Sabbatean-Frankism: The Obscure Jewish Sect That Shaped Modernity - Interfaith Critique
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But every so often,... Accountability Reports Gaza: The Imams Condemn… What Now? October 25, 2023 This is a guest post by Abdullah Noorudeen from Coolness of Hind. At the time of writing, 3,793 Palestinians have been murdered—including over 1,500 Palestinian children—and... Accountability Reports [WATCH] Yasir Qadhi Says Muslims Can “Fine Tune and Modify” Islamic Law for Modern Times August 10, 2023 https://youtube.com/shorts/30YChYPRuR8?feature=share Menu Donate feminismInterfaith CritiqueJudaism Sabbatean-Frankism: The Obscure Jewish Sect That Shaped Modernity By: Bheria Date: August 31, 2023 13 min. Share post: PrintCopy URLFacebookTwitterWhatsAppTelegramReddItEmail Isaac Bashevis Singer (1903-1991), who was born in what we know today as Poland and passed away in the United States, is one of the most respected modern writers in the Yiddish language. Yiddish, for those who don’t know, is the language of the Ashkenazi Jews. Ashkenazi, plural Ashkenazim, from Hebrew Ashkenaz (“Germany”), member of the Jews who lived in the Rhineland valley and in neighbouring France before their migration eastward to Slavic lands (e.g., Poland, Lithuania, Russia) after the Crusades (11th–13th century) and their descendants. Singer was eventually awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature. He has been appreciated mainly for showcasing the traditional Yiddish culture which was, later, practically wiped out during WWII. Some of his most famous novels include The Magician of Lublin (1960) and Shosha (1978). Here, however, we’ll be taking a look at some of his other works—those that allude towards more obscure Jewish ideas and practices. He was, himself, the son of a Hasidic rabbi. As we had highlighted in an earlier article, Hasidism is basically a “popularization” of Kabbalah. As per Gershom Scholem (1897-1982), the most respected Jewish authority on Kabbalah, there was a “Messianic crisis” within the Jewish communities of the early modern era. As such, they started to embrace Kabbalah, in a way, to basically make sense of and come to terms with the terrible conditions they found themselves in. There was a group that popularized Kabbalah but still respected the parameters of traditional Judaism. This became Hasidic Judaism, with its mystical tendencies influencing much of what had later on became Orthodox Judaism (the only group that really resisted the rise of Kabbalistic Hasidism were the Misnagdim, a minority community mainly concentrated in Lithuania who later became known as Litvaks). RELATED: The Occult in Anime: The Case of Evangelion But there was another group that also adopted the Kabbalah, albeit with a different conclusion: the Sabbateans-Frankists and their apocalyptic idea of “redemption through sin,” i.e., the notion that, in order to fasten the Messianic era, you must commit as many sins as you possibly can. Having grown up in a Hasidic environment, Singer naturally includes mention of these movements in both his novel Satan in Goray (1933) and the short story Destruction of Kreshev. Both of these works basically present a peaceful Jewish community which witnesses the arrival of some evil Sabbatean-Frankist magician who leads them into pure decadence—and always by means of a woman (more on this later). I will reproduce, here, a few passages from these works, so that the reader may catch a little glimpse of what is to come later on. Please note that these are my own personal translations, from French to English, so please do excuse any errors that may have arisen on my part. From Satan in Goray: On the great Shabbat before Passover, after Levi had spoken, Reb Degaliya delivered a sermon full of advice and words of consolation. He reminded the congregation that the days of exile were numbered, and he warned that the last souls to come into the world were waiting on the Throne of Glory. He deplored the fact that so many boys and girls were still single. Such neglect of the fertility principle would delay their redemption. Referring to the Kabbalah, he demonstrated that all the laws of the Torah and the Shulchan Arukh referred to the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. When the End of Days arrived, he said, not only would Rabbi Gershom’s anathema against polygamy be null and void, but so would all the stern “Thou shalt nots.” Every pious woman would become as pure as Abigail and would no longer menstruate, for impure blood comes from the Evil One. Men would have the right to know other women. Perhaps such couplings would be considered a religious duty. For whenever a man and a woman unite, they form a mystical union and promote the encounter between the Holy One—blessed be He—and the Divine Presence. […] In Goray, life was like a dream. Every few days, a new wedding was celebrated. Twelve-year-old brides strolled the streets with rounded bellies, as the pious matrons ensured that their daughters and sons-in-law often slept together. In addition, Reb Gedaliya and Levi had emancipated women that had been abandoned by their husbands of all ties, and they wasted no time in finding a new one. According to Reb Gedaliya’s calculations, the ram’s horn would announce the coming of the Messiah midway through the month of Elul, and three days before Rosh Hashanah, a cloud would descend from the sky. All pious Jews would take their places therein and depart for the Land of Israel. Every day, between afternoon and evening prayers, Reb Gedaliya would inform the congregation about the miracles that were about to take place. From The Destruction of Kreshev: Shloimele began to reveal to Lise the powers possessed by evil spirits. They are not only demons, goblins, ghosts, or harpies, he said, they also reign in celestial spheres, such as Nogah, a mixture of holiness and impurity. Shloimele put forward so-called proofs that the Evil One is related to the world of emanations and, from this, one could deduce that God and Satan are of equal strength; and that they engage in an perpetual battle from which neither can emerge victorious. He also claimed that sin does not exist, since a sin can be small or great, even considerable. He told Lise that it’s better to sin fervently than to do a good deed half-heartedly. Besides, yes and no, darkness and light, right and left, heaven and hell, sanctity and decay are all images of the divinity, and no matter where we fall, we always remain in the shadow of the Almighty, for outside His radiance, nothing exists. […] It was becoming clear that Shloimele was a secret disciple of Sabbatai Zvi. For even though this false Messiah had long since died, his followers secretly perpetuated his cult throughout many regions. They met in markets and fairs, and they recognized each other by signs known only to them, thus escaping the wrath of other Jews who would have excommunicated them immediately. Numerous rabbis, schoolmasters, and priests, all seemingly respectable characters, belonged to this sect. Some passed themselves off as miracle workers, going from town to town, distributing amulets in which they had inserted not the holy name of God but also that of a dog or an evil spirit, Lilith, Asmodeus, or even that of Sabbatai Zvi himself. RELATED: Jewish Embrace of Polytheism: Expect Confusion A Messianic-Apocalyptic Sect Shabbetai Tzevi (1626-1676), born in modern-day Türkiye, was an average Jew who was fascinated by Kabbalah. He had a particular fascination for Lurianic Kabbalah, named after Isaac Luria (1534-1572), which can be considered a more systematic and metaphysical approach to medieval Kabbalah. It can also be said to have been the main exposition of Kabbalah for centuries prior to the rise of Hasidism. Lurianic Kabbalah had a Messianic-Apocalyptic component that later influenced the Sabbateans-Frankists: the idea that the Shekhinah or (feminine) Divine presence is “in exile” and that Jews should “repair the world” (the expression tikkun olam, which is heard even from secularized Jews, has its roots in this mystical approach). Scholem argued that this messianism-apocalypticism was grounded in the Spanish exile, the trauma of a near-genocide that impulsed desires for world redemption. Tzevi’s early claims for Messianism have their roots in such a… truncated (12,426 more characters in archive)