Sabbatai Zevi

Sabbatai Zevi, (????? ??? Shabtai Tzvi in Hebrew) (also known as Shabbethai, Shabbetai, Sabbetai, or Shabtai; Zvi or Tzvi) (July 23 1626–possibly September 30 1676) was a claimed Messiah and Kabbalist. He was the founder of the Donmeh sect, which flourished in the Ottoman Empire, and which drew elements from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as of the more Judaism-influenced Sabbatian movement (Sabbatianism), which continued in Europe after his death.

Disillusion

Sabbatai's conversion was extremely disheartening for the Jewish communities. Prominent rabbis who were believers in and followers of Sabbatai were prostrated with shame. Among the masses 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 and duped 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 fifty prominent rabbis should be executed; only the contrary advice of some of his counsellors and of the sultana's mother prevented these calamities. In spite of Sabbatai's shameful behaviour, however, many of his adherents still tenaciously clung to him, claiming that his conversion was a part of the Messianic scheme. This belief was further upheld and strengthened by false prophets like Ghazzati and Primo, who were interested in maintaining the movement. In many communities the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av were still observed as feast-days in spite of bans and excommunications.

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Meanwhile Sabbatai secretly played a double game. At times he would assume the role of a pious Muslim and revile Judaism; at others he would enter into relations with Jews as one of their own faith. 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 Sabbatai was 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 thus 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.

Related Topics:
1668 - Judaeo–Turkish

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This double-dealing with Jews and Muslims did not last very long. Gradually the Turks tired of Sabbatai's schemes. 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, a small place in Albania, where he died in loneliness and obscurity.

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