Here's a fascinating bit of testimony about Sabbateans, real and imagined, in Prossnitz in the 1830s. Prossnitz was known from the prior century as a place of Sabbateans.
This is excerpted from an article in the American Hebrew 3.27.1896 by Gotthard Deutsch, in honor of Moritz Steinschneider's 80th birthday.
Posts
What a horrendous, kefirdaig way to greet people!
ReplyDeleteTo take this seriously, this was European manners. Or, what Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch would term "derech eretz." So it is not surprising that people who equated European non-Jewish culture with apostasy and heresy would feel this way.
DeleteI'm interested in the comment about "Ha-adereth veha-emunah" being a Sabbatean anthem. I've not seen this before and I'm curious about it. Google wasn't much help, because of the enormous number of variant spellings of the title of said song, and also because of the enormous popularity of it as a performance piece these days. Any comments on the Sabbatean connection?
ReplyDeleteGood question. The origin of this song is in Heikhalot literature, so I suppose it would not be surprising if it was sung by Sabbatians. I also had not seen this, so I will look into it.
DeleteI certainly hope that the tune that's so popular now (with the refrain "tzu vemen, tzu vemen") is not the Sabbatean version. BTW, this posting was my cup of tea, but my finger slipped and I voted wrong. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteScholem suggests that Prossnitz's Sabbatianism inclined it on the path toward early Haskalah and modernization. It's an interesting suggestion, but it's complicated by the fact that there aren't too many other examples of the phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteBy the late eighteenth century, the era of these memories, many of the Sabbatian vestiges in Prossnitz were evolving into Frankism.
You had the same thing in Prague too. Scholem's thesis is faulty because it ignores or downplays other factors which were in place that had nothing to do with Sabbatianism, and it also relies on too few strands of evidence. However, he did do something valuable in making the linkage altogether.
DeleteInteresting comment that the Sabeteans are the "Jewish Adventists." I thought Adventists were distinguished mainly by the day of Sabbath, making the comparison to Sabbeteans inapposite, but after extensive reseach [= wikipedia] I see otherwise.
ReplyDeleteZeh leumas Zeh. For every Christian denomination, there is a Jewish equivalent. The Catholic/Protestant to Orthodox/Reform comparison is obvious. Likewise the Amish to the Chassidim. And now we can add Adventism to Sabbeteans. But the Mormon similarities to Chabad is the real kicker.
9 cup of Tea votes so far (myself included.)
ReplyDeleteLooks like Sabbateanism is lots of ppl's cup of tea.
DF, the Chassidim aren’t Amish, they’re Baptists/Methodists. Chassidus, like the Baptists and the Methodistsh, as its roots in pietism, a 17th and 18th century movement that was a reaction to the scientific revolution and characterized by mysticism.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but the Amish have these beards and funny hats. Plus their own bastardized form of German.
DeleteTrue
DeleteItaly gave us Levita like Spain gave us the Rosh and the Ba'al Tuhrim?
ReplyDeleteGood point, except that in fairness Levita's Levitaness seems to have more than a little Italiano to it, and one wonders if Eliyah Ha-levi Ashkenazi would have been quite the same person if he hadn't lived his days in Italy (and possibly been born there, although I believe the consensus is that he really was born in Germany).
Delete