The
Frankist Ecstatics of the Eighteenth Century
|
Copyright
© 1998 by T Allen Greenfield
First published in Agape V1N2 February, 1998 EV
Agape copyright ©1998 by Ordo Templi Orientis
"Uno
avulso non deficit alter. " - Virgil
By
T. Allen Greenfield
A
century before the European Enlightenment produced the conditions
in which modern European Judaism arose, the ghetto world of the
Jews of Europe and Asia Minor was wracked by a messianic fervor
virtually unknown today outside Judaic intellectual circles.
The influence of the Qabalism of the late medieval period reached
a final flowering in the works of Isaac Luria and other mystics
of the 1600s.
An outright messianic movement developed around the person of one
Shabbetai Tzvi (1626-76 EV) and his prophet, Nathan of Gaza.
This movement was shattered when, faced with martyrdom or conversion,
the would-be messiah Tzvi chose conversion to Islam.
Nathan became a Roman Catholic, and the movement largely collapsed,
though some followed Tzvi into conversion, and there is down to
the present time an Islamic sect in Turkey that follows Tzvi's teachings.
In recent years there has been some effort made among Jewish revisionist
historians to more-or-less rehabilitate Shabbetai Tzvi as a kind
of protoZionist leader.
It is certainly true that the messianic movement's collapse led
in the 1700s to the development of the mystical-ecstatic Chassidic
Judaism. Under the leadership of Israel Baal Shem Tov, this has
been far more widely accepted as a legitimate Jewish religious trend.
Scholars of the stature of the late existentialist Martin Buber
have done much to establish the legitimacy of Chassidic thought
and practice. It has nonetheless continued as a movement to have
both a Qabalistic and messianic undertone, as witnessed by the messianic
expectations centered on the Lubovicher Rebbe that reached a peak
shortly before his recent death.
At approximately the same time that Chassidic Judaism was developing,
another trend which for many years was almost lost to history was
bubbling up in the Ghettoes of Eastern Europe in the wake of the
Tzvi messianic expectations. Indeed, most older English-language
sources relegate this rather substantial movement to a footnote,
usually couched in the most unflattering terms.
This was a sect known as the Zoharists or Frankists, after Jacob
Frank (1726-91 EV), originally named Jacob Leibowicz1.
Like the Chassidim, the Zoharists were deeply steeped in Qabala
and magick and ecstatic religious expression.
Like the followers of Tzvi, they were also messianic. Unique to
the Frankists was a doctrine of salvation through sexual ecstasy
that had not characterized these other tendencies. Indeed, the Zoharists
anticipated the sexual magick that emerged a century and more later
under the influence of such luminaries as P.B. Randolph, Max Theon
and, ultimately, Aleister Crowley.
There is a bare chance, in fact, that the Zoharists may have influenced
these later exponents of sexual spirituality.
Frank was born in Galicia in Polish territory, traveled widely,
and died in Offenbach, Germany on December 10, 1791 EV.
He traveled in the Balkans and got to know the followers of Tzvi,
some of whom looked forward to the latter's resurrection.
About 1751 he proclaimed himself the Messiah and promulgated a "Higher
Torah" -- based on the medieval Qabalistic writings of the
Sefer Zohar ("Book of Splendour").
Frank maintained that certain elect individuals were above the conventional
moral law.
He even went so far as to engaged the staid Rabbinical Community
of the time in a debate over the value of the ecstatic principles
promulgated in the Zohar as opposed to the legalism of the Talmud,
which the Zoharists considered blasphemous.
Within five years the Rabbinical Judaism had denounced the Zoharists
as heretics.
The Frankists enjoyed some protection in Roman Catholic circles,
ever hopeful of making conversions among the Jews.
In a certain sense Frank's critique of the Talmudic Judaism of his
time resembled the friction between Jesus and the Pharisees of an
earlier era.
Frank, who felt that his sect was above restriction, was quick to
exploit this protection, and proceeded to promise Baptism of his
followers.
He was himself baptized in Warsaw with the Polish King, Augustus
III, acting as his godfather.
But the Frankists continued to practice sexual orgiastic ecstasy
as a spiritual sacrament, and soon ran afoul of the Holy Inquisition.
