Implicit Catholic Literary Icons in the teachings and stories of rebbe nachman of breslov: Literature Review
setting the scene
“There are implicit Catholic literary icons of Eucharistic, Marian and Josephine insights in the teachings and stories of Rebbe Nachman which suggest he was a crypto-Catholic or Frankist”, is the thesis statement of my research proposal. There are two main areas which this literature review needs to cover. Firstly, literature on Sabbateanism and Frankism in order to set this discussion in its appropriate religious and cultural context. Secondly the literature on the teachings of the Hasidic Rebbe, Nachman Horodenker of Breslov, which will be used to demonstrate the implicit Catholic content in his teachings and stories. For the purposes of this literature review I will focus on that literature which has a direct focus and bearing on the proposed research. This literature review cannot discuss in any detail questions of the understandings of the roles of Judaism and Catholicism in the light of Nostra Aetate and the development of understanding over the last 50 years. However these questions are discussed well in Mark Kinzer’s Searching Her Own Mystery: Nostra Aetate, the Jewish People, and the Identity of the Church in which he proposes a bilateral ecclesiology of Jews and Gentiles and by Elizabeth Groppe in Revisiting Vatican II’s Theology of the People of God after Forty-Five Years of Catholic-Jewish Dialogue..
Multi-Layered Bricolage
The Jewish mystical sources as well as Jacob Frank and Rebbe Nachman use a literary approach that can be described as a form of literary and iconic bricolage and narratology. [1]Likutey could be a Hebrew version of bricolage which means gleanings or collecting. This bricolage approach has diverse sources drawing on the modern origins of this term in Claude Levi Strauss and Jacques Deridda and as adapted by Liesbeth Korthals Altes with a Levinasian ethical focus in A Theory of Ethical Reading (2006). This approach allows for a reading and analysis of texts in a multi-layered, multi-dimensional manner which is drawn from the Jewish and Catholic ideas of the four senses of Scripture.[2] These are conceptual word pictures or literary icons as discussed by Elena Volkova and ValeriiLepakhin in the context of Eastern Christian iconology.[3][4] I am not just proposing a multi-layered understanding or analysis of the teachings of Rebbe Nachman but that he intended to imbue his teachings with this multi-layered meaning. He saw this as a way to get “medicine” to his Jewish flock in a way they could digest it, in order to awaken their souls.[5][6]
The Great Scholem and the wolf of saturn
Any study that deals with Jewish Mysticism needs to start with Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) the father of the modern academic study of Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism).[7] He left Germany for Israel in 1923 and became the first Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Hebrew University.[8] He wrote about Sabbateanism and Frankism as a Kabbalistic movement which went outside the traditional Jewish fold.Scholem perceived Kabbalah as a Jewish version of Gnosticism that had served its historical purpose but was no longer relevant in the modern world.[9][10] Gnosticism was basically a spirituality that proposed that there was two Gods - a greater distant and good God and a lesser evil god who created the world and all material matter. It saw the spirit as good and the body as evil. It’s “Christian” version would hold that both the Bible and the Jews were Satan’s children and that Jesus only assumed the appearance of a man. An elite held the true gnosis (knowledge). The early Christian writers considered it a heresy that was founded by Simon Magus the Samaritan magician mentioned in the New Testament who would later oppose St Peter in Rome according to other ancient Christian writings. Its use of Jewish terminology and concepts as well as its anti-Jewish nature would seem to demonstrate its Samaritan origin mixed with Persian and eastern dualism. The Old Testament describes the Samaritans as an eastern people who the Assyrians settled in former Israel who took on many Israelite beliefs.
