On the Fringes of the Jewish Community

Mavericks, Mystics & False Messiahs : Episodes from the Margins of Jewish History by Pinni Dunner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So much of Jewish history has been steered or guided by personalities that are on the fringes or the sidelines of the community. Pini Dunner writes about these eccentric Jews with an easy to read style that will grab you and not let you go.

Starting with the most famous of all Jewish misfits, Pini describes how Shabbtai Tzvi was born to an Ashkenazi business man in Izmir or Smyrna. Shabbtai Tzvi studied Torah and was rather gifted yet he was also sort of mad. He would do things like marry a Torah or turn a fast day into a feast day. He would commit various sins in order to hasten the redemption. Nathan of Gaza was his biggest publicist. As Shabbtai travels through various Jewish communities he picks up followers, causes controversy and gets run out of town. In 1666 he went to Istanbul to challenge the Sultan. Instead he got arrested and was forced to convert to Islam. After this some followed his example and most just left the fold. Shabbtai Tzvi caused a huge rift in THe a Jewish community as for several years after there was a witch hunt for Sabbatarians or people who still believed Shabbtai Tzvi was the messiah.

Another pretender was Dr. Falk in England. Emigrating from mainland Europe this fraudster professed powers to heal and write amulets. People believed in him and people liked him. What he practiced was a mixture of occultism and Judaism . He was called the Baal Shem of England and often times he is confused with the Baal Shem Tov. In fact when you see a picture of the Baal Shem Tov what you are seeing is not a picture of the Baal Shem Tov but rather the Baal Shem of England.

Perhaps one of the biggest feuds is a direct continuation of the Shabbtai Tzvi legacy. Even 100 years after his death there were still lots of Jews who were Sabbatians and tried to infiltrate their ideas into the Jewish community . While the majority of the Jewish community was against the Sabbatians some hidden ones could wield lots of influence. Yaakov Emden and eminent rabbi identifies Sabbatians inscriptions in amulets the Yonatan Eybeshutz wrote out. Soon controversy would engulf the world wide Jewish community over this.

In Germany the Get of Cleves divides the entire Jewish world against the Hamburg Beit Din. A man named Isaac gets married to a Jewish woman and then two weeks later he wants it annulled because he is paranoid that some people are after him. He flees to Britain. The grooms family believes that Yithack was insane but some in the community believe he was sane enough. The two eventually remarried.

Another British politician named Gordon was a convert to Judaism during the time of the American Revolution. Himself a catholic and of Scottish nobility. He himself wants to reinstate anti catholic laws to prevent them from going over to America and fighting the colonists. A riot ensues and he is blamed for its cause. For this he faces imprisonment but he escapes and discovers Judaism. He lives the rest of his life in prison but leading a good life and eating kosher food. When he died though his family did not respect his wishes which was to be buried in a Jewish cemetery.

Right st the beginning of the 20th century there was a European Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg. He made forgeries of two of the Maharals works. The first was the golem of Prague. There is nothing in the Maharals writing that talks anything of a golem. Then he forged a Maharals Haggadah. This brought about the controversy of the fifth cup of wine.

The most notorious swindler of them all was Ignatz Trbitch a Hungarians Jew. After his father dies he converts to Christianity marries the daughter of a sailor and tries to convert people all the while stealing golden watches. Next he works for a philanthropist it then burns his connection by excessive loans and thievery . He works with Nazis and then converts to Buddhism and tried to say he was the next Dalai Lama. He passed sometime between the two world wars.

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