Like Count Cagliostro a few years later, Baron Jacob Frank found
himself imprisoned by the inquisitors in 1760 EV, at the fortress
of Czestochowa.
He languished there for 13 years until being freed by the Russian
conquest.
He relocated to Germany, which then became the seat of the Zoharist
movement.
It should be noted, and more than in passing, that Baron Frank's
sexual movement among the Jews coincided with the birth and flourishing
of the so-called "Hellfire Clubs" of England and France,
the Elect Cohens and later Martinists of France, and other communities
with similar ideas and practices of sacred sexuality.
Frank lived out his life in the luxury of the nobility, supported
by his huge following.
Most unusual for the time, Frank was succeeded, upon his death,
by his daughter Eve2, who continued the Work of the sect until her
own passing in 1816 EV.
Be it noted that later in the 19th century another enigmatic Polish
Jew, the son of Rabbi Judes Lion Bimstein of Warsaw, came to teach
an almost identical sacred sexuality as the Grand Master of the
Hermetic Brotherhood of Light.
This man was one Louis Maximilian Bimstein, better known as Aia
Aziz, and better still as Max Theon.
Based in North Africa and France, Theon taught a "fully Tantric"
approach to spirituality, according to Sri Aurobindo.
He exercised a profound influence upon HB of L Frontal Chief Peter
Davidson, who, in turn, was a profound influence upon Papus and
other luminaries of the "occult revival".
Whether this represents a direct continuity from the Zoharists we
may never know. Clearly, Jacob Frank, his daughter Eve and their
followers deserve a special place in the history of Western Sexual
Occultism comparable to that only now being fully recognized where
P.B. Randolph, Peter Davidson and their circle are concerned.
For further reading :
MY
PEOPLE by Abba Eban (Behrman-Random House, 1968) (section) "False
Messiahs" pp. 232-238;
THE LEGENDS OF THE BAAL SHEM (translated 1955) and
TALES OF RABBI NACHMAN (translated 1956) by Martin Buber;
THE HERMETIC BROTHERHOOD OF LUXOR by Godwin, Chanel & Deveney
(Weiser, 1995) pp. 293-302;
MIRRA THE OCCULTIST by Sujjata Nahar;
MAGIC, MYSTICISM, AND HASIDISM by Gedalyah Nigal (1994);
DEMYSTIFYING THE MYSTICAL by Chaim Dalfin (1995). Also see:
FRANK, Jacob, (article) Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia (1994);
Frank, Jacob, (article) Encyclopaedia Britannica (1995);
Frank, Jacob (article) Webster's New Biographical Dictionary (1983);
FRANK, JACOB, (article) The Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge (Behrman's,
1938);
Most
general and especially Jewish references have either an article
under Frank's name, or some mention in an article on 'false messiahs'
or specifically Shabbetai Tzvi.
Take note that there is a lot of nonsense in reference to the Zoharists,
and many usually reliable sources will either repeat without variation
the assertions of earlier sources, or fall into sectarian vilification.
One would do well to sort through the many short references, and
compare consistencies and inconsistencies.
Notes :
-
The reader may be bewildered
by the variation in names; Jacob Frank is variously referred
to as Jacob Leibowicz, Jankiew Leibowicz and the more familiar
Frank.
His birthplace is sometimes given as Podolia, Berezanka or Korolowka.
He is reported to have died in Offenbach.
Patronized by the Archduchess Maria Theresa, he may indeed have
been made a Baron.
He was certainly a man of wealth and means to the end of his
colorful life.
-
Frank's daughter was variously
called Eve or Eva, depending on source material.
She became the object of a devotional subcult herself, with
some followers keeping small statues of her in their homes.
Yakov Leib Frank
"Jacob Frank"
|
Jacob
Frank's real name was Yakov ben Judah Leib Frankovich (1726-91).
He was born in Podolia (then Poland, now a region of Ukraine),
the son of a rabbi.
As a young man traveled in the Middle East, where the Turks gave
him the surname Frank.
On his return to Poland in 1755, he founded the Frankists, a heretical
Jewish sect that was an anti-Talmudic outgrowth of the mysticism
of Sabbatai Zevi.
