Sabbatean-frankists

Sabbatean-frankists
Frankism is a Sabbatean religious movement of the 18th and 19th centuries,[1] created in Podolia, named after its founder, Jacob Frank. Frank completely rejected Jewish norms, preaching to his followers that they were obligated to transgress moral boundaries. At its height Frankism claimed perhaps 50,000 followers, primarily Jews living in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as in Central and Eastern Europe.[1][2][3]
Description

Frankists believed in Sabbatai Zevi, one of the most famous of all self-proclaimed messiahs in Jewish history. He believed in transgressing Jewish commandments in order to elevate the "divine sparks" constrained by them, and he himself actually performed actions that violated traditional Jewish prohibitions, such as eating foods forbidden by kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws, practicing ritual incest,[4] and celebrating prescribed fast days as feast days.[5] He eventually opted to convert to Islam rather than face execution for claiming to be the messiah. Especially after Zevi's death, a number of branches of Sabbateanism evolved that disagreed among themselves over which aspects of traditional Judaism should be preserved and which should be discarded.[6]

Jacob Frank claimed to be a reincarnation of Sabbatai Zevi and followed and extended his practice of transgression. Father-daughter incest was commonly practised by his followers,[7] and orgies featured prominently in ritual.[2][3][8] Frank claimed that "all laws and teachings will fall",[9] and following antinomianism, asserted that the most important obligation of mankind was the transgression of every boundary.[8]