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Disputation of Tortosa
The Disputation of Tortosa was one of the famous ordered disputations between Christians and Jews of the Middle Ages, a series of sixty nine sessions held in the years 1413–1414 in the city of Tortosa, Principality of Catalonia (Crown of Aragon, part of modern-day Spain). The disputation of Tortosa was not a free and authentic debate, but rather a coercive, one-sided theological showdown designed to force the conversion of Jewish leaders and the Jewish population.
Among the participants on the Jewish side were Profiat Duran and Yosef Albo as well as other rabbinic scholars such as Moshe ben Abbas, and Astruc ha-Levi. Each one was a representative of a different community. Vincent Ferrer, later canonised, was an important participant on the Christian side. As a followup of the disputations, in May 1415, a papal bull forbade the study of the Talmud.
The initiator of the disputation and representative for the Christians was the antipope's personal physician, the Jewish Christian convert Gerónimo de Santa Fe. After his conversion to Christianity, he presented Antipope Benedict XIII with a composition containing topics to contest with his former co-religionists. The aging antipope, who rejoiced at religious debate, jumped at the opportunity to bring the Jews to a disputation. King Ferdinand I of Aragon did not stand in his way, and letters of invitation were sent to the various Jewish communities in 1413. Attempts by the Jews to free themselves of this were not successful.
The Jewish representatives were at a considerable disadvantage—whereas Nahmanides at the Disputation of Barcelona and the Jewish representatives at the Disputation of Paris had been granted immunity, "every Jewish attempt to respond to the Christian charges was met with the threat of the accusation of heresy". The disputation was not a free discussion between two parties but took the form of a propaganda attack by the Christian side against Jews, including the use of psychological pressure in the form of intimidation and threats.
At the start of the disputation on February 7, 1413, Geronimo presented the debate's principal points and the prohibition incumbent on the Jews from making any difficulties for Christianity over its course. By his words, since the Jewish faith is close to the Christian faith and since the Pope considers the Jews "lost lambs", he is eager to return them to God more than he is eager to do so with the believers in Islam. The main speaker among the Jewish sages was chosen by turn each day. They were placed under great stress, and at times when they returned to the residence allotted to them arguments erupted over the answers they had provided. Their opponent was always granted the last word.
Geronimo emphasized the Midrashic passages according to which the Messiah had already come. These include the passage which identifies the birthday of the Messiah as the day of the destruction of the Second Temple and the statement in the Talmud that the world will last 6000 years, of which the last two thousand would be the Messianic Age. He also used the midrash of the Pesikta which says that the Messiah will suffer.
The Jews responded via a commentary to the midrashim that relied on both the surface (peshat) and comparative meaning (drash) to remove the messianic sting. They also repeated the statement of Nahmanides in his own disputation that he is not obligated to believe in Aggadah, which led Geronimo to depict them as heretics by their own religion. The Jews also pointed out that, in any case, belief in the Messiah is not the mainstay of Judaism. This point was to appear in an explicit and expanded form in the Sefer ha-Ikkarim ("Book of Fundamental Principles"), which Yosef Albo wrote following the disputation.
Geronimo also utilized the midrashim published by Ramon Martí in his book Pugio Fidei. The Jews claimed these to be fraudulent forgeries and demanded that the original Jewish manuscript in which the midrashim appear be brought before them, but the demand was not granted. The question of whether the midrashim offered by Martí were indeed forgeries has been a controversial one among scholars.
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Disputation of Tortosa
The Disputation of Tortosa was one of the famous ordered disputations between Christians and Jews of the Middle Ages, a series of sixty nine sessions held in the years 1413–1414 in the city of Tortosa, Principality of Catalonia (Crown of Aragon, part of modern-day Spain). The disputation of Tortosa was not a free and authentic debate, but rather a coercive, one-sided theological showdown designed to force the conversion of Jewish leaders and the Jewish population.
Among the participants on the Jewish side were Profiat Duran and Yosef Albo as well as other rabbinic scholars such as Moshe ben Abbas, and Astruc ha-Levi. Each one was a representative of a different community. Vincent Ferrer, later canonised, was an important participant on the Christian side. As a followup of the disputations, in May 1415, a papal bull forbade the study of the Talmud.
The initiator of the disputation and representative for the Christians was the antipope's personal physician, the Jewish Christian convert Gerónimo de Santa Fe. After his conversion to Christianity, he presented Antipope Benedict XIII with a composition containing topics to contest with his former co-religionists. The aging antipope, who rejoiced at religious debate, jumped at the opportunity to bring the Jews to a disputation. King Ferdinand I of Aragon did not stand in his way, and letters of invitation were sent to the various Jewish communities in 1413. Attempts by the Jews to free themselves of this were not successful.
The Jewish representatives were at a considerable disadvantage—whereas Nahmanides at the Disputation of Barcelona and the Jewish representatives at the Disputation of Paris had been granted immunity, "every Jewish attempt to respond to the Christian charges was met with the threat of the accusation of heresy". The disputation was not a free discussion between two parties but took the form of a propaganda attack by the Christian side against Jews, including the use of psychological pressure in the form of intimidation and threats.
At the start of the disputation on February 7, 1413, Geronimo presented the debate's principal points and the prohibition incumbent on the Jews from making any difficulties for Christianity over its course. By his words, since the Jewish faith is close to the Christian faith and since the Pope considers the Jews "lost lambs", he is eager to return them to God more than he is eager to do so with the believers in Islam. The main speaker among the Jewish sages was chosen by turn each day. They were placed under great stress, and at times when they returned to the residence allotted to them arguments erupted over the answers they had provided. Their opponent was always granted the last word.
Geronimo emphasized the Midrashic passages according to which the Messiah had already come. These include the passage which identifies the birthday of the Messiah as the day of the destruction of the Second Temple and the statement in the Talmud that the world will last 6000 years, of which the last two thousand would be the Messianic Age. He also used the midrash of the Pesikta which says that the Messiah will suffer.
The Jews responded via a commentary to the midrashim that relied on both the surface (peshat) and comparative meaning (drash) to remove the messianic sting. They also repeated the statement of Nahmanides in his own disputation that he is not obligated to believe in Aggadah, which led Geronimo to depict them as heretics by their own religion. The Jews also pointed out that, in any case, belief in the Messiah is not the mainstay of Judaism. This point was to appear in an explicit and expanded form in the Sefer ha-Ikkarim ("Book of Fundamental Principles"), which Yosef Albo wrote following the disputation.
Geronimo also utilized the midrashim published by Ramon Martí in his book Pugio Fidei. The Jews claimed these to be fraudulent forgeries and demanded that the original Jewish manuscript in which the midrashim appear be brought before them, but the demand was not granted. The question of whether the midrashim offered by Martí were indeed forgeries has been a controversial one among scholars.