Subsequently, he claimed to be the recipient of direct revelations
from heaven and exhorted his followers to espouse Christianity
as an intermediate stage in the transition to a future messianic
religion.
In 1759 the Frankists underwent a spectacular mass baptism at
Lvov, Poland (now L'viv, Ukraine), under the eyes of the Polish
nobility.
But the church brought charges of heresy against him, which resulted
in his imprisonment in 1760.
Upon his release 13 years later, Frank assumed the role of messiah,
and selected 12 apostles.
He settled at Brünn, Austria (now Brno, Czech Republic) where
he gained the patronage Maria Theresa, archduchess of Austria,
who employed him as an apologist of Christianity to the Jews.
After 1786 he moved to the small German town of Offenbach, where
he spent the rest of his life in luxury, thanks to the donations
of his followers.
After his death leadership of the sect passed to his daughter
Eve Frank, but the movement was soon absorbed into the Roman Catholic
church.
From "Frank, Jacob," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright
(c) 1994 MicrosoftCorporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's
Corporation.
Frank kept Sabbateanism alive and ended its tribalism, opening
its adherents to the world outside Judaism.
Sabbateanism become Frankism was one of the most important of
the 18th century movements which freed man.
The great revolution in consideration, [the Turkish revolution],
and the French and American revolutions sprang from his loins.
Prof. Harris Lenowitz
The Sayings of Yakov Frank. An aspect of the Godhead, a true aspect,
grew in me like a pearl that grows of itself; and I have no man
to whom I might reveal the truth of this matter.
Yakov Leib Frank (aka Jacob Frank) was the Third Strand in a Jewish
Messianic Trinity beginning with "The First," Sabbatai
Zevi;
passing through Sabbatai's successor, "The Second,"
Rebbe Berechiah;
and ending with "The Third," Frank himself.
It's my interpretation that these "Three Strands" also
refer to the realms of the Biblical Jacob (Judaism), Esaus (Christianity)
and Ishmael (Islam) - a trimurtri, so to speak, Frank alludes
to when he says: "The Holy One Blessed Is He -- His face
[i.e., Sefirah Tiferet] wonderous beautiful - set me on His knees
and gave me a Strand of Golden Threads and said to me, 'Look my
son, when the day comes to unfasten this Strand you shall not
let it go."
The
New World Order - A Brief History
|
The 15th, 16th and 17th centuries were an age of tremendous progress.
It saw the Renaissance, the reformation, the arts and Sciences were
reborn after the dark ages.
Yet it was also an age which saw the occult secret societies flourishing
as they had not done for many centuries.
Many leaders in this new age of science were occultists. The Rosicrucian,
free Masonic and cabalistic sects were leading in this occult revival.
One such scientist of the late 15th Century was Theophrastus Bambastus
Von Honeium, who is commonly called Parcelsus, believed by many
to be the founder of modern medicine, Parcelsus was a Rosicrucian!
These groups were a revival of the pagan mystery schools of Egypt
and Babylon and that mixture of the Jewish religion and freemasonry
known as 'The Cabbala'.
The Cabbala had its origin in the Babylonian captivity of the Kingdom
of Judah and claimed to throw new light on the old testament scriptures
by looking for occult mystical interpretations in the biblical text.
In 1754 Matinez de Pasqually, a Portuguese Jewish Rosicrucian and
mason, founded 'The French Illumines', also known as 'The Order
of Elus Cohens' (elected priests).
After his death the movement was led by Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
and became known as the Martinists.
In 1760 Dom Pernetti started 'Illumines d'Avigion', all these secret
societies were based upon the Cabbala. Jacob Frank was a Polish
Jew who founded a movement in 1755 called 'The Frankists', sometimes
known as 'The illuminated'.
The doctrines of The Frankists were based upon the cabalistic book
'The Zohara' or 'Book of Light'.
It is upon this book that all modern occultism is based.
Rabbi Marvin Anteiman has stated 'The Frankists glorified evil as
holy, even as a means of salvation, and quoted cabbala authority
Gershom Scholem as saying that Frank will always be remembered as
one of the phenomena of Jewish history.
The Frankists followed cabalistic priests and false miracle workers
were known as Zaddikim or Ba'al Shems.
