Redemption Through Sin 

By Gershom Scholem 


I 

•NO CHAPTER IN the history of the Jewish people during the last several hundred years has been as 
shrouded in mystery as that of the Sabbatian movement. On one point, at least, there is no longer any 
disagreement: the dramatic events and widespread religious revival that preceded the apostasy of 
Sabbatai Zevi in 1666 form an important and integral part of Jewish history and deserve to be studied 
objectively, to the exclusion of moralistic condemnations of the historical figures involved. It has 

Gershom Scholem (1897-1982)

THE MESSIANIC IDEA IN KABBALISM By Gershom Scholem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Sanhedrin

Among the spectacles to which the coming century invites us is the decision as to the destiny of the Jews of Europe. That their die is cast, that they have crossed their Rubicon, is now palpably obvious: all that is left for them is either to become the masters of Europe or to lose Europe as they once a long time ago lost Egypt, where they had placed themselves before a similar either-or. In Europe, however, they have gone through an eighteen-century schooling such as no other nation of this continent can boast of  and what they have experienced in this terrible time of schooling has benefited the individual to a greater degree than it has the community as a whole.

 if the Zohar and the Bahir were studied in secret circles, how could the Rambam write that all our knowledge of the mysticism of the Sages of the Talmud was lost? Is it conceivable that the Rambam, the greatest Torah authority of his day, did not have access to these groups or at least, from all his extensive traveling, know something about them? Was he not a great enough scholar?!

Inquisition

Translated from the Castilian by Edward Peters  fromhttp://www.sephardicstudies.org/decree.html

SEPHER YETZIRAH OR  THE BOOK OF CREATION
Ten are the numbers, as are the Sephiroth, and twenty-two the letters, these are the Foundation of all things. Of these letters, three are mothers, seven are double, and twelve are simple.
 Ten are the numbers of the ineffable Sephiroth, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven. Learn this wisdom, and be wise in the understanding of it, investigate these numbers, and draw knowledge from them, fix the design in its purity, and pass from it to its Creator seated on his throne.
The three mother letters A, M, SH are the foundations of the whole; and resemble a Balance, the good in one scale, the evil in the other, and the oscillating tongue of the Balance between them.

Frank himself remained true to his Zoharist vision which led him to embrace the Catholic Church in 1760 as that force which would be the foundation and base for a renewed Universal Religion which would unite all the lost sparks found in all religions and philosophies. He was ahead of his time with ideas that later would be accepted by Vatican II. The Jesuits were the only group that could understand such ideas at this time and they were great supporters of the Zoharist Jews. The Jesuits themselves unfortunately were being persecuted by their fellow Catholics and would soon be disbanded.

In 1644, Menasseh met Antonio de Montezinos, a Portuguese traveler and Marrano Sephardic Jew who had been in the New World. Montezinos convinced him of his conclusion that the South America Andes' Indians were the descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel. This purported discovery gave a new impulse to Menasseh's Messianic hopes, as the settlement of Jews throughout the world was supposed to be a sign that the Messiah would come. Filled with this idea, he turned his attention to England, whence the Jews had been expelled since 1290. He worked to get them permission to settle there again and thus hasten the Messiah's coming.