Scholem wrote a ground breaking book on Shabtai Zvi and the Sabbatean movement that was first published in 1973.[11]The followers of this messianic figure called him Sabbatai Tzvi (the Sabbath Deer) and his enemies Shabtai Zvi (The Wolf of Saturn). Rebbe Nachman will in the Likutey Moharan allude to him under the name of Shabtai (Saturn) the Black Vessel [shabtai patya ecama] and to Eva Frank the daughter of Jacob Frank as the evil Handmaid of Shabtai and Lilith (the demonic wife of Adam) based on the concept of Shabtai in the Zohar (See Zohar ki Tetze and Zohar Pinchas). The group of Frankists who followed Eva Frank returned to Sabbatean belief when she allied her group with a group of Sabbateans in Prague. Scholem perceived Sabbateanism and Frankism as two phases of one movement rather than two distinct movements that shared a common source.[12]Many academics in other fields did not questioned these assumptions of Scholem and it is only in recent decades that certain academics who in the main were his students have started to question and challenge some of these assumptions.
Sabbateans and the Zoharists:Different or the Same?
Sabbateanism was a Jewish messianic movement of the 17thcentury which followed the teachings of the so-called false Messiah Shabtai Zvi (Sabbatai Tzvi) who proposed a mystical, messianic but antinomian approach to Judaism which led to immoral sexual practices among other breaking of the laws of the Torah. Jacob Frank came from a Sabbatean family background and at first was a leader among them and led his first followers to convert to Islam like Shabtai Zvi himself. However he and his later followers distanced themselves from Sabbateanism and started to focus on the mysticism of the Zohar and were known as the Zoharists. Through this process many of these Frankists or Zoharists were to openly be baptised and become Catholics beginning in 1760 in Poland where it is estimated around 25,000 Jews became Catholic Frankists and many more thousands in other European countries. The estimated figure is usually given as 60,000 European Jews. These baptised Frankists in the Catholic Church which split into two groups-those who can be called Papal Frankists and those who reembraced Sabbateanism as Sabbatean Frankists. Besides these there were those Frankists who did not get baptised (or only secretly) who remained in the Rabbinic Jewish communities such as Rebbe Nachman. A number of Jews from Hasidic backgrounds more quietly entered the Catholic Church after 1760. Many of the Frankist families maintained this dual identity of being Catholics and Jews until the late 19th century.[13]
Challenging the Master
A number of scholars of Jewish Mysticism have challenged Scholem in regards to equating Kabbalah or Jewish mysticism with Gnosticism. This academic challenge to Scholem ideas began with his student and successor at the Hebrew University, Moshe Idel.[14]Idel’s book Kabbalah: New Perspectives (1988) presented these differences with Scholem.[15]Idel challenged his purely historicist method of evaluating Kabbalah. He questioned Scholem’s belief that Kabbalah was a Jewish form of Gnosticism. Idel perceived it as a development from within authentic Judaism. He believed that Kabbalah is a spiritual practice rather than a mythological system. He challenged Scholem’s idea that the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria influenced Shabtai Zvi and the Sabbatean movement. Idel also challenged Scholem ideas that Halakhic Judaism was in conflict with Kabbalistic Judaism.[16]In Saturn’s Jews: On the Witches Sabbat and Sabbateanism (2011) he proposes that Sabbateanism drew on pre-Lurianic and medieval Kabbalah mixed with astrology, magic, Muslim astrology and European learning not Lurianic kabbalah.[17]Isaac Luria is also known as Ari (1534-1572). He settled in Safed in Ottoman Palestine and gathered a select group of disciples whom he taught his understanding of Jewish mysticism. His form of understanding Kabbalah is known as Lurianic Kabbalah.
In regards to Sabbateanism there are others who situate it in a broader field such as Meir Benayahu who has brought to light new documents and Jacob Barnai and Elisheva Carlebach who have discussed Sabbateanism’s impact on the Jewish communities. There is also Popkin and Heyd who have discussed the Sabbatean’s influence on European ideas and thought, Matt Goldish who in his 2004 book The Sabbatean Prophets situates the Sabbatean movement in the broader social and political history of the time and later Pawel Maciejko will do this in regards to the Frankist movement. Stephen Sharot, Sture Ahlberg, and W.W. Meissner discusses the sociological and anthropological dimensions of Sabbateanism and Jane Hathaway the political.[18]
Another student of Scholem from the Hebrew University was Joseph Dan a historian of Jewish Mysticism. He has among many books on Jewish mysticism written four volumes on the history of Jewish Mysticism.[19]Other students of the teachings of Scholem that are important to mention are Elliot Wolfson and Avraham Elqayam. We are seeing in many of these students of Scholem a move towards a new paradigm in which the academic is not one who stands outside but is also a practitioner of the mystical life.