There is evidence that Amschel Mayer, the founder of the Rothschild
banking dynasty may have been a Frankist, the symbol of the Frankists
was a Red Shield.
This very sign was placed over their family shop in Frankfurt. Amschel
Mayer chose that red shield as the family name, Roth=red, Schild=shield==Rothschild.
Upon that shield was the 'Star of David', though this star has nothing
to do with the biblical King David.
The 5 or 6 pointed star has always been the most important symbol
of the occult, Magick, Witchcraft and Satanism.
This symbol is a cabalistic sign, first used by an Ashkenazi Jew
Menahem ben Duji, who changed his name to David Al-Roy.
This man was a leading Ba'al Shem of the Cabalistic, who also claimed
to be the Messiah.
The best known British Ba'al Shem of the 18th century was Hayim
Jacob Falk, known as 'The king of the Jews.
Falk was a leading Free Mason, and a leader in other secret societies,
he was a supporter of The Duc du Orlen in the French revolution.
However one order was set to combine all the malignant features
of all these groups, The Illuminati.
I
am convinced that there is no subject that has the potential for
misunderstanding as does that of Messianism.
In popular religious thought in the United States, it is simply
a given that Jesus is the messiah - end of discussion.
No thought is given to what are the characteristics of a messiah,
what he is to accomplish, what are his qualifications, or even
how many messiahs there are.
Many are not even aware that the Jews, with whom Christians share
the Bible, do not accept the New Testament and therefore have
a much different view of the messiah.
Seldom does anyone go to the Hebrew Bible for understanding of
these matters from the point of view of the Torah, the Prophets,
and the Writings, to see how they compare with the manner in which
the theme of messiah is developed in the New Testament.
In the Christianity that has evolved in our time, every prophetic
utterance about a deliverer, a redeemer, a prophet to come, a
savior, or many, many other such designations is presented as
being fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
What is needed is some broadened understanding of the whole scope
of messianic thought, rather that a closed minded view that is
common in both Christian and Jewish circles. I believe that both
have allowed some degree of error to creep in.
Unfortunately, there is no subtle way to say that the widespread
influence of traditional Christianity has led to a mindless acceptance
of a messiah that is very different from the earliest messianic
notions.
Please understand that I am not trying to trash Christianity by
saying that.
I am simply drawing attention to the fact that Jesus is presented
as the fulfillment of every facet of the Old Testament.
If one wants to have a comprehensive understanding of the subject,
he should make it his business to understand the issue of messianism,
not only from the Christian view but from the Jewish view which
preceeded it.
Whatever view one takes concerning Jesus of Nazareth, the notion
that all the prophetic figures in the Hebrew Bible refer to the
same individual simply cannot be supported by a careful investigation
of the Bible.
Many such prophecies are simply not referring to The Messiah.
In addition, there are multiple messiahs spoken of in the Prophets.
Every king and priest in ancient Israel was a messiah.
The Hebrew word moschiach, from which we transliterate our word
messiah, means simply the anointed one, from the practice of anointing
one who is chosen with oil.
Only recently, since the public has been given access to the Dead
Sea Scrolls, have we had a window of access into the messianic
views of the period that followed the close of the Hebrew cannon.
A much different view of messianism has emerged.
In the Dead Sea Scrolls, it comes out clearly that at least two,
and perhaps three, messiahs were expected (one of David and one
of Aaron and a third figure, the Prophet, who is said to come
with the messiahs of Aaron and Israel).
There are also many other prophetic figures whom one would never
equate with the messiah, were it not for the professional help
of some overzealous theologian.
It is not my purpose in this article, however, to discuss the
Christian notion of the messiah, or the relative merits of one
view over the other.
That will have to wait for other articles.
Here I will explore an aspect of the Jewish concept of the messiah
by looking at a ten prominent figures throughout Jewish history
who have come to be known as false messiahs.
Given the prevalent misperceptions of the messiah, one might think
that such an article would be anti-Jewish.
This is certainly not my intention.
In fact, the bulk of the material for this article is adapted
from a Jewish publication, The Jewish Almanac, October 1980 edition,
published by Bantam Books.
The Jews themselves recognize these individuals as false messiahs.
