Shabbatai Zevi
Sabbatai Zevi, (Hebrew: שַׁבְּתַי צְבִי, Shabbetay Ẓevi) (other spellings include Shabbethai, Sabbetai, ; Zvi, Tzvi) (August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676, in Dulcigno, Montenegro) was a rabbi[1] and kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He was the founder of the Jewish Sabbatean movement and inspired the founding of a number of other similar sects, such as the Donmeh in Turkey.
Sabbatai Zevi was born in Smyrna on (supposedly) a Sabbath 9th Av 1626, and died, according to some, on Yom Kippur, September 30 1676, in Dulcigno, a small town in the coastal region of Montenegro. According to others, he died in Albania. His family came from Patras, presently in Greece, and descended from the Greek-speaking Jews of the Ottoman Empire. They were neither Sephardi nor Ashkenazi, and belonged to a distinctive group, known as Romaniotes; his father, Mordecai, was a poor poultry-dealer in the Morea. Later, when in consequence of the war between Turkey and Venice under the Sultan Ibrahim I, Smyrna became the centre of Levantine trade, Mordecai became the Smyrnan agent of an English house, whose interests he guarded with strict honesty. As a consequence, he acquired considerable wealth.
Early years
In accordance with the prevailing Jewish custom, Sabbatai's father had him study the Talmud. In his youth he attended a yeshiva under the erudite rabbi of Smyrna, Joseph Escapa. On the other hand, he was fascinated by mysticism and the Kabbalah, in the prevailing style of Rabbi Isaac Luria. He found the practical Kabbalah, with its asceticism, and its mortification of the body &ndashthrough which its devotees claimed to be able to communicate with God and the angelsto predict the future, and to perform all sorts of miracles –especially appealing.
He was also inclined to solitude. Like others of the time he married early, but he reportedly avoided intercourse with his wife; she therefore applied for a divorce, which he willingly granted. The same thing happened with a second wife. Later, he imposed the severe mortifications on his body: he bathed frequently in the sea in winter, and fasted for days on end. He reportedly lived constantly in either a state of complete ecstasy, or intense melancholy.
Messianic Career
A young man possessed of beautiful singing voice, charismatic personality, and reputation as devoted kabbalistic ascetic, at age 22, Shabbatai revealed himself to a group at Smryna as Messiah designated by God to overthrow to restore the Kingdom of Israel. He dared even to pronounce the sacred name of God. This was of great significance to those acquainted with rabbinical and especially kabbalistic literature. However, Shabbatai's authority at such a young age did not reach far enough for him to gain many adherents.
Among the first of those to whom he revealed his messiahship were Isaac Silveyra and Moses Pinheiro, the latter a brother-in-law of the Italian rabbi and kabbalist Joseph Ergas. Sabbatai remained at Smyrna for several years, leading the pious life of a mystic, and giving rise to much argument in the community. The local college of rabbis watched Shabbatai closely. When his messianic pretensions became too bold, they put him and his followers under a ban of cherem, a type of excommunication in classical Judaism.
As a result, Shabbatai and his disciples were banished from Smyrna sometime in the early 1650s. Later, in Constantinople, he met the preacher, Abraham ha-Yakini, who confirmed Shabbatai's messiahship. Ha-Yakini reportedly wrote an apocalyptic narrative entitled the The Great Wisdom of Solomon, which declared:
I, Abraham, was confined in a cave for forty years, and I wondered greatly that the time of miracles did not arrive. Then was heard a voice proclaiming, 'A son will be born in the Hebrew year 5386 (English calendar year 1626) to Mordecai Zevi; and he will be called Shabbetai. He will humble the great dragon; ... he, the true Messiah, will sit upon My throne.
Salonica, Cairo and Jerusalem
With this document, Shabbatai traveled the the kabbalistic center of Salonica. There he boldly proclaimed himself the Messiah, gaining many adherents. Among the signs of his authority, he celebrated his marriage as the “Son of God” (Son of the mystical Ein Sof) to the Torah. The rabbis of Salonica promptly banished him from the city. After various wanderings, he settled in Cairo, Egypt, where he resided for about two years probably from 1660 to 1662.
In Cairo he met a wealthy and influential Jew named Raphael Joseph Halabi, who was also an official of Ottoman government. This worthy became one of the most zealous promulgators of his Shabbatai's messianic plans.
With the apocalyptic year 1666 approaching, Shabbatai traveled to Jerusalem, hoping that in the Holy City a miracle might occur to confirm his pretensions. Arriving there in about 1663, he at first remained inactive, so as not to offend the community. He demonstrated his piety by frequent fasting gaining the respect of many. Having a very melodious voice, he used to sing psalms the whole night long. At other times he reportedly prayed at the graves of pious men and women and, shedding floods of tears. He acted generously to the poor, and became known for his distributing sweetmeats to the children on the streets.
