Download or read book Jacob Frank s Book of the Words of the Lord written by Rachel Elior and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is concerned with the exceptional history and unprecedented thought of Jacob Frank (1726-1791), a Messianic antinomistic Jewish-Moslem-Christian leader, active in the second half of the 18th Century in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Othman empire, Moravia and Germany. Frank grew up in the Donme circles in Salonika (Donme was the Turkish name of the Moslem-Jews who were followers of the messianic leader Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676), who was forced to become a Moslem. Is followers decided to convert to Islam in 1683 in order to live separate Jewish messianic life). Frank defined himself in his mythical autobiography, known as 'The Words of the Lord' as a chosen messianic Leader and as an anarchist visionary who decided to cross every border and to destroy every book, law and order. His anarchistic behavior as well as his broad social influence caused a persistent rabbinic persecution and excommunication that brought Jacob Frank and his thousands followers to undertake a mess conversion to Christianity in 1759-1760.

Download or read book The Mixed Multitude written by Paweł Maciejko and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2011-03-08 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1756, Jacob Frank, an Ottoman Jew who had returned to the Poland of his birth, was discovered leading a group of fellow travelers in a suspect religious service. At the request of the local rabbis, Polish authorities arrested the participants. Jewish authorities contacted the bishop in whose diocese the service had taken place and argued that since the rites of Frank's followers involved the practice of magic and immoral conduct, both Jews and Christians should condemn them and burn them at the stake. The scheme backfired, as the Frankists took the opportunity to ally themselves with the Church, presenting themselves as Contra-Talmudists who believed in a triune God. As a Turkish subject, Frank was released and temporarily expelled to the Ottoman territories, but the others were found guilty of breaking numerous halakhic prohibitions and were subject to a Jewish ban of excommunication. While they professed their adherence to everything that was commanded by God in the Old Testament, they asserted as well that the Rabbis of old had introduced innumerable lies and misconstructions in their interpretations of that holy book. Who were Jacob Frank and his followers? To most Christians, they seemed to be members of a Jewish sect; to Jewish reformers, they formed a group making a valiant if misguided attempt to bring an end to the power of the rabbis; and to more traditional Jews, they were heretics to be suppressed by the rabbinate. What is undeniable is that by the late eighteenth century, the Frankists numbered in the tens of thousands and had a significant political and ideological influence on non-Jewish communities throughout eastern and central Europe. Based on extensive archival research in Poland, the Czech Republic, Israel, Germany, the United States, and the Vatican, The Mixed Multitude is the first comprehensive study of Frank and Frankism in more than a century and offers an important new perspective on Jewish-Christian relations in the Age of Enlightenment.

Download or read book The Books of Jacob written by Olga Tokarczuk and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-01-31 with total page 993 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORKER “ESSENTIAL READ” “Just as awe-inspiring as the Nobel judges claimed.” – The Washington Post “Olga Tokarczuk is one of our greatest living fiction writers. . . This could well be a decade-defining book akin to Bolaño’s 2666.” –AV Club “Sophisticated and ribald and brimming with folk wit. . . The comedy in this novel blends, as it does in life, with genuine tragedy.” –Dwight Garner, The New York Times LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, TIME, THE NEW YORKER, AND NPR The Nobel Prize–winner’s richest, most sweeping and ambitious novel yet follows the comet-like rise and fall of a mysterious, messianic religious leader as he blazes his way across eighteenth-century Europe. In the mid-eighteenth century, as new ideas—and a new unrest—begin to sweep the Continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland. Before long, he has changed not only his name but his persona; visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a charismatic spell that attracts an increasingly fervent following. In the decade to come, Frank will traverse the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires with throngs of disciples in his thrall as he reinvents himself again and again, converts to Islam and then Catholicism, is pilloried as a heretic and revered as the Messiah, and wreaks havoc on the conventional order, Jewish and Christian alike, with scandalous rumors of his sect’s secret rituals and the spread of his increasingly iconoclastic beliefs. The story of Frank—a real historical figure around whom mystery and controversy swirl to this day—is the perfect canvas for the genius and unparalleled reach of Olga Tokarczuk. Narrated through the perspectives of his contemporaries—those who revere him, those who revile him, the friend who betrays him, the lone woman who sees him for what he is—The Books of Jacob captures a world on the cusp of precipitous change, searching for certainty and longing for transcendence. In a nod to books written in Hebrew, The Books of Jacob is paginated in reverse, beginning on p. 955 and ending on p. 1 – but read traditionally, front cover to back.

