INTRODUCTION:
The great controversy between R. Yaakov Emden (1697-1776) and R. Yonatan
Eibeschutz (1690-1764) shook the Jewish community to its core as it involved
two well-known and highly respected rabbis.
R. Eibeschuetz started out as the Chief Rabbi of Metz in north-eastern
France bordering on Germany, and after 1750 he assumed the position of Chief
Rabbi of the triple
community of Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbeck. He was, arguably, one of the most
powerful rabbis serving in the most prestigious communities at that time. His
popularity is evidenced by the great number of his portraits, making his image
the most widely disseminated Jewish icon in the eighteenth century.
The Chassidim have a tradition that seven Rebbes are referred to by
the double honorific Rebbe-Reb and R. Eibeschutz was one of them, even
though he wasn’t a technically a Rebbe.
This did not prevent R. Yaakov Emden from attacking Chief Rabbi Eibeschutz alleging
he was a secret follower of the false Messiah, Shabbatai Tzvi (1626-1676). The
vast networks of underground and secret followers of Shabbatai Tzvi were known as Sabbatians
- and now a famous rabbi was suspected of being one of them.
At the heart of the controversy was the matter of a number of amulets,
particularly for childbirth, written by R. Eibeschutz which were said to
contain references to Shabbatai Tzvi and pointed to his associations with
members of the Sabbbatian movement.
The stage was now set for the most aggressive and bitter rabbinical
conflict to erupt in many centuries.
WOLF BENJAMIN EIBESCHUTZ (1740–1806):
In this article,
based extensively on the research of Professor Pawel Maciejko,
we will deal with the question of what happened to Wolf Benjamin (1740-1806), the youngest son
of R. Yonatan Eibeschutz and see whether it has any bearing on the accusations
of Sabbatianism levelled against his illustrious father.
Many Sabbattians and
particularly Frankists
were known to have eventually converted to Christianity. Where did Wolf position himself in this regard?
WOLF AND HIS CHRISTMAS MIRACLE:
Maciejko begins with an extract from R. Yaakov Emden’s
writing, describing the events of one winter’s evening in the late 1750s when
Wolf experienced a ‘miracle’:
“At the time of...Hanukkah Wolf
pointed to eight lights against the firmament, and when Christmas Eve [leil
kuti] arrived, he said: ‘Lo and behold! The entire world, even the great sages
tell us to play cards
on this night, but we will not do so. We will be destroying his [Jesus’]
kelippah!’
And he went and took a violin
and started to sing songs and cried a great cry. And the said Wolf told the
people who were there with him to look through the window, and they saw a
pillar of fire [amuda de-nura] coming from the heavens to the earth.
And he also told them: when I
call you, fall on your faces, because the power of destruction is great and you
might be destroyed. And there were also sounds and lightning.”
According to the Zohar,
a pillar of fire is one of the first signs that the Messiah has arrived.
Maciejko writes:
“Wolf Eibeschutz [was]
trying to establish himself as a Sabbatian leader by demonstrating that the
Shekhinah had descended upon him in the form of the pillar of fire....
Wolf Eibeschutz was one of the
two most important Sabbatian leaders in mid-eighteenth century East-Central
Europe. The other was Jacob Frank, who established himself as a leader of a
large group of Sabbatians and convinced a significant number of Jews to convert
to Christianity in Lwów in 1759.”
HALLEY’S COMET?
Interestingly, Maciejko is of the opinion that the ‘pillar
of fire’ that Wolf saw may have been Halley’s Comet which appeared in 1758
on the 25 of December which also coincided with the first day of Chanukah. In
fact, that year was the first time this event had been accurately predicted (by
Halley) and many in Europe were filled with messianic expectations.
The
anticipated appearance of the Comet was well-known as it was publicised and written
about in the non-Jewish newspapers of the day. It is possible that Wolf used
his foreknowledge of this event to mislead those more gullible and less aware
of current events within the community.
