Fascinating essay. No doubt if Sarah had been in Western Europe any Catholic or Protestant authority would have tried her as a witch.
Very helpful podcast. I’m in the liberal Protestant tradition and you touched on assumptions and interpretations which I’ve encountered in study groups. I appreciate the additional perspective.
May we discover more of our intrinsic, unique modality of the Liberation Consciousness so we can birth more liberation, plus egalitarian ideas/institutions/behavior.
Wonderful, another bipolar rebbe to add to my collection! I'm bipolar, and while I don't often speak of the details of my serious psychotic break, this bit seems particularly relevant: I did, very briefly, think I might be the messiah (I got better!). And I also thought that this would entail undoing the curse of the expulsion from Eden by restoring the status of women. The "enmity" between the woman and the serpent was the reason there were so few women in computer science, and it could be corrected by teaching more women and girls the language — the "forked tongue" — that the serpent had tried to teach Eve in the Garden: that would be Python, of course.
I'm definitely not the messiah (except in the sense of Reb. Zalman in which we all are), but I do have a lot of experience as a computer science tutor (that part, at least, was real). Maybe I should find a way to get back to doing that.
Also, speaking of the podcast you did - just checked and there was seemingly no way to message them there on where to get a written transcript of the podcast episode that you did. I’m Deaf and would need to access it that way. Thanks so much.
K. Let's talk. Since it's super problematic to try to figure out the intentions and practices of a group that was both adored and ostracized, but never documented with any attempt at objectivity, the only way to think about it is abstractly, right? The argument that the sabbatean (sp, sorry, tapping this out..) movement was a movement toward feminism is super interesting 🤔. I especially like the detail about the divorce and subsequent remarriage of Sarah, in the name of freedom from slavery. ...have to think about it... I'm a little freaked out by the kind of power the group seemed to exert over the individuals within it...it seems, perhaps, controlling, which, IMO, is not characteristic of feminine power
Oh gosh. I didnt read this post or any other comments on it - I will though. In the meantime I feel entitled to comment as I did read all of Scholems book on Zevi which in myind remains the authoratative text on the guy in my opinion.
He oversaw child-adult marriages and very possibly sexually assaulted to some degree a young boy so I don't get feminist vibes from the guy.
Horrific as these facts are about Sabbatai - they are anecdotal incredible as that seems to his movement at large which would've made a hell of a more interesting Broadway play - than Hamilton.
I would've thought jacob frank sabbatais heir and his daughter Eva Frank (or what I jokingly call virgin mary bodega candles now) would be more feminist than Sabbatai.
Forgive me for commenting before reading your post - I will read it in its entirety and post again but I just am ABSOLUTELY fascinated by the little known tale of Sabbatai.
Hi! I'm a scholar of Sabbatean movement, focusing on another leading figure there: Abraham Miguel Cardozo. Did you know that Cardozo and Sarah wanted to marry at 1682, and I as I remember Sarah was the one to propose?
As a reader and as a thinking human, I really liked your reading of the Sabbatean movement as a feminist, but as a scholar, I still tend to protest. Feminism is a contemporary movement, aimed to improve women status in our society, operating within certain assumptions; these assumptions would be very alien to even the wildest of the wildest. After all, no Sabbatean was interested in liberating non-Jewish women; moreover, from the texts that I have read, the Sabbateans did write a lot about the femininity, yet for them it was something very static; set in stone; God-defined. Of course, their vision of these things was radically different from the society they were in (at least in some of Nathan of Gaza's texts). For instance, our laws come from Torah de-Briah, i.e., Created Instruction, yet they would all aspire to transcend it to the Torah de-Atzilut, to the Emanated Instruction, or, better to say, Instruction Above Creation. This instruction would not contain any law, but it would be no less prescriptive and static. So, as a scholar, I would say that I see a lot of potential for feminist readers and feminist Kabbalah scholars; but any feminist reader might as well conclude that these texts are oppressive and non-helping.
Another point: if we read closely report on conversion, Shabbetai did not convert because of the fear of death, but willingly and with a great joy. Why? The Kabbalah sees restoration more in terms of Undoing; this world must be Undone, since it is darkness animated by the Holy Sparkles. This animated darkness is evil and the only way to undo it is to elevate the sparkles, thus leaving the dead husks annulled. I am sorry, this does not sound very appealing to the New Age adherents, and even I have a certain distaste to this world-hating doctrine; but it has its own somber splendor and should be recongized.
So, if we read Nathan of Gaza, Tzevi's most adrent supporter, we see a world on the brink of Redemption; only the deepest sprakles are still in the Abyss; so, in order to get them and to finish the restoration and nullyfying of the Husks, one must descend further. The Messiah should sink in the sin, like a saboteur, to retrieve the last sprakles, to kill the Husks.
Fascinating essay. No doubt if Sarah had been in Western Europe any Catholic or Protestant authority would have tried her as a witch.
