Jonathan Eybeschutz

Jonathan Eybeschutz
Born	1690 Kraków
Died	1764 Altona
Occupation	Rabbi
Religious beliefs	Orthodox Judaism

Jonathan Eybeschutz (Kraków 1690 - Altona 1764), was a Talmudist, Halachist, Kabbalist, holding positions as Dayan of Prague, and later as Rabbi of the "Three Communities": Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbek. With Jacob Emden, he is well known as a protagonist in the Emden-Eybeschutz Controversy.

Biography

Eybeschutz's father was the rabbi in Ivančice (German: Eibenschütz, sometimes Eibeschutz), Moravia. Eybeschutz was a child prodigy in Talmud; on his father's death, he studied in the yeshiva of Meir Eisenstadt in Prostějov (Prossnitz), and then later in Holešov (Holleschau). He also lived in Vienna for a short time. He married Elkele Spira, daughter of Rabbi Isaac Spira, and they lived in Hamburg for two years with Mordecai ha-Kohen, Elkele's maternal grandfather.

Eybeschutz settled in Prague in 1715 and became head of the yeshivah and a famous preacher. The people of Prague held Eybeschutz in high esteem and he was considered second there only to Dayan David Oppenheim. In Prague, Eybeschutz received permission to print the Talmud - but with the omission of all passages contradicting the principles of Christianity in consultation with Dayan David Oppenheim. Legends and rumors seeking to discredit the event said that he did this without the consultation of the Rabbis of Prague, and they revoked the printing license.

Already in Prague 1724, he was suspected of being a Sabbatian. He even got up on Yom Kippur to denounce the Sabbatian movement, but he remained suspected.^[1] Therefore, In 1736, Eybeschutz was only appointed dayan of Prague and not chief rabbi. He became rabbi of Metz in 1741. In 1750, he was elected rabbi of the "Three Communities:" Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbek.

He was "an acknowledged genius" in at least three separate areas of Jewish religious creativity: Talmud and Jewish law (halakhah); homiletics (derush) and popular preaching; and Kabbalah. "He was a man of erudition, but he owed his fame chiefly to his personality. Few men of the period so profoundly impressed their mark on Jewish life." [1]

Sabbatian Controversy

Eybeschutz again became suspected of harboring secret Sabbatian beliefs because of a dispute that arose concerning the amulets which he was suspected of issuing. It was alleged that these amulets recognized the Messianic claims of Sabbatai Zevi.Once the controversy started then Emden found serious connections between the Kabbalistic and homiletic writings of Eybeschutz with those of the known Sabbatian Judah Leib Prossnitz, whom Eybeschutz knew from his days in Prossnitz.^[2] Rabbi Jacob Emden accused him of heresy; see The Emden-Eybeschutz Controversy. The majority of the rabbis in Poland, Moravia, and Bohemia, as well as the leaders of the Three Communities supported Eybeschutz: the accusation was "utterly incredible" - in 1725, Eybeschutz was among the Prague rabbis who excommunicated the Sabbatean sect. Others suggest that the Rabbis issued this ruling because they feared the repercussions if their leading figure, Eybeschutz, was found to be a Sabbatean. Recent evidence has produced the actual amulets and their connection to Sabbatean amulets.^[3]

In 1752, the controversy between Emden and Eybeschutz raged. In Dec of that year the Hamburg govt banned any more discussion of the amulets and the Senate of Hamburg suspended Eybeschutz , and many members of that congregation demanded that he should submit his case to rabbinical authorities. At this point he was defended by Carl Anton (Moses Gershon ha-Kohen)a convert to Christianity, but a former disciple of Eybeschütz. "Kurze Nachricht von dem Falschen Messias Sabbathai Zebhi," etc. (Wolfenbüttel, 1752).

The controversy was a momentous incident in Jewish history of the period — involving both Yechezkel Landau and the Vilna Gaon — and may be credited with having crushed the lingering belief in Sabbatai current even in some Orthodox circles. Sid Leiman claims that the mentioned great Rabbis exonerated Eybeschutz from Sabbatianism only in order that the controversy should die down.^[4]

In 1760 the quarrel broke out once more when some Shabbatean elements were discovered among the students of Eybeschutz' yeshivah. At the same time his younger son, Wolf Jonas Eybeschutz, presented himself as a Shabbatean prophet, and was close to several Frankists, with the result that the yeshivah was closed.^[5] Jonathan Eybeschutz's grandson became Baron Thomas von Schoenfeld, an apostate Jew who inherited his grandfather's collection of Sabbatian kabbalistic works. At first he had been an active adherent of the Sabbatian movement, then he founded a Masonic lodge called the Asiatische Bruder which was one of the four illuminati lodges in Vienna. After his uncle's death on August 10, 1791, he was offered the leadership of the Franklist movement which he refused. According to Gershom Scholem, the ideology of the Asiatic Brethren mixed Kabbalistic and Sabbatean ideas jumbled together with Christian theosophic doctrines. ^[6]

