Shabbetai Zevi
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SHABBETAI ZEVI:
THE MAN WHO WAS CALLED “MESSIAH”.
Shabbetai Zevi would appear an unusual candidate to be called Messiah. Married to a rumored prostitute, tormented by fits of mental unrest and depression, the breaker of traditional Jewish laws and customs; Shabbetai Zevi would never the less proclaim himself the Messiah by the age of twenty two, with the aim of restoring the kingdom of Israel, and placing the Sultans crown upon his own head. Perhaps even more remarkable, Zevis messianic proclamation would spark the interest, and intense devotion of Jews throughout the entire diaspora, in Europe, Asia, and Africa. So great was the Jewish devotion to Zevi during his lifetime, from rich and poor, commoner and Rabbi alike, that in almost every synagogue prayers for Zevi were posted that proclaimed him “Lord and King” and “Messiah”.
In the end, Shabbetai Zevi would be arrested by the Constantinople authorities, and the same sultan that Zevi had promised would bow before him, had Zevi imprisoned, converted to Islam, and made a royal gate keeper; though questions linger.
What can account for the unusual devotion to Shabbetai Zevi prior to, and even after his conversion to Islam? Was it because of the shrewd politicising of Zevis right hand man, Nathan of Gaza? Was it a sign of the times, in that Jews were just looking for a hero to lead them? Was it because Shabbetai Zevis life aligned with the prophesies of Lurianic Kabbalah? These are a few of the questions concerning Shabbetai Zevi and the Shabbatean Movement that I will answer, as we follow the fascinating rise and fall of Shabbetai Zevi, the man who was called “Messiah”.
One of several brothers, Shabbetai Zevi was born in Smyrna in 1626. According to legend, Shabbetai Zevis birth fell on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple. Shabbetais Father had immigrated to Smyrna from Peloponnesus, and worked as modest poultry dealer, before finding wealth as an agent for English and Dutch traders. Therefore, the son of a prosperous man, Shabbetai was given the luxury of studying to become one of the rabbinic elite, or hakham. Now, there are numerous versions of what happened next. In one version Shabbetai left the yeshivah at 15 to lead a life of abstinence and private study. Another version of Shabbetais life holds that he was taught by Issac de Alba, as well as the most celebrated rabbi of his time, Joseph Escapa; and he ordained as a hakham when he was 18. Which ever version we choose to accept, we will recognize that Shabbetai had good understanding of Talmud, Kabbalah, Zohar, Sefer ha-Kanah, and Sefer ha-Peliah; Not even Shabbetais distracters ever attacked him for being an idiot. Also during his youth, Shabbetai Zevi was married twice. Each marriage ended in divorce because he refused to sleep with either of his wives. Self imposed abstinence would be a theme throughout Zevis life, and on at least one occasion we have the story of Zevi displaying a fish that he had bought, as his child, perhaps to symbolize his inability to have children of his own. Furthermore, we also have the word of Zevis future Prophet, Nathan of Gaza, who once wrote that Zevi once had a dream where his penis was on fire and he awoke to find it burned [1]. From a modern perspective one could argue, perhaps strongly that Zevi suffered from a disease that effected his sexual organs, not that this relates much to the rest of Zevis story, but perhaps it is one of the roots to the cause of his widely documented bouts of depression and mental instability, which we will discuss latter.
This all brings us to the year 1648. Jews throughout the diaspora were feeling the ache of oppression: through Poland, Palestine, Yemen, Persia, Kurdistan, Holland, Italy, Morocco; even in the areas relatively free from oppression: Constantinople, Salonika, Leghorn, Amsterdam, Hamburg, there was still just enough to make it palpable. In thousands of tiny ways throughout the diaspora, the Jews were made to feel like less of men than the Gentiles who ruled them. Sometimes this discrimination against the Jews boiled over. There was the catastrophe that had overtaken Polish Jewry in 1648, where the Jews had been massacred by the Ukrainians, and prior to that there had been the expulsions, the inquisitions, mass forced conversions; and the Jews couldnt be sure when the next major oppression, or act of antisemitic violence would occur next. The feelings of oppression effected virtually all Jews, poor and rich, holy and common. The oppression was like a thorn in the foot, the ache crying out to be alleviated, but by whom? Surely not by a man. The Jews were too deeply entrenched in hostile territory, too few in number, too powerless, too militarily weak; that what man could possibly lead them to freedom? What man could possibly lead them back to Israel? No, perhaps it was a cause too great for any man, but perhaps not too great for a Messiah. Luckily, the Zohar had predicted that 1648 would be the year of the coming Messiah; and it was in this climate of oppression that Shabbetai Zevi took his first steps toward fulfilling that destiny.
In 1648, spurred by the massacre of Polish Jews and the prophecy of the Zohar, Zevi pronounced the Tetrogrammation, the ineffable four-letter name of God. This was a violation of the second commandment in Jewish law to all those but the messiah, as it was the ancient tradition that the law of God would be changed in the Messianic era, and the traditional system of halakhah would by nullified. When Zevi pronounced the Tetrogrammation without consequence he promptly declared himself Messiah, and many of his friends believed him, but not the rabbis or his own teacher, rather they declared him a fool; and as a result, somewhere around 1651-54 Zevi was banished from his hometown of Smyrna.
From Smyrna, Zevi zig zagged a path from place to place within the Ottoman Empire, finally settling in Salonika, where to prove his love for Judaism he literally and publicly married himself to a Torah scroll; a bizarre act that resulted in his banishment.
Once again in exile, Zevi was forced to confront his demons. For Zevi this was more than a figure of speech, he really believed that he was possessed by demons, and he reasoned that it was these demons that were the cause of his hardships. As a result, Zevi took up Kabbalah as a means to cleanse himself of his demons. Meanwhile he continued to wander throughout