View Full Version : SUBBOTNIKI - Judaizers of the old Czarist Russia
I have often seen the claim, primarily in continental traditionalist circles, that extreme philo-Semitism or Judaizing is somehow inherently typical for Anglo-Saxon peoples like English and Americans. This implies that other Europeans have supposedly been immune to this disease.
Keeping that in mind, I thought it would educational to present this hard-core Judaizing movement known as "Subbotniki" ("Sabbath-niks") in the middle of traditional Mother Russia.
Israel-First dispies truly aren't without predecessors...
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1146&letter=S&search=subbotniki
SUBBOTNIKI
By : Herman Rosenthal S. Hurwitz
One of the Russian rationalistic bodies known under the general name of "Judaizing sects" (see Judaizing Heresy). On the whole, the Subbotniki differ but little from the other Judaizing societies. They first appeared in the reign of Catherine II., toward the end of the eighteenth century.
According to the official reports of the Russian government, most of the followers of this sect practise the rite of circumcision, believe in one God, do not believe in the Trinity, accept only the Old Testament portion of the Bible, and observe the Sabbath on Saturday instead of on Sunday. According to the same source, however, some of them, as, for instance, the Subbotniki of Moscow, do not practise circumcision; moreover, they believe in Jesus, but regard him as a saint and prophet and not as the son of God. Others await the coming of the Messiah as king of the earth. Some of them revere the New Testament; others place it on a lower level than the Old Testament.
Relation to Jews.
However, the Russian official sources can not be trusted implicitly, since the Subbotniki, like other Judaizing sects, carefully conceal from the Christians their religious beliefs and rites. They do not act so guardedly toward the Jews; indeed, they even style themselves "Jews." The Russian government carefully isolates the Subbotniki from the followers of either religion, but whenever the opportunity offers itself the Subbotniki apply to the Jews for Hebrew religious books. Apart from practising the rite of circumcision, they also slaughtercattle according to the law of "sheḥiṭah," wherever they can learn the necessary rules. Moreover, they clandestinely use tefillin, ẓiẓit, and mezuzot, and pray in almost the same manner as the Jews; namely, in private houses of prayer, with covered heads, reciting their prayers from Jewish prayer-books with Russian translation. The cantor reads the prayer aloud and the congregants then pray silently; during prayers a solemn silence is observed throughout the house. On Saturdays readings are made from the Torah also. Of all the Jewish rites and traditions the Subbotniki observe the Sabbath most zealously, whence their name. They are careful on that day to avoid work altogether; and they endeavor not to discuss worldly affairs.
According to the testimony, private and official, of all those who have studied their mode of life, the Subbotniki are remarkably industrious; they read and write; they are very hospitable; and are strangers to drunkenness, poverty, and prostitution. Up to 1820 the Subbotniki lived for the most part in the governments of Voronej, Orel, Moscow, Tula, and Saratof. After that year the government deported those who openly acknowledged their membership in this sect to the foothills of the Caucasus, to Transcaucasia, and to the governments of Irkutsk, Tobolsk, and Yeniseisk, in Siberia.
Under Alexander I. and Nicholas I.
In the reign of Alexander I., owing to that czar's personal tolerance, the Subbotniki enjoyed more freedom. Nevertheless the Russian clergy killed in Moghilef (Mohilev) about 100 Subbotniki and their spiritual leaders, including the ex-archbishop Romantzov, while the latter's young son was tortured with red-hot irons before being burned at the stake. The Subbotniki, however, succeeded in gaining a measure of peace by means of an agreement which they made with the Greek-Orthodox popes. In order that the latter might not be the losers from a material standpoint by the defection of the Subbotniki from their congregations, the members of the sect undertook to pay them the usual fee of two rubles for every birth and three rubles for every marriage. The czar then permitted the Subbotniki to profess their faith openly, but on the condition that they should not engage Jewish preachers and should not themselves proselytize among the Christians. These stipulations were not, however, fully complied with.
