Gnostic Judaism in the fight against God
4/15/16 Anno Domini
Translated from Polish
There is a spiritual war between God and Lucifer. During these struggles, the prince of darkness often calls evil good, and hides hatred in words that proclaim love, tolerance and peace.
Foretold by St. John, the collective conversion of the Jews is a long-awaited sign of the end times and the imminent parousia of Christ. This is one of the great mysteries about the fate of the whole world. Under what circumstances, however, will the conversion of the Jews take place? At what point will they abandon their disastrous notions of the coming of a national messiah who will come only to create another earthly empire? Will this be related to the emergence of another false Jewish messiah? There are many questions that are difficult to give an unambiguous answer.
The story of the Jewish people after their rejection and shedding of the Savior's blood is a story of plunging into religious error and self-love. Contrary to popular belief, Jews did not remain faithful to the principles of Orthodox Judaism, dividing into numerous and combating sects. To this day, Judaism itself is a diverse phenomenon, and its division into Jewish Orthodox and secularized Reformed Jews is a very simplified. One of the branches of today's Judaism (although some of the Jews themselves treat this religious movement as a heretical sect) is Sabbataism, which is influential and still active in the underground. It is worth getting acquainted with the views proclaimed within this sect, the more so that they were adopted by some of today's branches of Judaism, as well as sects (most often Protestant) of a Judeo-Christian character. It is worth it for one more reason: because Sabbataism is a religious concept responsible for numerous disastrous social and political events in the world over the past 200 years, and which have been ascribed indiscriminately to all Jews since the nineteenth century. More than once the Sabbateans themselves zealously assisted in spreading anti-Jewish propaganda in order to hasten the achievement of the messianic time by breaking the law.
"The Messiah's Birth Pangs"
Within the many sects of Judaism that emerged after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, messianic hopes were common, embodied by successive self-proclaimed "messiahs." The rejection of Jesus Christ and the recognition by the rabbis as "the worst of men" created an increasingly visible void in Judaic theology, based on the redemptive mission of the Son sent by God. Attempts were made to fill this void by devoting themselves with full confidence to other crooks using religious rhetoric. One of such people - the first so serious since the time of the ancient "messiah" by Szymon, bar Kochba - was Sabbataj Cwi (Tzvi, Zvi, Zevi) Sholem, in the 17th century recognized by many Jews from the European diaspora as an authentic, long-awaited messiah.
The religious success of the new "messiah" was related to several circumstances favorable to the new teaching. The first was the intensification in the second half of the 17th century of mystical and messianic tendencies1 among various factions of the Jews, tendencies arising from the growing popularity of gematria2 and Kabbalah. Secondly, the complicated and twisted theology of Sabbatai was an attempt to interpret and include in God's plan of religious and political events unpleasant for Jews, which took place in the 17th century. The dramatic vicissitudes of that time supported the growth of messianic tendencies. The bloody persecution of Jews during the Chmielnicki Uprising was interpreted as "the birth pains of a nascent messiah". There was a serious problem with the interpretation of the forced conversion of Jews to Islam in the Ottoman Empire and to Catholicism in Spain, and meanwhile, the teachings and personal example of Sabbatai gave the Jews of that time one of the possible strategies of religious justification for their apostasy. The announcement by this Smyrna cabalist as the long-awaited "messiah" met the needs of the diaspora. Third, the elite and hermetic teaching of the new "messiah", incomprehensible to the broad Jewish masses, found a good propagator in the popular "prophet" Abraham Nathan of Gaza. It was he who "translated" the mystical concepts of Sabbatai into a language understood by the masses and propagated them among European - initially Sephardic, and now also Ashkenazi - Jews. The announcement by this Smyrna cabalist as the long-awaited "messiah" met the needs of the diaspora. Third, the elite and hermetic teaching of the new "messiah", incomprehensible to the broad Jewish masses, found a good propagator in the popular "prophet" Abraham Nathan of Gaza. It was he who "translated" the mystical concepts of Sabbatai into a language understood by the masses and propagated them among European - initially Sephardic, and now also Ashkenazi - Jews. The announcement by this Smyrna cabalist as the long-awaited "messiah" met the needs of the diaspora. Third, the elite and hermetic teaching of the new "messiah", incomprehensible to the broad Jewish masses, found a good propagator in the popular "prophet" Abraham Nathan of Gaza. It was he who "translated" the mystical concepts of Sabbatai into a language understood by the masses and propagated them among European - initially Sephardic, and now also Ashkenazi - Jews.
Shehina's lover
The future "messiah" was born into the Jewish family of a sales representative for British and Dutch trading companies in Smyrna, Anatolian, in 1629. From an early age he was interested in gematria and Kabbalah. At the age of twenty-two (1648), during the illumination, he "received the grace" of realizing that he was the long-awaited "messiah". The voice told Sabbatai, "You are the savior of Israel, the messiah, the son of David, the anointed of the God of Jacob, you will save Israel!" The ecstatic states, sometimes lasting several days or even several weeks, were combined with the strange behavior of Sabbatai, breaking all ritualistic principles of Judaism and ethical principles, causing suspicious treatment by local rabbis.
For eighteen years he lived in exile, teaching or meeting people curious about the eccentric views of the freak. At that time, Sabbatai met his "prophet", the popular Nathan of Gaza, took a Jewish harlot as a (third) wife, and made contact with secret Sufi sects and Christian chiliasts. In view of the failure of his teaching so far, he moved the date of the beginning of the messianic era to 1666, which was also accepted by Kabbalists. However, it was only after establishing close relations with the follower of the Lurian Kabbalah, Nathan of Gaza, that the dynamic development of the Sabattaja Tzvi religious sect began. In May 1665, Nathan solemnly confirmed (after receiving "divine illumination") that Sabbatai was the long-awaited messiah, thus evoking religious enthusiasm, unheard of for a long time3.
