The Heresy of Jacob Frank - From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth

Jacob Frank (1726-1791) was once known as the most sinister of Jewish heretics, a man who led his sect to convert en masse to Christianity and led sexual orgies in secret meetings. But what was the truth behind these myths? The Heresy of Jacob Frank argues, based on close readings of Frank''s late teachings, that Frank was not some sex-crazed "degenerate" but an original and prescient figure at the crossroads of tradition and modernity, reason and magic, Kabbalah and Western Esotericism.