The Frankist Connection

[volgadon]

This topic relates somewhat to this thread.

http://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/57086-the-ban-on-kabbalah/

I mentioned that a Frankist connection to Alexander Neibaur is rather unlikely.

Lance Owens raised the possibility in his "Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection."

Where and how Neibaur first came in contact with Kabbalah remains a mystery, though a careful evaluation of his history and personal travels offers a few hints. Given his father's position, his childhood in western Poland, his studies in Berlin and his subsequent conversion to Christianity, some contact with a reservoir of Kabbalistic knowledge among Sabbatean or Frankist Jews should be considered.

The footnote expands on the possibility of Frankist inlfuence and some of its implications.

Frankist Jews in this area had nominally converted to Christianity. A Sabbatean or Frankist source would have interesting implication for Joseph Smith's understanding of Kabbalah as interpreted and presented by Neibaur--particularly with regard to the concept of the mystical intent of sexual intercourse and anomian sexual relationships. For discussions of these issues, see G. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973), and his notes on Sevi and Frank in Kabbalah, 244-309. Niebaur's parents were both Jew's born around 1780 in western Poland (then part of Prussia) during a period of intense Frankist foment. Though Alexander was born in Alsace-Lorraine, the family apparently had returned to and remained in Unruhstadt (now Kargowa, Zielona Gora, Poland) after 1814. Kabbalistic interests fostered by the Hasidic movement also were present in this area, and the young Neibaur might have had some contact with them in his studies. Neibaur Family Group Sheet, LDS Geneological Library.

There are many reasons why this scenario is unlikely, but I'll start with one.

Pawel Maciejko's book "The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement 1755-1816," presents interesting information bearing on this connection. Maciejko examined Jacob Frank's attitude towards the Kabbalah in general and the Zohar in particular. Despite the many adaptations and paraphrases from the Zohar which Frank used, his attitude towards that book was far from positive. At least not in his later years.

Here are three extracts from Frank's "Collection of the Words of the Lord," translated by Harris Lenowitz and available online.

http://www.languages.utah.edu/kabbalah/protected/dicta_frank_lenowitz.pdf

Bolding mine.

707. When Rabbi Mardocheusz told me of the 10 Sephiroth and drew them on paper, I asked him, What is this?

He answered me, They are houses.

I asked him, And where is there here a privy? For when they build houses don't they always allocate a place for a bathroom first of all? When they build houses in Bucharest they dig a very deep hole in the ground first and then they spill quicksilver there to bore through the earth as deep as an abyss. Then they build a privy on top of it; and only then do they put up a house.

The sefirot were emanated aspects of the Godhead.

This comparison would have been utterly offensive, to say the least. Frank ridiculed one of the holiest aspects of Judaism and the Kabbalah by connecting it to the filthiest.

The other two extracts also display a disdain and contempt for Kabbalistic works.

1088. I have shown you several times in the Zohar, saying to you that in the whole book nothing has been so pleasing to me as the one chapter, in which it is written: Who put Joseph in prison? God—Who brought him out? God—Who made him king of Egypt?

God—And so many similar things.

I also said to you that the 2nd chapter pleased me as well in which there is a question from one: What does the embalming of Jacob signify?

Rabbi Simon answered him about it: Go ask a doctor. Certainly when I asked you that, surely it was not in vain.

I said to you several times that you should not be like horses and mules, who have no understanding.

It was for you to inquire of me, then I would have answered you and would have revealed the truth to you, that the whole Zohar altogether is not pleasing in my eyes and we have no need of books of kabbalah; that only this one thing pleased me, that it said that God does everything.

And so I told you: Have faith in God, for God himself does everything, especially at the present time; that I have come to lead you in the name of God and I said to you, Who led me to Edom? God.

Who brought me forth to Poland? God.

Who brought me into prison in Częstochowa? God.

Who brought me forth from prison? God.

And so always forever.

Also all the True believers who believe in God and his assistance, ought to have faith in him, as I do, and not to have faith in a man and not to follow him.

When one comes and says he is a prophet, say to him, Keep your prophecy to yourself. I have no need of anyone. If he says he is wise, that he is learned, tell him, I have no need either of your wisdom or of your teaching; for I did not follow you from the beginning, because you did not lead me to baptism, and now I will not follow you, nor your teaching.

421. You saw clearly that I ordered your old books to be sold for a pittance; how did you not recognize that all books and laws will be broken like a potsherd? For when a man passes from one place to another he should drop all the rites of the first place and abide by those in which he enters. Where was your sense, to throw yourselves to a place from which you departed, and to recall in my presence those two names, Tat, Schihina? What is it to us? Your ancestors and their ancestors already shouted thus; nobody responded to it. Indeed only what the host orders is proper to do. So also you, ought to have done what I ordered you to but not what you yourselves thought of from your heads.

The focus of Frankism was not Kabbalah, it was Frank himself.

Kabbalah might have been a more important force in the early days of the movement, as Frank sought to increase his powerbase by incorporating Sabbatian cells into his movement and when seeking Christian support. There was a sympathetic attitude among many of the clergy towards the Kabbalah, as it was thought to be the spiritual aspect of the Old Testament, containing many Christian truths, even if a little distorted. Opposing it was the legalistic, foolish and blasphemous Talmud. By playing on these Christian attitudes, Frank was able to establish his legitimacy in their eyes, being a Contra-Talmudist.