In the reign of Nicholas I. a feeling of unrest became apparent among the Subbotniki. Many of them wished to embrace Judaism; and some of their number were sent into the Pale of Settlement in order to become fully acquainted with the Jewish religion. On learning of this the Russian government sent among the Subbotniki a number of priests with the view of effecting their return to the Greek-Orthodox fold. But the religious disputations and the persuasion of the priests did not meet with success. The government then decided to suppress the Subbotniki by violent measures, and many of them were subjected to cruel treatment by the officials. The government then decided (1826) to deport those who had openly professed themselves Subbotniki to the above-mentioned regions in the Caucasus, Transcaucasia, and Siberia, at the same time, but for reasons quite opposite in the two instances, prohibiting the residence in their settlements of Jews and of members of the Greek-Orthodox Church.
Statistics.
It is impossible at present to determine the exact number of Subbotniki in Russia, the discrepancy between the government statistics and the actual numbers of this sect being so very wide. The official data represent the membership of the sect as numbering several thousand, while the traveler and writer Dinard, who has been in personal contact with the Subbotniki, states that there are 2,500,000. It may be that Dinard included in his figures all of the Judaizing sects. As regards dress, and mode of life apart from their religious rites, the Subbotniki do not in any way differ from the Greek-Orthodox Russians.
Bibliography:
Kostomarov, Russkaya Istoriya, vol. i.;Entziklopedicheski Slovar, s.v.;
E. Dinard, in Ha-Meliẓ, 1887, No. 75;
N. Astyrev, Subbotniki v Rossii i Sibiri, in Syeverny Vyestnik, 1891, No. 6;Univ. Isr. 1854, p. 396.H. R. S. Hu.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=668&letter=J&search=judaizing
JUDAIZING HERESY (ZHIDOVSTVU-YUSHCHAYA YERES)
By : Kaufmann Kohler Herman Rosenthal
A Christian heresy which first made its appearance in Novgorod during the reign of Grand Duke Ivan Vassilyevich III. (second half of the fifteenth century), and from there spread to Pskov and Moscow.
From the work of the priest Josif Volotzki, entitled "Prosvyetitel," etc. (The Enlightener, or the Detection of the Judaizing Heresy), it is evident that the first propagator of the heresy was the influential Jew Skhariyah (Zechariah) of Kiev, "who had studied astrology, necromancy, and various magic arts." He came to Novgorod (1471) in the suite of Prince Michael Olelkovich, probably as his commercial agent, and was soon followed by the Lithuanian Jews Osif, Shmoilo, Skargei, Moisei, and Chanush.
Skhariyah at first converted the priest Dionis and the archpriest ("Protopapas") Aleksei, and through the latter many other clergymen of Novgorod and Pskov. The doctrine of the sect, as given by Volotzki and other Russian church historians, was as follows: The belief in the only one God and the negation of the divinity of Jesus Christ and of the Trinity. Christ, according to their belief, has not yet appeared, and when he does so, he will not appear as the son of God in substance, but through his benefactions, "like Moses and the Prophets." Until the arrival of Christ the laws of Moses should be strictly followed, since the evangelistic writings are all erroneous. Furthermore, they condemned images and strongly censured monasticism.
The Russian historian Ilovaiski is of the opinion that the essential principles of the heresy had little in common with Judaism, and were rather the outcome of the rationalistic ideas of the Reformation, which reached Novgorod from western Europe. But Luther's predecessor, Johannes von Goch (1400-75), recognized the authority of the Church and the monastic orders; and Erasmus of Rotterdam was not born till 1467 or 1469.
In the beginning the heresy was kept secret, its adherents remaining within the Greek Orthodox Church. In 1480, when Grand Duke Ivan Vassilyevich visited Novgorod, Aleksei and his friend Dionis found favor with him. He took them both to Moscow and placed them at the head of the Churches of the Assumption and of the Archangel Michael respectively, and here they commenced an active propaganda. Aleksei, enjoying the confidence of the grand duke in a high degree, soon succeeded in converting his secretary, Feodor Kuritzyn; the archimandrite Zossima; the monk Zechariah; the princess Helena, daughter-in-law of the grand duke; and many other prominent personages. The grand duke soon became familiar with the doctrine of the heresy, and seemed to be favorably disposed toward it.
