That summer, as Jacob Frank flits from town to town with his havurah, teaching and inspiring so many good and evil thoughts, the biggest crowds come here, to Korolówka, to see his grandmother.
Israel’s yard is in a state of disarray. Horses are tied to the fence, it smells of their dung, and there are flies all around. Pesel admits the pilgrims in small batches. Some of them are God-fearing Jews, poor people from around here, and some are travelers who deal in buttons or sell wine by the mug. Others come guided by their curiosity. They arrive in carriages and leave Sobla cheese, a chicken, or a bark basket filled with eggs. Good: that will go to the family. When the guests have gone, the girls have to spend their evening cleaning, clearing the yard of trash, sweeping the shed, and raking the trodden ground. When it is rainy, Sobla brings sawdust and covers the floor of the shed with it, to absorb the moisture.
Now, in the evening, Pesel has lit a candle and covered the body of the departed with handknitted socks, children’s shoes, little caps, embroidered kerchiefs. She mutters under her breath. At the sound of the door creaking, she starts. It’s just Sobla. She breathes a sigh of relief.
“Mama, you scared me.”
Sobla stares in astonishment.
“What are you doing? What is this?”
Pesel is undeterred; she doesn’t stop taking socks and kerchiefs out of the basket and laying them on the body. She just shrugs.
“What? What?” she repeats in a mocking tone. “The Mayorkowiczes had a child with an ailment of the ears who was healed by wearing a little hat like this. The socks are for aching feet and bones. The kerchiefs can be used for anything.”
Freyna is standing against the wall, wrapping the socks in clean pieces of linen, which she finishes with a ribbon. Tomorrow these items will be sold to the pilgrims.
Ever since she heard about the curse, Sobla has known that this will all end badly. Does the curse also apply to the family of the condemned? It must, of course. Her breasts have been sore for some time now. She has urged Israel not to get involved in these religious disputes anymore. To get rid of Yente. Sometimes she stands by the window that looks out onto the cemetery and the hills that slope clear down to the river, and she wonders what direction they will go in when they have to run away.
What frightened her the most was the story of Joseph of Rohatyn, whom she knew—he was here, with Jacob, in the winter. That man went to synagogue and divulged his error, admitting to each and every one of his sins. He told them about breaking the Shabbat, not keeping the fast, forbidden corporeal relations, and the fact that he prayed to Sabbatai Tzvi and Baruchiah, that he carried out kabbalist rituals, that he ate forbidden foods—everything that happened in Korolówka while Jacob was around. Thinking about it makes Sobla’s head spin—she almost vomits out of fear. Israel, her husband, might well admit to all the same things. Joseph was sentenced to thirty-nine lashes—and that was nothing, compared with the rest of his sentence. He was forced to divorce his wife and to declare his children bastards. He was banished from the Rohatyn kahal and forbidden further contact with any Jews. He is to rove the earth until his death.
Sobla rushes to Yente’s bier and furiously removes the socks and hats and throws them to the ground. Pesel looks at her in shock and anger.
“Oh, Mama,” she says. “You really just don’t get it.”
The Bishop of Kamieniec Mikołaj Dembowski writes a letter to the papal nuncio Serra, while his secretary adds a little something from himself
The letter is from the bishop, but it was written from start to finish by Father Pikulski. He is now reading it to the bishop, who is more interested in the renovations to his summer residence in Czarnokozińce, eager to go and check on their progress himself.
The nuncio, meanwhile, would like to know what’s going on in the strange matter of the Jewish heretics. It has already come to light, thanks to the Jews themselves and their rabbinical court, that the network of Sabbatian kahalim—the heretics—extends far and wide. It exists in Galicia, in Bukovina, in Hungary, Moravia, and Podolia. All of these kahalim are secret; the heretics feign traditional Jewish beliefs; at home, however, they engage in diabolical rituals, committing among other sins that of the Adamites. The rabbis are shocked and frightened by this. They have sent a respectful letter about it to the nuncio.