WOLF ACQUIRES GREAT WEALTH:
R. Yaakov Emden continues his account of Wolf who had
suddenly become very wealthy:
“[H]e bought a large house and
estate, a field and a garden full of exquisite and fine fruit trees. And he
hired many painters and artisans and ordered them to rebuild the external wall
from the side of the street, which was old, crooked, and crumbling. And he had
it built tall and beautiful, with decorations made of precious stones and
images of lion and wolf and his name gvul benyamin
carved upon the wall.
Inside the garden he had a wall of glass built; all the
trees and plants were eradicated, and parterres made with arrangements of
coloured porcelain taken from broken china. He also had a wine cellar carved,
inside of which there was a basin of water with engravings representing scales
of sea creatures and conches, as it is customary among great lords. In the
house he had figures of naked courtesans dancing with lovers and hunting scenes
of the priests of the goddess of the ancient Greeks, Venus.
In his room (where,
as he claimed, the Shekhinah had descended on him), he hung a painting of a
young man and woman embracing each other. In the garden he also placed costly
sculptures of marble and alabaster, statuettes of [the Virgin] feeding the
child and of other known [Christian] saints.
And he had a great chronograph
[keli shaot], which is called Wanduhr [wall clock] ... and which was decorated
with the images of all the deeds of Jesus [kol ma’ase talui].”
These comments by R. Emden need to be seen against the backdrop of sanctioned and even sanctified promiscuity as practised by the Sabbatians, who used and abused Lurianic Kabbalah to intentionally 'go into the sin' and become more 'elevated' as a result of mystically 'rectifying' it. This prepared the world, they claimed, for the arrival of Mashiach.
WOLF EIBESCHUTZ’S BEIT MIDRASH:
In his house, he held lavish parties and according to R.
Emden, he even established a study centre headed by the Sabbatian Kabbalist R. Moshe
ben David of Podhajce.
WOLF LEAVES ALTONA:
Wolf was soon to lose his newly acquired wealth, and his
property and possessions were auctioned off. Those who came to observe the
auction discovered a Sabbatian manuscript
which was a type of manifesto. This seemed to corroborate his possible role as a
leader of the movement and caused great embarrassment to Wolf’s father, Chief
Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschutz, who had already been accused of Sabbatianism himself
some nine years earlier. After being persuaded by R. Landau - the Noda
beYehudahn - R. Eibeschutz sent his son away.
In 1762, Wolf left Altona in a gold-leafed carriage to the
sounds of trumpets and in front of a large crowd.
HIS ASSOCIATION WITH THE EMPRESS:
After reconnecting
with other Sabbatians in Moravia, he ended up in Vienna where he began to
associate with high society and royalty including Empress Maria Theresa. He
re-established his art collection and assumed the title ‘Baron von Eibeschutz,’
as well as ‘Baron von Aldersthal.’
HIS ASSOCIATION WITH JACOB FRANK:
At around the same time, Jacob Frank - another messianic
claimant and the leader of the Frankist movement - also put in a request to
become part of the nobility which was made easier due to his conversion to
Christianity. Many Frankists were later to convert to Christianity. As soon as
they did, they donned the long colourful flowing gowns of the Polish nobility,
known as zupans. Polish Jews wore black zupans.
Jacob Frank, or as he now called himself, ‘Count von Frank,’
was very conscious of his perceived rank
and his clothing played a large part in the image he wanted to portray. He also
rode in a carriage pulled by six horses, which was an honour reserved only for
the Pope and the Emperor. He wore a ceremonial sword and was accompanied by a
uniformed guard.
Frank promised his followers he would turn ‘all
Israelites into knights’and give them ‘respect in the eyes of all Polish
magnates.’
Wolf Eybeschutz and Jacob Frank collaborated and had a lot
in common. There are also accounts of rivalry between them over the leadership of Sabbatain/Frankist movement.
WOLF RETURNS TO ALTONA AND ‘MAKES MONEY’:
Eventually, Wolf returned to Altona and faced a wall of
debts from his previous escapades there. But now he claimed he could literally
make his own money.
Incredulously, R. Emden describes how:
“[Wolf] tried to ward off
creditors by resorting to a ‘supernatural’ means of making money. He took a bag
of gold coins and had the coins smelted and the gold refined. Then he began to
spread the rumour that he had mastered the science of alchemy and knew how to
change copper into gold; the high quality gold in his possession was reported
to have been obtained through the alchemical process of sublimation.