Frank: Charlatan or Prophet?
There is a limited academic literature by scholars on Jacob Frank and Frankism until the writing of The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755-1816 by Pawel Maciejko. Maciejko holds to the view of Frank being an insincere Jewish convert to Catholicism. He sees Frank through the prism of his enemies but in a more nuanced manner than previous writers. His study is also important in demonstrating that the Frankist movement is separate from the Sabbatean movement and a movement in its own right. While Maciejko perceives Frank as a Charlatan he seems to separate that from the sincerity of his followers.[20].Harris Lenowitz is also very important to mention for his translation of the Words of the Lord- Jacob Frank which was a collection of the sayings of Jacob Frank. [21][22] These saying were edited by the group of Prague Sabbateans who joined up with Jacob Frank’s daughter Eva Frank. This combined group made a cult of Eva and many of those involved would embrace masonic and occultic teachings and groups. The original Frankists under Jacob Franks carried icons of Our Lady of Czestochowa which in this Sabbatean Frankist group were replaced with icons of Eva Frank. Thus the Words of the Lord on analysis seem to present two Jacob Franks- one an arrogant, brash, antinomian Sabbatean Frank and the other a humble, Marian devoted Torah observant Frank. It would seem the Sabbatean Frankists have added their own Sabbatean conceptions to the original sayings and stories of Frank.[23]
Rebbe Nachman and the Hasidim
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810) was the great grandson of the Baal Shem Tov the founder of modern Hasidic Judaism in the 17th century. The Hasidic movement was a kind of charismatic movement among Jews which stressed simplicity, prayer and joy in the worship of God and a practical application into daily life of the Jewish mystical principles of Kabbalah. This movement divided into different dynasties that followed a spiritual leader called a Tzaddik or Rebbe. Breslov was different to other groups as they only acknowledged Rebbe Nachman as their Rebbe or Tzaddik and they never appointed a living successor as Rebbe. The other Hasidim called them Dead Hasidim because the Breslovers followed a dead Rebbe. The Chabad movement had seven Rebbes but after the death of the seventh Rebbe they chose not to appoint another one and are now considered to be Dead Hasidim like the Breslovers.
While Shabtai Zvi and the Sabbatean movement in the 17th century had taken Kabbalah into a perverse, intellectual and antinomian direction the Baal Shem Tov and his Hasidic movement embraced the Kabbalah and applied its mystical teachings in practical spiritual ways for the ordinary Jew within the bounds of the Torah. It was Martin Buber who first introduced Academia to the teachings of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov and Rebbe Nachman of Breslov in his books Tales of the Hasidim andTales of Rabbi Nachman.[24][25]The Litkutey Moharan is a collection of the teachings of Rebbe Nachman by his chief disciple Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov. It has been translated into English from the Hebrew version in fifteen volumes by Moshe Mykoff.[26]His tales have been translated into English by the famous Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan whose books are also essential for an understanding of Jewish mysticism in general and Rebbe Nachman in particular. [27][28]The Kabbalah is a much broader field than the Zohar however the Zohar is central in understanding the Frankists who were also known as the Zoharists. Sabbateanism was focused on many elements of medieval Kabbalah whereas Frankism began as a movement within Sabbateanism that broke with it and focused on a renewed study of the Zohar. Daniel Matt’s translation of the Zohar has many helpful footnotes for the English reader. One important recent book that gives a good understanding of the Zohar is Melila Hellner-Eshed’s A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar. In order to understand the teachings and stories of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov one needs to have a good working knowledge of the mysticism of the Zohar.
