An Unknown Broadsheet Calling for the Defrocking of Jonathan Eybeschuetz, written by Rabbi Jacob Joshua Falk, Worms:12 March 1753

the only known printed copy of an important polemic against Jonathan Eybeschuetz

The controversy over the alleged Sabbatianism of Jonathan Eybeschuetz continued for years and engendered numerous publications of a polemical nature, both in book form and as broadsheets such as the present lot.  Though the first attack on Eybeschuetz had come from Jacob Emden, by far the most important rabbinical figure involved in the fray was Rabbi Jacob Joshua Falk, Chief Rabbi of Frankfurt on Main and generally recognized as the senior and most authoritative rabbi in an age of rabbinic titans. Both sides in this monumental rabbinic struggle lost no time in proceeding to heap a series of bans, injunctions and interdictions on its opponents, but the drastic measures called for in the present broadsheet by Falk are by far the strongest sanctions ever called for against Eybeschuetz.

Falk composed this letter calling for the defrocking of Eybeschuetz, during the height of the controversy on March 12, 1753. Falk's sharply worded letter came after Eybeschuetz had repeatedly ignored earlier warnings issued by Falk, both public and private. It is likely that the present broadsheet was only printed in a very few copies designed to be posted in synagogues. It is a testament to the scarcity of the present document that none of the numerous historical treatments of this, the most famous and well documented of all rabbinical polemics, have known of its existence. The only known copy of the text, first published in 2008 by S. Leiman, is found in a contemporary chronicle, still in manuscript, no doubt copied from one of the very few original printed broadsheets of which the present lot is the only known surviving example.