In 1666, the messianic age did not begin; instead, Sabbatay Tzvi, along with some of his closest friends, was arrested by the Janissaries and brought to the Sultan's Palace in Adrianople. Sultan Mehmed IV, interested in the teachings of Sabbatai, but also sensing possible political benefits resulting from gaining influence over the Jewish "messiah", listened to his dispute with his dignitaries. It is difficult to consider the numerous messages of both opponents and supporters regarding the mysterious conversion of Sabbatai to Islam as completely credible. Only the result of this dispute is certain - conversion to Islam and submission of the Muslim profession of faith, combined with naming Mehmed (in part of the Sultan), giving the court title of "guardian of the palace gates" and assigning a fixed daily salary of 150 atoms.
The transformation of Sabbatai Tzvi into Aziz Mehmed Efendi caused consternation among his followers, who tried in every way to explain the actions of their "master". It was only Nathan of Gaza's attempt to explain Sabbatai's actions on the basis of Sabbatian theology that the masses were reassured. Additionally, the confusion was compounded by the continued practice by the apostatic "messiah" of some ritualistic prescriptions of Judaism, and this - to the dismay of the Talmudic rabbis - in Muslim clothing and quoting the Koran! Despite religious backsliding and even exhorting Jews to follow in the footsteps of apostasy, masses of Jews from the Dnieper to Gibraltar recognized Sabbatai as their "messiah" as a result of the adoption of a new concept of sin.
The idyll in the Sultan's palace lasted several years, during which the son of Sabbatai Izrael (1667) was born, and he himself began to address his syncretic teaching mainly not to the followers of Judaism, but to the faithful of the Prophet Muhammad. Sabbatai's actions met with a severe reaction from the Sultan, who sentenced the "messiah" in 1672 to imprisonment and exile to the Montenegrin town of Ulcinja. There, "messiah", "messiah-marran", "bridegroom of the daughter of Zion" (Shehinah) died on September 17, 1676, not awaiting the liberation of Israel.
"Mysticism of nihilism" - from Frankism to the Illuminati
The death of Sabbatai Tzvi did not end the existence of his sect. The crisis within Judaism was deepening, and after the short leadership of the son of the "messiah", Israel, the followers of Sabbatai and Nathan split into several sects over the groups of Sabbatai, some of which practiced the religious principles of the "messiah" in secret. The Talmudist Hillary Nussbaum describes the confusion within Judaism caused by the teachings of Sabbatai Tzvi: “In addition to mental poverty, in the early eighteenth century, Sabbataism charlatans appeared, spreading new religious theories that baffled minds and undermined the foundations of Judaism. The long and passionate struggle between Ajbesitz and Eden over the amulets inflamed the minds and encouraged many to openly appear as counter-Muslims and to get rid of the burdensome ritualistic rules;
The Sabbathai began their covert activities during the time of Sabbatai's captivity, when persecution by Orthodox rabbis intensified. The death of the "messiah" caused his most faithful followers to go underground completely. Some of the first organized Sabbatian groups were the orgiastic Izmirilis sect and the Islamizing Donmeh sect; groups of the faithful also gathered around people associated with Sabbatai, treated as khachamas (leaders): around his son, for some time also the "messiah" of Israel-Jacob (1676-1725) and his grandson Berachia (1725-1740), father-in-law of Joseph the Philosopher of Salonica, brother-in-law of Querido - leader of the Solun sect - and a "prophet" Nathan. From the very beginning, there were also small groups scattered all over Europe, remaining in an unambiguous connection with the secret "synhedrion", probably identical to the pre-existing Sabbatai chavura5 . One of the faithful from the very beginning was the Viennese banker Samuel Oppenheimer, whose family played an important role in the further development of the sect6.
In the 18th century, the strongest trends in Sabbataism were "crypto-Christian" groups around Jonathan and Wolf Ajbeszyc (Eibeschütz, Eibeszyc) and Jakub Lejbowicz Frank. Both Sabbatian currents tried to enter the sphere of Christianity, they also postulated a partial exit from the underground. However, while Frank understood this as the transfer of overt actions within the framework of Christian institutions, the Ajbeszycs dreamed of establishing their own Judo-Protestant confession, which was even given the name: "The Christian Church in Israel."
Unfortunately, the description of the colorful fate of the founder of the most influential Sabbatian sect, Jakub Frank from Podolia, does not fit within this sketch. Suffice it to say that "the most sinister Sabbataist Jacob Frank" (so named by the eminent religious scholar Mircea Eliade) developed Sabbataj's mystical theology into a system of total negation and destruction. For a short time himself, considered the new incarnation of the "messiah", as well as the incarnation of "King David," he developed in detail religious concepts, called by the eminent Jewish expert on Kabbalah, Gershom Sholem, "the mystic of nihilism." During Frank's lifetime, the Sabbateans received the protection of some princes of the Catholic Church, supporting "good counter-Muslims"; some Protestant pastors; many enlightened monarchs (including King Frederick V of Denmark,
The numerous political intrigues in which Frank participated, possessing an excellent, secretive network of followers throughout Europe, allowed him to introduce many Sabbateans to high and influential positions. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Sabbatians obtained nobility to protect them against persecution by Orthodox rabbis7, in Russia they became the supporters of the tsars and tsarists and the founders of local freemasonry, and in Austria and the Reich representatives of the Oppenheimer financial power, independent of the Habsburgs. In the 1770s, Frank (who died in 1791 in Offenbach) led to the formation of a perfectly organized conspiracy, headed by a convict appointed by him, who hated Catholicism, was a Jesuit pupil, son of (probably Sabbatian) rabbi Adam Weishaupt8. May 1, 1776 the Sabbatian freemason organization "Order of the Illuminati" was established, with the goal of overthrowing the existing social and religious order, creating a republican world order and a world, syncretic religion. The revolution was to break out in Munich and spread throughout the world. However, due to the discovery of the plot, the Sabbateans moved the burden of their activities to the Seine, where they had successfully infiltrated French Freemasonry for some time.
