Christians vs. Jews in the 15th century
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- Published: Saturday, 09 October 2021 23:48
Jews incapable of defending their most sacred writings
PART ONE OF A CONTINUING SERIES
OF INDETERMINATE LENGTH
Excerpted from The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit by E. Michael Jones, chapter 4, False Conversion and the Inquisition, pp. 144-146
Led by Rabbi Vidal ben Veniste de la Cavalleria, a team of 14 rabbis met for debate at the pope’s palace on February 7, 1413, under the supervision of (Pope) Benedict. The following day, the pope laid down the ground rules. The disputation was not a debate between equals; it was rather a form of instruction, according to which the Jews were allowed to defend themselves against charges Geronimo de Sancte Fide would raise. De Sancte Fide, a genius in dividing his opponents, according to Baer (see below), opened the disputation by pitting the writings of the Old Testament against the Talmud.
The Jews, Baer claims, had little time to prepare, although they had been in Tortosa for a month preceding the disputation. On the second day of the disputation, Rabbi Joseph Albo “got entangled in self contradictions … and the Jewish multitude present laughed at him and considered him defeated.51
The discussion involved the Messiah. Some of the rabbis brought up the Aggada of the Palestinian Talmud that suggested the Messiah had been born on the day the Temple had been destroyed and that he had remained alive since then in an earthly Paradise, and that occasionally he would appear at the gates of Rome. When the pope asked whether it was possible for the Messiah to live such a long time, Rabbi Astruc Halevi snapped back that it was no less plausible than Christians believed about their Messiah.