Language:
French
Year of publication:
2009
Titel der Quelle:
Les Cahiers du Judaïsme
Angaben zur Quelle:
25 (2009) 83-101
Keywords:
Petrus Alfonsi,
;
Christianity and antisemitism History To 1500
;
Christian converts from Judaism
Abstract:
Discusses the contribution of Petrus Alfonsi's "Dialogi contra Iudaeos" (1108 or 1110) to anti-Jewish polemics. As a converted Jew (he was born Moses Sepharadi in Huesca in 1062), Alfonsi was familiar with Jewish sources and harnessed them to serve Christian truths, while ridiculing them on the other hand. In addition to being the first to introduce criticism of the Talmud into anti-Jewish polemics, he was also among the first to employ rational argumentation and knowledge based on astronomy, medicine, and physics as weapons against the Jews. His "Dialogi" take place between Petrus and Moses, i.e. Alfonsi's new and old self, and serve to justify his conversion in 1106. In response to Jewish accusations that he converted to promote his career as physician to King Alfonso I, Alfonsi argues in his text that he became convinced that the Jews were exiled because of their collective guilt for the crucifixion. This lay the ground for later accusations of the Jews' intentional killing of Christ. Partly due to his influence, the Talmud came to be viewed as the Jewish correspondent to the Christian "doctrina", a view which fed Christian hatred and led to verbal and physical attacks against the Talmud.
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