The bishop’s letter, in Pikulski’s hand, relates before the rabbinical court in Satanów the details of the trial of the Jewish heretics who were captured:
The hearings took place in the chambers of the kahal. The estate’s guards, and, on the Jewish side, the guard of the mikvah, a certain Naftali, led in the accused with tethers around their necks and their hands tied, so that they had no way to shield themselves from the blows they received from the crowd, which also spat on them. Some of them were so frightened that they confessed to everything before they were even questioned, immediately begging to be pardoned, swearing that they would never again resort to similar misdeeds. Such was the case of one Joseph of Rohatyn. Others denied everything, insisting that their presence at the trial must have been the result of some mistake, as they had nothing to do with the heretics.
After just one day of hearings, it was possible to paint a picture on the basis of the testimonies that would strike fear into the heart of any onlooker. Not only did they profane their Shabbat and other holy days, and eat foods forbidden to the Jews, but also they lay with persons unwedded to them, the men and the women committing such adulteries with the full knowledge and blessing of their spouses. The epicenter of this heresy is thought to be the Shorr family and its head, Elisha Shorr, who was furthermore accused of maintaining intimate relations with his daughter-in-law. It seems accusations such as these provoked a great deal of tumult, so much so that the wives of the accused left their husbands en masse, initiating divorce proceedings.
The rabbis realize that they must put a stop to this sect and its disgusting practices, which could paint God-fearing Jews such as themselves in a very bad light, which is why they decided on a very severe next step, namely, to curse Jacob Frank, condemning him with herem. The sect is to be systematically persecuted, and studying the Zohar and Kabbalah, so dangerous to malleable minds, has been forbidden to persons younger than forty years of age. Anyone who believes in Sabbatai Tzvi and his successors, Baruchiah or Nathan of Gaza, is now cursed. These will never be permitted any public role or function; their wives and daughters are to be regarded as concubines, and their sons as bastards. They will not be admitted into their own homes, nor will their horses be given fodder. And all Jews must immediately report such cursed persons upon sight.
The Council of Four Lands in Konstantynów has confirmed the above.
The determination to curse these people spread quickly through the country, and we have now had reports that these Shabbitarians, as they are popularly known, are indeed being persecuted. They are being attacked in their homes, beaten, their sacred books taken from them and destroyed.
It is said that the men who have been apprehended are half shaved, their partial beards a sign that they are neither Jews nor Christians, but rather straddling the two religions. This universal persecution, however, is such a blow to the Jewish apostasy that it will undoubtedly prove fatal to it. Besides, the leader of these renegades has traveled to Turkey, and, fearing for his life, will likely not return again.
“What a shame,” the bishop exclaims. “There might have been a chance for us to actually convert them.”
Pikulski rushes through the niceties at the end of the letter and then passes it to the bishop to sign. He sprinkles sand over the ink and begins composing a letter of his own in his head. Perhaps he’ll seem presumptuous, but he, too, is concerned for the good of the Church. He returns to his chambers and writes his own missive to the nuncio, which he will send to Warsaw with the same messenger. It includes, among other passages:
The Bishop, in his goodness, would wish to see them as precious lambs nuzzling up to our Holy Mother Church, but I would be so bold as to wa
rn against such a naive understanding of the situation. It is necessary to take careful stock of what lies underneath the declarations of these sect members who call themselves Contra-Talmudists. Not wishing to cast aspersions on His Excellency the Bishop, I would nevertheless read in such an inclination a desire to gain personal recognition through the enlistment of throngs of new Christians.
Based on what I have understood about this matter, while Frank does talk about the Holy Trinity, he does not have in mind the Christian Trinity, but rather a Trinity of theirs that purportedly includes a female named Shekhinah. This has nothing in common with Christianity, as Your Excellency will no doubt agree. As for baptism, Jacob mentions it only vaguely and as it suits him. It seems, as well, that he says something very different to people in the villages—where he passes himself off as a teacher, a traveling rabbi—than behind closed doors, to his closest circle of disciples. He has many supporters, especially Contra-Talmudist Jews from Nadwórna, Rohatyn, and Busk. To what extent, however, this is out of deep religious desire, and to what extent a desire to enter into our Christian fold for reasons beyond religion, no one can guess just yet. Therefore, guided by my great preoccupation, I make so bold as to entreat the authority of our Church to urgently and carefully investigate this matter prior to taking any steps . . .