One might think that this would be an embarrassing admission for
the them.
But that is, again, based on the Christian notion of the messiah
rather than the Jewish notion.
Among Jews these individuals are not thought of as heretics or
demonic agents, although some of them exhibited some rather bizarre
behavior.
They are simply would-be deliverers of Israel who failed to achieve
what they aspired to.
Understand this key concept : The major prophesied purpose of
the messiah is to restore the greatness of Israel.
He is expected to be wise and understanding, a charismatic individual
who will bring peace and justice to Israel and mankind.
He will usher in an age of world peace.
The notion of The Messiah took form mostly in the era after the
close of the Hebrew canon, climaxing at the time of the destruction
of Jerusalem in the first century.
It has undoubtedly been modified over the centuries that followed,
in a kind of knee-jerk reaction to Christian claims that Jesus
was The Messiah. Judaism seems to have absorbed some of that tendency
to coalesce various prophetic personalities into a single Messiah,
although in their view, it would decidedly not be Jesus.
One should note that, as long as the temple stood, there was no
real messianic expectation.
God was still with Isreal in the temple liturgy.
The nation of Judah still existed as a political entity, albeit
only a shadow of its former self.
The messianic notion at that time was only half baked, so to speak.
There was a realization that a restoration of the former glory
of the kingdom was needed, but the kingdom had not been totally
eliminated.
Messianic expectation could not come into full flower until the
temple and the polity of Israel was completely gone.
When the temple and the nation of Judea were obliterated by Rome
in the year 70, the kingdom was completely dead.
At this time the messianic expectation began in earnest. Let us
now examine the unfortunate episodes that followed over the next
2000 years and the individuals around whom these times revolved.
[...]
Jacob
Frank (1726-1791)
With
the embarrassing disillusionment of the Shabbatai Tzvi debacle of
the previous century, you would think in unlikely that the Jews
would again be drawn in to a similar circumstance again.
But it happen again with tragic consequences.
Residual Sabbateans were still clinging to their faith in the early
eighteenth century, although they were mostly underground to avoid
the wrath of their peers.
But their was growing expectation that the time was ripe for a new
contender to messianic office from Poland.
That contender was Jacob Frank (Jacob Judah Leib), an arrogant practical
joker, involved with gangs of rebellious youth.
He would boast of his complete ignorance of Jewish matters.
But he was a charismatic leader, a spirited force to coalesce the
scattered messianic.
His appearance was destined to throw the entire Jewish world of
Poland into intense agitation and despair.
As a merchant he traded in the Balkans, dealing in cloth and gems.
He studied under a Sabbatean teacher and became involved in the
Zohar.
His teacher promised to initiate the young Frank into the secret
Sabbatean sect after he became married the daughter of a respected
merchant.
He was initiated into the mysteries settled in with a large group
of Sabbateans in Salonika.
He gave up on his trade for an ambitious new role as prophet.
Soon he was proclaiming himself to be the divine reincarnation of
the soul of Shabbatai Tzvi.
Frank began travelling to many towns, visiting Sabbatean cells,
which quickly came under his influence.
He gathered many adherents, proclaiming his messiahship.
His teaching was heavily about the acquisition of wealth and riches,
even if by the most fraudulent means.
In 1756 he and twenty of his followers were discovered conducting
a heretical religious orgy behind locked doors.
Opponents claimed that the Frankists were performing an indecent
dance around a naked woman and kissing her.
Later Frank claimed that he had purposely opened the windows to
compel his believers to go public after decades of hiding.
The police broke down the doors and arrested the disciples.
Frank, mistaken for a Turkish foreigner, was expelled from the country.
Frank and his disciples were excommunicated by rabbinical courts
everywhere.
The Frankists were denounced to the authorities and eventually Frank
was again arrested.
To gain his freedom, Frank agreed to convert to Islam.
But after this conversion, Frank persisted in making secret visits
to Poland to confer with his disciples.
He remained the leader of the majority of Sabbateans all over Galicia,
the Ukraine, and Hungary.
They were outwardly Jewish but secretly transgressed all the Torah
prohibitions, especially those concerning fornication, adultery,
and incest.
His excommunications prompted a wave of persecution.
