Russian Jews and Napoleon Bonaparte: the Spiritual and the Material Evidence of the Еra of the Napoleonic Wars

Abstract

Тhe article, based on published and archival sources, is devoted to the problem of the relationship of spiritual (symbolic) and material evidence of the Jewish religious life during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. Examples are “anagrams” created by Shneur Zalman and Avigdor Haimovich on the basis of the sacred text of the Hebrew Bible, Hasidic chant (niggun) transformed by Shneur Zalman from the French march or hymn, and the legendary “Napoleon’s parokhet” (the curtain of the Aron Kodesh) in one of synagogues of old Jerusalem. Using the magic of the Kabbalistic methods, some representatives of the Russian Jewry fought against the “evil” power and “satanic” energy of the French Emperor.