The Rebbe’s Secrets
Zvi Mark, another student of Scholem from the Hebrew University, is very important in regards to the teachings of Rebbe Nachman and its hidden Frankist sources. Zvi Mark has translated Rebbe Nachman’s Scroll of the Secrets.[29]He has also published other stories of Rebbe Nachman’s more secretive teachings and stories such as the Story of the Bread and the Story of the Armour.[30]Mark has a comprehensive understanding of the spirituality of Rebbe Nachman as demonstrated in his Mysticism and Madness: the Religious Thought of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (2009).[31]Another scholar that discusses the intertextuality of Rebbe Nachman’s tales is Marianne Schleicher in Intertextuality in the Tales of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav: a Close Reading of Sippurey Ma'asiyot (2007).[32][33]
shining a Christian light on the Zohar and the Rebbe
Yehuda Liebes a Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Hebrew University was another student of Scholem.[34][35]Liebes challenged some of the ideas of Scholem and like Idel perceived Kabbalah as coming from within Judaism. He has written on the mythological and messianic ideas in Jewish mysticism and has demonstrated that the Zohar has many Christian concepts.[36]As Liebes believed the Zohar was compiled in the 13th century he perceived these Christian influences came from the medieval period.[37] However, I hold that these Christian influences came from the early centuries of the Christian era. I cannot discuss this here in detail but I believe the heart of the Zohar comes from the discussions of early groups of Judeo-Christians who brought these teachings into Judaism when they re-assimilated back into the Rabbinic Judaism adapting the identity of the Zohar Rabbis or Teachers with 2ndcentury Rabbinic Rabbis.
Liebes also writes about the Sabbatean and Frankist influences on Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. He discusses the idea of Rebbe Nachman seeking to repair (tikkun) the wounds that the Sabbatean heresy has caused in Judaism. His book Studies in Jewish Myth and Messianism (2012)discusses Rebbe Nachman and his universal reparation and his connections with Frankism.[38]The mystery of Rebbe Nachman’s universal reparation (ha-tikkun ha-kelali) and his mysterious journeys which Liebes connects to them is at the heart of the Breslov secret.[39]Most of Liebes works have not been translated into English as he is opposed to writing about Jewish mysticism in any other language than Hebrew.
The following quote from Liebes contains the essence of my research proposal: "I shall briefly remark on the several other parallels, beginning with those between R. Nahman and Jacob Frank, who, I believe, had a profound influence on R. Nahman. During his youth, in the years of his Hitbodedut...R Nahman may have come across Frankists who had remained Jews, of whom there were many in Podolia."[40]Israeli scholars have written about the Catholic baptism and life of Rav Moshe ben Zalman a son of the first Rebbe of Lubavitch (Chabad) but seem to ignore the Frankist presence and influence among the Jews at this time.[41] A number of Frankist and Hasidic families left their communities and moved to other countries such Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Spain and secretly got baptised and took non-Jewish names. Aurebach or Orbach became O’Brien, Broide became Brody or Brady, Zlavsky became Lavin, Kinnor became Connor or O’Connor, Mayer or Meyer became Maher, Kassin became Kissane or Cashman, and so forth. Jacob Frank had encouraged his followers to become farmers, soldiers, priests, nuns, monks as well as publicans (innkeepers and Brewers) and tradesmen. A number of famous Polish Frankists were to be found in the alcohol trade. In Warsaw itself the Frankist took over the breweries. Some of these families of Warsaw Frankists were the Jasinski, Brzezinski, Naimski, Matuszewski, Kaplinski, Wolowski, Piasecki, Krysinski, Zielinski, Piotrowski, Szymanowski and Zawadzki among others.[42]Another important book of Liebes that has been translated into English is his Studies in Zohar (2012) which also challenges past assumptions.[43]
The Rebbe’s hidden purpose