Soon, when the Jewish community of Jerusalem faced pressure from Turkish officials Shabbatai was chosen as the envoy to travel to Cairo to seek the monetary aid of Raphael Joseph Halabi, which was quickly forthcoming. This act brought him great gratitude and prestige showing Shabbatai to be a literal deliver of his people, if not yet on a messianic scale.
Marriage to Sarah
During a second stay at Cairo, Shabbetai also fulfilled his destiny to marry a physical bride. Sarah was a Jewish orphan girl who had survived the Chmielnicki massacres in Poland. After ten years' in a convent she escaped, finding her way through Amsterdam to Livorno where she reportedly had so support herself through a life of prostitution. During this time she also came to believe that she was destined to become the bride of the Messiah, who was soon to appear.
The story of this girl reached Cairo, and Shabbatai at once reported that such a consort had been promised to him in a dream. Messengers were sent to Livorno, and Sarah was brought to Cairo, where she was married to Sabbatai at Halabi's house. Through her, a powerfully romantic element entered Sabbatai's career. Her beauty and eccentricity gained for him many new followers, and even her past lewd life was looked upon as an additional confirmation of his messiahship, the prophet Hosea having been commanded to take a "wife of whoredom" as the first symbolic act of his own calling.
Nathan of Gaza
Having Halabi's money, a charming wife, and many additional followers, Sabbatai triumphantly returned to Palestine. Passing through the city of Gaza, he met another man who was to become crucial in his subsequent messianic career. This was Nathan Benjamin Levi, known to history as Nathan of Gaza. He became Sabbatai's right-hand man, and professed to be the returned Elijah, the precursor of the Messiah. In 1665, Nathan announced that the messianic age was to begin in the following year. Sabbatai himself spread this announcement widely. Nathan, as Elijah, would conquer the world without bloodshed, and Shabbetai, the Messiah, would then lead back the Ten Lost Tribes together with the Jews of the diaspora back to the Holy Land. These claims were widely circulated and believed by many Jews throughout Europe, Asia Minor, and the Middle East.
The rabbis of Jerusalem, however, regarded the movement with great suspicion, and threatened its followers with excommunication. Shabbatai then left for his native city of Smyrna, while his prophet, Nathan, proclaimed that henceforth Gaza, and not Jerusalem, would be the sacred city. On his way from Jerusalem to Smyrna, Shabbatai was enthusiastically greeted at Aleppo.
Return to Smyrna
At Smyrna, which he reached in the autumn of 1665, even greater homage was paid to him. There, in the city's synagogue on the Jewish New Year, he publicly declared himself to be the Messiah, with the blowing of trumpets, and the multitude greeting him with: "Long live our King, our Messiah!"
The joy of his followers knew no bounds. Sabbatai, assisted by his wife, now became the sole ruler of the community. In this capacity he deposed the previous chief rabbi of Smyrna, Aaron Lapapa, and appointed in his place Hayyim Benveniste. His popularity grew with incredible rapidity, as not only Jews but Christians also spread his story far and wide.
His fame extended to all countries. Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands all had centers where the messianic movement was ardently promulgated, and the Jews of Hamburg and Amsterdam received confirmation of the extraordinary events in Smyrna from trustworthy Christian travellers. A distinguished German scholar, Heinrich Oldenburg, wrote to Baruch Spinoza: "All the world here is talking of a rumor of the return of the Israelites... to their own country... Should the news be confirmed, it may bring about a revolution in all things." (Spinozae Epistolae No 33)
Shabbatai numbered many prominent rabbis as followers, including Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, Moses Raphael de Aguilar, Moses Galante, Moses Zacuto, and the above-mentioned Hayyim Benveniste. Even the secularizing Spinoza sympathizer Dionysius Mussafia Musaphia became one of Sabbatai's zealous adherents. Meanwhile, the Jewish community of Avignon, France, prepared to emigrate to the new messianic kingdom in the spring of 1666.
The adherents of Shabbatai apparently planned to abolish a number of the Jewish ritualistic observances because—according to an opinion in the Talmud—they were to lose their obligatory character. The first step was the changing of the fast of the Tenth of Tevet to a day of feasting and rejoicing. Samuel Primo, who acted as Shabbatai's secretary, directed the following circular to the whole of Israel:
The first-begotten Son of God, Shabbetai Zevi, Messiah and Redeemer of the people of Israel, to all the sons of Israel, Peace! Since ye have been deemed worthy to behold the great day and the fulfillment of God's word by the Prophets, your lament and sorrow must be changed into joy, and your fasting into merriment; for ye shall weep no more. Rejoice with song and melody, and change the day formerly spent in sadness and sorrow into a day of jubilee, because I have appeared.
