zacuto and Abraham Cohen Pimentel.Morteira and Isaac da Fonseca Aboab (Manasseh ben Israel was at that time in England) were the members of the mahamad, the political arm of the community, which pronounced on 27 July 1656 the decree of excommunication ("cherem") against Spinoza.Some of Morteira's pupils published "Gibeat Shaul" (Amsterdam, 1645), a collection of fifty sermons on the Pentateuch, selected from 500 derashot written by Morteira.