sentences:  Some of these Ḥasidim would spend the whole week—without or with interruption, according to their physical endurance—in fasting, rendering only the Sabbath a day of comfort and joy.The object of their penitences and fastings was to bring about the time of divine favor, the Messianic era.Every Messianic movement had therefore Ascetics as leaders, such as were the Shabbethaians (see H. Grätz, "Gesch.