Altona’s
moneychangers thought they had got wind of easy money and provided Wolf with funding,
hoping to receive pure gold in exchange in the future. Indeed, a few days later
they were given bars of ‘gold’, which were actually bars of copper plated with
a layer of gold.
When the moneychangers realised something was wrong, they were
told that the alchemical process was slow, the gold was still in almost
spiritual state, and for a period of time it should be locked in a chest
without being exposed to air until it fully materialised. Meanwhile, Wolf
demanded more credit, and it was extended to him.”
JACOB FRANK ALSO ‘MAKES MONEY’:
Jacob Frank also resorted to Alchemy and he set up a special
laboratory at his estate for such purposes. He claimed to have invented ‘Drops of Gold’, also known as the ‘Elixir of
Life’ which he claimed could cure any ailment.
One account records how one of his followers died from imbibing the drops. He
seems to have given these ‘treatments’ to some of his needy and poorer
followers.
Frank derided his allies, the Sabbatians for not engaging in
the art of Alchemy which was sweeping through Europe at that time.
ALCHEMY BECOMES THE VOGUE:
Maciejko writes:
“In the second half of the
eighteenth century, alchemy enjoyed a special vogue and became a favourite
pastime of both rich and poor. It was practiced in all European capitals and
major cities. It attracted the attention of the crowned heads and the nobility,
but it was also widespread among the lower strata of society. According to
Georg Forster, around 1785 in Warsaw alone there were 2000 active alchemists,
‘the number simply stunning for one city, even a large one.’”
Stanislaus Augustus, the King of Poland, even wanted to
replenish the coffers of his kingdom through the efforts of Alchemists.
THE ‘AROMA OF MYSTERY’:
Thus we see that Wolf Eibeschutz and Jacob Frank simply reflected
the norms of the age and used it to their advantage. They were aided by the
perception that they, as Maciejko puts it “were said to have mysterious
connections,” or as Stefan Zweig puts it, had “the aroma of mystery.”
CHRISTIAN INTEREST IN KABBALAH:
Elisheva Carlebach
explains that from medieval times, the non-Jewish world had the perception of
Jews being involved in secrets and mystery. This accounted for the Christian
interest in Kabbalah which became very popular during the eighteenth century.
We find people like Count Heinrich Bruhl who was instrumental in the
development of early Frankism, for
example, who was known to have had one of the largest Kabbalistic Libraries
in Europe.
A GLIMPSE INTO 18th-CENTURY MESSIANISM PRESENTING ITSELF AS MAINSTREAM JUDAISM:
To say that Sabbatian messianism was rife during that time is an
understatement. To illustrate: R. Meir Eisenstadt (1670-1744) was the rabbi of
Prosnitz (a town saturated by Sabbatians) and although he was from a well-known
rabbinic family and he himself was regarded as a great Halachic authority, at
one stage he also called himself the Messiah.
 |
| Gravestone of R. Meir Eisenstadt (1670-1744), the teacher of R. Yonatan Eibeschutz. The headstone reads: "Head of the Beit Din of the holy community of Ash (Eisenstadt) and surrounding areas." |
R. Eisenstadt, known as the Maharam Ash, wrote responsa literature, such as Or haGanuz on marriage, as well as Panim Meirot. He served as Rosh yeshiva in Worms, and one of his students was Wolf's father, Yonatan Eibeschutz. According to some accounts, R. Eibeschutz became R. Eisenstadt's adopted son.
Another false messiah, R. Leibelle Prossnitz (who claimed to have been
instructed by the Ari) was also very close to R. Yonatan Eibeschutz.
This was the world of the
eighteenth century; filled with messianism, charlatanry, alchemy, Sabbatianism and mysticism. It was not easy to tell one from the other, particularly when Sabbatians masquerade as Halachists and messiahs as Kabbalists.
If R. Yaakov Emden was right, and
it is true that Chief Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschutz was involved in the mystical Sabbatian
movement - then his son Wolf Benjamin Eibeschutz was just another example of
the fallout that always follows when promised and immanent messianic
expectations cannot be met.
FURTHER READING:
