Jacob Frank: Encyclopedia II - Jacob Frank - The anti-Talmudists

Jacob Frank - The anti-Talmudists

As a result of these disclosures the congress of rabbis in Brody proclaimed a strong Cherem (Hebrew for excommunication) against all impenitent heretics, and made it obligatory upon every pious Jew to search them out and expose them. The persecuted sectarians informed Dembrowsky, the Catholic Bishop of Kamenetz-Podolsk, that the Jewish sect to which they belonged rejected the Talmud and recognized only the sacred book of Kabbalah, the Zohar, which they alleged admitted the truth of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. They claimed that they regarded the Messiah-Deliverer as one of the three divinities, but they failed to state that by "messiah" they specifically meant Shabbetai Tzvi. The bishop took seriously the "Anti-Talmudists," or "Zoharists," as the sectarians began to style themselves, and in 1757 arranged a religious discussion between them and Jewish rabbis. The Anti-Talmudists presented their theses, to which the rabbis gave a very lukewarm and unwilling reply for fear of offending the Church dignitaries who were present. The bishop decided that the Talmudists had been vanquished, and ordered them to pay a fine to their opponents, and to burn all copies of the Talmud in the bishopric of Podolia.

After the death of their patron, the bishop, (9 November) the sectarians were subjected to severe persecution by the rabbis and the heads of the community. The Anti-Talmudists succeeded in obtaining from Augustus III of Poland, (1733-1763) an edict guaranteeing them safety; but even this did not avail to free them from the unfortunate position of men who, having parted from their coreligionists, had not yet succeeded in identifying themselves with another faith.

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