Case of Sabbatai Zevi
(July 22, 1626 - 1676)
 |
| Shabbatai Zevi - Alleged Sex Offender |
(AKA: Shabbatai Zvi, Shabbethai
Zevi, Shabati Zevi)
Sabbatean Movement - Messiah of the God
of Jacob
Smyrna, Ottoman, Turkey
Salonika (now Thessaloníki), Greece
Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey
Egypt
Palestine
Dulcigno, Albania
Salonika (now Thessaloníki), Greece
Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey
Egypt
Palestine
Dulcigno, Albania
Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses.
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Table of Contents:
- Timeline
- Background Information: Shabbatai Zevi
- Shrine of False Messiah in Turkey May Be Razed (05/18/2007)
Also see:
- Cults and Mind Control
- Case of Jacob Frank and The Frankist Movement
- Case of Rebbe Berechiah (son of Rabbi Jacob Querido)
- Case of Rabbi Marc Gafni (AKA: Mordechai Gafni)
- Case of Rabbi Hershy Worch
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Timeline
1626 - Born on the 22th of July in Izmir, Turkey
1647 - At the age of 21 Shabbatai Zevi declared himself the messiah
1651 - He and his disciples were banished from Symrna.
1658 - In Constantinople he met a preacher Abrahan ha-yakini, who confirmed Sabbatai.
1665 - Sabbatai’s claims were echoed by his prodigy Nathan of Gaza. For the next sixteen months, the Messianic movement headed by Sabbatai and his “prophet” Nathan's ideas swept through the Jewish Diaspora. From London to Poland, from Hamburg to Yemen, Jews believed in perfect faith that Sabbatai Zevi was the promised Redeemer, about to lead them back to the Holy Land and rebuild the Temple.
1666 - Sabbatai Zevi was a prisoner of the Turkish sultan Mehmed IV. To save his life he converted to Islam, changing his name to “Mehmed Effendi” . For the next 10 years, until he died he lived a double life, practicing Islam and Judaism together. Even though it was proven he was not the messiah, throughout the Jewish Diaspora, thousands remained convinced that he was still the Messiah.
1676 - Shabbatai Zevi died in Dulcigno, Albania. To this day there remains a nominally Muslim sect of his disciples called the Dönmeh.
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Background Information: Shabbatai Zevi
By Kaufmann Kohler and Henry Malter
Jewish Encyclopedia.com
Pseudo-Messiah and cabalist; founder of the Shabbethaian
sect; born on the Ninth of Ab (July 23, 1626) at Smyrna; died, according
to some, on the Day of Atonement (Sept. 30), 1676, at Duleigno, a small town
in Albania. He was of Spanish descent. His father (Mordecai) had been a poor
poultry-dealer in the Morea. Later, when, in consequence of the war between
Turkey and Venice under the sultan Ibrahim, Smyrna became the center of the
trade in the Levant, Mordecai became the agent in that town of an English
house, whose interests he guarded with strict honesty; and he acquired
considerable wealth.
Early Years.
In accordance with the prevailing custom of the Oriental
Jews of that time, Shabbethai was destined by his father for a Talmudist.
In his early youth he attended the yeshibah under the veteran rabbi of Smyrna,
Joseph
Escapa; but halakic and pilpulistic studies did not appeal to his
enthusiastic and fanciful mind, nor did he apparently attain any proficiency
in the Talmud. On the other hand, mysticism and the Cabala, in the prevailing
style of
Isaac
Luria, had a great fascination for him. Especially did the practical
Cabala, with its asceticism,and its mortification of the body—whereby
its devotees claimed to be able to communicate with God and the angels, to
predict the future, and to perform all sorts of miracles—appeal to him.
In his boyhood he had inclined to a life of solitude. According to custom,
he married early, but avoided intercourse with his wife; so that she applied
for a divorce, which he willingly granted. The same thing happened with a
second wife. Later, when he became more imbued with the fancies of the Cabala,
he lost all mental equilibrium. He imposed the severest mortifications on
himself—bathed frequently in the sea, even in winter; fasted day after
day—and lived constantly in a state of ecstasy.
