Crescas’ Sermon on the Passover and Studies in His Philosophy

The Passover sermon of R. Hasdai Crescas is a short philosophical work that was forgotten with the passage of time, remaining in manuscripts that escaped the attention of scholars. It sheds light on several basic philosophical and historical issues in scholarship on Crescas and also supplies information on his understanding of the Halakhah. The first part of this study substantiates the identification of Crescas as author of the Passover Sermon and treats basic issues in his philosophical doctrine, in the context of a comparison between the Passover Sermon and Crescas’s book, Or Adonai.