A Fantasy Of Jacob Frank, the First Jewish Hippie

By Tomar Jaszewski Preface to the American Edition With this edition Tsaddique Publishers takes over literary curatorship of "The Prophet Jacob and the New Age" from Messrs. Mediat & Mortrat Ltd. Of London, England, through whom the late Dr. Jaszewski published his famous book almost two decades ago. Certain statements of fact that Frank makes in these notes are inaccurate. For instance, Frank did not have any Christian parents. Both of his parents were Jews. Dr. Jaszewski's Prefatory Note In December 1984, through reading Frankist manuscripts in the collection of the public library in Lublin, Poland, I first became acquainted with the Frankist teachings. I soon discovered that the Frankists practice a secret form of esoteric Judaism, derived from the voluntary marranism of the Islamic-Jewish sect called the Donmeh. (Marranos were Jews who pretended to convert to a non-Jewish religion while secretly adhering to Judaism. The term refers primarily to the Jews of Spain after the Spanish Inquisition forced them to convert to Christianity in 1492.) While I disapprove of apostasy from Judaism, the mass conversion of the Frankists in 1759 seemed like the right decision for them at the time. As Pawel Maciejko shows in his authoritative history The Mixed Multitude, both the rabbinic authorities and the Polish Catholic church demanded it. The rabbinic authorities persecuted the Frankists and the Frankists responded in kind. The Baal Shem Tov blamed the rabbis for the apostasy, complaining that while the Frankists had lied the rabbis also "produced lies of their own." This book is a fantasy or a reverie about who Frank was. For information on the historical Jacob Frank readers should refer to the works of Pawel Maciejko and to Harris Lenowitz's English translation of Jacob Frank's own Words of the Lord. Chapter One: The Good News "In Polish I am the 'Holy Lord.' But in Ladino, the language of the Sephardic Jews from Spain, I am 'El Mysterio.'"--Jacob Frank If we study the history of the Jews it becomes obvious that the leading figures in their progress is the advent of dreamers who pass beyond the scientism prevalent in our own era and become the inventors of new metaphysical doctrines. Kabbalists, alchemists, architects of sacred spaces, these are the people on whom Tikkun Olam (the healing of the world) depends. It's been that way since the time of the Pyramids. It has long been debated whether such spirit-filled Jews are born or made. Jacob Frank describes his own origins as follows: Brief Bio Jacob Frank (1726-1791) was a Polish Jew who practised ritual apostasy and later lived as a make-believe Catholic nobleman in Offenbach. He claimed to be the return of the biblical prophets Jacob and Joseph. Goethe knew of him and termed his court there "a masquerade." After his death his daughter Eva (born Rachel) replaced him and the Frankist court became a site of pilgrimage for mostly unconverted Jews from Prague. At its height prior to Frank's death the court in Offenbach included several hundred Frankist residents of the town, all but one of Jewish birth. They attended Mass each Sunday. The Frankists undertook no paid employment in Offenbach and the source of their funding remains a partial mystery to this day. Eva was eventually declared bankrupt and subject to house arrest prior to her death in 1816. Interestingly, the residents of Offenbach either did not know of Eva's Jewish origin or chose not to believe it. Eva presented herself to them as a Catholic noblewoman from Eastern Europe.

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We were redoing the lavatories at Offenbach Castle. The architect had removed the walls from the stalls. Each slab of metal hung from the ceiling by a wire. My son Roche was in there with me. He had a special boot on his injured right foot. He said he had put chapstick on hhis right foot and ever since it had hurt every time he put the boot on.

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I stood before the True Believers. I told them that they had been ignoring what was giving them commands. I pointed to a tall tower next to me. It had large sheets of colored paper on it and was visible for miles around. I changed colors according to the commands that I gave the True Believers. The tower had three sides. Different True Believers in the area would view different sides of the tower to receive their commands.

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The Frankist movement described here is not the historical Frankist movement. Or maybe it was, but we cannot know that. It is the Frankist movement as I wish it would have been.