For the purposes of my research proposal Zvi Mark and Yehuda Liebes writings in regard to the Christian and Frankist sources are foundational. However I had already been proposing this crypto- Christian and Frankist context to Rebbe Nachman’s life and writings before reading Mark or Liebes. [44]I did this via blog articles beginning around 2005. I had come to these conclusion through an intense study of Jewish mystical sources such as the Zohar, and the Bahir, as well as the reading of the Likutey Moharan and Tales of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov and Harris Lenowitz’s translation of the teachings of Jacob Frank as well as the Catholic mystics. I am as far as I know the first person to advocate for a more nuanced reading and understanding of Jacob Frank and Frankists from the perspective of sincere Catholic converts who were doing reparation for their part in the moral and sexual perversion of their families’ participation in Sabbateanism. While writers have proposed that Rebbe Nachman was a secret Frankist in a negative light I am the first as far as I know to demonstrate that Rebbe Nachman was a closet Frankist who was crypto Catholic rather than crypto-Sabbatean.[45][46]This demonstrates that Rebbe Nachman is faithful to Torah and mitzvoth and is not antinomian. While being a secret believer in Yeshua as the Messiah he has no desire to lose his Jewish identity, customs or vocation or to move ahead of what his own Jewish people are able to understand and accept at that stage. He uses his teaching to effect a Messianic reparation and purification for past sins in order to prepare them for a future revelation of that Messiah. He has observed the failure of the Frankists to preserve their Jewish cultural and religious heritage openly in the Church and thus like his great-grandfather the Baal Shem Tov choses the crypto path in order to continue serving the people of Israel (Am Yisrael).
[1] Liesbeth Korthals Altes. “A Theory of Ethical Reading” Theology and Literature: Rethinking Reader Responsibility ; (Gordonsville VA, USA: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 17.
[2] Albert Van der Heide, "PARDES: Methodological Reflections on the Theory of the Four Senses."Journal (The) of Jewish Studies London 34, no. 2 (1983): 147-159.
[3] Elena Volkova, “Literature as Icon: Introduction”, Literature & Theology, Vol. 20 #1 (UK: Oxford University Press, 2006), 1-6.
[4] Valerii Lepakhin. “Basic Types of Correlation Between Text and Icon, between Verbal and Visual Icons” Literature & Theology, Vol. 20 #1 (UK: Oxford University Press, 2006), 20.
[5] Chanani Haran Smith. Tuning the Soul; Music as a Spiritual Process in the Teachings of Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav IJS Studies in Judaica Volume 10 Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2009.
[6] Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum. The Wings of the Sun: Traditional Jewish Healing in Theory and Practice, Jerusalem: Azamra Institute, 1995.
[7]Daniel Abrams. "Defining Modern Academic Scholarship: Gershom Scholem and the Establishment of a New (?) Discipline."The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 9, no. 2 (2000): 267.
[8] Yosef Dan, “Mysticism and Mystery of Gershom Scholem” in Haaretz Apr 02, 2002
[9]Gershom Gerhard Scholem. Origins of the Kabbalah. (USA: Princeton University Press, 1991),3-49.
[10]Boaz Huss, Boaz and Joel A. Linsider. "Ask No Questions: Gershom Scholem and the Study of Contemporary Jewish Mysticism."Modern Judaism 25, no. 2 (2005): 141-158.
[11]Gershom Scholem. Sabbatai Ṣevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626–1676. Vol. 208. (Cambridge, Mass: Princeton University Press, 2016), 1-914.
[12]Gershom Scholem. "Frank, Jacob, and the Frankists."Encyclopaedia Judaica 7 (1971): 182-192.
[13]Pawel Maciejko. The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755-1816. (USA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 1-264 .
[14]Moshe Idel (b.1947) a Romanian born Israeli.
[15] Idel, Moshe. Kabbalah: New Perspectives. (USA: Yale University Press, 1990),1-250.
[16] Micha Odenheimer “Challenging the Master: Moshe Idel's critique of Gershom Scholem”. My Jewish Learning <https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/challenging-the-master>
[17]Moshe Idel. Saturn's Jews: On the Witches' Sabbat and Sabbateanism. (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011), 1-99.