The Sabbateans found their place in the authorities of the Jacobin dictatorship in France, as well as in the Jacobin conspiracy of Tadeusz Kościuszko9, and later - in clandestine anarchist, socialist and communist organizations throughout Europe. Often secularized Sabbataism has become one of the destructive revolutionary forces of the last two hundred years, responsible for many political crimes. Traces of the Sabbateans are visible, for example, in the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians10 or in occult Nazi circles11.
Two paths of salvation
In many publications analyzing the views expressed within the Sabbataya sect, attention is drawn to the convergence of Sabbatian views with the religious assumptions of Islam, and in the late version - created after the death of the "messiah" from Smyrna - with religious principles similar to Christianity. It is a non-new view, present among the followers of Mohammedanism, as well as among some of the Catholic clergy, already at the moment of their first contact with the views of this Judaic sect in the 17th or 18th century. With regard to Christianity, however, this is a completely wrong view, resulting most often from ignorance of the teachings of Sabbatai Tzvi or - more often - from a superficial treatment of this religious phenomenon.
Interpreting the teachings of the Sabbateans is not easy, given the existence of two parallel currents within this sect. The teaching of the "messiah" was divided into the open part, entrusted to the "prophet" Nathan of Gaza, addressed to the broad Jewish and non-Jewish masses - and into the esoteric secret part, reserved exclusively for initiated members of the messianic hawura , known as eda kedusha . More than once the views presented to these two groups of believers differed from each other or were only loosely related to each other. The differences were not only the result of serious differences in interpretations of Sabbatai and Nathan's illumination, but also the view on the spiritual abilities of the faithful.
A superficial knowledge of contemporary currents within Judaism may prompt us to treat the religious concepts of a Jewish mystic who lived several hundred years ago as an "archaeological" curiosity, having no impact on today's religious reality. Nothing could be more wrong - and not only because there are still a number of secret Sabbatian religious communities to this day! The views of the seventeenth and eighteenth-century Sabbateans are also present in the concepts of other branches of Judaism (Jewish messianists and Protestant Judeo-Christians), but also in the secular concepts of the so-called the religion of the Holocaust. It is therefore worth getting acquainted with the most important elements of the religious views of Sabbataism.
When beginning to consider Jewish Gnosticism, one should recall one of the principles of Catholicism, which is both a sword and a shield against the heretical views of Gnosticism. Well, there are mysteries inaccessible to human reason (eg, the Holy Trinity, transubstantiation), and the Scriptures. and Tradition by no means contain all the knowledge of God. Gnosticism, however, seeks to explore God's mysteries, claiming that only knowledge of them has saving power. The truth is quite different. When on December 6, 1273, St. Thomas Aquinas fell into a long state of mystical exhilaration, to the dismay of his superiors, he completely stopped working on his Sum.. Encouraged to continue his efforts, he said that he could do nothing more, and everything he had written so far seemed to him worthless in view of the secrets to which he was admitted by God. Let us remember that God's mysteries are a fact, yet God has revealed to us as much of them as is necessary for our souls that we may attain eternal salvation. Access to other divine mysteries can only be a grace for the elect, not the basis of religious doctrine.
Demiurge JHWH
Much of Sabbatai Tzvi's views grew out of the rich legacy of Jewish mysticism, which flourished on the basis of numerous elements of the Egyptian and Babylonian cults. It was created parallel to biblical mosaicism, and its echoes were easily discernible in the views of ancient Gnostic sects12.
The Sabbatian concept of God only at first glance accepts the Christian mystery of the Holy Trinity. The Sabbateans themselves did not leave a shadow of a doubt in this matter, writing - like the Sabbatean Kabbalist from Spain, Michael (Abraham) Cardoso - that the Christian Holy Trinity is a degenerate form of the mystery of the deity, known to the Jewish tradition. The Sabbatian triad reflects the Judeognostic, i.e. Kabbalistic point of view in which the first person - 1st Cause - is assigned the role of a creator who, in the act of sexually conceived creation, dispersed "divine sparks" (spiritual divine elements) and imprisoned them in the "kingdom of shells" (matter). The Kabbalistic concept of a kelip (Hebrew 'shell') had an important religious meaning, identified with the mystical understanding of the truth hidden in the world of demonic matter. For Kabbalists, the world is a nut shell composed of many spheres, inside which hides the nucleus of truth. The shell does not protect the truth, but imprisons it at the behest of the demiurge. The operation of the First Cause, according to Sabbatai, was important in that it was the beginning of the Gnostic economy of salvation. However, due to the lack of further influence both on this economy and on the course of events in a world set in motion and operating in isolation from the First Cause, Sabbatian theology made the first person of the triad a marginal position.
The most important role in the process of salvation (apart from the messiah himself) was played by two other persons of the divine triad of Kabbalah and Sabbataism - the 2nd God of Truth, that is the Holy Blessed One, locked in the highest world of spiritual beings, and the 3rd Shehinah, the God of Faith (actually the Goddess of Faith), residing (a) in the world of matter and being (a) a substitute for a higher spiritual world13. However, the proper functioning of the triad could only be guaranteed by the mystical action of the messiah, who would bring about a change within it, eliminating the First Cause by (sexually understood) mystical union with Shehinah and "breaking through" to the God of Truth, while restoring God's unity. In this way, a new triad will arise, consisting of: 1 ° Holy Blessed One, 2 ° Shehinah Raised, and 3 ° Shehinah Vessel, or messiah. In this way, the saving "three knots of faith" will be created, thanks to which the spiritual and material world will be united. Kabbalists and Sabbateans saw the process of triad transformation in terms of a symbol - two isosceles triangles with inverted vertices superimposed on each other, ultimately giving rise to the messianic star of David. The triangle with the apex pointing upwards (the imprisoned God of Truth) symbolized the first triad, and the triangle with the apex pointing downwards - the saving “three knots of faith”.
