Monday

Spinoza and Mendelssohn

Haskela

Wed.

• Rise of Reform:

• Reformers: know why you are reforming...– Goals. – Questions will be asked…

• Everyone else: plan your responses!

Friday:

• Early Orthodox response.

Mysticism and Messiah

• Isaac Luria 1534-1572• taught that a saintly teacher could redeem

a generation

• Revolutionary Messiah replaced by Heroic messiah

Lurianic Kabalah

• Tzimzum:

Ein Sof (GOD) contracts to open a space for creation

remnant of divine light preserved in jars.

Lurianic K.

• Breaking the vessels Light cannot be contained.

Shards of vessels are root of evilLight scattered and surrounded by

matter

Lurianic K.

• TIKKUN: Repair.

Separating divine sparks from shards.

Obedience to torah etc: Elevating world to original purity

Luria:

Gradual redemption.

Acts of righteousness prepare the way for Messiah

Jews have special obligation to help bring Messiah

Breslauer, p. 100

• Torah a secret code– Open to any interpretation outside of Oral Torah

• Prayer has magical power– New prayers will replace the old

• Disorder is fundamental to nature– Descent into disorder necessary to restore

cosmos

• Leader is essential to salvation.– Small step to Messiah

1648 “Messiah will come…”

• Eastern European Kabbalists determined that Messiah will come in 1648

1648-1649 Ukraine / Poland

• Slaughter

• Cossack rebellion

• 300,000 Jews left dead?

New prediction:

• Messiah in 1666

Sabbatai Zevi 1626-1676

• 1648 Claimed to be Messiah.• Overturned traditional Halakhah

• Turks forced conversion to Islam.• Died in prison as an apostate

• Many followers saw his “descent into sin” part of mystical repair of the universe.

17th -18th century

• Increasing violence against Jews in East Europe

• Jewish economy falters

• Considerable poverty

Jacob Frank (1726-1791)

• Polish

• Claimed to be Messiah

• Overturned sexual ethics.

• Rejected by Rabbinic leadership,

• Converted to Christianity.

• Speaks against Judaism– Incites further violence.

Jewish classes differences

• Poor Jews feel they are made to bear the burden of supporting the wealthy and the rabbinical schools.

• Rabbinical schools not providing spiritual leadership for the larger community:– Elitist

Alternative religion• Many Askenazi Jews in Poland

• Turn to mystically influenced religious teachers

astrologymagic

• Miracle-workers manipulate divine name.

• Belief in demons, spirits etc grows.

Amulet to protect baby

Baal Shem Tov1700-1760

• Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer

• Massive legendary material

• Herbal Doctor “Baal Shem”

Good Name

• Distinguishes him from magicians.

Simple teacher

Stories / Parables

Appealed to the uneducated.

Studied Kabbalah

TeachingsEmotion over intellect

Intuition more important than even Talmud

God’s immanence“sparks of holiness”

In nature & simple objects

Joy in life and worship

antidote to bigotry

Songs, dancing drinking

Folksongs seen as religious allegories.

BeshT (B. Shem Tov)

Prayer

• Clinging: continual awareness of God’s presence

• Ecstasy / Enthusiasm: Traditional prayer regulations ignored

spontaneous.

BeshT on Messiah: 2 theories.

• His teachings were a prelude to redemption by Messiah.

• Downplays “eschatology” (end of the world)

• Reaction to false messiahsSees eschatology as allegory of

personal transformation.

Legend

• 1747 BeshT sees Messiah“When will you come?”

• “When every Jews is as spiritual as you”

• Mission: to bring the Messiah.

Modern Denominations

Is Messiah a person

or

Is there only a “messianic period” when justice will prevail?

Successors

• Tzaddik “righteous”

• Rebbe

• Disciples of BeshT who form their own schools.

• Became dynastic

Hasidic Jews

R. Zalman of Ladi1745-1812

• Habad (Chabad)– Lubavitch Hasid

• Integrated Mysticism with renewed emphasis on Oral Torah

Backlash

• Rabbinic Elite challenges Hasids

• “Mitnagdim”

• Elijah ben Solomon Zalman 1720-97

“Gaon of Vilna”

Modernity

• Hasidic Judaism: anti-modernist in many respects.

• Return to tradition, and Judaism as a special people

• Rejected rise of modern “citizenship”

Irony

• Mitnagdim taught Hasidism was a dangerous innovation

• Hasidism rejected modernity and became a force for orthodoxy.

sources

• http://www.williams.edu/library/citing/styles/chicago1.html

• http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/axismundi/The_Rise_Of....htm#anchor596778