Ibn Mūsā, Ḥayyim ben judah
IBN MŪSĀ, ḤAYYIM BEN JUDAH
IBN Mūsā, ḤAYYIM BEN JUDAH (1380?–1460), biblical commentator and physician born in Béjar, near Salamanca, *Spain. He became celebrated for his professional ability and served "in the courts of kings and nobles" for about 40 years. During his dealings with officials and clerics, Ibn Mūsā sometimes entered into religious *disputations. These led him to compose Magen va-Romaḥ in which he provided arguments for defense and attack for use in disputes with converts or Christian scholars. Its major purpose was to prove that the Messiah had not yet come. He determined 12 rules to be adhered to in religious debates, which if observed would unfailingly secure the victory of the Jewish side. According to Abraham *Zacuto, Ibn Mūsā was also a liturgical poet.
bibliography:
D. Kauffmann, in: Bet Talmud, 2 (1881), 110ff.; Baer, Spain, 2 (1966), 253–4, 260, 486 n. 9, 487 n. 16; A. Zacuto, Yuḥasin ha-Shalem, ed. by H. Filipowski (1857), 229; Steinschneider, Uebersetzungen, 706; Graetz-Rabbinowitz, 5 (1896), 399; 6 (1898), 419–20; A. Posnanski, Schiloh (1904), 251–6.