Lema’an Da’ath Kol Adath Bnei Yisrael

(EYBESCHEUTZ, JONATHAN)

n.p.

Amsterdam

1753

FIRST EDITION

Vinograd, Amsterdam 1672; Mehlman 1716

The issue at the center of the documents collected in this pamphlet is the accusation of Jonathan Eybescheutz’s involvement with Sabbatianism, in particular, the mysterious Sabbatian treatise Ve’avo Ha’yom El Ha’ayin alleged to be the work of Eybescheutz. The presence of R. Jonathan in the Sabbatian camp would mean the anti-Sabbatian polemicists could no longer portray Sabbatianism as the spiritual fare of the ignorant and unlearned. His presence would confer a legitimacy to an ideology abhorred and persecuted in the name of Torah. For this reason, the major players in the campaign against the spread of heretical Sabbatianism, chiefly, R. Moses Hagiz, did not hesitate to speak out against Eybeschuetz and request others follow suit in denouncing him. The documents collected here include a letter from Moses Hagiz to Aryeh Leib of Amsterdam then serving as Av Beith Din of Reisha, dated 26th Cheshvan 5486 (November 2nd, 1726) against Jonathan Eybescheutz. “I have already notified you of...one R. Jonathan Eybescheutz... who [has] misled Israel with [his] sinful talk as I have elaborated upon thrice in previous letters.” A polemic of the Beth Din of Altona against Sabbatian emissary Moses Meir of Zolkiew who was accused of trafficking with the Sabbatian manuscripts of R. Jonathan Eybescheutz to proselytize scholars to join the sectarian faith. Excerpted testimonies from the “Geviath Eiduth” (Gathering Testimony) of the Beth Din at Mannheim against suspected Sabbatians, including Jonathan Eybescheutz. On the Sabbatian Campaign in Central Europe, see E. Carlebach, The Pursuit of Heresy (1990) pp.172-190