Shabbetai Zevi and the False Messiah
For a year the hope that the Messiah had come swept communities across the Jewish world. When the "messiah" converted to Islam, it turned into the gravest spiritual collapse of the modern age.
Shabbetai Zevi was born in Izmir, by tradition on the Ninth of Av 1626. Gifted and evidently unstable, he swung between black withdrawal and elation in which he did forbidden things—pronouncing the Divine Name aloud, declaring fasts abolished.
The turn came in 1665 in Gaza, where a young kabbalist, Nathan of Gaza, announced a revelation: Shabbetai was the Messiah and he himself the prophet. The world believed. A generation that had survived Chmielnicki and read Luria on gathering the sparks rose as one: in Amsterdam and Hamburg, Livorno and Morocco, Yemen and Poland people repented, fasted, sold their houses and prepared to sail for the Land of Israel. Rabbis who objected were outnumbered.
In early 1666 Shabbetai went to Constantinople and was arrested. In September he was brought before Sultan Mehmed IV and given a choice: prove his prophecy or die. He put on a turban, accepted Islam and took a court salary as Aziz Mehmed Effendi.
The blow was devastating. Most awoke in shame; some followers explained the apostasy as the messiah's descent into the husks and remained loyal, producing the Turkish Dönmeh and, a century later in Poland, the Frankists. The rabbinate answered with caution: Kabbalah study was restricted by age and preparation, and messianic enthusiasm drew suspicion for two hundred years.
How we know
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Sanhedrin 97b — “let those who calculate the end expire” — the Talmud’s warning
Rishonim
- Rambam, Melachim 11:4 — the criteria of a true Messiah — the measure by which a pretender is judged
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- responsa of Yaavetz — Rabbi Yaakov Emden’s campaign against covert Sabbateanism
Scholarship
- Tzitzat Novel Tzvi — the movement’s own documents, collected by its chief opponent Sasportas
Basis: accounts differ.
People and places
Arizal · Shabbetai Tzvi · Glikl of Hameln · Ramchal—Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto · Baal Shem Tov · Mesilat Yesharim · Kabbalah · Hasidism · Mashiach · Amsterdam · Hakham Tzvi—Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Ashkenazi · Rabbi Chaim Vital · The Taz—Rabbi David HaLevi Segal · Etz Chaim · Livorno · Rabbi Moses Hagiz · Ramaz—Rabbi Moses Zacuto · Nathan of Gaza · Tzitzat Novel Tzvi · Rabbi Jacob Emden—Yaavetz · Rabbi Jacob Sasportas · Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca · Rabbi Yosef Escapa · Rabbi Chaim Benveniste—the Knesset haGedolah · Rabbi Yehuda Rosanes—the Mishneh LaMelech · Izmir