Father Pikulski finishes and stares at a single point on the wall across from him. He would be glad to handle this matter himself, to serve the Church. He knows Hebrew well and has penetrated the mysteries of the Jewish religion. It generates in him something along the lines of quivering disgust. Something along the lines of dirty fascination. Those who have not glimpsed it close up—and most haven’t—have no idea of the enormity of the institution that is this Mosaic faith. Brick after brick, plus vast, squat vaults that fortify each other—it is almost impossible to imagine how anyone could have come up with such an architecture ever. Father Pikulski believes that God did in fact make a covenant with the Jews, did love them and hold them close to him, but that he cast them off. He withdrew and gave the world over to a nice, clean, fair-haired Christ, in a simple robe, focused and determined.
Father Pikulski would like to be able to ask the nuncio to appoint him, on account of his linguistic talents and the vastness of his knowledge, as adviser on this case. How to put that in writing? He leans over the page of crossed-out sentences and tries to cobble together a few more.
Bishop Dembowski writes to Bishop Sołtyk
At that same time, Bishop Dembowski, his imagination also on fire, takes a sheet of paper from a drawer and smooths it with his hand, to remove all the invisible specks of dust. He begins with the date, February 20, 1756, and soon his hand is gliding over the paper with panache, creating big, bold letters; he draws visible pleasure from the flourishes with which he embellishes especially the letters J and S.
They want a big public Disputation, they want to sit down opposite the Rabbis they’re against & show them that the Talmud is bad. In Exchange, they would agree to be baptized, & that would be, or so they say, some several Thousand People. If this were to come to Fruition, the Feat of it would gain Poland Renown all around the World—that in the Holy Commonwealth we managed to convert the Pagans without going all the Way to India, instead converting our very own local Savages. Secondly, setting aside their good Intentions, these Shabbitarians also profoundly hate their Jewish Talmudic Brothers . . .
As soon as they were arrested, because of some Iniquities conducted in a Home in Lanckoroń, they were turned in to us by some of those other Jews, with whom I maintain good Relations & have many Dealings of my own. They accused these Heretics of the Sin of the Adamites, which would not in itself reach the Consistory Court, but for the Heresy that underlies the Accusation. But whose Heresy? Not ours! How are we to handle a Jewish Heresy, knowing nothing whatsoever of the Matter, & very little of Judaism itself? Thank God I can rely on someone else in these Questions, the Jesuit Father Pikulski, who is fairly well acquainted with them.
The whole Affair is delicate, & this is how I see it: It is better for us to live alongside the Rabbis harmoniously & keep them in their current Place, as they have often given Evidence of their Loyalty. On the other Hand, this new Fervor might also be useful to us, were we ever to wish to exert any type of Pressure on the Jewish Congregations & the Rabbis. They have put a Curse on the Anti-Talmudists, & most of the cursed have been arrested by royal Authority. Some of them are at Large because they did not attend the Gathering in Lanckoroń. I sent a Delegation for those just as soon as I learned of all this. They came to see me in Czarnokozińce, but without their Leader this time. Him I have seen only once, & even then, briefly & in Secret. This leader, Jacob, being a Turkish Subject, had to be freed immediately, & no sooner had he been freed than he set out for Turkey.
This time a certain Krysa took the Lead, a coarse Man, a sort of pettifogging Character, though he does speak decent Polish, the which made him seem more intelligent to me than that Frank. Being himself impetuous & violent, he relied on the Charm & Eloquence of his Brother, & so together they laid out for me how they were being persecuted by the Rabbis & have had no Peace from them, being threatened with Death, attacked along the Roads & divested of all their Property. Nor do the Rabbis let them live or carry on any Business, & so those who are against the Talmud & who adhere in many matters to our most holy Faith would nonetheless prefer to maintain their Independence & settle down somewhere outside the others’ Control & found their own Towns from scratch or take over existing ones, such as Busk or Podhajce, whence in fact they come.
