So, you know what? This was supposed to be a well thought-out post about Shabbtai Tzvi. However, I realize that the only way to get myself to actually write this kind of thing is to force myself to do it in one sitting, so I might miss a couple of things. And so, important note: if you think I'm wrong on some point on the post or missed some important point, please say that in a reblog or comment and I'll try to address that.
Anyway, out story begins roughly around spring 1648, in Ukraine. At the time, the land was controlled by the Kingdom of Poland, which was Catholic and didn't treat the local Orthodox Ukrainians all too well. This led to the Cossack rebellion led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. As far as I understand, this marks the first attempt to found an independent Ukrainian state, which is why Khmelnytsky is considered something of a national hero by Ukrainians today. According to Wikipedia there are some reservations about him, as he supported allying with Russia (possibly due to religious similarities), but in general he's somewhat of a positive figure there. In Jewish tradition, however, we see him as the leader of some of the worst pogroms in history.
You see, in Polish society the Jews filled a very specific niche. That's true to everywhere in Europe, really, but the niche tends to differ, and in Poland it was as some sort of middlemen between the noblemen and the working men. Which, in Ukraine, were Ruthenian/Ukrainian villagers, who hated the Catholic nobility as well as the Jews, that were seen as its representatives. So, for the duration of 1648-1649 (Taḥ v'Tat in the Hebrew accounting), Khmelnytsky's cossacks led a number of pogroms in Jewish community across what we now call Ukraine, killing many, many Jews. One of the biggest massacres was in Nemirov, where thousands of Jews were killed during the 20th of Sivan of 5408 AM. A fast was later decreed on this day, which is actually coming up in a week's time! So, I don't know, consider commemorating that. Anyway, due to that and many other massacres, Khmelnytsky gained the nickname "Khamil haRasha" (lit. Evil Khamil) among Jews.
But Arch, I hear you ask, what does this have to do with famous false messiah Shabbtai Tzvi? Well, I'm glad you asked! Apparently, some of Tzvi's earliest visions have occurred around the time of these pogroms. In addition, a common theory on why he gained so much following is due to these pogroms. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's wind back a bit.
Shabbtai Tzvi was born in Izmir in Turkey almost exactly 400 years ago, on Tish‘a b’Av that occurred on Shabbat, to (probably) a Romaniote Jewish family. He got his name from having been born on Shabbat - apparently it was a tradition at the time. Anyway, Shabbtai Tzvi grew up there, studied Torah, and when he got to his twenties started studying Kabbalah. Some of you might wonder if he should've waited until he was forty, and well, the thing is this story is partially why this prohibition on Kabbalah exists in the first place. So wait.
Apparently, according to Sabbatean tradition, Tzvi experienced his first prophetic vision telling him he was the Mashiach at 22, the day after the aforementioned Nemirov pogrom. He was not silent about it: he proclaimed in Izmir that he was the Mashiach, pronounced the tetragrammaton as it's written (which is a huge taboo in Jewish society. Seriously, don't do it near Jews. Preferably don't do that at all since it's incredibly disrespectful, but at least don't do it near Jews), and apparently also attempted to recreate the miracle of Yehoshua in Gibeon. At some point, the rabbis of Izmir got sick of it and expelled him.
From there, Shabbtai Tzvi went to Saloniki - from where he was banished after conducting a marriage ceremony for himself and a scroll of Torah; and later to Kosta/Constantinople - where he (among other things) celebrated all three pilgrimage holidays in one week and was thus banished again. He returned to Izmir, where his family, ashamed by their brother, sent him to Eretz Yisra’el. Apparently it was in Kosta that he coined a known blessing of his: "baruch... Matir Isurim", as a paraphrase on the daily blessing "Matir Asurim". The latter means "unties bondage", with the idea of thanking G-d for giving us the ability to move after somewhat freezing during our sleep. The former means "undoes prohibitions" and was said when Shabbtai Tzvi intentionally broke the laws of the Torah. So it understandably upset people.
In Eretz Yisra’el, Tzvi behaved almost normally. According to Kabbalah researcher Gershom Sholem, Tzvi was bipolar, so perhaps he was having a depressive episode at the time. Which reminds me, I should probably say, I got the impression that not only did Shabbtai Tzvi have severe mental issues, he was aware of that. However, there weren't really therapists at the time, and his attempt to get it treated in this time's methods went... well, we'll get to it.
Anyway, Tzvi was a Torah student in Jerusalem, studied Kabbalah, and for a period of time didn't do many odd, provocative things. Except maybe marrying this one woman who claimed she was destined to marry the Mashiach and who apparently was a known prostitute or something? But that's rather less provocative than marrying a Torah scroll, I suppose. Anyway, he was sent by the Yeshivas of Jerusalem as a Shadar (Shlucha deRabanan, a messenger of the rabbis), which basically means he was begging for money from rich Jews in Egypt. The Yeshivot in Eretz Yisra’el did this often, they didn't really have good funding. Anyway, while in Egypt, he heard about a great rabbi who could help him with his mental/spriritual issues living in Gaza: Natan Ha‘Azati, Nathan of Gaza. Well, Shabbtai kind of abandoned his mission and went to Gaza to meet with him. And that's where things go from bad to worse.
