Jacob Frank

Discussion about the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, Talmud, Dead Sea Scrolls, archaeology, etc.
semiopen2
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Re: Jacob Frank

Post by semiopen2 »

I left the conference before hearing the paper I mentioned above.

Frank is mixed up with Hasidism to some extent because he allegedly received the attention of the Baal_Shem_Tov.
The Baal Shem Tov witnessed Frank's public apostasy (shmad in Hebrew) to Christianity, which compounded Zevi's earlier apostasy to Islam. The Baal Shem Tov was thus determined to encourage his influential disciples (talmidim) to launch a spiritual revolution in Jewish life in order to reinvigorate the Jewish masses' connections with Torah Judaism and to vigorously motivate them to bind themselves to the joyous observance of the commandments, worship, Torah study, and sincere belief in God, so that the lures of Christianity and Islam, and the appeal of the rising secular Enlightenment, to the Jewish masses would be weakened and halted. To a large degree Israel succeeded in Eastern Europe.
This paragraph is a clean up of some Hasidic lies - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Baal_ ... _Frankists
I dispute the following item in the article: "In fact, Besht took sides with the Talmudists in the disputes with Frankists (Jacob Frank's followers) and was even one of the three delegates of the Talmudists to a disputation between the two parties held at Lemberg in 1759."
This statement is probably based on a forgery, Maaseh Norah bePodolia that places the Besht at the 1759 Lviv (Lemberg) disputation with the Frankists. M. Balaban, On the History of the Frankist Movement, v. 2, 1935, p. 295-311 proved that the Besht was not present. We have the minutes and attendees from these disputations, and the Besht was not listed. This event occured just a few months before his death.
A key item of information is that all this stuff (Hasidism, Frankism, emancipation, etc) occurred at the same time - mid 18th century.

Also, I'm not sure if I gave the link to Max_Lilienthal above.

I gave another probable Hasidic/Chabad lie in a quote
According to traditional Jewish writers, particularly in the Chabad tradition, his departure was prompted by allegations from within the Haskala movement of the misappropriation of funds, leading to a Russian governmental investigation.
Lilienthal did go on to be a key figure in the American Reform movement.

Max Lilienthal: The Making of an American Rabbinate - http://www.amazon.com/Max-Lilienthal-Ma ... lilienthal is a relatively recent book about him.

One reason I bring this up is because I mentioned to Beowulf in another thread that virtually everything on Chabad's website (at least from a reality perspective is a lie, and I wanted to make it clear that I'm not joking or exaggerating (that much). Sometimes they don't mention stuff - for example they don't mention Sabbatai_Zevi at all, One really cannot understand the history Judaism without considering this guy.
Last edited by semiopen2 on Thu Dec 19, 2013 6:00 am, edited 4 times in total.
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stephan happy huller
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Re: Jacob Frank

Post by stephan happy huller »

Agreed. Ever since the Acts of the Apostles mainstream Judaism and Christianity seem to work off of one another to make it seem that Judaism 'was always' a certain way. Not true. The dumbest two traditions won out.
Everyone loves the happy times
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