Jacob Frank: Encyclopedia II - Jacob Frank - Historical background

Jacob Frank - Historical background

The spread of Frank's messianic movement (1760-1770) occurred in the period following the killing of the Jews in the days of Bohdan Chmielnicki. Hundreds of ruined communities, in which almost every family mourned its martyred dead, awaited aid from Heaven. Some were inclined to see in the Ukraine massacres pre-Messianic sufferings, and in Sabbatai Zevi the promised messiah. Zevi's fall and subsequent conversion to Islam estranged him from most of his followers, but among the more uncultured portion of the Jewish people the belief in the mystic mission of Shabbetai Zevii persisted for a long time.

Having lost its political significance, Messianism at the end of the seventeenth century assumed a mystical coloring, and the open popular movement was transformed into a secret sectarian cult. A half-Jewish, half-Islamic sect of Shabbetians was established in Turkey. In Poland, and particularly in Podolia and Galicia, there were formed numerous secret societies of Shabbethaians known among the people as "Shabbethai Zezviists," or "Shebs" (according to the Western pronunciation of "Shabbethai").

In expectation of the great Messianic revolution the members of these societies abandoned many Jewish principles of faith and discarded Jewish religious laws and custom. The mystical cult of the Shebs included both asceticism and sensuality: some did penance for their sins, subjected themselves to self-inflicted torture, and "mourned for Zion"; others disregarded the strict rules of chastity characteristic of Judaism, and at times gave themselves over to licentiousness. The Polish rabbis attempted to remove the "Shabbethaian heresy" at the assembly of Lemberg (1722) and elsewhere, but could not fully succeed, as it was kept alive mostly in secret circles which had something akin to a Masonic organization.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Historical background", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki