Sabbatai Zevi (, August 1, 1626 – ), has a whole discussion of the historical probabilities that he was really born on the 9th of Av, which according to Jewish tradition is the date of the destruction of both Temples and is also the date 'prescribed' in some traditions for the birth of the Messiah. or Shabtai Tzvi, was a former Jewish mystic and rabbi from Smyrna who converted to Islam., mentions, among other evidence of Sabbatai's early rabbinic training and semikhah by Rabbi Joseph Eskapha of his native town of Smyrna: "According to the testimony of Leib b. Ozer, the notary of the notary of the Ashkenazi community of Amsterdam ..., Sabbatai was eighteen years old when he was ordained a hakham." Scholem also writes, in the previous sentence: "Thomas Coenen, the Protestant minister serving the Dutch congregation in Smyrna, tells us ... that he received the title hakham, the Sephardi honorific for a rabbi, when still an adolescent." His family were Romaniote Jews from Patras.
Active throughout the Ottoman Empire, Zevi claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah and founded the Sabbatean movement, which gained significant traction among Jews. Central to his teachings was the belief that during the Messianic Age, acts traditionally considered sinful would transform into righteous ones. This antinomian doctrine led Zevi and his followers to deliberately violate Jewish commandments, a controversial practice that later inspired movements like the Frankists.
Upon arriving in Constantinople in February 1666, Sabbatai was imprisoned on the order of the grand vizier Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha. In September, after being moved from different prisons around the capital to the imperial courts' seat in Adrianople (now Edirne), he was convicted of fomenting sedition. Sabbatai was given the choice of death or conversion to Islam by the Grand Vizier representing Sultan Mehmed IV. He chose conversion, donning an Islamic turban from then on. The heads of the Ottoman state rewarded him with a generous pension for complying with their political and religious plans. About 300 families who followed Zevi also converted to Islam and became known as the Dönme, Turkish for "converts".
Subsequently, the Ottomans banished him twice, first within Constantinople, and, after he was heard singing Psalms with Jews there, to a small town known today as Ulcinj in what is now Montenegro. He died in isolation.
Early life and education
Sabbatai Zevi was born in the Ottoman city of Smyrna, allegedly on Tisha B'Av, one of Judaism's fast days, during The Three Weeks in 1626. In Hebrew, Sabbatai means Saturn; in Jewish tradition, "the reign of Sabbatai", the highest planet, was often linked to the advent of the Messiah.
Zevi's family were Romaniote Jews from Patras. His father, Mordecai, was a poultry dealer in the Morea. During the Ottoman–Venetian wars, Smyrna became the center of Levantine trade, and Mordecai became the Smyrnan agent of an English trading house, achieving some wealth in the process. His sister, Orah Gadol, was a learned woman in her own right, well known among the Jews of Smyrna.
Following the prevailing Jewish custom of the time, Sabbatai's father had him study the Talmud. He attended a yeshiva under the chief rabbi of Smyrna, Joseph Escapa. Studies in halakha (Jewish law) did not appeal to him, but Zevi did attain proficiency in the Talmud. At the same time, he was fascinated by mysticism and Kabbalah and was influenced by Isaac Luria. Practical Kabbalah, whose devotees used asceticism to communicate with God and the angels to predict the future and perform miracles, was especially appealing to him. As well as Luria's writings, he read the Zohar and practiced asceticism and Kabbalistic purification exercises called tikkunim.
Personal history
Influence of English millenarianism During the first half of the 17th century, millenarian ideas about the approach of the Messianic Age were popular. They included ideas about the redemption of the Jews and their return to the land of Israel with independent sovereignty. Christian authors identified the apocalyptic year as 1666, and millenarianism was widespread in England. This belief was so prevalent that Menasseh Ben Israel, in his letter to Oliver Cromwell and the Rump Parliament, appealed to it as a reason to readmit Jews into England, saying, "the opinions of many Christians and mine do concur herein, that we both believe that the restoring time of our Nation into their native country is very near at hand."
As Sabbatai's father was the agent for an English trading house in Smyrna, he must have had business contacts with English people. His son may have learned something about Western millennial expectations at home.This theory was originally suggested by Graetz; Gershom Scholem argued forcefully against it in his major work on Sabbatai, quoted throughout this entry. Scholars are still assessing how much English and Dutch Calvinist millenarianism influenced the messianic movement that developed around Zevi's activities.
Claims to being the expected Jewish Messiah
Along with general messianic beliefs, there was another computation based on a passage in the Zohar, a famous Jewish mystical text, that the Israelites would be redeemed by the long-awaited Jewish Messiah in 1648.
In 1648, Shabbatai announced to his followers in Smyrna that he was the anticipated messianic redeemer. To prove this, he started to pronounce the Tetragrammaton, an act prohibited to all but the High Priest of Israel in the Temple in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur. Since the Temple had been destroyed in the Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), this act was highly symbolic. Shabbatai also claimed he could fly, but told his followers he could not do so publicly because they were "not worthy enough" to witness it. He also claimed to have visions of God.
Shabbatai revealed his claim to being the Messiah early on to Isaac Silveyra and Moses Pinheiro, the latter the grandfather of the Italian rabbi Joseph Ergas.