The existence of the heresy was officially denounced in 1487, when a few intoxicated clergymen of Novgorod openly blasphemed against the Orthodox faith and were accused before the archbishop Gennadi. One of the accused priests, Naum, repented and told the archbishop all about the heresy, and that some of the merchants of Moscow, among them Ivashka Chorny and Ignashka Zubov, had been circumcised and had escaped to Lithuania (1487). Gennadi then became the chief opponent of the heresy, but found little support in the higher courts, both civil and ecclesiastical, since the grand duke favored the leaders of the heresy and the metropolitan Geronti was personally antagonistic to Gennadi. The latter then called a council of the bishops (1488), which decreed execution of the impenitent heretics, "who glorify the Jewish faith and abuse the Greek Orthodox religion." In 1491, when Zossima was appointed metropolitan, Gennadi convened another council, which condemned the chief heretics among the clergy, pronounced an anathema against them, and imprisoned them in a monastery. In Novgorod, by Gennadi's orders, the heretics were punished in a very cruel manner.
With all his influence and power, however, Gennadi did not succeed in suppressing the heresy; for the sectarians were favored by the grand duke, and, with the help of Kuritzyn, one of the sect, Kassian, was appointed Archimandrite of Novgorod. Gennadi then secured the aid of Joseph Volotzki, who by his accusations forced Zossima to resign (May 17, 1494). The grand duke's daughter-in-law also took the part of the heretics, and with the accession of her son to the throne the sectarians hoped that the persecution of the heresy would cease.
In 1490 the Church council passed a resolution against the heretics, many of whom were tortured to death in the prison of Novgorod. The majority of the Judaizers, however, continued their teachings and converted many of the masses directly to Judaism. By the machinations of Gennadi, Helena and her son Dimitri were imprisoned in a monastery (1502), and Vassili, the younger son of the grand duke, was proclaimed successor to the throne. The attitude of the government in regard to the heresy then changed. The council convoked by the grand duke opened its sessions Dec. 27, 1504, and condemned some of the heretics to capital punishment. The deacon Volk Kuritzyn (Feodor's brother), Ivan Maximov, and Dimitri Konopliov were burned in cages at the stake, while other members of the sect, including the archimandrite Kassian, were burned at the stake in Novgorod. Some of the heretics were imprisoned; others were sent to monasteries.
From this blow the heresy could not recover, although the doctrines of the sect continued to spread secretly. Kostomarov (vol. xii.) believes that the sect of the Molokans derived its origin from the Judaizers.
In a letter to the Metropolitan of Moscow, Gennadi sends a collection of speeches, delivered before the czar by the Russian ambassador to Spain, concerning the way in which the King of Spain had outrooted heretics. He further relates the story of the baptized Jew Daniel, who had lately traveled from Kiev to Moscow and had heard from the Jews of Kiev that the grand duke had destroyed all the churches in Moscow, owing to the spread of the heresy, with which the grand duke seems to have sympathized.
For the defense of the Orthodox faith against the Judaizers, Dimitri Gerasimov, translator at the ambassadors' court, translated from the Latin the following works:
(1) Nicholas de Lyra's work on "The Infidelity ofthe Jews"; (2) "Conviction of the Jews"; (3) the work of the baptized Jew Joseph on "The Jews Who Were Baptized in Africa."
But little is known of the fortunes of the Judaizing sects during the period intervening between the reign of Ivan III. and that of Alexander I. It is known only that Ivan the Terrible would not admit in 1550 Jewish merchants from Poland, for the reason that they brought "poisonous herbs to Russia and led the Russians away from Christianity" (Regesty No. 470; see also Regesty No. 500). It would seem, however, from the legislative measures passed from time to time, that the government still regarded the Judaizing sects as a real menace to the supremacy of the Greek Orthodox Church. The fact that little is known of the Judaizing sects during that period may be due to the care exercised by the sectarians in keeping their beliefs secret, and to the disinclination of the Jews of Russia in the making of proselytes.
