Asher Lämmlein

Asher ben Meir Ashkenazi Lemlein Reutlingen (* in the 15th century; † in the 16th century, also lamb, Lämmlin, Lemmlein ) was a Northern Italian rabbi, Kabbalist and alleged forerunner of the Jewish Messiah.

Life

Little is known about the life of Ash Lemlein. His nickname Ashkenazi and Reutlingen suggest that he or his family was originally from Germany. When he first came into existence in 1500, he was already an elderly man and lived in the Venetian coast town of Isola ( Istria). He had some reputation in Italy as a Kabbalist, but it should be remembered as end time prophet in history. To his kabbalistic background included the teachings of Abraham Abulafia. A reference to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain of 1492 and the end of Isaac Abravanel calculations, which predicted the coming of the Messiah in 1503, is not assigned. Lemlein led an ascetic life and attracted a considerable following to Isola. He could sit in ecstasy and claimed to communicate in visions with God. He said he had learned that the coming of the Messiah was imminent. His miracles activity led to Lemlein but was hailed by some held as crazy by others as the coming Messiah. He himself, however, merely as a harbinger of the Jewish Messiah.

He claimed that if the other Jews demonstrated repentance and zuwendeten of charity, the Messiah would appear within half a year. He won in a short time some followers who spread his prophecies in Italy and Germany. His message was taken so seriously that within the year of penance existing Jewish institutions were deliberately destroyed in the belief their conservation was unnecessary, since one would anyway return home within this year to Jerusalem. As Lemleins prophecies were not fulfilled after a year, the general movement of repentance limp. Lemlein then took flight and fled to Palestine, where his presence is assigned to 1509.

Salo W. Baron suggested that emerged from the false prophecies disillusionment have contributed significantly to the fact that some Jewish intellectuals of this time were later baptized among others Victor of carbene and Johannes Pfefferkorn.

Pictures of Asher Lämmlein

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