By the end of his life, Sabbatai Tzvi was convinced that he was the living embodiment of a united God. He used to say, "There is no God but me." This view was strongly supported by Nathan of Gaza, who wrote that Sabbatai "attained perfect divinity." Jacob Frank, on the other hand, perceived the Sabbatai as the Shehina Vessel, created through connection with the God of Faith. In general, Sabbatian theology was in line with the Talmudic teachings of the Zohar .
An important question that needs to be answered is the issue of perceiving the First Person of the Holy Trinity, i.e. the Mosaic God of Israel, in Sabbathian theology. Well, Sabbatian theology identifies the First Person of the Holy Trinity with the demiurgic First Cause, responsible for the entrapment of divine sparks and the fall of the first parents. Yahweh deceived the people of Israel through the "shell" in the form of the Mosaic Torah. It was useful for a limited period of time, but its importance is now over. Due to the Jews' adherence to the principles of the Torah, the Blessed One abandoned them and chose a new people for himself14. In the Sabbatian concept, the God of Truth - the Blessed Blessed One, is a changeable, evolving being, subject to development and change as truth in earthly time. Changeability and paradox are hallmarks of the Sabbatian view of God.
Messiah Yeshua, "everlasting sinner"
The above-presented Sabbatian concept of God gave rise to views concerning the very person of the messiah and his role in the process of the salvation of the world.
The soteriology of the sect assumed that the "messiah", understood as the spiritual son of the God of Truth, would sacrifice himself for the liberation of the God of Truth and the salvation of the world, "breaking through" the demonic structures of matter. The process of salvation in this concept was long and complicated. It was started by divine illumination, showing the messiah his mission, so far hidden from him. Within the sect, it has not been fully decided whether the soul of the messiah from the beginning was a higher spiritual being, different from that of an ordinary mortal, or whether the God of Faith exalted a man of his choice at a specific historical moment. In any case, some time after divine illumination, the messiah was to raise Shehinah (pictured through a Kabbalistic interpretation of a passage from the book of Zechariah [Zech. 14], describing the exaltation of Jerusalem) through a mystical union with the deity15. "Raising Shehina" according to the Kabbalah of the Lurian school16 marked the final end of the spiritual rebirth of humanity and the repair of the world, and opened the era of visible salvation.
In the second stage, the messiah had to take action to break through the "kingdom of shells." It was not an easy task, because the evil of matter is not an easy opponent. For this reason, the messiah had to sacrifice himself for the work of saving mankind. His consecration was to descend into the deepest abyss of evil, to defile himself completely and definitively with all sins. Only by knowing the abyss of sin was it possible, according to Sabbatai and his successors, to overcome demonic matter. Abraham Cardoso claimed that only the soul of the messiah had the strength to endure the descent to the very bottom of the abyss of Sheol. The Messiah must have the strength to condemn himself by his actions. This is not the end, however, because according to Sabbatian soteriology, the saving action had to be continued by successively sent messiahs (usually two were mentioned), to finally complete the whole process after the arrival of the "Davidic messiah". The "Messiah of the lineage of David" was to be Sabbatai Tzvi.
The new "messiah", followed by the multitudes of the faithful, were inclined to recognize Jesus' messianic mission. The declaration of the Sabbateans contributed to considerable confusion in the Christian camp, in which opinions began to prevail, seeing in the new Judaic sect and in groups of derivatives announcing the imminent conversion of Jews. There were views that did not have any confirmation in reality, maintaining the division of Jews into a group called Talmudists, existing since the Old Testament times, and - due to the lack of historical specifics - of their opponents, little originally called anti-Talmudists, who allegedly included the allegedly pro-Christian Sabbateans and Frankists. A large group of 18th-century Polish hierarchs, headed by Bishop Mikołaj Dembowski, could be included in the group of "useful idiots".
The views of the Sabbateans regarding Jesus Christ were no less original than others, always of the Talmud, and contrary to the teachings of the Torah. Nathan of Gaza, describing the greatness of the new "messiah", Sabbatai, stated that he could "justify the greatest sinner, even if [he] were like Jesus, he could justify him." In the imaginations of the Sabbateans, Christ appeared to be the greatest sinner (the thesis taken directly from the Talmud), who, through his actions, was in line with the messianic actions of the mystic from Smyrna. This implied the recognition of Jesus' messianic mission, yet misunderstood. Christ was, according to the Sabbateans, a blasphemer who, through his teaching, broke the Jewish law, which was one of the shells. He was, according to the Sabbateans, "the introductory messiah" - "the messiah of the house of Joseph" - preparing the coming of the "messiah of the house of David." The "introductory messiah" was to break the shells through the reproach and suffering associated with his death; in turn, "the messiah of the lineage of David" was to accomplish the final salvation by penetrating evil, that is, knowing the whole being created by the demiurge. Sabbatai's indirect task was to restore the due "sanctity" to the person of Jesus. This concept was creatively developed after the death of the "messiah" among Frankists who argued that conversion to Catholicism (accepting the "messiah Jesus") should be seen as overcoming the crust of Christianity, which was also only a stage on the way to salvation. The "introductory messiah" was to break the shells through the shame and suffering of his death; in turn, "the messiah of the lineage of David" was to accomplish the final salvation by penetrating evil, that is, knowing the whole being created by the demiurge. Sabbatai's indirect task was to restore the due "sanctity" to the person of Jesus. This concept was creatively developed after the death of the "messiah" among Frankists who argued that conversion to Catholicism (accepting the "messiah Jesus") should be seen as overcoming the crust of Christianity, which was also only a stage on the way to salvation. The "introductory messiah" was to break the shells through the reproach and suffering associated with his death; in turn, "the messiah of the lineage of David" was to accomplish the final salvation by penetrating evil, that is, knowing the whole being created by the demiurge. Sabbatai's indirect task was to restore the due "sanctity" to the person of Jesus. This concept was creatively developed after the death of the "messiah" among Frankists who argued that conversion to Catholicism (accepting the "messiah Jesus") should be seen as overcoming the crust of Christianity, which was also only a stage on the way to salvation. Sabbatai's indirect task was to restore the due "sanctity" to the person of Jesus. This concept was creatively developed after the death of the "messiah" among Frankists who argued that conversion to Catholicism (accepting the "messiah Jesus") should be seen as overcoming the crust of Christianity, which was also only a stage on the way to salvation. Sabbatai's indirect task was to restore the due "sanctity" to the person of Jesus. This concept was creatively developed after the death of the "messiah" among Frankists who argued that conversion to Catholicism (accepting the "messiah Jesus") should be seen as overcoming the crust of Christianity, which was also only a stage on the way to salvation.
"Messiah" must be abnormal ...
Already at the beginning of the sect's existence, there was a strong conviction that the characteristic feature, thanks to which a messiah could be recognized, was his specific behavior, which placed him above the Mosaic law binding people. Sabbatai's abnormal behavior (ecstatic hallucinations and depression) was the reason why Nathan of Gaza confirmed his "messianic" origin by stating that Sabbatai receives God's will directly from heaven17. The antinomism of the "messiah" consisted in the deliberate violation of ritual regulations, such as the rules of the Sabbath, during which he simultaneously held Jewish services, besides uttering the divine name blasphemously for Jews, or denying the role of prayers and meditation, which the Sabbatai and members of his Edusha treated as rituals on hello demiurge - the First Cause.
According to the Sabbateans, all traditional Jewish practices of tikkunim (tikkun Hebrew for 'repair') delayed the advent of the messianic era. One had to believe with the trust of the child, relying on the profane action of a peculiar "messiah". It didn't stop there: the denial was not only about the ritual order, but also about the ethical one. In the inner circle of the sect, there were no moral principles, which were the dictates of the First Cause contained in the Decalogue, and their conscious breaking was to accelerate the achievement of full salvation by destroying the shells separating from the Truth. In the years 1700–1760, numerous orgiastic practices similar to the Gnostic Karpokratian rituals were documented within the covert sects of the Sabbateans18. They were not only antinomian in nature, but also reflected the ritual rank of sexual activities assigned within the sect.
The violation of religious law and ethical principles was associated with the perception of the decalogue and religious regulations as the main obstacle to salvation. According to Nathan of Gaza, the faithful Sabbateans should focus all their strength on destroying the law that springs from "the earthly Torah." The "prophet" of the sect officially proclaimed the practice of ethical dualism, a kind of Marranism, consisting in the external practice of the principles of the Torah de beriacompliance with which should only seek to avoid persecution or scandal, which allows the existence of Sabbateans among communities of another religion (be it Jewish, Islamic or Christian). Outside the official realm, however, the principles of the Mosaic law should be ceremonially broken as a sign of liberation from the law of the First Cause. Privately, in secret, every Sabbatian should be subject to the Kabbalistic Torah de aciluth .
Blasphemous actions brought closer - according to the Sabbateans - salvation, so the conversion of the Jewish "messiah" to Islam to Islam on September 16, 1666 could be easily explained from the Sabbatian point of view19. Nevertheless, among Tzvi's followers, several different ideas about this surprising and - according to superficial interpretations - killing for the sect event emerged. However, the conversion of the "messiah" to Islam did not turn out to be deadly, starting a new stage of Sabbatai's "saving actions".
"Messiah" the apostate
Initially, the followers of the "messiah" tried to interpret the Adrianople event in docetic terms ( dokein from the Greek "to seem"), namely the spirit substituted for Sabbataya adopted Islam, while the "messiah" remained faithful to Judaism. In an even more radical version, the faithful maintained that what the rabbis present at the conversion had experienced with their senses was only a delusion, an illusion sent by Shehina to confuse the unbelievers and doubters. In the same way, the Sabbateans also interpreted the death of their sect's founder as a temporary "departure".
However, Sabbatay himself and Nathan of Gaza quickly explained the cause of conversion to Islam, completely different from the docetic one. The apostasy was not an illusion: interpreted from a kabbalistic point of view, it was part of a process of salvation, not necessarily present in visible reality. After all, the logic of the messianic actions was hidden from the eyes of an ordinary mortal.
Nathan of Gaza interpreted the conversion of the "master" in terms of ethical dualism, referring to the words of Sabbatai, who compared to Moses in the court of Pharaoh among the Egyptians. It was an interpretation that convinced the uninitiated believers of Sabbatai and reassured the rabbis hostile to the sect. According to this interpretation, Sabbatai entered the path of Marranism by externally adopting Islam and secretly practicing Judaism. The Spanish Sabbatean Marran Cardoso translated this as the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah's announcement that the messiah would "wear the garments of a marran and therefore the Jews do not recognize him; in short: he is destined to become a marran, like me ”20.
The case, however, was more complicated. It was possible to interpret the conversion of the "messiah" to Islam in this way only until Sabbatai, already a Muslim, urged his faithful to convert to the faith of Muhammad. When this happened, the view was no longer tenable, though it was used against ignorant believers. Admittedly, after adopting the new religion, Sabbatai did not think to abandon the religious practices he tolerated - he participated in a turban in some synagogue services, interwoven with fragments of the sur Koran, circumcised his son, and also began a peculiar apostolic work among Muslims21. All these actions were in line with the Kabbalistic logic of Sabbatai. The conversion was genuine, which Sabbatay never denied.
To understand how it works, it is necessary to revisit some aspects of Sabbatian soteriology. Salvation consisted in releasing the truth locked in the world created by the demonic demiurge. The process of salvation was a multi-stage ascent to successive steps of initiation, which could only take place through learning the secrets / truths hidden from the eyes of the profane. Salvation according to Sabbataism consisted of breaking through the shells surrounding "divine sparks of truth"; to do this, the "messiah" had to take upon himself the burden of knowing the darkest abysses of evil, as Nathan said, enter "beyond the forty-ninth gate of impurity." Islam, like Judaism, was viewed as a shell that held sparks. The Sabbatian concept proclaimed the evolution of truth characteristic of Gnosticism, hidden in the theory of emanation, truth, "Which becomes" and syncretism as a means of achieving the ultimate truth (to collect "scattered sparks"). Divine truths, according to the Sabbateans, found their way in Judaism as well as in a higher degree of Christianity (against this background, there was a reevaluation of the Frankists, who placed Christianity above Islam), or in even higher-standing Islam. As can be easily seen, for Sabbatai, "becoming the truth" was a process that took place over time, within the "peoples of the Scriptures." The adoption of Islam was the next, higher step in "freeing Shehina", breaking another shell. It was a kabbalistic snake bite, accelerating the birth of the mystical doe. Without this necessary evil, salvation could not proceed.