Download or read book Millenarianism and Messianism in Early Modern European Culture written by M. Goldish and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The earliest scientific studies of Jewish messianism were conducted by the scholars of the Wissenschaft des Judentums school, particularly Heinrich Graetz, the first great Jewish historian of the Jews since Josephus. These researches were invaluable because they utilized primary sources in print and manuscript which had been previously unknown or used only in polemics. The Wissenschaft studies themselves, however, prove to be polemics as well on closer inspection. Among the goals of this group was to demonstrate that Judaism is a rational and logical faith whose legitimacy and historical progress deserve recognition by the nations of Europe. Mystical and messianic beliefs which might undermine this image were presented as aberrations or the result of corrosive foreign influences on the Jews. Gershom Scholem took upon himself the task of returning mysticism and messianism to their rightful central place in the panorama of Jewish thought. Jewish messianism was, for Scholem, a central theme in the philosophy and life of the Jews throughout their history, shaped anew by each generation to fit its specific hopes and needs. Scholem emphasized that this phenomenon was essentially independent of messianic or millenarian trends among other peoples. For example, in discussing messianism in the early modern era Scholem describes a trunk of influence on the Jewish psyche set off by the expulsion from Spain in 1492.

Download or read book A Liminal Space written by Ernest Rubinstein and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2021-09-24 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes one step further the long-standing debate among scholars of religious antiquity over when and why a parting of the ways happened between Judaism and Christianity in the early centuries of the Common Era. It explores three interrelated questions: what might have happened to prevent that split; how might Western religion have looked had the split not occurred; and how might features of that religion, which never existed, nonetheless manifest in some of the literature and artworks of the past half millennium. The book envisions a religion that stands between historical Judaism and Christianity—a counterfactual construction that challenges Jews and Christians to rethink their actual identities today.

Download or read book The Heresy of Jacob Frank written by Jay Michaelson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Heresy of Jacob Frank is the first monograph length study on the religious philosophy of Jacob Frank (1726-1791), who, in the wake of false messiah Sabbetai Zevi, led the largest mass apostasy in Jewish history. Based on close readings of Frank's late teachings, recorded in 1784 and 1790, this book challenges scholarly presentations of Frank that depict him as a sex-crazed "degenerate," and presents Frank as an original and prescient figure at the crossroads of tradition and modernity, reason and magic, Kabbalah and Western Esotericism. Frank's worldview combines a skeptical rejection of religious law as ineffectual and repressive with a supernatural, esoteric myth of immortal beings, material magic, and worldly power. With close readings of the theological and narrative passages of Frank's teachings, Michaelson shows how the Frankist sect evolved from its Sabbatean roots and the infamous 1757-59 disputations before the Catholic Church, into a Western Esoteric society based on alchemy, secrecy, and sexual liberation. Sexual ritual, apparently tightly limited and controlled by the sect, was not a libertine bacchanal but an enactment of the messianic reality, a corporealization of what would later become known as spirituality. While Frank was undoubtedly a manipulative, even abusive leader whose sect mostly disappeared from history, Michaelson suggests that his ideology anticipated themes that would become predominant in the Haskalah, Early Hasidism, and even contemporary 'New Age' Judaism. In an inversion of traditional religious values, Frank's antinomian theology held personal flourishing to be a religious virtue, affirmed only the material, and transferred messianic eros into social, sexual, and political reality.