As for Frank himself, these Krysas did not have the highest Opinion of him, least of all since he ran off after causing all these Problems & is no doubt now safely ensconced in Chocim or Czernowitz & biding his Time there to see what happens here. They say he immediately converted to Islam. If this is true, it certainly does not bode well for Someone who only recently declared such fervent religious Feelings for our holy Church. It would in fact suggest that they are like Atheists & take Pleasure in this sort of religious Anarchy, wandering into & out of other people’s Faiths.
To my Mind, this elder Krysa would be a better Leader to those Shabbitarians if he weren’t so ugly & impetuous. Leadership needs the right Attitude, the right Height, the right Type of Charm, even if it’s of the most ordinary Variety, which, when properly deployed, inspires both warm Feelings & Attention.
I must say I am well-disposed toward them. Though I feel no great Sympathy with them, for they are foreign to us, quite different from us, & seemingly somewhat perverse, I would still like to see all of them end up as Children of God here with me in the Church. I suspect that You agree with me completely & fully support the matter of their Baptism. Meanwhile I am writing them a safeguard so that the Talmudists do not bother them any further, for all sorts of terrible things have been occurring here. As if it were not enough to have placed this Jewish Curse on Jacob Frank, they’ve also been burning the Heretics’ Books, the Nature of which I have only the foggiest Idea.
I must point Your Attention to these few People who have been accused & targeted by the Talmudist Rabbis. If ever they were to require Help of any sort from You, I would ask You to take their Request into Consideration. They are as follows:
Leyzor & Yeruhim of Jezierzany
Leyb Krysa of Nadwórna
Leybka Shaynowicz Rabinowicz & Moshko Dawidowicz of Brzeżany
Hershko Shmulewicz & Itzek Motylowicz of Busk
Nutka Falek Meyerowicz, known as Old Falek
Moshek Leybka Abramowicz & his Son Yankiel of Lanckoroń
Elisha Shorr of Rohatyn with his large Family
Leybka Hershko of Satanów
Moshko Izraelowicz with his Son Yosek of Nadwórna
Moses Aronowicz of Lwów
Zelik with his Son Leybko & Leybko Shmulewicz
The bishop is so tired that his head droops down toward the piece of paper, eventually falling just under the name “Shmulewicz.” The ink from “Zelik” smears
his pale and pious temple.
Meanwhile . . .
All those mentioned by the bishop, every last one, are now sitting in the home of a man named Berek, in Kamieniec. It’s the end of February, and a piercing chill steals into the room through every crack in the walls—and there are many.
“He did the right thing by going to Turkey, with all the mayhem he created here,” says Leybko Shmulewicz to Krysa, referring, of course, to Jacob.
Says Krysa:
“It seems to me that he ought to be here with us. Seems to me he may have fled for good—that’s what some people say.”
“Who cares about that, let them talk. The important thing is that the letters reach him; he’s right over the river, in Chocim. Poland, Turkey—what kind of border is that? The important thing is for him not to waste away over there with the Turks, but to let us know what to say and do here, and how.”
“As if we didn’t know ourselves,” mutters Krysa.
Now, as the voices die down, Shlomo Shorr, who has just arrived, stands up again; his towering figure inspires respect.
“Look, the bishop is favorably inclined toward us. He examined the three of us, my brother, Nahman, and me. All of us were released from jail and allowed to go home. That’s an end to our misery. There will be a disputation between us and them. That’s what we were able to obtain.”
There is a clamor, which Shorr hushes, gesturing toward Moshe from Podhajce in his fur-lined coat. Now Moshe rises with some effort and says:
“For everything to go according to our plan, we must definitively hold to two true things: that we believe in the Trinity, which is the one God in three persons—but not get into any discussions on topics like who is in the Trinity and so on—and that we reject the Talmud once and for all as a source of errors and blasphemies. And that’s it. Just that.”
The Books of Jacob Page 35