Influence of English Millenarianism.
Inconnection with the preliminary causes, which, as
far as they are known, may account for the fateful rôle which was
subsequently assumed by Shabbethai, another point should be mentioned here.
During the first half of the seventeenth century some extravagant notions
of the near approach of the Messianic time, and more especially of the redemption
of the Jews and their return to Jerusalem, were set forth by Christian writers
and entertained by Jews and Christians alike. The so-called apocalyptic year
was assigned by Christian authors to the year 1666. This belief was so
predominant that Manasseh b. Israel in his letter to Cromwell and the English
Parliament did not hesitate to use it as a motive for his plea for the
readmission of the Jews into England, remarking that "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" (see
Grätz, "Gesch." x., note 3, pp. xxix. et seq.). Shabbethai's father,
who as the agent of an English house was in constant touch with English people,
must have frequently heard of these expectations and, himself strongly inclined
to believe them, must naturally have communicated them to his son, whom he
almost deified because of his piety and kabalistic wisdom.
Claims Messiahship.
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| Sabbatzi Zvi - Alleged Sexual Predator |
Apart from this general Messianic theory, there was
another computation, based on a presumably interpolated passage in the Zohar
and particularly popular among the Jews, according to which the year 1648
was to be the year of Israel's redemption
by the Messiah. All these things so worked on the bewildered mind of Shabbethai
as to lead him to conceive and partly carry out a plan which was of the gravest
consequences for the whole of Jewry and whose effects are felt even at the
present time: he decided to assume the rôle of the expected Messiah.
Though only twenty-two years old, he dared (in the ominous year 1648) to
reveal himself at Smyrna to a band of followers (whom he had won over through
his cabalistic knowledge, his attractive appearance and personality, and
his strange actions) as the true Messianic redeemer designated by God to
overthrow the governments of the nations and to restore Israel to Jerusalem.
His mode of revealing his mission was the pronouncing of the Tetragrammaton
in Hebrew, an act which was allowed only to the high priest in the Sanctuary
on the Day of Atonement. This was of great significance to those acquainted
with rabbinical and especially kabalistic literature. However, Shabbethai's
authority at the age of twenty-two did not reach far enough to gain for him
many adherents. Among the first of these to whom he revealed his Messiahship
in the foregoing manner were Isaac Silveyra and Moses Pinheiro, the latter
a brother-in-law of the Italian rabbi and cabalist
Joseph
Ergas. Shabbethai remained for several years at Smyrna, leading a pious,
mystic life, and causing in the community many bickerings, the details of
which are not known. The college of rabbis having at their head his teacher,
Joseph Escapa, watched Shabbethai closely; and when his Messianic pretensions
became too bold they put him and his followers under the ban.
About the year 1651 (according to others, 1654; see
Grätz, l.c. p. xxxii.) Shabbethai and his disciples were banished from
Smyrna. Whither he betook himself is not quite certain. In 1653, or at the
latest 1658, he was in Constantinople, where he made the acquaintance of
a preacher,
Abraham
ha-Yakini (a disciple of Joseph di Trani and a man of great intelligence
and high repute), who, either from selfish motives or from delight in
mystification, confirmed Shabbethai in his delusions. Ha-Yakini is said to
have forged a manuscript in archaic characters and in a style imitating the
ancient apocalypses, and which, as he alleged, bore testimony to Shabbethai's
Messiahship. It was entitled "The Great Wisdom of Solomon" and began:
"I, Abraham, was confined in a cave for forty years, and I wondered greatly that the time of miracles did not arrive. Then was heard a voice proclaiming, 'A son will be born in the year 5386 [1626] to Mordecai Zebi; and he will be called Shabbethai. He will humble the great dragon; . . . he, the true Messiah, will sit upon My [God's] throne."
In Salonica.