The thing is, Nathan was also a great student of Kabbalah. That was probably what led Shabbtai Tzvi to him - he assumed that Nathan would be able to use his knowledge of Kabbalah to help with his spiritual issues. That, in itself, isn't exactly unique - using Kabbalah to heal and help people wasn't too uncommon a practice. However, Nathan also claimed to have had miraculous visions, and when Shabbtai Tzvi came to him he confirmed him as actually the Mashiach, proclaiming himself as his prophet. Things went rolling from there. (Among other things, Shabbtai told Nathan to change his name, which until then was Avraham Natan Ashkenazi, to Natan Avraham. I kind of forgot that this happened, but it's not too important.) Shabbtai Tzvi started gaining believers in Gaza and later Hebron, though apparently the rabbis of Jerusalem didn't really buy his claims. He also came back without the money he was supposed to collect, so that was a bummer.
Anyway, things escalated. Natan called to the Jewish world to not practice the fast of the 17th of Tamuz, since the Mashiach apparently came. The rabbis of Jerusalem, very much not approving of the things Shabbtai Tzvi and Natan did (which included appointing a Cohen Gadol to make offerings on the Temple mount, apparently), tried their best to rid of him in a number of ways - including telling the authorities he was planning a rebellion. However, the Ottomans didn't buy that, so they eventually resorted to kick him out of Jerusalem. Which naturally, led to something of a grand tour around the Middle East. He apparently gained many followers in Aleppo, which had a huge and significant Jewish community.
Beyond the people who met Shabbtai Tzvi directly, his cult spread via letters and correspondence from Nathan of Gaza and other followers to the Jewish world at large. The letters called for celebration, as the Messianic time arrived, as well as acts of repentance. Many Jews made somewhat extreme acts of repentance, and some sold their belongings, believing they'd soon all travel to Eretz Yisra’el. By 5425 AM, most of the Jewish world believed in the newcoming Mashiach. There was still opposition, sure, but Tzvi managed to beat even the fierce opposition from his home town of Izmir. This wasn't isolated to Jews in the Ottoman empire, it reached far and wide - to the degree that Rabbi Ya‘akov Sasportas, who served in Amsterdam (as well as in London for a short time not long before), had to self censor while writing against Shabbtai Tzvi, for fear of being ostracized himself.
In the meantime, Shabbtai Tzvi continued doing weird things (such as reading from a printed Chumash instead of a Torah scroll on Shabbat. Maybe he felt awkward meeting his ex bride after remarrying?/j), and moved on towards Constantinople. Many people were saying that he shall kill and dethrone the Ottoman Sultan and rule in his stead. And then he reached Constantinople by ship... only to be immediately arrested by Ottoman authorities. Apparently claiming to want to kill the Sultan has consequences, who knew.
For some reason, though, the Ottoman authorities didn't immediately execute Shabbtai Tzvi, instead imprisoning him. This led to the next stage in this story: the prison tower. However, before that, I want to make an anecdote.
Following Shabbtai Tzvi wasn't just a matter of believing him to be a Mashiach without practical implications. It dragged after it a whole awful lot of things - including a very specific Kabbalic view. One of the basic, as well as most problematic, tenets of the belief was the idea of ‘Avera LiShmah. Basically, the idea that committing what's considered a sin according to Judaism can be done in service of worshiping G-d. It comes from the idea of the Nitzotzot in Kabbalah, which I don't really want to get into. These views are one of the reasons for the severe anti-Sabbatean backlash that we'll eventually get to.
It would be kind of a while, though, because if you thought being imprisoned would deter the Messianic cult... you've got another thing coming. Because now, people started making pilgrimage to the tower where Shabbtai Tzvi stayed, to converse with him. And his following only grew. People were amazed that he wasn't executed despite supposedly claiming to intend to kill the Sultan, believing he was miraculously saved. When the Sultan's Vizier suggested that Shabbtai could go free if the local Jewish community paid a ransom for him, Shabbtai told them there's no need, as he'll miraculously get free without any need in payment. During the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av of 5426AM, most Jews around the world celebrated, as told by Shabbtai Tzvi from his prison.
What did change everything was the visit of a Polish Kabbalah scholar named Nechemiah Cohen. Apparently, after conversing for a while with Shabbtai Tzvi he was convinced the latter wasn't the Mashiach - possibly due to believing himself to be the Mashiach. After leaving Tzvi's cell he immediately proclaimed a desire to convert to Islam (in order to avoid being pursued by Shabbtai Tzvi's followers), and then went to see the Sultan, telling him that Shabbtai Tzvi is rebellious and should be dealt with. He then returned to Poland and to Judaism. The Sultan, meanwhile, offered Shabbtai Tzvi a choice: either he convert to Islam, or he will be executed. When faced by that, Shabbtai Tzvi chose conversion. And that caused the actual crisis in the Sabbatean movement.
Now, technically according to the dry Halacha Shabbtai Tzvi made the right call. While worshiping foreign idols is a sin that it's better to die than commit in Judaism, Islam isn't considered an idol-worshiping religion. So it's technically the right choice. But for someone who claimed to be the Mashiach... well. It upset people. Some followed him and converted to Islam as well; Nathan, who kept in correspondence with his Mashiach, apparently made some effort to convince people that this was just another stage in the promised salvation but that they shouldn't follow his example and convert. Most mainstream Jewish institutes started to shun the belief in Sabbateanism at this point, and throughout the next century or so they made efforts to excise all remains of the cult from Judaism.
Shabbtai Tzvi himself apparently kept a weird, mixed lifestyle, where he somewhat still practiced Judaism. After having caught doing that he was exiled to central Asia by the Ottoman authorities, and there he died. Currently, the most that remains of his cult are the Dönmeh in Turkey: a semi-Muslim, semi-Jewish group, that apparently draws a lot of the antisemitic ire in Turkiyë. They still believe in Shabbtai Tzvi.
In my next post in the series, I intend to talk about the Sabbatean hunters, and chief among them - Rabbi Ya‘akov Emden, the Ya‘avetz.
