The nihilistic tendencies of Sabbateanism have led…

1756 CE

The nihilistic tendencies of Sabbateanism have led not only to the formation of sects whose members are externally converted to Islam, but also to Roman Catholicism: e.g., the Polish supporters of the notorious Jacob Frank (original name Jacob Leibowicz), a self-proclaimed Messiah.

There are numerous secret societies of Sabbateans (followers of Sabbatai Zevi) in Eastern Poland (now Ukraine), particularly in Podolia and Galicia at the end of the seventeenth century In expectation of the great Messianic revolution, the members of these societies violate Jewish religious laws and custom.

The mystical cult of the Sabbateans is believed to have included both asceticism and sensuality: some did penance for their sins, subjected themselves to self-inflicted pain, and "mourned for Zion"; others disregarded the strict rules of modesty required by Judaism, and at times were accused of being licentious.

The Polish rabbis had attempted to ban the "Sabbatean heresy" at the assembly at Lviv (Lwów) in 1722, but could not fully succeed, as it was widely popular among the nascent Jewish middle class.

Jacob Frank is believed to have been born as Jacob ben Leiba (or Leibowits) in Korolivka, in Podolia of Eastern Poland (now in Ukraine), in about 1726.

His father was a Sabbatean, and moved to Chernivtsi, in the Carpathian region of Bukovina in 1730, where the Sabbatean influence at the time was strong.

While still a schoolboy, Frank began to reject the Talmud, and afterward often referred to himself as "a plain" or "untutored man."

As a traveling merchant in textile and precious stones, he often visited Ottoman territories, where he earned the nickname "Frank", a name generally given in the East to Europeans, and lived in the centers of contemporary Sabbateanism: Salonica and Smyrna.

Frank had become intimate in the early 1750s with the leaders of the Sabbateans.

Two followers of Sabbatian leader Osman Baba (d. 1720) were witnesses at his wedding in 1752.

Reappearing in Podolia in 1755, he had gathered a group of local adherents, and began to preach the "revelations" which were communicated to him by the Dönmeh in Salonica.

One of these gatherings in Landskron had ended in a scandal, drawing the rabbis' attention to the new teachings.

Frank is forced to leave Podolia in 1756, while his followers are hounded and denounced to the local authorities by the rabbis.

At the rabbinical court held in the village of Satanov, Podolia's leading community, the Sabbateans are accused of having broken fundamental Jewish laws of morality and modesty.