Women in Sectarian Sabbatianism

This chapter looks at the evidence on the eruption of messianic prophecy during an early period, which suggests that women responded en masse to Sabbatai Zevi's tidings. It discusses women's particular receptivity to the Sabbatai Zevi's messianic call in light of the promises he made specifically to the female sex. It also mentions the adherence to the messianic faith that did not demand that the restraints of Jewish law be cast off or subverted, but instead called for repentance in entirely traditional terms. The chapter examines the first antinomian acts being ordered by Sabbatai Zevi that were not able to split the believers or generate any tension between their self-perception as pious Jews and the integrity of their Sabbatian faith. It discusses sectarian organizations in which Sabbatianism persisted throughout the eighteenth century in which the traditional barriers between men and women crumbled, both in theory and in practice.

In the Egalitarian ‘Family’ of Jacob Frank

This chapter discusses the egalitarian impulse that disposed Sabbatianism to promote women to the status of men either on an equal but separate basis or by breaking down traditional gender barriers. It examines the kabbalistic conceptualization of bisexuality as a cosmic principle, which stirred Jacob Frank to a fresh mode of mythical thinking and turned his messianic project into a series of remarkable applications and manipulations of the principle. It also talks about the resultant shifts in the balance of power and scheme of relations between the sexes that applied simultaneously to the divine sphere. The chapter analyses the kabbalistic tradition that had equipped Frank with the basic structure of his mythical universe. It cites the union of the supernal brothers and sisters with their earthly male and female counterparts.

Female Prophets in Sabbatianism

This chapter focuses on the active participation of numerous women in the phenomenon of Sabbatian prophecy. It reviews a variety of sources that complement and corroborate each other in order to describe women as having visions and prophesying about the messianic mission of Sabbatai Zevi. It also talks about the women's status as prophets and the nature of their prophecies that are distinguished from those of the great exponents of Sabbatian kabbalah, such as Nathan of Gaza or Abraham Miguel Cardozo. The chapter focuses on accounts of prophesying by women that appear in the context of mass outbursts of prophetic frenzy, in which unlettered men and children also took part. It analyses the prophecies of women that were not perceived as ordered speculative teachings and did not amount to any coherent, personal verbal expression.

The Redemptive ‘Maiden’

This chapter highlights the most radical expression of Jacob Frank's predilection for inverting conventional gender norms as the reversal of sexual identity in the figure of the messianic redeemer. It analyses Abraham Cardozo's tentative stipulation of a female herald of good tidings to Zion during the early stages of the Sabbatian movement. It also mentions the Noble Lady of Salonica, who maintained diplomatic relations with Jonathan Eybeschuetz and his sons even after Berukhyah's death. The chapter focuses on Sarah, Sabbatai Zevi's spouse, who believed herself to be the predestined spouse of the messiah. It explains how Sarah assimilated into her own person the mythical figure of the superior messianic bride.

Introduction

This chapter looks at the notion of how the hasidic movement brought about a feminist revolution in Judaism. It mentions the twentieth-century historian of Hasidism named S. A. Horodetsky, who first claimed that the Hasidic movement endowed women with complete equality in the religious life that are expressed in a variety of hasidic innovations. It also discusses women's direct, personal relationship with the rebbe or tsadik that established a new equality between the sexes within the family and the community. The chapter covers the breakdown of the educational barrier of Hebrew and the language of traditional scholarly discourse in the male world of Torah learning. It argues how hasidism has remained predominantly the preserve of men in the early twentieth century.

Historical Precedents and Contexts

This chapter analyses the rabbinic traditions that were inherited from four women who were called by the title of prophetess: Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, and Noadiah. It discusses how the Bible recognizes the phenomenon of the prophetess without pondering its validity and how rabbinic literature views it as problematic. It also explores the status of the Bible's prophetesses that conflicts with the Sages' fundamental exclusion of women from public activity and from positions of ritual, spiritual, or scholarly leadership. The chapter describes the classical rabbinic sources that increased with the number of biblical prophetesses known by name and who were acknowledged by the authenticity of their prophetic powers. It explains how prophetesses tend to deprecate their character by means of an exegesis that cast aspersions on their moral integrity or put them in the shadow of their husbands.

The Egalitarian Agenda: Sources of Inspiration and Modes of Implementation

This chapter talks about the attraction inherent in Sabbatianism that sectarian messianism held for women, which accounts for women's active involvement with both the overt and the clandestine frameworks in which the movement persisted. It examines how women continued to be drawn to the sectarian fellowships as messianic prophetesses. It also describes Judaism that traditionally stressed a religious life bounded by the commandments. The chapter analyses the dense web of gendered prescriptions and rituals which segregated the sexes and assigned them different spheres of activity. It demonstrates how faith transcended the gender boundaries that were built into the halakhic system and opened a single arena of action to both sexes.

Conclusion: From Sabbatianism to Hasidism

This chapter discusses the Sabbatianism's viable existence, both within Judaism and in its apostate form that is still in close association with liberation of women. It mentions the egalitarian, which holds women's status to be wholly analogous to men's and beckons women to partake equally in every aspect of the ritual and spiritual life of the messianic community. It also highlights the formal separation of the women from the men that was conducive to the enhancement of their spiritual stature and released them from the bounds of materiality, physicality, and sexuality. The chapter recounts Sabbatai Zevi's coronation ceremonies in December 1665, which emphasized how women could engage on an equal footing in the same range of messianically charged religious activities as the men. It describes Zohar's depiction of righteous women in Paradise, where they occupy themselves with intellectual and spiritual pursuits of study and prayer.

‘The Mother of God’:Frank and the Russian Sectarians

This chapter mentions the scholars of hasidism, the school of spirituality initiated by Israel Ba'al Shem Tov, that have occasionally noted certain parallels between the hasidic movement and the various sects that emerged in early modern Russia. It talks about the Old Believers' faction that seceded from the Russian Orthodox Church at the time of the schism of the second half of the seventeenth century. It also highlights the sects and others whose origins are obscure and independent of the Raskol, which proliferated in the course of the eighteenth century and spread primarily within the rural population of the Russian empire. The chapter discusses the Russian government that endeavoured to suppress Old Believers, making them leave their districts of origin in northern Russia and flee to the border regions of the empire. It recounts the sectarians that settled in Ukraine during the same time that the hasidic movement was getting under way.

Sabbatian Women as Religious Activists

This chapter cites the dawning messianic age, which was characterized by the biblical prophet Joel, who had brought the spirit to rest upon women, which was common to Sabbatianism and a diversity of early modern Christian religious enthusiasm' movements. It analyses the breakdown of barriers by which rabbinic tradition had always marked the inherent difference between the sexes and assigned the discrete spheres of activity. It also talks about messianic believers who displayed an unprecedented willingness to recognize as fully legitimate the phenomenon of 'spinster', 'maiden', or 'virgin' prophetesses. The chapter mentions prophetic women described as 'possessed' in Hayim Vital's Book of Visions or in later exorcism accounts which proliferated in east European hasidism. It explains the instinctive rabbinic response to the 'aberration' of prophetic chastity in women that were aimed to suppress the phenomenon in diverse times and places.