The Train Wreck part 5

We have seen how Shabbatean ideas, through "the Enlightenment", had forged a national identity out of a large segment of East European Jews. Although this movement was secular, religious Jews were not immune. Two Shabbatean works became popular in Eastern Europe, neither being too obvious as to their origin. One was the main propagandist book of moderate Shabbateans, the Hemdat HaYamim ("Pleasantness of Days"), often considered the most beautiful book the Jewish people ever composed. It is a full compendium of Jewish life and ritual. It contains original prayers, some still recited in many synagogues. But it also contains stories, ostensibly about ARI and other great Tzaddikim, putting in their mouths praise for many abominations. Many of the prayers are clear references to Shabbetai Tzvi's life. (Please release him from prison, let him sit on his throne with "'Ateret Tzvi"; a beautiful crown, or "The Crown of Tzvi". This book is so insidious, that it is still revered in some North African communities. Another book that became very popular in Hasidic circles was "Sefer HaTzoref" (The Book of the Refiner). Herschel Tzoref was a Shabbatean rabbi, who ran a court similar to the Hasidic courts of a century later. The Baal Shem Tov possessed a copy. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Bardichev tried to have it printed, but the print house refused to touch it. Both of these books inspired many with the immediate need to go to the Holy Land, as the Mashiach was soon to come. Several late Eighteenth Century saw Hasidic leaders moving to Tiberias, anti-Hasidic (Mitnagdim), moving to Safed, as well as outright Shabbateans moving to Jerusalem. In the following century, many religious Jews formed a group called "Hevevei Zion", and left the Russian Empire for the Land of Israel. Their motives were primarily religious. But these motives would probably not have come about if not for the legacy of Shabbatean messianism. They formed what is known as "the Old Yishuv" (the old settlement). The ultra Orthodox communities in Jerusalem and elsewhere are the descendants of these communities, now boasting being nine or ten generations in the Land.  But secular nationalism was about to invade, heavily driven by the Frankist notion of a non halachah bound Judaism, Next time.