Arguments justifying the apostasy were sought mainly in the Book of Isaiah and in fragments of the Zohar . In a letter of January 1668, Nathan of Gaza Talmudically interprets the fragment of Isaiah: "but he was wounded for our wickedness" (Is 53: 5), referring it directly to the Sabbatai apostasy, as according to the Sanhedrin Treaty the messiah was called "the Son of the Fallen." The Kabbalistic-Sabbatian interpretation followed a distortion of the earlier (prophetic) understanding of this Old Testament passage in favor of seeing the messiah as rejected for his sins, not the sins of mankind! The Messiah was "the despised and vilest of men" and yet desired by all (Is 53: 3) - this passage was identified with the record of the Zohar, which (according to Nathan) said about the messiah: "and they will not recognize me, and I am smelly in their eyes the carcass of a dog "(Zohar III, 125b) 22. This assumption was followed by the entire (re) interpretation of Isaiah and the Talmud, made largely by the Kabbalistic key. The Messiah was "set among the evildoers" because he had sins committed by many, "he prayed for transgressors" (Is 53:12), which meant according to the new interpretation, that the rejection of the messiah will result from his repugnant sins, which make him count among the evildoers. In this way the Sabbatai apostasy was sacralized.
The soteriological concept was in line with the antinomic concept of "releasing sparks". How, however, to present it to the majority of those who are interested, sinful, but still attached to the ethical principles that constitute the basis of the social order? Within the sect, this problem was solved in a way that is characteristic of Kabbalists. The call to convert to Islam was made only for initiates to whom neither Nathan of Gaza nor Abraham Cardoso belonged. Those who planned to follow in the footsteps of the "messiah" were accused of being proud and of being "master". Sabbatai accepted this concept, stating that his companions can only be strong spirits, chosen personally by him, only members of his eda kedusha. Nathan of Gaza, terrified by the action of the "messiah", warned the faithful: "keep as far as possible from the messiah when he is in a state of illumination." After Sabbataj's death, many believers felt relieved, but remained within the sect… This is the power of evil - the bondage of fear.
Gentiles are needed like birds ...
The conversions of Sabbateans have never been an actual adoption of the principles of Islam or Christianity, but the realization of a kabbalistic religious idea within other religions. All religious systems were conceived as shells, valid until the revelation of the new Torah de aciluth - "Torah of the saved world." Only a new super-religion, created on the ruins of Orthodox Judaism, Islam and Christianity, bonding the sparks of God scattered in the act of creation, can pass for the religion of the "God of truth". Christianity was conceived only as a transitional stage on the way to the final revelation in which no previous institutional religions would be needed. It is hard to resist the impression that this crazy concept is present in the views of some radical ecumenists ...
Within the new world religion, there will still be a secret division into two groups of believers, deriving directly from the two-pronged practice of Sabbataism, in which a special, superior position was reserved for Jewish Sabbatean cabalists. The rest of the faithful are needed to achieve the ultimate goal - collecting the sparks. The Sabbatian treatise The Testimony of Faith , which underpins some of the views of the sect, explains exactly this aspect. The treatise in its first part describes the conversation between the "messiah" and "God" ("God of truth") about the price of salvation. Sabbatai's "Messiah" tries to convince "God" to spare the suffering of the "messiah days" of the Israelites, pointing out that he has "converted to Israel" many goyim souls. "God", however, has no compassion and accuses the "messiah" of pity, not understanding the true intention of the "messiah", who wants to collect "sparks" scattered among non-Jews (appearing in the treatise as "seeds"). “Even the reaper cannot harvest it all without losing a few grains. The field is mine, and the wheat is mine. It means nothing to me to lose a few grains as long as you are the reaper, "God says to Sabbatai. The "Messiah" retorts, showing the true role of the goyim, previously mentioned only as an excuse to convert other Jews, possibly as defenders of Israel's abusive enemies of the Jews or people with a hidden, insincere heart. Sabbatai, talking to "God", "called the bird to come and peck itself a grain (...) then he killed the bird, took the grain out of it, sowed it and watered it with the secretions of heavenly animals. The seed grew into a mighty tree that produced flowers and wonderful fruits. He picked the first fruit and gave it to God, who smelled like the garden of Eden. And he said, "If one seed bears so many wonderful fruits, how could I save Israel by losing some souls?" In the context of the earlier considerations presented in the treatise, salvation concerns only Sabbatian Israel, and the souls of Jews who reject the "messiah" for fear of being ridiculous towards non-Jews are saved25.
The Sabbatian system was apparently universalistic, and by using its method it could easily "break the shells" within other religions that it never took seriously. Nor did he break with the Talmudic "teaching of contempt," that is, the treatment of non-Jews as being inferior religiously, culturally, and racially. The gulf between Hellenistic universalist Christianity and Judaic exclusivity was insurmountable.
Send a sign from heaven!
Sabbataism was unable to break the ties linking it to Talmudic Judaism, and in many cases it did not want to do so, despite the rabbinic curses pouring profusely on the heads of Sabbatai and his followers.
The sect's views on the messianic epoch carried a strong apocalyptic charge, present in today's concepts of Jewish messianists and adherents of the "secular" religion of the Holocaust. They can be divided into several elements.