During the reign of Emperor Alexander I. the sectarians, encouraged by his liberal attitude, gathered new life, and many began openly to announce their principles. They were then called in the Russian official documents "heretics" and "Sabbatarians," who followed certain Jewish dogmas and rites, e.g., the observance of the Sabbath and circumcision. The first official reports about them appeared in 1811, almost simultaneously from the governments of Tula, Voronezh, and Tambov. The Archbishop of Voronezh reported that the sect owed its origin, in 1796, to some Jews who had settled among the Christian inhabitants of those governments, and that its doctrines had taken root in six villages of the districts of Bobrov and Pavlov. In 1818 some of the farmers of the government of Voronezh sent a formal complaint to the emperor Alexander against the oppression by the local civil and ecclesiastical officials of those who confessed the Mosaic faith. Upon the strength of this complaint a strict investigation was ordered concerning bribes which had been accepted by some of the officials. At the same time the secretaries of worship and of the interior were ordered to make a report to the emperor concerning the Judaizing Christians.
From the investigation it became apparent that the Judaizing heresy had spread to the governments of Orel, Tula, and Saratov. About 1,500 members confessed it openly, and many more kept their belief secret. The sect, according to the opinion of the metropolitan, was not a distinctly Old Testament cult, but was characterized by the observance of certain Jewish rites, e.g., the celebration of the Sabbath, circumcision, contracting marriages and dissolving them at will, peculiar burial ceremonies, and manner of assembling for prayer. The sectarians declared that they did not condemn the Christian faith, and, therefore, did not consider themselves apostates; and they insisted that they never had been Christians, but had only adhered to the faith of their fathers, which they would not forsake.
The measures which were taken against the spread of the Judaizing heresy had sad consequences for the Jews. While the leaders of the sect were sent into the army or deported to Siberia, the officials considered it useful to themselves to call the sect in official documents a Jewish sect, and to announce that the sectarians were Jews. They claimed that the name "Sabbatarians" would not convey to the Russian masses a correct idea of the nature of the sect. Its members were intentionally called "Jews" in the statutes so as to expose them to the contempt of the people. Finally a ukase was issued by the synod July 29, 1825 ("Pervoe Polnoe Sobranie Zakonov" xl., No. 30,436 A), ordering the expulsion of all Jews from those districts in which the Sabbatarians or Judaizing Christians were to be found.
As late as 1880 Jews were expelled from districts where adherents of the sect were supposed to exist.
Bibliography:
Panov, Yeres Zhidovstvuyushchikh, in the Journal of the Ministry of Public Instruction, 1877, part 188, p. 14;
Akty Istoricheskiya, i. 521, published by the Archives Commission;
Chtenie Moskov Ikavo Obshchestva Istorii, 1847, No. 8;
Russkaya Istoricheskaya Biblioteka, vi. 763, 786;
Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Lyetopisei, vol. iv.;
Platon, Kratkaya Tzerkovnaya Rossiskaya Istoriya, Moscow, 1833;
Rudnev, Razsuzhdenie o Yeresyakh, etc., Moscow, 1838.K. H. R.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=668&letter=J&search=judaizing
JUDAIZING HERESY (ZHIDOVSTVU-YUSHCHAYA YERES)
By : Kaufmann Kohler Herman Rosenthal
A Christian heresy which first made its appearance in Novgorod during the reign of Grand Duke Ivan Vassilyevich III. (second half of the fifteenth century), and from there spread to Pskov and Moscow.
From the work of the priest Josif Volotzki, entitled "Prosvyetitel," etc. (The Enlightener, or the Detection of the Judaizing Heresy), it is evident that the first propagator of the heresy was the influential Jew Skhariyah (Zechariah) of Kiev, "who had studied astrology, necromancy, and various magic arts." He came to Novgorod (1471) in the suite of Prince Michael Olelkovich, probably as his commercial agent, and was soon followed by the Lithuanian Jews Osif, Shmoilo, Skargei, Moisei, and Chanush.
Skhariyah at first converted the priest Dionis and the archpriest ("Protopapas") Aleksei, and through the latter many other clergymen of Novgorod and Pskov. The doctrine of the sect, as given by Volotzki and other Russian church historians, was as follows: The belief in the only one God and the negation of the divinity of Jesus Christ and of the Trinity. Christ, according to their belief, has not yet appeared, and when he does so, he will not appear as the son of God in substance, but through his benefactions, "like Moses and the Prophets." Until the arrival of Christ the laws of Moses should be strictly followed, since the evangelistic writings are all erroneous. Furthermore, they condemned images and strongly censured monasticism.