Very helpful podcast. I’m in the liberal Protestant tradition and you touched on assumptions and interpretations which I’ve encountered in study groups. I appreciate the additional perspective.
Thank you.
Enjoyed this vey much. Thanks.
May we discover more of our intrinsic, unique modality of the Liberation Consciousness so we can birth more liberation, plus egalitarian ideas/institutions/behavior.
Wonderful, another bipolar rebbe to add to my collection! I'm bipolar, and while I don't often speak of the details of my serious psychotic break, this bit seems particularly relevant: I did, very briefly, think I might be the messiah (I got better!). And I also thought that this would entail undoing the curse of the expulsion from Eden by restoring the status of women. The "enmity" between the woman and the serpent was the reason there were so few women in computer science, and it could be corrected by teaching more women and girls the language — the "forked tongue" — that the serpent had tried to teach Eve in the Garden: that would be Python, of course.
I'm definitely not the messiah (except in the sense of Reb. Zalman in which we all are), but I do have a lot of experience as a computer science tutor (that part, at least, was real). Maybe I should find a way to get back to doing that.
Really loved this, thank you!
Love this and the podcast HOWEVER do not love the San Francisco slander! What the hay? SF is great. Don’t believe the haters.
How absolutely fascinating!
Also, speaking of the podcast you did - just checked and there was seemingly no way to message them there on where to get a written transcript of the podcast episode that you did. I’m Deaf and would need to access it that way. Thanks so much.
This was seriously wonderful reading. Thank you much much.
..big idea drop! ...lots to contemplate...thank you!
K. Let's talk. Since it's super problematic to try to figure out the intentions and practices of a group that was both adored and ostracized, but never documented with any attempt at objectivity, the only way to think about it is abstractly, right? The argument that the sabbatean (sp, sorry, tapping this out..) movement was a movement toward feminism is super interesting 🤔. I especially like the detail about the divorce and subsequent remarriage of Sarah, in the name of freedom from slavery. ...have to think about it... I'm a little freaked out by the kind of power the group seemed to exert over the individuals within it...it seems, perhaps, controlling, which, IMO, is not characteristic of feminine power
Oh gosh. I didnt read this post or any other comments on it - I will though. In the meantime I feel entitled to comment as I did read all of Scholems book on Zevi which in myind remains the authoratative text on the guy in my opinion.
He oversaw child-adult marriages and very possibly sexually assaulted to some degree a young boy so I don't get feminist vibes from the guy.
Horrific as these facts are about Sabbatai - they are anecdotal incredible as that seems to his movement at large which would've made a hell of a more interesting Broadway play - than Hamilton.
I would've thought jacob frank sabbatais heir and his daughter Eva Frank (or what I jokingly call virgin mary bodega candles now) would be more feminist than Sabbatai.
Forgive me for commenting before reading your post - I will read it in its entirety and post again but I just am ABSOLUTELY fascinated by the little known tale of Sabbatai.
Hi! I'm a scholar of Sabbatean movement, focusing on another leading figure there: Abraham Miguel Cardozo. Did you know that Cardozo and Sarah wanted to marry at 1682, and I as I remember Sarah was the one to propose?
As a reader and as a thinking human, I really liked your reading of the Sabbatean movement as a feminist, but as a scholar, I still tend to protest. Feminism is a contemporary movement, aimed to improve women status in our society, operating within certain assumptions; these assumptions would be very alien to even the wildest of the wildest. After all, no Sabbatean was interested in liberating non-Jewish women; moreover, from the texts that I have read, the Sabbateans did write a lot about the femininity, yet for them it was something very static; set in stone; God-defined. Of course, their vision of these things was radically different from the society they were in (at least in some of Nathan of Gaza's texts). For instance, our laws come from Torah de-Briah, i.e., Created Instruction, yet they would all aspire to transcend it to the Torah de-Atzilut, to the Emanated Instruction, or, better to say, Instruction Above Creation. This instruction would not contain any law, but it would be no less prescriptive and static. So, as a scholar, I would say that I see a lot of potential for feminist readers and feminist Kabbalah scholars; but any feminist reader might as well conclude that these texts are oppressive and non-helping.
Another point: if we read closely report on conversion, Shabbetai did not convert because of the fear of death, but willingly and with a great joy. Why? The Kabbalah sees restoration more in terms of Undoing; this world must be Undone, since it is darkness animated by the Holy Sparkles. This animated darkness is evil and the only way to undo it is to elevate the sparkles, thus leaving the dead husks annulled. I am sorry, this does not sound very appealing to the New Age adherents, and even I have a certain distaste to this world-hating doctrine; but it has its own somber splendor and should be recongized.
So, if we read Nathan of Gaza, Tzevi's most adrent supporter, we see a world on the brink of Redemption; only the deepest sprakles are still in the Abyss; so, in order to get them and to finish the restoration and nullyfying of the Husks, one must descend further. The Messiah should sink in the sin, like a saboteur, to retrieve the last sprakles, to kill the Husks.