With this document, which he appears to have accepted
as an actual revelation, Shabbethai determined to choose Salonica, at that
time a center of cabalists, as the field for his further operations. Here
he boldly proclaimed himself as the Messiah, gaining many adherents. In order
to impress his Messiahship upon the minds of his enthusiastic friends he
indulged in all sorts of mystic juggleries; e.g., the celebration of his
marriage as Son of God ("En Sof") with the Torah, preparing for this performance
a solemn festival, to which he invited his friends. The consequence was that
the rabbis of Salonica banished him from the city. The sources differ widely
as to the route taken by him after this expulsion, Alexandria, Athens,
Constantinople, Jerusalem, Smyrna, and other places being mentioned as temporary
centers of his impostures. Finally, however, after long wanderings, he settled
in Cairo, Egypt, where he resided for about two years (1660-62).
At that time there lived in Cairo a very wealthy and
influential Jew named Raphael Joseph Halabi ( "of Aleppo"), who held the
high position of mint-master and tax-farmer under the Turkish government.
Despite his riches and the external splendor which he displayed before the
public, he continued to lead privately an ascetic life, fasting, bathing,
and frequently scourging his body at night. His great wealth he used most
benevolently, supplying the needs of poor Talmudists and cabalists, fifty
of whom permanently dined at his table. Shabbethai at once made the acquaintance
of Raphael Joseph, who, being possessed by eccentric, mystic ideas, became
one of the most zealous promulgators of his Messianic plans.
It seems, however, that Cairo did not appear to Shabbethai
to be the proper place wherein to carry out his long-cherished scheme. The
apocalyptic year 1666 was approaching; and something had to be done to establish
his Messiahship. He therefore left the Egyptian capital and betook himself
to Jerusalem, hoping that in the Holy City a miracle might happen to confirm
his pretensions. Arriving there about 1663, he at first remained inactive,
so as not to offend the community. He again resorted to his former practise
of mortifying the body by frequent fasting and other penances in order to
gain the confidence of the people, who saw therein proofs of extraordinary
piety. With great shrewdness he adopted also various means of an inoffensive
character which helped him to endear himself to the credulous masses. Being
endowed with a very melodious voice, he used to sing psalms during the whole
night, or at times even coarse Spanish love-songs, to which he gave a mystic
interpretation, attracting thereby crowds of admiring listeners. At other
times he would pray at the graves of pious men and women and, as some of
his followers reported, shed floods of tears, or he would distribute all
sorts of sweetmeats to the children on the streets. Thus he gradually gathered
around him a circle of adherents, who blindly placed their faith in him.
At this juncture an unexpected incident brought him
back to Cairo. The community of Jerusalem needed money in order to avert
a calamity which greedy Turkish officials planned against it. Shabbethai,
known as the favorite of the rich Raphal Joseph Halabi, was chosen as the
envoy of the distressed community; and he willingly undertook the task, as
it gave him an opportunity to act as the deliverer of the Holy City. As soon
as he appeared before Halabi he obtained from him the necessary sum, a success
which gave him great prestige and offered the best prospects for his future
Messianic plans. His worshipers indeed dated his public career from this
second journey to Cairo.
Marries Sarah.
Another circumstance assisted Shabbethai in the course
of his second stay at Cairo.
Chmielnick
massacres in Poland a Jewish orphan girl named Sarah, about six years
old, had been found by Christians and sent to a nunnery. After ten years'
confinement she escaped in a miraculous way and was brought to Amsterdam.
Some years later she came to Leghorn, where, according to authentic reports,
she led an irregular life. Being of a very eccentric disposition, she conceived
the notion that she was to become the bride of the Messiah who was soon to
appear. The report of this girl reached Cairo; and Shabbethai, always looking
for something unusual and impressive, at once seized upon the opportunity
and claimed that such a consort had been promised him in a dream. Messengers
were sent to Leghorn; and Sarah was brought to Cairo, where she was wedded
to Shabbethai in Halabi's house. Through her a romantic, licentious element
entered into Shabbethai's career. Her beauty and eccentricity gained for
him many new followers; and even her past lewd life was looked upon as an
additional confirmation of his Messiahship, the prophet Hosea having been
commanded to marry an unchaste woman.