The Russian historian Ilovaiski is of the opinion that the essential principles of the heresy had little in common with Judaism, and were rather the outcome of the rationalistic ideas of the Reformation, which reached Novgorod from western Europe. But Luther's predecessor, Johannes von Goch (1400-75), recognized the authority of the Church and the monastic orders; and Erasmus of Rotterdam was not born till 1467 or 1469.
In the beginning the heresy was kept secret, its adherents remaining within the Greek Orthodox Church. In 1480, when Grand Duke Ivan Vassilyevich visited Novgorod, Aleksei and his friend Dionis found favor with him. He took them both to Moscow and placed them at the head of the Churches of the Assumption and of the Archangel Michael respectively, and here they commenced an active propaganda. Aleksei, enjoying the confidence of the grand duke in a high degree, soon succeeded in converting his secretary, Feodor Kuritzyn; the archimandrite Zossima; the monk Zechariah; the princess Helena, daughter-in-law of the grand duke; and many other prominent personages. The grand duke soon became familiar with the doctrine of the heresy, and seemed to be favorably disposed toward it.
The existence of the heresy was officially denounced in 1487, when a few intoxicated clergymen of Novgorod openly blasphemed against the Orthodox faith and were accused before the archbishop Gennadi. One of the accused priests, Naum, repented and told the archbishop all about the heresy, and that some of the merchants of Moscow, among them Ivashka Chorny and Ignashka Zubov, had been circumcised and had escaped to Lithuania (1487). Gennadi then became the chief opponent of the heresy, but found little support in the higher courts, both civil and ecclesiastical, since the grand duke favored the leaders of the heresy and the metropolitan Geronti was personally antagonistic to Gennadi. The latter then called a council of the bishops (1488), which decreed execution of the impenitent heretics, "who glorify the Jewish faith and abuse the Greek Orthodox religion." In 1491, when Zossima was appointed metropolitan, Gennadi convened another council, which condemned the chief heretics among the clergy, pronounced an anathema against them, and imprisoned them in a monastery. In Novgorod, by Gennadi's orders, the heretics were punished in a very cruel manner.
With all his influence and power, however, Gennadi did not succeed in suppressing the heresy; for the sectarians were favored by the grand duke, and, with the help of Kuritzyn, one of the sect, Kassian, was appointed Archimandrite of Novgorod. Gennadi then secured the aid of Joseph Volotzki, who by his accusations forced Zossima to resign (May 17, 1494). The grand duke's daughter-in-law also took the part of the heretics, and with the accession of her son to the throne the sectarians hoped that the persecution of the heresy would cease.
In 1490 the Church council passed a resolution against the heretics, many of whom were tortured to death in the prison of Novgorod. The majority of the Judaizers, however, continued their teachings and converted many of the masses directly to Judaism. By the machinations of Gennadi, Helena and her son Dimitri were imprisoned in a monastery (1502), and Vassili, the younger son of the grand duke, was proclaimed successor to the throne. The attitude of the government in regard to the heresy then changed. The council convoked by the grand duke opened its sessions Dec. 27, 1504, and condemned some of the heretics to capital punishment. The deacon Volk Kuritzyn (Feodor's brother), Ivan Maximov, and Dimitri Konopliov were burned in cages at the stake, while other members of the sect, including the archimandrite Kassian, were burned at the stake in Novgorod. Some of the heretics were imprisoned; others were sent to monasteries.
From this blow the heresy could not recover, although the doctrines of the sect continued to spread secretly. Kostomarov (vol. xii.) believes that the sect of the Molokans derived its origin from the Judaizers.
In a letter to the Metropolitan of Moscow, Gennadi sends a collection of speeches, delivered before the czar by the Russian ambassador to Spain, concerning the way in which the King of Spain had outrooted heretics. He further relates the story of the baptized Jew Daniel, who had lately traveled from Kiev to Moscow and had heard from the Jews of Kiev that the grand duke had destroyed all the churches in Moscow, owing to the spread of the heresy, with which the grand duke seems to have sympathized.