Download or read book Jacob Frank written by Alexander Kraushar and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jacob Frank is the second and last major exponent of apostate messianism, the concept that lead to the Sabbatain heresy. His picaresque life is recounted by Alexandr Kraushar. The editor's 'A Note for the General Reader' and his annotations to Kraushar's text explore the sources, and the reasons for the disappearance, of the Sabbatain heresy. These observations are reflected against aspects of early 20th Century European history. Also explored are affinities to the tenets of Sabbatian theology found in lines of T.S.Eliot's Four Quartets and in the role of the Old Bolsheviks in Stalin's Purge Trials.

Download or read book Sabbatian Heresy written by Pawel Maciejko and published by Brandeis University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pronouncements of Sabbatai Tsevi (1626-76) gave rise to Sabbatianism, a key messianic movement in Judaism that spread across Jewish communities in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The movement, which featured a set of theological doctrines in which Jewish Kabbalistic tradition merged with Muslim and later Christian elements, suffered a setback with Tsevi's conversion to Islam in 1666. Nonetheless, for another hundred and fifty years, Sabbatianism continued to exist as a heretical underground movement. It provoked intense opposition from rabbinic authorities for another century and had a significant impact on central developments of later Judaism, such as the Haskalah, the Reform movement, Hasidism, and the secularization of Jewish society. This volume provides a selection of the most original and influential texts composed by Sabbatai Tsevi and his followers, complemented by fragments of the works of their rabbinic opponents and contemporary observers and some literary works inspired by Sabbatianism. An introduction and annotations by Pawe_ Maciejko provide historical, political, and social context for the documents.

Download or read book Olga Tokarczuk written by Lidia Wiśniewska and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-03-14 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filling a significant gap in contemporary criticism of recent prose fiction, this book offers a provocative analysis of the work of Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk, situating her output in comparative contexts. The chapters making up the volume range from myth-critical focused readings to interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives. Tokarczuk’s fiction is explored as mythopoeic and heterotopian experimentation, as well as being read alongside other arts and other authors of various national and linguistic backgrounds. This wide-ranging collection is the first monograph on Tokarczuk in English.

Download or read book A History of Kabbalah written by Jonathan Garb and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-23 with total page 525 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathan Garb's A History of Kabbalah: From the Early Modern Period to the Present Day is a lucid and sophisticated account of the multifaceted nature of Jewish mysticism, focusing on its development from the spiritual revolution that took place in Safed in the sixteenth century until the present. Opening the secrets of the kabbalah to a wider audience, Garb judiciously argued that how important the mystical and esoteric tradition has been in Jewish history and in the cultural and intellectual life of Europe more generally. One of the more methodologically innovative aspects of Garb's book is his contention that kabbalah became a major factor in the religious life of Jews in the modern age due to print and others forms of rapid communication, a process that has magnified significantly in recent years due to the digital revolution. Informative and provocative, A History of Kabbalah will surely be of interest to a wide readership.

Download or read book Modernism and Zionism written by D. Ohana and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-10-10 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of Palgrave's Modernism and ... series, Modernism and Zionism explores the relationship between modernism and the Jewish national ideology, the Zionist movement, which was operative in all areas of Jewish art and culture.

Download or read book Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology written by David Ohana and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology is the first book to explore the impact of Friedrich Nietzsche’s work on the formation of Jewish political theology during the first half of the twentieth century. It maps the many ways in which early Jewish thinkers grappled with Nietzsche’s powerful ideas about politics, morality, and religion in the process of forging a new and modern Jewish culture. The book explores the stories of some of the most important Jewish thinkers who utilized Nietzsche’s writings in crafting the intellectual foundations of Jewish modern political theology. These figures’ political convictions ranged from orthodox conservatism to pacifist anarchism, and their attitude towards Nietzsche’s ideas varied from enthusiastic embrace to ambivalence and outright rejection. By bringing these diverse figures together, the book makes a convincing argument about Nietzsche’s importance for key figures of early Zionism and modern Jewish political thought. The present study offers a new interpretation of a particular theological position which is called "heretical religiosity." Only with modernity and, paradoxically, with rapid secularization, did one find "heretical religiosity" at full strength. Nietzsche enabled intellectual Jews to transform the foundation of their political existence. It provides a new perspective on the adaptation of Nietzsche’s philosophy in the age of Jewish national politics, and at the same time is a case study in the intellectual history of the modern Jewry. This new reading on Nietzsche’s work is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in philosophy, Jewish history and political theology.

