The anti-rabbinical Frankist sect has abandoned Judaism …
Years: 1757 - 1757
The anti-rabbinical Frankist sect has abandoned Judaism for a “higher” Torah based on the Zohar (which is the most important work in the Kabbala, the Jewish mystical movement).
Hence, its members also call themselves Zoharists.
As a result of the disclosures at Satanov of Frankism’s practices, including orgiastic, sexually promiscuous rites, the congress of rabbis in Brody proclaims a universal Cherem (excommunication) against all "impenitent heretics", and makes it obligatory upon every pious Jew to seek them out and expose them.
The rabbis also demand that the Church burn the Frankists at the stake as heretics (as demonstrated in the recent work of Pawel Maciejko.)
The Sabbateans inform Dembowski, the Catholic Bishop of Kamenetz-Podolsk, that they reject the Talmud and recognize only the sacred book of Kabbalah, the Zohar, which does not contradict the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
They state that they regard the Messiah-Deliverer as one of the embodiments of the three divinities.
The bishop takes the "Anti-Talmudists", or "Zoharists", under his protection and in 1757 arranges a religious disputation between them and the rabbis.
The Anti-Talmudists present their theses, to which the rabbis give a very lukewarm and unwilling reply lest they offend the Church dignitaries who are present, who see in the Frankists a means of converting the Jews.
The Frankists claim that the Talmud, the rabbinical compendium of law and commentary, should be discarded as blasphemous.
They are also partly responsible for the revival of the canard that the Jews use Christian blood for Passover rituals.
To preserve his following, Frank publicly commits his supporters to mass baptism.
The bishop decides that the Talmudists have been vanquished, and orders them to pay a fine to their opponents.
He also orders the burning of all copies of the Talmud in the bishopric of Podolia, a sentence that is carried into effect in the public streets in 1757.
