Joseph ibn Shem-Tov

Who was Joseph ibn Shem-Tov?

Joseph ben Shem-Tov ibn Shem-Tov was a prolific Judæo-Spanish writer born in Castile. He lived in various cities of Spain: Medina del Campo de Leon; Alcalá de Henares; and Segovia.

Though it is not known precisely what office he held at court, he occupied a position which brought him in contact with distinguished Christian scholars. According to the custom of the time, he held public disputations with them in the presence of the court; this probably led him to study the polemical literature of the Jews. In the preface to his commentary on Profiat Duran's Al-Tehi ka-Aboteka, he recounts a disputation with a Christian scholar concerning the doctrine of the Trinity. He seems to have elaborated this disputation and to have used it later in various anti-Christian writings. In 1452 he was sent by the Prince of Asturia, Don Enrique, to Segovia to prevent an outbreak of popular rage at Easter against the Jews. He speaks occasionally in his writings of great sufferings which drove him from place to place, and of passing through a severe illness. Graetz has discovered, from a quotation in Joseph Jaabez's Or ha-Ḥayyim, that Ibn Shem-Ṭob died a martyr. The year of his passing was 1480.