WAR AS THE BEGINNING OF THE MESSIAN ERA
According to the 1665 letter of Nathan of Gaza, which foretold the rapid advent of the final stage of salvation, the repair of the world has already been completed and wars will disappear from the face of the world - with the exception of wars in Ashkenazi countries, where blood will continue to be shed. The Ashkenazi countries can be understood in a medieval way, i.e. as areas of Germany, or more broadly - in linguistic terms, as an area inhabited by Yiddish-speaking Jews (Western, Central and Eastern Europe and America). According to Nathan, the war was not supposed to affect the Sephardic countries (Iberian Peninsula, North Africa and Turkey). It might be tempting to relate the Sabbatha prophecy to World War II, but have wars really disappeared from the face of the earth? It is worth emphasizing
KORBAN - A FIRE SACRIFICE
Sabbatai denied almost all traditional religious practices of Judaism, with the exception of the burnt offering, which, in his opinion, had a regenerating - freeing spirit through destructive action. The vast majority of theologians of the "religion of the Holocaust" treat the events of World War II in terms of a burnt offering made by Jews of their best sons and daughters, announced in the Old Testament (Dt 4:20; Is 30:33; Is 48:10). Korban was an essential element in opening the messianic age.
GEMATRY - DIGITS AS A MANIFESTATION OF "GOD"
The gematria practiced by the Sabbateans derives directly from the Kabbalistic interpretation of the Zohar , based on the system of recognizing the relationship between the Sephirot (emanations of "God's" light) and the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The followers of Sabbatai attributed the greatest power to the Sephirot of Tiphereth , identified with truth, beauty and perfection. This Sephirah corresponded to the Hebrew letter waw , whose basic (Hebrew mispar hechrachi) the numerical value is 626. Initially, it was assumed that the entry into the messianic period would begin in 1648 (it is worth noting that the Sabbateans used the Christian calendar!), but this date was postponed to 1666. The Sabbatayans remained faithful to the numbers with messianic meaning, taken from from the Zohar (1648, 1948).
In this context, it is surprising that today's supporters of the religion of the Holocaust set the date of the beginning of the messianic era at the end of the 'furnace era', which was to take place with the establishment of Eretz Israel in 1948.27 The messianic era began with the sacrifice of 6 ( waw ) millions of Jews, the sacrifice constituting the Sephirot of Tiphereth, breaking the shell but also restoring unity between old and new Israel. The Sephirah is the emanation of "God", announcing glory and victory. It is worth asking whether the juxtaposition of numbers 1966 plays a similar role? It is difficult to find any reliable information on such interpretations, but it is worth mentioning that in 1966, Israel received from the United Kingdom one of the first shipments of fissile materials, which were used in the same year to conduct the first underground nuclear implosion in the Negev desert.
THE TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM AS A SIGN OF THE HEAVEN
When the last stage of the salvation of the world comes, and the power over the entire globe rests in the hands of a united Israel, its visible sign will be the temple in Jerusalem, which will be lifted from heaven in its ready form. It will be the pre-resurrection event - first of the Jews who died in Palestine, of which, nb. they will be driven out of the "unworthy." After fourteen years, there will be a resurrection outside the Holy Land.
The desire to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple is the clearest expression of Jewish messianic aspirations over the centuries. Today too, in Jerusalem and in many places around the world, feverish preparations are underway to build the third temple. According to today's messianists, the erection of a temple on Mount Moria will end the initial period of the messianic age.
TERMINATION OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF JEWS
A visible sign of the last act of salvation will be the unification of all the world's scattered Jews.
In modern messianic publications, there is a longing for the unification of all Jews living in the Diaspora within one state. This is one of the more embarrassing topics given the reluctance of American Jews to leave their country of birth. Every now and then, due to the migration waves to Israel, the topic of return comes alive. In some Judeo-Christian (Protestant) publications, it appears as a longing to find the lost tribes of Israel, interpreted by some Jews as Christian Zionists who, through their activities for Israel and Jews, entered the community of Abraham.
TAKING OFF POWER from "Sultan"
The Sultan will be the only slave of the "messiah"; other nations will humble themselves before his majesty and pay him tribute.
Elements of political domination have always appeared in messianic literature, today they are reduced to defensive rhetoric (defense against the possibility of a repetition of the Holocaust). In radical messianists, they are often associated with the final expulsion of Arabs from Israel or with the destruction of its Arab enemies.
* * *
There is a spiritual war between God and Lucifer, a war in which the rebellious angel does not hesitate to do anything. During these struggles, the prince of darkness often calls evil good, he presents wickedness as justice, and hides hatred in words that proclaim love, tolerance and peace. It was no different in the case of Jakub Frank's Sabbataism, in which the idea of salvating Jews - a people once chosen by God - by converting them to Christianity was reduced to a caricatured form and completely distorted by giving it a false, kabbalistic meaning. The rejection of the only Messiah expected by the Jews - Jesus Christ - had fatal consequences in the form of disasters not only foretold in the Holy Scriptures, which befell this nation, but most of all the growing inability to recognize the truth. We firmly believe that this will change in the end times when the blindness falls from the eyes of the Jews and in "the worst of men," Jesus Christ, they recognize their long-awaited Savior.
Hugon Hajducki
1. Based on an interpretation of the Zohar, Kabbalists scheduled the return of the Jews to the Holy Land in 1648. They were wrong by 300 years. It became possible in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel.
2. Gematria (from Greek. Geometry) - a system of Jewish numerology, assigning numerical values to individual letters of the Hebrew alphabet and looking for mystical relationships between words or phrases with equal sums of the values of their letters.
3. The effects of announcing the new "messiah" in Europe are described by A. Hertzberg, Jews. The essence and character of the nation, arszawa 2001, pp. 113–114.
4. H. Nussbaum, A Judaic Guide, including a course in literature and religion, Warsaw 1893, p. 206.
5. Havura (Hebrew for 'court') - among Sephardic Jews a group of sages who have the authority to comment on the provisions of the Torah and the Talmud.