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Here at Offenbach we play music in the 13th-century style, which means that during a performance the musicians come and go as they like and pkay whatever they want. We aslso have an instrument called the Rainbow Channel. It produces a rainbow-colored curved beam of light in between the hands of the person playing it. As the player moves his hands further apart or closer together the tone emitted by the Rainbow Channel gets higher or lower. The Rainbow Channel symbolizes the coming unification of creeds in the future Das (faith).

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There were soldiers and sailors clustered together outside the Ark of the Holy One, which is called El Shaddai (I Am). These were people who would rather give up eating than smoking. The Holy Virgin Eva saw these young men out there and started weeping, because she knew that most of them would someday die as a result of their habit.

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Once in Salonika I was playing guitar and bending the notes when a follower of the Second, who wanted me to leave the city, fired an arrow into my fretboard. The arrow made it difficult for me to bend the notes properly. I told him to get out, which he did. But if the arrow had hit me instead of the guitar then the world would never be able to learn of the one true Das (knowledge).

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If you think I have died, remember that I merely sleep in a buried chamber deep beneath Offenbach Castle, bound by luminous red bands. When the time is right I will emerge from my chamber. At first only those who live in the castle will see me briefly, darting through the hallways in the distance. Then I will enter the topmost chamber of the castle. A mighty wind will blow the roof off of the castle. I will emerge into the daylight to lead a Jewish Holy Army of True Believers. We will defeat the Polish noblemen, sack Rome and bring about the true das in our lifetimes ”

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My castle at Offenbach sits on a rocky hill besides a road. We dug a partial tunnel from the road up to the castle. As we neared the castle it was possible for a man to squeeze through the opening. But then a lightning bolt struck the tree in the front of the castle. All of the branches were splintered and singed. it was an omen that we should not complete the tunnel, so we stopped building it.

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I have a daughter Eva whose name can be pronounced either Eye-Va or Ay-Va. She was always present when I would sit in court anf members of the Company would come to pay me homage. No one would pay her any attention, but she was sitting there listening and learning. Eventually when she grew up she became the Virgin. If I were to temporarily leave you then she would become your Queen.

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I was dining at an inn in Dzurdziu. There was more food on the table than I could eat. Suddenly, without my asking, a container appeared on the table. I placed the extra food inside it and took it home. Would you have taken the food too? You would have tsken the food

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There is a trail which starts out here in Offenbach and head west for 100 miles. We, the Company of True Believers must take responsibility for keeping this trail free of trash and debris.

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When I was young I spent almost all my time riding a horse. I would only get off the horse to play guitar.

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The True Believers had won a battle in Transylvania. We were heading through the forests with our Turkish prisoners. Our goal was to link up with a force of 100,000 werewolves and vampires located to the north of us. It was night time in the forest, and we were getting colder and colder. We came to a clearing in which there were scattered trees. Our Turkish prisoners became frightened that we tie each of them one of trees and shoot them.

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Two Polish Jewish girls decided to go on a vacation in Minsk around the time of the High Holy Days. This was a shonda [scandal] as Jews do not vacation on the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur. After much discussion, the community decided that if the girls were acting wrongly then God would punish them.

But when the girls got back from their vacation it turned out that the girls had had a great time. That showed that God didn't object to their vacationing during Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur.

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I was in a Polish inn. A spirit-filled man told me about his ability to see auras. He said that in areas where there were many Jews the land's aura is blue. The blue represents the blue tekhelet dye in the Jewish ceremonial prayer shawls. I have myself worn these shawls when in the synagogue, as is the custom.

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Give me three good songs and I can take over the world. Liz Cohen the Pilgrim visited us in Brunn after she heard someone playing some of our songs in a coffeehouse. She was 43 then and had just started travelling. Wherever Liz Cohen the Pilgrim goes she always insists that people treat her as if she was at home, and they always do. When she was in my living room she was ensconced on the couch with an open bottle of vodka next to her. She told me that the living room was messy and that I should clean it up. When Liz was at home in Poland she was also very bossy. She would complain that her neighbors weren't maintaining their yards. She had a big dog that ran around the neighborhood loose. She insisted that the neighbors take care of her dog while she was away, which they did.

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"In Polish I am the 'Holy Lord.' But in Ladino, the language of the Sephardic Jews from Spain, I am 'El Mysterio.'"