Sabbatian influences on the Chassidic and Mitnagdic movements : an excursion into messianic Kabbalah and its disseminators in the aftermath of Shabbatai Tzvi

Abstract

This study hypothesises that as a result of a thorough analysis of the context and content of rabbinic texts, including the known associations of their authors − spanning the periods of Shabbatai Tzvi, the Baal Shem Tov and the Vilna Gaon − the conclusion can be reasonably drawn that the Chassidic and Mitnagdic movements had been fundamentally subjected to multiple Sabbatian influences and that a causal doctrinal and rabbinic link between Sabbatianism and both the Chassidic and Mitnagdic movements can be demonstrated.