The Jewish-Christian Polemics in the Sermons of R. Shaul Serero of Fes (1566–1655)

Abstract

R. Shaul Serero (1566–1655) served as the chief rabbi of Fes during the first half of the seventeenth century. Serero repeatedly devoted his annual sermons on the Sabbath preceding Passover to clarifying various aspects of the concept of redemption, one of the main subjects of the Jewish-Christian polemic. A review of these sermons reveals that Serero found it necessary to examine and refute the Christian dogma on three separate occasions on the Sabbath before Passover, in 1603, 1607, and 1611. Serero adopted and applied arguments from the traditional Sephardic polemics literature but adapted, edited, and expanded these arguments to shape the most appropriate argument.