Download or read book Jewish Mysticism written by Rachel Elior and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-31 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The corpus of Jewish mystical writings has developed over thousands of years in different parts of the world. Its creators sought to discover hidden realms that would shed light on existing reality. The literature they created, one of the central sources of inspiration of religious thought, comprises hundreds of volumes. This masterly investigation of the Jewish mystical phenomenon, from antiquity to the twentieth century, contextualizes it in the spiritual and historical circumstances in which it evolved.

Download or read book Women and the Messianic Heresy of Sabbatai Zevi 1666 1816 written by Ada Rapoport-Albert and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-03 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timely and fascinating study of an early modern movement that transcended traditional Jewish gender paradigms and allowed women to express their spirituality freely in the public arena.

Download or read book The Unknown History of Jewish Women Through the Ages written by Rachel Elior and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-05-22 with total page 808 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Unknown History of Jewish Women—On Learning and Illiteracy: On Slavery and Liberty is a comprehensive study on the history of Jewish women, which discusses their absence from the Jewish Hebrew library of the "People of the Book" and interprets their social condition in relation to their imposed ignorance and exclusion from public literacy. The book begins with a chapter on communal education for Jewish boys, which was compulsory and free of charge for the first ten years in all traditional Jewish communities. The discussion continues with the striking absence of any communal Jewish education for girls until the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and the implications of this fact for twentieth-century immigration to Israel (1949-1959) The following chapters discuss the social, cultural and legal contexts of this reality of female illiteracy in the Jewish community—a community that placed a supreme value on male education. The discussion focuses on the patriarchal order and the postulations, rules, norms, sanctions and mythologies that, in antiquity and the Middle Ages, laid the religious foundations of this discriminatory reality.

Download or read book God vs Gay written by Jay Michaelson and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A passionate argument for LGBTQ equality within religious communities—“a book for our times and a book for the ages” (EDGE) The myth that the Bible forbids homosexuality—the myth of “God versus Gay”—is behind some of the most divisive and painful conflicts of our day. In this provocative and game-changing book, scholar and activist Jay Michaelson shows that the Bible does not prohibit same-sex intimacy but does quite the opposite. In fact, the vast majority of the Bible’s teachings support the full equality and dignity of LGBTQ people, from the first flaw it finds in creation (“It is not good for a person to be alone”) to the way religious communities grow through reflection and conscience. Michaelson argues passionately for equality—not despite religion, but because of it. With close readings of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, the latest data on the science of sexual orientation, and a sympathetic, accessible, and ecumenical approach to religious faith, Michaelson makes the case that sexual diversity is part of the beauty of nature. The recognition of same-sex families will strengthen, not threaten, the values religious people hold dear. Whatever your views on religion and sexual diversity, God vs. Gay is a plea for a more compassionate, informed conversation—and a first step toward creating one.

Download or read book Studies in Jewish Myth and Messianism written by Yehuda Liebes and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the nature and development of Jewish myth from the Talmudic period through Kabbalah to Hasidism. It describes the changes in this myth in its various stages and the external influences on it. The author shows that myth is in the essence of the Jewish religion and that, rather than being created out of external influences, Kabbalah is one of its manifestions. The book also deals with the related subject of Messianism, and delves into the special spiritual personalities of some messianic figures in Jewish history to show how myth was incarnate in them.