This message produced considerable excitement in Jewish communities, as many of the leaders, who had hitherto regarded the movement sympathetically, were shocked at these radical innovations. The prominent Smyrnian talmudist Solomon Algazi and other members of the rabbinate who opposed the abolition of the fast, narrowly escaped with their lives.
In Istanbul
At the beginning of the year 1666, Sabbatai again left Smyrna for Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire's capital, which was still known in the Christian West at the time as Constantinople). The reason for his trip is unclear: either it was because he was compelled to do so by the city authorities, or because of a hope that a miracle would happen in the Turkish capital to fulfill the prophecy of Nathan Ghazzati that Shabbatai would place the Sultan's crown on his own head. As soon as he reached the landing-place, however, he was arrested at the command of the grand vizier and cast into prison in chains.
Sabbatai's imprisonment, however, had no discouraging effect either on him or on his followers. On the contrary, the lenient treatment which he secured by means of bribes served to strengthen them in their messianic beliefs. In the meantime, all sorts of fabulous reports concerning the miraculous deeds which Shabbetai was performing in the Turkish capital were spread by Nathan and Primo among the Jews of Smyrna and in many other communities. The expectations of large numbers of Jews were raised to a still higher pitch.
At Abydos
After two months' imprisonment in Constantinople, Sabbatai was brought to the state prison in the castle of Abydos. Here he was treated very leniently, some of his friends even being allowed to accompany him. At Passover, he slew a paschal lamb for himself and his followers and ate it with its fat, a violation of the priestly law. He reportedly pronounced over it the benediction: "Blessed be God who hath restored again that which was forbidden."
The immense sums sent to him by his wealthier adherents, the charms of the queenly Sarah, and the reverential admiration shown him even by the Turkish officials and the inhabitants of the place enabled Shabbatai to display royal splendor in the castle prison of Abydos, accounts of which were exaggerated and spread among Jews in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
In some parts of Europe Jews began to unroof their houses and prepare for a new "exodus." In almost every synagogue, Shabbatai's initials were posted, and prayers for him were inserted in the following form: "Bless our Lord and King, the holy and righteous Shabbatai Zevi, the Messiah of the God of Jacob." In Hamburg the council introduced this custom of praying for Shabbatai not only on Saturday, but also on Monday and Thursday. Shabbatai's picture was printed together with that of King David in many, perhaps even most, prayer-books, as well as his kabbalistic formulas and penances.
These and similar innovations caused great dissension in various communities. In Moravia the excitement reached such a pitch that the government had to interfere, while in Morocco, the emir ordered a persecution of the Jews.
Shabbatai adopts Islam
After a meeting with the Polish kabbalist an prophet Nehemiah ha-Kohen turned sour Nehemiah, escaped in fear of his life to Constantinople, where he reportedly pretended to embrace Islam and betrayed the allegedly treasonable intent of Sabbatai to authorities. Sultan] Mehmed IV commanded that Shabbatai be taken from Abydos to Adrianople, where the sultan's physician, a former Jew, advised him to convert to Islam or face dire consequences. Realizing the danger Shabbatai took the physician's advice. On the following day (September 16 1666), after being brought before the sultan, he cast off his Jewish garb and put a Turkish turban on his head; and thus his supposed conversion to Islam was accomplished.
The sultan was much pleased, and rewarded Shabbatai by conferring on him the title (Mahmed) Effendi, and appointing him as his doorkeeper with a high salary. Sarah and a number of Shabbatai's followers also went over to Islam. To complete his acceptance of Islam, Sabbatai was ordered to take an additional wife. Some days after his conversion he wrote to Smyrna: "God has made me an Ishmaelite; He commanded, and it was done." It is widely believed that Shabbetai had some connection with the Bektashi Sufi order.
Disillusion
Sabbatai's conversion was devastating for his followers. Among some of the people the greatest confusion reigned. In addition to the misery and disappointment from within, Muslims and Christians jeered at and scorned the credulous Jews. The sultan even planned to exterminate all the adult Jews in his empire and to decree that all Jewish children should be brought up in Islam, also that ro prominent rabbis should be executed. Only the contrary advice of some of his counselors and of the sultan's mother prevented these calamities.
In spite of Shabbatai's apostasy, however, many of his adherents still tenaciously clung to him, claiming that his conversion was a part of the messianic scheme of tikkun the kabbalistic formula of cosmic restoration. This belief was further upheld and strengthened by the prophet such as Nathan and Shabbatai's secretary Primo. In many communities Shabbatai's feast-days, replacing traditional days of fasting, continued to be observed in spite of bans and excommunications.
Meanwhile Shabbatai himself encouraged continued faith in his role. In March 1668, he again announced that he had been filled with the Holy Spirit at Passover, and had received a revelation. He, or one of his followers, published a mystical work addressed to the Jews in which it was claimed that Shabbatai was indeed the true Messiah, in spite of his conversion, his object being to bring over thousands of Muslims to Judaism.
