Thread by @yonibrander

1/ Ok. @AriLamm and @DBashIdeas let's do this...

I'll just say I plan to cover these 18th-century Rabbinic #Sabbateans over a longer time and several different threads (depending on interest) that I'll thread into one.

https://twitter.com/yonibrander/status/1562261283122327553

2/ A quick disclaimer. I'm not trying to restart the Emden-Eibescheutz controversy here. But I believe the evidence shows there were many rabbis- including several great rabbis- that thought Sabbatai Zevi was the messiah even after his apostasy and death.

3/ And indeed, some believed in his messianic mission- in one form or another- even when they were born well after his death and lived more than a hundred years after his apostasy.

4/ That said Sabbateanism in the 18th century was diverse but, at the same time, we can see clear patterns of how Sabbatean theologians thought and what they thought about.

5/ Importantly, I am not here to heresy-hunt I don't think that is useful at all. I don't think anyone should lose an iota of respect for a rabbi that was a pious Sabbatean in the 18th century.

6/ I do think it is a good case study in tensions, polemics, and compromises with other Jews. And how Jews might believe in very different things and how that works out or doesn't work out.

7/ I think, in some ways, the dichotomy between Sabbatean and faithful Jew creates controversy. I think the unwillingness to grapple with just how many rabbis of the 18th century can be considered Sabbateans blinds us from recognizing the poly-vocality of Jewish voices.

8/ I also want to dispel the notion at the outset that most of these Rabbis were simply playing with a new theological toolbox and that they were not Sabbateans in belief and deed.

Somewhere on the spectrum were indeed such figures (cf. M. Kahana's excellent work).

9/ However, many absolutely accepted Sabbatean dogma and even preached it. They were Sabbatean in thought and deed.

And, when I say deed- I don't mean they practiced antinomian rituals- actually, the opposite.

10/ Though their opponents tended to paint all Sabbateans as radical violators of the most fundamental taboos, this was not the case for many genuinely pious Sabbateans who lived amongst the Jewish Community.

11/ Building that dichotomy and painting the image of all them as radicals may have been helpful for some anti-Sabbatean leaders working to root out that heresy at the time, but when looking back on history we can afford to be more charitable, more understanding, and more complex

12/ For many pious Sabbateans, the sense that the Messiah was on the doorstep & being kept from finishing his mission because of the sins of their generation sparked scrupulous observance of the laws, Torah study, special prayers, & engaging in pietistic rituals.

13/ They had a complicated- almost obsessive- relationship with explaining the Messiah's apparent departures from Jewish law and, by and large, they considered his deeds to be acts that only he was permitted to perform and did so with pain, not joy.

14/ Likewise, their relationship with radical antinomian Sabbatean groups was complicated, they shared ideas-some pious Sabbateans even flirted with radically antinomian ideas; however, they were often uncomfortable with the practices of those groups and other actions they took

15/ These pious Sabbateans believed that piety and even pietistic behavior would, ultimately, result in the completion of the messianic mission.

Of course, this is different from the agenda of radicals and, at a different time, we will talk about them (if there is interest).

16/ I would be remiss if I didn't add a point that my friend @Adderabbi makes repeatedly and more eloquently than I can- Sabbateans were not unenlightened bearded and barefoot mystics- some were far more enlightened than their rivals.

Including the one we will start off with:

17/ This thread was here to set the scene for a discussion of R. #ZerahEidlitz- the Darshan of Prague, a mathematician of note, the prized pupil & adopted son of R' Jonathan Eibescheutz.

R. Zerah was a most pious Sabbatean- this, as we shall see, is a very novel thing to say.