Monday

1
Monday

• Spinoza and Mendelssohn
• Haskela

2
Wed.

• Rise of Reform
• Reformers know why you are reforming...
• Goals.
• Questions will be asked
• Everyone else plan your responses!

3
Friday

• Early Orthodox response.

4
Mysticism and Messiah

• Isaac Luria 1534-1572
• taught that a saintly teacher could redeem a
  generation
• Revolutionary Messiah replaced by Heroic messiah

5
Lurianic Kabalah

• Tzimzum
• Ein Sof (GOD) contracts to open a space for
  creation
• remnant of divine light preserved in jars.

6
Lurianic K.

• Breaking the vessels Light cannot be contained.
  Shards of vessels are root of evil Light
  scattered and surrounded by matter

7
Lurianic K.

• TIKKUN Repair.
• Separating divine sparks from shards.
• Obedience to torah etc Elevating world to
  original purity

8
Luria

• Gradual redemption.
• Acts of righteousness prepare the way for
  Messiah
• Jews have special obligation to help bring
  Messiah

9
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

10
1648 Messiah will come

• Eastern European Kabbalists determined that
  Messiah will come in 1648

11
1648-1649 Ukraine / Poland

• Slaughter
• Cossack rebellion
• 300,000 Jews left dead?

12
New prediction

• Messiah in 1666

13
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.

14
17th -18th century

• Increasing violence against Jews in East Europe
• Jewish economy falters
• Considerable poverty

15
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.

16
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

17
Alternative religion

• Many Askenazi Jews in Poland
• Turn to mystically influenced religious
  teachers astrology magic
• Miracle-workers manipulate divine name.
• Belief in demons, spirits etc grows.

18
Amulet to protect baby
19
Baal Shem Tov1700-1760

• Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer
• Massive legendary material
• Herbal Doctor Baal Shem
• Good Name
• Distinguishes him from magicians.

20
Simple teacher

• Stories / Parables
• Appealed to the uneducated.
• Studied Kabbalah

21
Teachings

• Emotion over intellect
• Intuition more important than even Talmud
• Gods immanence
• sparks of holiness
• In nature simple objects
• Joy in life and worship
• antidote to bigotry
• Songs, dancing drinking
• Folksongs seen as religious allegories.

22
BeshT (B. Shem Tov)

• Prayer
• Clinging continual awareness of Gods presence
• Ecstasy / Enthusiasm Traditional prayer
  regulations ignored spontaneous.

23
BeshT on Messiah 2 theories.

• His teachings were a prelude to redemption by
  Messiah.
• Downplays eschatology (end of the world)
• Reaction to false messiahs Sees eschatology as
  allegory of personal transformation.

24
Legend

• 1747 BeshT sees MessiahWhen will you come?
• When every Jews is as spiritual as you
• Mission to bring the Messiah.

25
Modern Denominations

• Is Messiah a person
• or
• Is there only a messianic period when justice
  will prevail?

26
Successors

• Tzaddik righteous
• Rebbe
• Disciples of BeshT who form their own schools.
• Became dynastic

27
Hasidic Jews
28
R. Zalman of Ladi1745-1812

• Habad (Chabad) Lubavitch Hasid
• Integrated Mysticism with renewed emphasis on
  Oral Torah

29
Backlash

• Rabbinic Elite challenges Hasids
• Mitnagdim
• Elijah ben Solomon Zalman 1720-97
• Gaon of Vilna

30
Modernity

• Hasidic Judaism anti-modernist in many respects.
  
• Return to tradition, and Judaism as a special
  people
• Rejected rise of modern citizenship

31
Irony

• Mitnagdim taught Hasidism was a dangerous
  innovation
• Hasidism rejected modernity and became a force
  for orthodoxy.

32
sources

• http//www.williams.edu/library/citing/styles/chic
  ago1.html
• http//www.arts.ualberta.ca/axismundi/The_Rise_Of.
  ...htmanchor596778