For the defense of the Orthodox faith against the Judaizers, Dimitri Gerasimov, translator at the ambassadors' court, translated from the Latin the following works:
(1) Nicholas de Lyra's work on "The Infidelity ofthe Jews"; (2) "Conviction of the Jews"; (3) the work of the baptized Jew Joseph on "The Jews Who Were Baptized in Africa."
But little is known of the fortunes of the Judaizing sects during the period intervening between the reign of Ivan III. and that of Alexander I. It is known only that Ivan the Terrible would not admit in 1550 Jewish merchants from Poland, for the reason that they brought "poisonous herbs to Russia and led the Russians away from Christianity" (Regesty No. 470; see also Regesty No. 500). It would seem, however, from the legislative measures passed from time to time, that the government still regarded the Judaizing sects as a real menace to the supremacy of the Greek Orthodox Church. The fact that little is known of the Judaizing sects during that period may be due to the care exercised by the sectarians in keeping their beliefs secret, and to the disinclination of the Jews of Russia in the making of proselytes.
During the reign of Emperor Alexander I. the sectarians, encouraged by his liberal attitude, gathered new life, and many began openly to announce their principles. They were then called in the Russian official documents "heretics" and "Sabbatarians," who followed certain Jewish dogmas and rites, e.g., the observance of the Sabbath and circumcision. The first official reports about them appeared in 1811, almost simultaneously from the governments of Tula, Voronezh, and Tambov. The Archbishop of Voronezh reported that the sect owed its origin, in 1796, to some Jews who had settled among the Christian inhabitants of those governments, and that its doctrines had taken root in six villages of the districts of Bobrov and Pavlov. In 1818 some of the farmers of the government of Voronezh sent a formal complaint to the emperor Alexander against the oppression by the local civil and ecclesiastical officials of those who confessed the Mosaic faith. Upon the strength of this complaint a strict investigation was ordered concerning bribes which had been accepted by some of the officials. At the same time the secretaries of worship and of the interior were ordered to make a report to the emperor concerning the Judaizing Christians.
From the investigation it became apparent that the Judaizing heresy had spread to the governments of Orel, Tula, and Saratov. About 1,500 members confessed it openly, and many more kept their belief secret. The sect, according to the opinion of the metropolitan, was not a distinctly Old Testament cult, but was characterized by the observance of certain Jewish rites, e.g., the celebration of the Sabbath, circumcision, contracting marriages and dissolving them at will, peculiar burial ceremonies, and manner of assembling for prayer. The sectarians declared that they did not condemn the Christian faith, and, therefore, did not consider themselves apostates; and they insisted that they never had been Christians, but had only adhered to the faith of their fathers, which they would not forsake.
The measures which were taken against the spread of the Judaizing heresy had sad consequences for the Jews. While the leaders of the sect were sent into the army or deported to Siberia, the officials considered it useful to themselves to call the sect in official documents a Jewish sect, and to announce that the sectarians were Jews. They claimed that the name "Sabbatarians" would not convey to the Russian masses a correct idea of the nature of the sect. Its members were intentionally called "Jews" in the statutes so as to expose them to the contempt of the people. Finally a ukase was issued by the synod July 29, 1825 ("Pervoe Polnoe Sobranie Zakonov" xl., No. 30,436 A), ordering the expulsion of all Jews from those districts in which the Sabbatarians or Judaizing Christians were to be found.
As late as 1880 Jews were expelled from districts where adherents of the sect were supposed to exist.
Bibliography:
Panov, Yeres Zhidovstvuyushchikh, in the Journal of the Ministry of Public Instruction, 1877, part 188, p. 14;
Akty Istoricheskiya, i. 521, published by the Archives Commission;
Chtenie Moskov Ikavo Obshchestva Istorii, 1847, No. 8;
Russkaya Istoricheskaya Biblioteka, vi. 763, 786;
Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Lyetopisei, vol. iv.;
Platon, Kratkaya Tzerkovnaya Rossiskaya Istoriya, Moscow, 1833;
Rudnev, Razsuzhdenie o Yeresyakh, etc., Moscow, 1838.K. H. R.
vBulletin, Copyright ©2000-2012, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.