Ezer ha-Emunah, Moses Cohen of Tordesillas, [Italy, 17th century]

Ezer ha-Emmunah is a polemical anti-Christian tractate by Moses Kohen of Tordesillas. In 1372, Moses represented the Jews in a religious debate with the convert John of Valladolid. Two years later, Moses successfully engaged in an additional debate held with a pupil of the convert Abner of Burgos. At the request of the members of his community, he committed his arguments to writing in his work Ezer ha-Emunah. Moses wrote this work in the form of a dialogue between a Jew and a Christian. The text features the main substance of his debates, which dealt with the Trinity, the virginity of Mary, sacrifice, the alleged new teachings of Jesus and of the New Testament, among other topics.

Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for cataloguing this manuscript.

Provenance

Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 191)

Physical Description

1 [5] 77 [2] = 85 leaves on paper, 9 x 6 ¾ inches; 229 x 172 mm, written in two Italian cursive scripts in brown and black ink, catchwords, original foliation in ink, modern foliation in pencil; Hebrew foliation and catchwords shaved, inner margins repaired, guarded or strengthened throughout, small worm trail in fols. 55-57 touching a few words. Purple marbled boards, cloth spine; spine faded.

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 284); this work was edited from another manuscript with variants from this manuscript and others by Y. Shamir, Rabbi Moses Ha-Kohen, A. Chapter in the History of the Judeo-Christian Controversy, (Miami, 1972); see also idem, Rabbi Moses ha-Kohen of  Tordesillas and his book "Ezer ha-Emunah” (Leiden, 1975)