Kol Shmu’ah [excommunication of Moses Meir of Zolkiew]

(SABBATIANA)

(Frankfurt a/ Main?)

1725

In the year 1725, rabbinic authorities in Central Europe were alarmed to discover that the Sabbatian “virus” they believed long dormant was once again spreading throughout the Jewish communities - even though Shabbetai Zevi, the pseudo-messiah of Izmir, had been dead for half a century. In that year, the Jews of Frankfurt intercepted on the person of Moses Meir of Zolkiew, a Sabbatian emissary, mystical writings imbued with the belief in Shabbetai Zevi as Messiah. The rabbi of Frankfurt, R. Jacob Cohen Poppers, promptly issued a cherem, or ban of excommunication, against Moses Meir in particular and the Sabbatian underground of believers in general. See E. Carlebach, The Pursuit of Heresy (1990), pp. 176-8 APPARANTLY, THE ONLY KNOWN COPY. NOT LISTED IN VINOGRAD, NOT FOUND IN THE JNUL