[18] Matt Goldish. The Sabbatean Prophets. Cambridge, (Mass: Harvard University Press, 2009), x.
[19]Joseph Dan. Jewish Mysticism: The Middle Ages. Vol. 2. New Jersey: Jason Aronson inc., 1998.
[20] Maciejko. The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755-1816, 1-264 .
[21]Harris Lenowitz. The Collection of the Words of the Lord USA: University of Utah, 2004.
[22]“The Words of the Lord” is also translated as “The Words of the Master” in English from the Polish.
[23]Harris Lenowitz. "The Charlatan at the Gottes Haus in Offenbach." In Millenarianism and Messianism in Early Modern European Culture, pp. 189-202. Springer, Dordrecht, 2001.
[24] Martin Buber. Tales of the Hasidim, New York: Schocken Books, 1947.
[25] Martin Buber. Tales of Rabbi Nachman, New Jersey: Humanities Press International, 1988.
[26] Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. Mykoff, Moshe (trans). Likutey Moharan Vol 1-15, Jerusalem/New York: Breslov Research Institute, 1995-2012.
[27]Aryeh Kaplan. The Lost Princess and Other Kabbalistic Tales of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Jerusalem/New York: Breslov Research Institute, 2005.
[28] Aryeh Kaplan. The Seven Beggars & Other Kabbalistic Tales of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov , Jerusalem/New York: Breslov Research Institute, 2005.
[29]Zvi Mark and Naftali Moses. The Scroll of Secrets: the Hidden Messianic Vision of R. Nachman of Breslav. (USA: Academic Studies Pr, 2010), 1-297.
[30]Zvi Mark. The Revealed and Hidden Writings of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav: His Worlds of Revelation and Rectification. (Jerusalem: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015), 1-360.
[31]Zvi Mark. Mysticism and Madness: the Religious Thought of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. (London& New York: Continuum, 2009), 1-299.
[32] Marianne Schleicher. Intertextuality in the Tales of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav: a Close Reading of Sippurey Ma'asiyot. Boston: Brill, 2007.
[33]Sippurey Ma'asiyot is the Hebrew name for the collection of the tales or fairy stories of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.
[34] Yehuda Liebes who was born in Jerusalem in 1947.
[35]Yarden Skop “Kabbala Expert Yehuda Liebes Wins Israel Prize in Jewish Thought” HaaretzFeb 06, 2017
[36]Yehuda Liebes. "Christian Influences in the Zohar."Immanuel. A Semi-Annual Bulletin of Religious Thought and Research in Israel Jérusalem17 (1983): 43-67.
[37]Yehuda Liebes. "Christian Influences in the Zohar.", 43-67.
[38]Yehuda Liebes. Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 1-150.
[39]Liebes, Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism, 115-150.
[40]Liebes, Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism, 148.
[41] See: Assaf, David. Untold Tales of the Hasidim: Crisis & Discontent in the History of Hasidism. USA: University Press of New England, 2010.
[42] Ekaterina Emeliantseva, “The House on the Corner: Frankists and Other Warsovians in the Struggle for Spatial Benefits in Late 18th Century Warsaw (1789-92” in Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė and Larisa Lempertienė (editors).Jewish Space in Central and Eastern Europe: Day to Day History (UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing,2007), 101.
[43]Liebes. Studies in the Zohar. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 1-267.
[44] Athol Bloomer. “Jacob Frank and the Zoharist Catholic Khasidim: A Hebrew Catholic Perspective” A Catholic Jew Pontificates September 13, 2006 < https://aronbengilad.blogspot.com/2006/09/khasidic-catholics.html>
[45] Athol Boomer. “Likutey Moharan 29:11 and Jacob Frank” A Catholic Jew Pontificates May 22, 2009 .
[46] There are many books and articles on Rebbe Nachman of Breslov and his spirituality that provide background and context for this research proposal which are too numerous to discuss in this literature review but some of them are included in the bibliography.