Szekler Sabbatarians

TheSzekler Sabbatarians(inTransylvanian Saxon:(Siebenbürgen)Sambatianer;inGerman:Siebenbürgische Sabbatianer;inHungarian:Szombatosok, zombatosok, sabbatariusok, zsidózók, Şomrei Sabat) were a religious group inTransylvaniaandHungarybetween the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries who heldUnitarianandJudaizingbeliefs, including the affirmation ofSeventh-day Sabbatarianism.

History

The Magyar Sabbatarians arose amongTransylvanian Unitarians,led by theMatthias Vehe's followersAndrás EőssiandSimon Péchiwho founded the Sabbatarians 1588, afterFerenc Dáviddied in prison and the Unitarian church formalised on a non-Sabbatarian line. Initially they believed Jesus to be the messiah, but a human rather than divine messiah. Gradually they passed to read only theOld Testamentand to celebrateTorah's feasts, follow dietary laws, and a strict observance ofseventh-day Sabbath,but not circumcision.

Most of their followers were ofSzékelyethnicity and had experienced periods of tolerance and persecution. On May 23, 1621, Simon Péchi, theChancellor of Transylvaniawas dismissed and arrested for political reasons at the order ofPrinceGabriel Bethlen.On September 29 of the following year, the Transylvanian Diet made a law against the Judaizers. Thirteen years later, on May 13, 1635, the Diet set the explicit deadline of Christmas Day 1635 for the Sabbatarians to convert to one of the four accepted Christian religions of the Principality. When the great persecution began in 1635 they numbered 20,000 members.

Starting May 23, 1638, Sabbatarian believers were tortured and their writings confiscated in Kolozsvár and Marosvásárhely. On July 7, the trials started in Dés. All property of the convicted was confiscated, and they were sentenced to prison and, by the decree of PrinceGeorge I Rákóczi,to hard labor as well. A Sabbatarian goldsmith from Kolozsvár, János Torockai, was condemned to be stoned to death. On July 14, Simon Péchi was sentenced to prison and died next year.

The believers had to practice their religion in secret for the next 230 years, while pretending to be Catholic or Unitarian, so their numbers were in the hundreds only when their conversion to Judaism was allowed from 1868 to 1874.

At the insistence of Dr. Beck, the Bucharest rabbi,József Bánócziand Prof.Wilhelm Bachertook the necessary steps to save from ruin the last Sabbatarian congregation inBözödújfalu(Bezidu Nouin Romanian) and set up schools. In a few generations, most Sabbatarians had converted to Judaism. In the 1910 census, 120 people out of the 679 inhabitants of Bözödújfalu were Jewish.

During the Holocaust, first, the Sabbatarians were given exemption from the Hungarian anti-Jewish laws in 1941. But in April 1944, during the ghettoization, they were also herded to the ghettos. The local priest of Bözödújfalu hurried to the SS commandant and proved to him that the Sabbatarians are originally not from the Jewish "race". But there were numerous intermarriages between the Sabbatarians and Jews in the preceding decades. So the priest was able to take out some people from the ghettos, while others were soon sent to Auschwitz. The surviving Sabbatarians emigrated to Israel after the war.

Cultural references

The Magyar writerZsigmond Keménywrote about the sect leader, Simon Pechi, in hisA rajongók,"The Devoted" (1858).

See also

• Subbotniks
• Abrahamites
• Khalyzians
• Kabar

References

• Dán Róbert. Az erdélyi szombatosok és Péchi Simon. Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó 1987.
• Kovács András:Vallomás a székely szombatosok perében.Bukarest: Kriterion, 1982.(Részletes, XIX-XX. századi bibliográfiával.)
• Kovács András:Útfélen fejfa.Budapest-Bukarest: Balassi-Kriterion, 1995.
• Kovács András:Mondjatok káddist egy székely faluért.Csíkszereda: Pallas-Akadémia, 1997.
• Kovács András:Az erdélyi szombadosság nyomában.Csíkszereda: Pallas-Akadémia, 1999.
• Bözödújfalvi szombatosok szertartási és imádságos könyve.Közzéteszi és a bevezetőt írta: Kovács András. Csíkszereda: Pallas-Akadémia, 2000.
• Béla PomogátsJews by Choice- review ofGéza Szávaibook.
• Gellérd, Judit.Spiritual Jews of Szekler Jerusalem: A Four-Centuries History of Transylvanian Szekler (Székely) Sabbatarianism
• Géza Szávai.Székely Jeruzsálem (Székely Jerusalem).Budapest, Pont Kiadó, 2000. 442 pp
• Eisler, Ar Erdélyi Zsidók Multjából, Klausenburg, 1901.
• Kohn, Samuel (Rabbi).A Szombatosok, Torténetük, Dogmatikájuk, és Irodalmuk,Budapest, 1888. English editionThe Sabbatarians in Transylvania.1896
• H. Hazai,Munkálatok a Szombatosokról,Budapest 1903;
• Möckel,Gerhard. "Die Sabbatarier von Bözödujfalu: Ein Kapitel Siebenbürgischer Toleranz- und Intoleranzgeschichte". InKirche und Israel12, 1997, S. 65–71
• Päschel, Dietmar.Christliche Sabbatlieder – Eine hymnologische und ekklesiologische Problemanzeige.
• Bereznay András.Erdély történetének atlasza,2011. Section 46.