Works

Thirty of his works in the area of Halakha (Jewish law) have been published. In addition, several of his works on homiletics, teaching methodology, and Kabbalah are currently in print. It is interesting to note that only one of his works was published in his lifetime. The posthumous printing of so many of his works is testimony to his influence on his contemporaries through his oral teachings and his personality. It is claimed that he also published numerous Sabbatean works anonymously.

• Homiletics (derush) and popular preaching:^{[citation needed]}:
  • Ya'arot Devash a frequently quoted collection of the sermons of Rabbi Eybeschutz.
  • Tiferet Yehonatan on the weekly Torah portion
  • Taryag Mitzvot, the 613 commandments in rimed acrostics.
  • Notes on the Passover Haggadah, as well as Perush al Piska Had Gadya on the poem Had Gadya

• On Talmud and halakhah:^{[citation needed]}:
  • Novellae to Shulchan Aruch: Urim ve-Tummim on Choshen Mishpat; Kereti u-Peleti on Yoreh De'ah; Sar ha-Alef on Orach Chayim.
  • Notes on Maimonides' Mishneh Torah: Binah la-Ittim and Chiddushim al Hilkot Yom Tov both dealing with the holy days, and both published by his students, based on notes taken from his lectures; Bene Ahuvah on the matrimonial laws.
  • Tiferet Yisrael, notes on the rabbinical laws of niddah (regarding menstruation), with additions by the editor, his grandson Israel.

• On Kabbalah:^{[citation needed]}:
  • Shem Olam, a collection of letters on the Kabbalah

• On Sabbatianism ^[7]
  • Va'avo Hayom el HaAyin, an intensely involved and original text on Sabbatianism.

Rabbi Eybeschutz also wrote Luchoth Habrith (Tablets of Testimony), in which he describes the whole dispute and attempts to refute the charges against him. It includes also the letters of recommendation which he had received from leading rabbis who came to his defense.

References

External links

• Eybeschütz, Jonathan, jewishencyclopedia.com
• Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschutz, chabad.org
• Eybeschutz, Jonathan (1690-1764), 1911 Encyclopedia
• Jonathan Eibeschutz, jewishvirtuallibrary.org
• detailed Hebrew article by Hayyim Rabinovitz in Sinai 1964

Bibliography

• Moshe Perlmutter, R.Yehonatan Aibeshits ve-yahaso el ha-Shabtaut : hakirot hadashot 'al yesod ketav ha-yad shel s.va-avo ha-yom el ha-'ayin (Tel Aviv:1947 )
• Carl Anton, Period documents concerning the Emden/Eibeschuetz controversy. (Reprint 1992)
• Elisha Carlebach, The pursuit of heresy : Rabbi Moses Hagiz and the Sabbatian controversies (Columbia 1990)
• Gershom Scholem, Meḥḳere Shabtaʼut (1991)
• Sid Leiman/Simon Schwarzfuchs, New Evidence on the Emden-Eibeschiitz Controversy. The Amulets from Metz, Revue des Etudes Juives 165 (2006),
• Sid Leiman, "When a Rabbi Is Accused of Heresy: R. Ezekiel Landau's Attitude toward R. Jonathan Eibeschuetz in the Emden- Eibeschuetz Controversy in FROM ANCIENT ISRAEL TO MODERN JUDAISM Edited by Jacob Neusner
• Leiman, Sid (Shnayer) When a rabbi is accused of heresy : the stance of the Gaon of Vilna in the Emden-Eibeschuetz controversy in Me’ah She’arim (2001) 251-263
• Leiman, Sid (Shnayer) Z. When a rabbi is accused of heresy : the stance of Rabbi Jacob Joshua Falk in the Emden-Eibeschuetz controversy. Rabbinic Culture and Its Critics (2008) 435-456
• Moshe Carmilly-Weinberger, Wolf Jonas Eybeschütz - an "Enlightened" Sabbatean in Transylvania Studia Judaica, 6 (1997) 7-26
• Yehuda Liebes “A Messianic Treatise by R. Wolf the son of R. Jonathan Eibeschutz.” Qiryat Sefer 57 (1982/2)148-178.