{"id":48198,"date":"2019-01-27T00:09:11","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T22:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=48198"},"modified":"2022-08-21T12:27:15","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T09:27:15","slug":"redemption-through-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/redemption-through-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"Redemption Through Sin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 1936, at a time of gathering storm clouds in both Gershom Scholem\u2019s native Berlin and his adopted Jerusalem, the magus-like scholar of the kabbalah published an extraordinary article entitled \u201cRedemption through Sin,\u201d not translated into English until 1970. This piece, which eventually matured into the full length monograph Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah<\/em>, laid out a stark and explosive thesis; the Frankist movement, a 19<\/span>th<\/span> century Jewish heresy in eastern Europe which proposed a violation of all religious norms and encouraged transgression as a vehicle to holiness, in fact emerged from the conversion and unmasking of Sabbatai Sevi, the purported messiah two centuries before who was summoned to Istanbul and chose Islam over sacrificing his life. True believers developed a theology of salvation whereby Sevi\u2019s conversion was an eschatological necessity, a plumbing of the depths to reach the heights. It was through violation that true holiness might be found, and taboo was a kind of shrouded Torah. At its most extreme, Frankists plunged themselves into orgies. The greater the descent, the more shimmering the ascent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s chapter features an incident of communal breakdown, as Balak achieves through women what Balaam could not with words. Like the episodes of Korach and the Golden Calf, it is a captivating portrayal of communal consciousness and the ability of a crowd to lose its bearings and find its id. Such bacchanals would have been known to the ancient world, and not always with a negative valence. The releasing of tension, the joy of rules suspended and conventions held in abeyance would have had a great appeal in hierarchical societies structured with ritual. Here, however, the hero is not the one who starts the fun, but the one who starkly ends it. <\/span><\/p>\n

The valorization of Pinchas is not just the celebration of a zealot, but a definitive rejection of the route of redemption through the field of sin. Extremism in defense of norms is no vice, we are told; it pierces to the heart of Zimri, and the matter. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Shabbatai Tzvi enthroned – \u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Shabbatai2.jpg<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":48199,"id":48199,"title":"N\u05d5um25-Shabbatai","filename":"N\u05d5um25-Shabbatai.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/N\u05d5um25-Shabbatai.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/redemption-through-sin\/n%d7%95um25-shabbatai\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"n%d7%95um25-shabbatai","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":48198,"date":"2019-01-26 22:08:57","modified":"2019-01-26 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