At 22, Shabbatai was still too young to be considered an established rabbinic authority; his influence in the local community was limited. Even though he had led the pious life of a mystic in Smyrna for several years, the older, more established rabbinic leadership was suspicious of his activities and the local college of rabbis. Headed by his teacher, Joseph Escapa, they watched him. When his messianic pretensions became too bold, he and his followers were subjected to an edict of ḥerem, a type of excommunication in Judaism.
In about 1651 (or 1654), the rabbis banished Shabbatai and his disciples from Smyrna. It is uncertain where he went from there, but by 1658, he surfaced in Constantinople. There, he met a preacher, Abraham Yachini, a disciple of the Talmudic scholar Joseph Trani, who confirmed his messianic mission. Yachini is said to have forged a manuscript in archaic characters that attested to Shabbatai's claim to be the Messiah. It was titled The Great Wisdom of Solomon and began:
In Salonica, Cairo, and Jerusalem
Equipped with this document, Sabbatai chose Salonica, then a hub of Kabbalistic dialogue, as his base. He proclaimed himself the Messiah, or "anointed one", and attracted a large following by hosting various mystical events. For instance, he celebrated his marriage to the Torah, calling it the "One Without End" (the Ein Sof), and organized a solemn festival to which he invited his friends. But the rabbis of Salonica, led by Abraham de Boton, expelled him from the city. Reports vary on his subsequent movements, with Alexandria, Athens, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Smyrna mentioned as temporary bases he might have taken. Eventually, he settled in Cairo, where he lived for about two years (1660–1662).
There he befriended Raphael Joseph Halabi, a wealthy and influential Jew who held the high position of mint-master and tax farmer in Ottoman Cairo. Raphael Joseph led an ascetic life, which included fasting, bathing in cold water, and scourging himself at night. He used his great wealth for charity, supporting poor Talmudists and Kabbalists, fifty of whom reportedly regularly dined at his table. He became a supporter and promoter of Sabbatai's messianic claims.
Around 1663, Sabbatai moved to Jerusalem, where he resumed ascetic practices of frequent fasting and other penances. Many saw this as proof of his extraordinary piety. He was said to have a good voice and to attract large audiences when he sang psalms all night long or Spanish love songs, to which he gave mystical interpretations. At other times, he prayed and cried at the graves of pious men and women or distributed confections to children on the streets. Gradually, he gathered a larger circle of adherents.
At the time, Jerusalem's Jewish community was in desperate need of money to pay the Ottoman government's high taxes. Known as the favourite of Raphael Joseph Halabi, Sabbatai was chosen to appeal to him for money and support. He secured the funds, raising his prestige. His followers dated his public career from this journey to Cairo.
Marriage to Sarah Another significant event during his second stay in Cairo contributed to Sabbatai's reputation in the Jewish community. During the Khmelnytsky Uprising in Poland, a young Jewish orphan named Sarah was discovered by Christians and sent to a convent for care. After ten years, at around sixteen, she escaped—claiming it was through a miracle—and made her way to Amsterdam. Subsequently, she traveled to Livorno, where reports indicated that she led a life of prostitution while also embracing the belief that she would become the bride of the Messiah, whose arrival was thought to be imminent.
When a report of her adventures reached Cairo, Sabbatai claimed that such a consort had been promised to him in a dream because he, as the Messiah, was bound to fall in love with an unchaste woman. He reportedly sent messengers to Livorno to bring Sarah to him, and they married at Halabi's house. Her beauty and eccentricity reportedly helped him gain new followers. Through her, a new romantic and licentious element entered Sabbatai's career. The overturning of her past life was interpreted by Sabbatai's followers as further confirmation of his messiahship, following the Biblical story of the prophet Hosea, who had also been commanded to take a "wife of whoredom" as the first symbolic act of his calling.
Nathan of Gaza
With Halabi's financial and political backing, a charming wife, and many additional followers, Shabbatai returned to Jerusalem in triumph. Passing through the city of Gaza, which at the time had an important Jewish community, he met Nathan Benjamin Levi, known since as Nathan of Gaza (), who became very active in Shabbatai's messianic career, serving as his right-hand man and declaring himself to be the risen Elijah, who, it was predicted, would proclaim the arrival of the Messiah. In 1665, Nathan announced that the Messianic Age would begin in 1666 with the conquest of the world without bloodshed. The Messiah would lead the Ten Lost Tribes back to the Holy Land, "riding on a lion with a seven-headed dragon in its jaws".
The rabbis of Jerusalem viewed Shabbatai's movement with great suspicion and threatened its followers with excommunication. Acknowledging that Jerusalem was not the best place to carry out his plans, Shabbatai left for his native Smyrna. Nathan proclaimed that, henceforth, Gaza, rather than Jerusalem, would be the sacred city. On his way from Jerusalem to Smyrna, Shabbatai was greeted enthusiastically in Aleppo. In Smyrna, which he reached in the autumn of 1665, great homage was paid to him. After some hesitation, he declared himself to be the expected Messiah during Rosh Hashanah in 1665; his declaration was made in the synagogue with the blowing of shofars and shouts of "Long live our King, our Messiah!"