6. On Sabbataism and Frankism (often with errors): F. Koneczny, Civilization Jewish, London 1974, pp. 317–324.
7. Jacob Frank was said to have said that "when a Jew is baptized, they dress him in beautiful robes, they will fit a saber to his side." See M. Mieses, From the Jewish Family. Meritorious Polish families of once Jewish blood, Warsaw 1991, pp. 21–25.
8. See. M. Bradley, Secret Societies , Warsaw 2005, p. 64.
9. This applies, for example, to the Frankists Jan and Joachim Dembowski, the ringleaders of the Warsaw lobbies of 1794 and the leaders of Jacobin radicals gathered around Kiliński. See M. Mieses, From the Jewish Family ... , op. cit. , p. 73.
10. See. M. Eliade, History of beliefs and religious ideas, vol. III: From Muhammad to the Reform Age, Warsaw 1997, p. 118. Followers of the Donmeh sabbataist sect were involved in the creation of the Young-Turkish Republic and the slaughter of the Armenian population organized by Ataturk's soldiers. See Ch. J. Bjerknes, The Jewish Genocide of Armenian Christians, 2006, pp. 187–189, in which he refers to the works of Professor M. Avrum Ehrlich and the Zionist racist associated with the post-Illumination lodges I. Zangwill.
11. A leading role in these unions was played by Rudolf von Sebottendorff (actually: Adam Rudolf Glauer), a self-proclaimed aristocrat, son of a train driver, originally from Zgorzelec. In the last years of the nineteenth century, the author of numerous occult works came to Turkey, where he came into contact with several Sufi sects, joining Turkish freemasonry. During his return to Turkey, before World War I, he encountered Sabbatian concepts within some Sufi sects (eg Donmeh). In honor of Sabbataj Tzvi, Adam Glauer changed his name to von Sabottendorff. He was the founder of the Ariosophic, occult Thule Society, which saw Adolf Hitler as the embodiment of his ideals. See: E. Gugenberger, Czarni miracle -makers , Warsaw 2004, pp. 75–88; N. Goodrick-Clarke, Occult sources of Nazism. Secret Aryan cults and their influence on the Nazi ideology. Ariosos from Austria and Germany 1890–1935, Warsaw 2001, pp. 195–218; M. Tabor, Esoteric sources of Nazism, Krakow-Warsaw 1993.
12. The views of Sabbataj Tzvi and his followers are described mainly on the basis of an excellent work by an expert on the subject: J. Doktór, In the footsteps of the Apostate Messiah. Jewish messianic movements in the 17th and 18th centuries and the problem of conversion, Wrocław 1998.
13. The concept previously identified with the presence of God in the Jerusalem Temple has acquired a new meaning among Kabbalists, combined with a female image.
14. See on this subject, the text of the Sabbatian sect of Izmirilis in: J. Doktór, Śladami ... , op. cit. , pp. 59-60.
15. It is worth recalling here that, according to Kabbalists, the literal understanding of the text of the Scriptures. was one of the manifestations of the domination of the demiurge, who imposed a burden of matter on a religious text, distorting the true - mystical meaning of the record.
16. The Kabbalistic school of Isaac Luria, the so-called The New Kabbalah, a popular version of esoteric Kabbalah with a strong influence of gnosis, was created as a syncretic work from the 15th to the 17th centuries. See on this topic: M. Eliade, Historia ... , op. cit. , pp. 115-117.
17. Gershom Scholem describes these bizarre views as follows. In 1677, Nathan of Gaza stated that "Sabbatai's strange behavior is evidence of the authenticity of his messianic mission." Because "if he were not the Redeemer, no deviation would have happened to him." Only those that cause the greatest scandal are the true acts of redemption. After: M. Eliade, Historia ... , op. cit. , p. 118.
18. Some Sabbatai believers claimed that evil can only be fought with evil or that Adam's sin was lifted, so that whoever commits sins is virtuous in the eyes of "God". Ibid., P. 118; J. Doktór, op. cit. , pp. 152-155.
19. We can reject as unreliable messages made within the area of Talmudic Judaism hostile to Sabbatai, about the conversion out of fear (the sultan was to propose that the "messiah" reveal his strength by stopping the arrows fired in his direction by the Janissaries) or made for the sake of the riches offered ( in fact, certain financial and prestigious profits were associated with the conversion). This was due to the specificity of Sabbatai's religious conceptions that conversion was a spontaneous response to God's call.
20. As cited in: J. Doktór, op. cit. , p. 48.
21. Sabbatai messages contain a lot of information about the adoption of Sabbataism by Muslims, including among the converts the Sultan moufth Vani Efendi and the mystic-poet Nazim. Sabbatai was to maintain close contacts and cooperate with Sufi sects, such as the "helvetije order", whose views were a mixture of Gnosticism and Islam, see interesting article by Professor Abraham Elqayam, Sabbatai Levi and Sufism, http://www.kheper.net/topics /Kabbalah/Zevi_and_Sufism.html
22. J. Doktór, op. cit. , p. 47.
23. Ibid. , p. 55.
24. Israel Khazan distinguished between "faithful Israelites" and "faithful goyim."
25. J. Doktór, Śladami… , op. cit. , pp. 56-57. The author's interpretation of a fragment of the treatise made by the author of the book on Sabbatai differs significantly from the one I have presented here.
26. See on this topic: F. Dornseiff, Alphabet in mystyce i magii, Warsaw 2001.
27. The superficial contradiction between the numbers 6 ( waw ) and 9 ( jesod ) does not exist in the mystical kabbalah, in which the sephirah isod , treated as the driving force, always as introducing the ultimate perfection, i.e. the tiferet sephirah . Hence, considering the juxtaposition of the numbers 1648 and 1948 from a kabbalistic point of view is absolutely justified.
28. Cf. H. Hajducki, The Temple of Jerusalem and the End Times , [in:] Always Faithful No. 50, pp. 74–87.
Source: Always Faithful: No. 6 (97) 2007
The article was published on the BIBUŁY website : 2007-06-15
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