Vidal Benveniste was a Spanish Jew who lived in Zaragoza

Zaragoza

Zaragoza , also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain...

, in what is now Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, during the 15th century. He was elected, by the notables of the Jewish communities of Aragon

Aragon

Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...

, as the chief speaker at the disputation of Tortosa

Disputation of Tortosa

The Disputation of Tortosa, one of the famous disputations between Jews and Christians of the Middle Ages, was held in the years 1413–1414 in the city of Tortosa, Spain....

 (1414), because of his knowledge of Latin and his reputed wisdom.

Benveniste wrote a refutation of the seeming evidences of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 as the Messiah

Messiah

A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...

, called "Ḳodesh ha-Ḳodashim," which is still extant in manuscript. He is not identical with Don Ferrer of Gerona or with Vidal ben Labi de la Caballeria, as claimed by some.

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