Abstrakt
This paper focuses on the polemical activity of Yom Tov Lipman Mühlhausen, an Ashkenazic rabbi active at the turn of the fifteenth century, who is best known as the author of the polemical work called simply The Book of Polemic - Sefer nizahon. I argue that Lipman's Book of Polemic is an excellent example of a creative intellectual response to the late-medieval transformations of non-Jewish as well as Jewish religious discourses, shifts of emphases in religious practice and in inter-religious polemics.
Resilience - the ability to adapt to changing circumstances and employ different strategies of coping with unfavourable developments, is naturally a vital trait for any polemical engagement, which is by definition reactive. However, this ability can acquire various forms and I would like to ask what is characteristic of Lipman's polemical responses.
I believe it is his awareness of contemporary late-medieval theological discourses and his ability to employ important motifs from them in order to manipulate his polemical encounters.