To the sultan, however, he said that his activity among the Jews was to bring them over to Islam. He therefore received permission to associate with his former co-religionists, and even to preach in their synagogues. He indeed seems to have succeeded in bringing over a number of Muslims to his kabbalistic views, and, on the other hand, in converting many Jews to Islam, thus forming a Judaeo–Turkish sect whose followers implicitly believed in him.
Gradually, however, the Turks tired of Shabbatai's double game. He was deprived of his salary and banished from Adrianople to Constantinople. In a village near the latter city he was one day discovered singing psalms in a tent with Jews, whereupon the grand vizier ordered his banishment to Dulcigno (today called Ulcinj), a small place in Montenegro, where he died in solitude.
Legacy
Shabbatai's Zevi's apostasy had two main effects in Judaism. First, those who maintained their faith in Shabbetai's beliefs became more an more mystical in their orientation sometimes adopting attitudes of extremism. In Poland these marginalized Jews formed numerous secret societies of Shabbathaians known among the people as "Shabbathai Zeviists," or "Shebs" (according to the Western pronunciation of "Shabbathai"). In expectation of the great Messianic revolution the members of these societies threw off the burden of strict Jewish dogma and discarded many religious laws and customs. From among this group rose the leader Jacob Frank, who influenced his followers to adopt a radical antinomianism and eventually led many of them to accept baptism, in imitation of Shabbetai's own conversion to Islam.
Second, all these events strengthen the hand of the conservative talmudists who had opposed Shabbatai, consequently weakening the position of kabbalists in general, and the Lurianic kabbalah specifically. Mainstream Judaism could cast kabbalistic study not only as superstition, but as morally and politically dangerous. Furthermore, the messianic hope itself came to be seen as something not to be spoken of in immediate or tangible terms, and even the hint of a messianic claim could expect to be treated as a danger to Jewish society.
Meanwhile, in Turkey, Shabbetai's teachings had formed a half-Jewish, half-Islamic sect that persisted through the centuries despite having to operate in secret. Although rather little is known about them, various groups called Donmeh (Turkish for "apostate") continue to follow Shabbatai Zevi today. Estimates of the numbers vary. Isik University (a private university in Istanbul) and the Feyziye Schools Foundation (Feyziye Mektepleri Vakfi) under whose umbrella the University is operating, claimed to be founded by the Karakash group of Donmeh.
A group calling itself Donmeh West, founded in California in 1983 by Reb Yakov Leib, considers itself a "Neo-Sabbatian collective," and draws on Sabbatai Zevi's teachings to form a syncretistic movement which also draws heavily on Sufism, Judaism, and other faiths. Donmeh West does not appear to have direct historical ties to the Donmeh active in Turkey.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Asch, Sholem. Sabbatai Zevi: A Tragedy in Three Acts: Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society: 1930.
- Carlebach, Elisheva. Pursuit of Heresy: Rabbi Moses Hagiz and the Sabbatian Controversy. New York, Columbia University Press, 1990, 364 p.
- Cohen, Mortimer J. "Was Eibeschuetz a Sabbatian?", The Jewish Quarterly Review, Volume XXXIX, issue 1, 1948. Pages 51–62.
- Halperin, David. Sabbatai Zevi: Testimonies to a Fallen Messiah: Oxford, Littman Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2007, 256 pp.
- Kastein, Joseph trans. Messiah of Isimir: Sabbatai Zevi. New York: Viking Press, 1931.
- Freely, John. Lost Messiah: In Search of Sabbatai Sevi: London: Penguin: 2002: ISBN 0-14-028491-5
- Scholem, Gershom: Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah: 1626-1676. American Edition: Princeton: Princeton University Press: 1973: ISBN 0-691-09916-2 (hardcover ed.).
- Sisman, Cengiz. A Jewish Messiah in the Ottoman Court: The Sabbatian Movement and Emergence of a Messianic Judeo-Islamic Sect in the Seventeenth Century Ottoman Empire (1666-1720), unpublished Ph.D. disseration, Harvard University, 2004.
- Stefanov, Pavel. "El seudomesias Sabbetay Sevi (1626-1676)," Anuario. Organizacion de lo judios en Bulgaria "Shalom", 26, 1991, pp. 298-312.
Notes
- ↑ Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah: 1626-1676, p. 111, mentions, among other evidence of Sabbatai's early rabbinic training
See also
- List of messiah claimants
- Jewish messiah
- Islam and Judaism
- Sabbateans
- Schisms among the Jews
- Who is a Jew?
- Jews in apostasy
- Jacob Frank
External links
- Sabbatai Zevi, Jewish Encyclopedia
- In search of followers of the false messiah, Haaretz
- Shabbetai Zvi Jewish Virtual Library
- Encyclopaedia Judaica
- Donmeh West: The Neo-Sabbatian Collective of the Internet
References
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
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