Frank and his followers appealed to the bishop of Poland for protection,
by exaggerating their common beliefs with Christianity such as the
Trinity and rejection of the Talmud.
The Church saw it as an opportunity to convert thousands.
They began forcing anti-Jewish propaganda out of the Franks.
To ease the persecution, the Frankists, issued a proclamation that
they were "almost" Christians, though they did not fully
embrace Christianity.
They composed a declaration of faith that would satisfy the Church's
demands.
To sweeten the deal, they asked for a public debate against the
rabbis.
The bishop was quite willing to protect the Frankists from persecution
in order to promote hatred for ordinary Jews.
The public debate that followed was moderated (manipulated would
be a better word) by the bishop, who was anything but impartial.
It spawned public burnings of the Talmud.
These continued until the sudden death of the bishop.
This caused popular sentiment to turn against the Frankists once
again.
Persecutions of Frankists again increased.
Many Frankists, including Frank himself, fled Poland at that time.
Ever the opportunist, Frank asked for protection from the king of
Poland, citing his past relationship with the archbishop.
When he returned to Poland, Frank was boldened to proclaim himself
as the living embodiment of God.
He brazenly rejected Sabbatean theology.
He introduced new rituals, shunning kabbalistic jargon and capitalizing
on Christian terminology.
He appointed twelve apostles and twelve female concubines to serve
him.
To ingratiate himself with the new bishop, Frank asked again for
a public debate.
His stated purpose this time was to prove Christianity and to demonstrate
the blood libel (the supposed requirement of Christian blood to
make matzah)!
This only demonized Franks image among the Jews.
They regarded him as a sorcerer.
The public debates took place in 1759.
Frank himself participated in the last debate only.
This one concerned the blood libel.
He deceptively used misquoted statements and altered documents.
External pressure finally halted the debates.
Many of the Frankists submitted to baptism, including Frank himself.
In fact, he was baptized a second time under the sponsorship of
the King of Poland after arriving in Warsaw in a very public display.
But, the ruse could not last forever.
Word got out that some of the Frankists saw Frank as God.
This was too much. Frank was arrested, tried, and exiled to a fortress,
where he was confined for thirteen years.
As the blood libel spread, many Jews were annihilated.
In turn, there were repercussions against the Frankists, who went
further underground.
Frank somehow maintained communication with his disciples on the
outside.
It was rumored that he held secret sex orgies in the compound.
Frank continued to grow more duplicitous.
His final years were spent living like a king in a luxurious mansion
near Frankfort.
He was supported by huge gifts from followers around the world.
He died suddenly in 1791 of an apoplectic stroke.
His children tried to take up the leadership but they were largely
unsuccessful.
Frank's disciples continued to uphold their faith in him for years,
refusing to admit to themselves that he was a charlatan.
Frank's work "Words of the Master" were still being published
in the 1820's.
Adam Mickiewicz, the famous Polish poet, was a Frankist.
Likewise, many in the Polish nobility were Frankists well into the
nineteenth century.
Clandestine communities of Frankists are still thought to exist
to this day.
The last of the ten false messiahs is undoubtedly the most difficult
to contemplate and to write about because he is contemporary.
As with most great men, the essence of the contribution he has made
is not always appreciated properly in the present.
The facts about his life are easily gathered because his movement
is far flung.
There have been newspaper articles about him.
There have been television programs about him and his movement.
His work and influence can be seen on the internet.
There is no shortage of information about this man.
Yet, it is the freshness of the information that makes it more difficult
to evaluate.
To begin with, I run the risk of offending those who believe in
him as the messiah by simply classifying him among false messiahs.
I do not wish to offend, but I must be consistent in using Jewish
criteria to make that classification.
This man never claimed to be the messiah, but his people attempted
to draft him for the job.
Irrespective of his greatness and of the fruits of his life, he
did NOT usher in the messianic age.
He, therefore, is not the messiah.
[...]
© Copyright 2000 by Wayne
Simpson
Biblical Research Foundation
629 Lexington Road, Sapulpa, OK 74066
This document may be reproduced and distributed provided this copyright
notice remains on all copies.
