Discussion+Questions+Week+3

Rabbi Jacob Emden: 18th-century rabbi, opponent of Sabbatianism Heinrich Graetz: the major Jewish historian of the 19th century blood libel: antisemitic accusation that Jews use the blood of non-Jews for rituals Hasidism: major form of traditionalist Judaism in eastern Europe in the 19th century aggadah: non-legal portions of rabbinic writings (e.g., homilies, stories, metaphysical speculation) Jewish territorialism: belief that Jews should have a country somewhere other than the Land of Israel
 * Gershom Scholem, "Redemption Through Sin" [in Scholem]**
 * __terms__**


 * 1) What are the various reasons Scholem adduces for the "refusal to understand" he finds in most historiography dealing with Sabbatianism?
 * 2) Who were the Doenmeh?
 * 3) Who was Jacob Frank?
 * 4) What does Scholem maintain is the relationship between the Sabbatian movement in the 17th century and the processes of Jewish modernization in the 19th century?
 * 5) Why is the religious pneumatic "duty-bound to violate and subvert" (110) the social and moral norms of the world around him?
 * 6) What, according to Scholem, was the logic of the "holiness of sin" of the radical Sabbatians?


 * Matt Goldish, “The Early Messianic Career of Shabbatai Zvi,” in Lawrence Fine, ed., Judaism in Practice: From the Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2001), 470-482.**

How do the elements of transgression and antinomianism manifest themselves in the career of Shabbatai Zvi, his wife, and his followers? What about the theme of kingship and political sovereignty?


 * “Shabbethai Zebi, False Messiah,” in Jacob Rader Marcus, ed., The Jew in the Medieval World, A Source Book: 315-1791 (Cincinnati: HUC Press, 1990), 261-268.**

According to this report, in what ways did Jews respond to the Sabbatian fervor?

__**terms**__
 * Jakob Wassermann, "Prelude" to his novel //The Dark Pilgrimage// (originally published in German as //Die Juden von Zirndorf// in 1897)**
 * Ahaseurus—the Wandering Jew**: a figure from medieval Christian folklore of a Jew cursed to walk the earth forever because he taunted Jesus; a popular depiction in 19th-century European romanticism
 * ark**: the cabinet in which the scrolls of the Five Books of Moses are stored in synagogues
 * Kaddish**: a prayer in the Jewish liturgy
 * minyan**: prayer quorum
 * Olam Hatikum**: the redeemed world (though the Hebrew is garbled here)
 * tikunim**: penitential rituals


 * 1) Wasserman refers in the first paragraph to “that form and visage which the homeland imprints upon its sons.” Are the Jews in this text a product of this landscape?
 * 2) How might the Jewish gravestone referred to in the text describe the position of German Jews?
 * 3) In what ways are the Jews portrayed by Wassermann grotesque and negative? sinister and powerful? heroic and sympathetic? Overall, how would you characterize Wassermann’s portrayal of his Jewish characters and their community? Are characterizations of Wassermann as a self-hating Jew plausible?
 * 4) What points of similarity do you find between the “Prelude” and the source documents on Sabbatianism that we read? Between the “Prelude” and Scholem’s essay?
 * 5) How is Sabbatianism represented as a desire for political freedom?
 * 6) How is Sabbatianism represented as a libidinal, sexual eruption?
 * 7) How is the Sabbatian episode connected to the depiction of modernity and Jewish acculturation into modern Europe on pages 79-80?