The Train Wreck part 3

The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, the periods of the rise of Shabbateanism and Frankism, were no easy time for Christian Europe either. 1666, the year of the promised redemption, according to the Shabbateans, as well as the year of his conversion to Islam, had been predicted by several Christian leaders as the year of the Second Coming. The results for Christians, as well as their Jewish neighbors, was a crisis of faith. Europe experienced at this time a series of wars between Catholics and Protestants. In Western Europe in particular, philosophers wrote books about the Rights of Man, and questioned the very foundations of religion. These were the same ideas that were soon to lead to the American and French Revolutions. Men like Descartes, Locke, Newton, Kant, Voltaire and others were now changing Man's understanding of the world. Into this, a Jewish scholar was about to enter. On the surface, he appears to have no connection with Shabbateanism, Frankism, or even Kabbalah. But he would prove to be a game changer. His name was Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786). Son of a rabbinic scribe (sofer), he trained to be a rabbi. He had many tutors, but especially took to the teachings of RAMBAM's "Guide".He concluded that a fundamental principle of religion is reason. He wrote extensively in favor of the existence of G-d and the immortality of the soul. He defended the Talmud against its critics, saying that the Written Word is no longer understood after a few generations, and, in fact, becomes an idol. Only the Oral Word maintains its meaning forever. His main criticism of the Jewish world was that because of our way of life, as well as persecution from the outside, we had no culture (read: German Culture). He scandalized Germany by writing a pamphlet that a Jew is capable of nobility of character. He became friends with many leaders of the European Enlightenment. He said that Judaism is true, but we can't know these things for sure, and attempts to convert people from one religion to another are therefore immoral. In order to bring Jews to German culture, he translated the Torah into fine High German, together with an original commentary, based on Talmud and Midrash. This lead to an abandonment of the medieval dialect of Yiddish spoken in Germany at that time (Western Yiddish, which no longer exists.) Surprisingly, after his death, his students and colleagues taught that he was, in fact, an atheist, and sought to destroy the Talmud. I have searched in vain for an explanation of this phenomenon, but found none. In fact, there is a very simple one, discovered by the great historian of Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem. ALL OF MENDELSSOHN'S STUDENTS WERE SONS OF FRANKIST FAMILIES! Shabbateans sought an end to halachic observance. Frankists sought a destruction of all that is, in the hope of a birth of something far better in its place. They simply read these ideas into Mendelssohn's teachings. The results were many new movements, all based on antinomian ("against law") principles. To be discussed next time.