1759
A converted Jew, J. J. Frank,
forms
a sect called the Frankists at Lemberg.
|
These
people were all Jews who had become Christians in revolt against
the evils taught in the Talmud.
They said that it was the Talmud which was the root of all the troubles
between Jews and Gentiles.
Prince Etienne de Mikoulissky, administrator of the archidiocese
of Lemberg, instituted public debates between the Frankists and
the Talmudic Jews.
A debate held in July took place in which various matters were dealt
with point by point until six points had been settled;
the seventh one was the Frankists' declaration that "the Talmud
teaches the employment of Christian blood and he who believes in
the Talmud ought to make use of this blood."
The Frankists said they had learned this in their youth as Jews.
Under the heading Baruch Yavan, the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1903) Vol.
II, p. 563, admits that the Frankists brought the blood accusation
against the Talmudists; also in Vol. VII, p. 579, under Judah Lob
ben Nathan Krysa.
The Frankists completely defeated their opponents in these debates.
Ultimately they became assimilated into the Christian community.
There is a large bibliography with reference to the Frankist community,
of which the following two works may receive mention here:
La
malfaisance juive, by Pikulski, Lvov, 1760;
Matériaux sur la question relative aux accusations portées
contre les Juifs à propos des crimes rituels,
by J. O. Kouzmine, St. Petersburg, 1914.
Sefer
ha-zohar
(Hebrew : "Book of Splendour")
|
13th-century
book, mostly in Aramaic, that is the classic text of esoteric Jewish
mysticism, or Kabbala.
Though esoteric mysticism was taught by Jews as early as the 1st
century AD, the Zohar gave new life and impetus to mystical speculations
through the 14th and subsequent centuries.
Many Kabbalists, in fact, invested the Zohar with a sanctity that
is normally accorded only to the Torah and the Talmud.
The Zohar consists of several units, the largest of which--usually
called the Zohar proper--deals with the "inner" (mystical,
symbolic) meaning of biblical texts, especially those taken from
the first five books of the Bible (Torah), from the Book of Ruth,
and from the Song of Solomon.
The lengthy homilies of the Zohar are mixed with short discourses
and parables, all centred on Simeon ben Yohai (2nd century AD) and
his disciples.
Though the text names Simeon as the author, modern scholars are
convinced that the major portion of the Zohar should be credited
to Moses de León (1250-1305) of Spain.
They do not rule out the possibility, however, that earlier mystic
materials were used or incorporated into the present text.
Because the mystery of creation is a recurrent theme in the Zohar,
there are extensive discussions of the 10 divine emanations (sefirot,
literally "numbers") of God the Creator, which reputedly
explain the creation and continued existence of the universe.
Other major topics are the problem of evil and the cosmic significance
of prayer and good deeds.
After their expulsion from Spain in 1492, the Jews were much taken
up with thoughts of the Messiah and eschatology and turned to the
Zohar as a guide for mystical speculations.
The greatest influence of the Zohar, especially among the masses,
did not occur, therefore, until several centuries after the book
was composed.
Source : ENCYCLOPÆDIA
BRITANNICA
Out
of print :
The Kronika : on Jacob Frank & the Frankist movement, by Hillel
Levine, 1984
ISBN 965-208-065-9
About
the Frankists :
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000
From: Michael Honey <100421.142@compuserve.com>
Subject: I have located "The Militant Messiah" [by Arthur
Mandel].
It was ultimately located at Bridgewater State College library
in Bridgewater, Mass.
The book has been worth the wait. It describes in a fair amount
of detail the bizarre life and claims of Jacob FRANK, and there
are several pages devoted to Frank's 13-year stay in Brno (1773-1786).
Among the Moravian families mentioned as Frankists are the following:
DOBRUSKHA later SCHOENFELD], HOENIGSBERG, PORGES, BONDI,
BRANDEIS, MAUTHNER, GOLDMARK, DEMBITZ, SCHWARZBACHER, LICHTENBERG,
WEHLE, EGER, and [my family] ZERKOWITZ.
The book indicates that a number of these families emigrated in
1848 to the United States, and one of the most famous of their
descendants was the late Justice and leading Zionist, Louis Dembitz
BRANDEIS.
Justice BRANDEIS was married to Alice GOLDMARK from another Frankist
family.
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