Nathan Ghazzati.
Equipped with Halabi's money, possessed of a charming
wife, and having many additional followers, Shabbethai triumphantly returned
to Palestine. Passing through the city of Gaza, he met a man who was to become
very active in his subsequent Messianic career. This was Nathan Benjamin
Levi, known under the name of
Nathan
Ghazzati. He became Shabbethai's right-hand man, and professed to be
the risen Elijah, the precursor of the Messiah. In 1665 Ghazzati announced
that the Messianic age was to begin in the following year. This revelation
he proclaimed in writing far and wide, with many additional details to the
effect that the world would be conquered by him, the Elijah, without bloodshed;
that the Messiah would then lead back the Ten Tribes to the Holy Land, "riding
on a lion with a seven-headed dragon in its jaws"; and similar fantasies.
All these grotesque absurdities received wide credence.
The rabbis of the Holy City, however,
looked with much suspicion on the movement, and threatened its followers
with excommunication. Shabbethai, realizing that Jerusalem was not a congenial
place in which to carry out his plans, left for his native city, Smyrna,
while his prophet, Nathan, proclaimed that henceforth Gaza, and not Jerusalem,
would be the sacred city. On his way from Jerusalem to Smyrna, Shabbethai
was enthusiastically greeted in the large Asiatic community of Aleppo; and
at Smyrna, which he reached in the autumn of 1665, the greatest homage was
paid to him. Finally, after some hesitation, he publicly declared himself
as the expected Messiah (New-Year. 1665); the declaration was made in the
synagogue, with the blowing of horns, and the multitude greeted him with
"Long live our King, our
Proclaimed Messiah.
The delirious joy of his followers knew no bounds.
Shabbethai, assisted by his wife, now became the sole ruler of the community.
In this capacity he used his power to crush all opposition. For instance,
he deposed the old rabbi of Smyrna,
Aaron
Lapapa, and appointed in his place
Hayyim
Benveniste. His popularity grew with incredible rapidity, as not only
Jews, but Christians also, spread his story far and wide. His fame extended
to all countries. Italy, Germany, and Holland had centers where the Messianic
movement was ardently promulgated; and the Jews of Hamburg and Amsterdam
received confirmation of the extraordinary events in Smyrna from trust worthy
Christians. A distinguished German savant, Heinrich Oldenburg, wrote to Spinoza
("Spinozæ Epistolæ," No. 16): "All the world here is talking
of a rumor of the return of the Israelites . . . to their own country. .
. . Should the news be confirmed, it may bring about a revolution in all
things." Even Spinoza himself entertained the possibility that with this
favorable opportunity the Jews might reestablish their kingdom and again
be the chosen of God.
Among the many prominent rabbis of that time who were
followers of Shabbethai may be mentioned
Isaac
da Fonseca Aboab,
Moses
Raphael de Aguilar,
Moses
Galante,
Moses
Zacuto, and the above-mentioned
Hayyim
Benveniste. Even the semi-Spinozist Dionysius
Mussafia
(Musaphia)
likewise became his zealous adherent. The most fantastic reportswere spread
in all communities, and were accepted as truth even by otherwise dispassionate
men, as, for instance, "that in the north of Scotland a ship had appeared
with silken sails and ropes, manned by sailors who spoke Hebrew. The flag
bore the inscription 'The Twelfe Tribes of Israel.'" The community of Avignon,
France, prepared, therefore, to emigrate to the new kingdom in the spring
of 1666.
Spread of Influence.
The adherents of Shabbethai, probably with his consent,
even planned to abolish to a great extent the ritualistic observances, because,
according to a tradition, in the Messianic time most of them were to lose
their obligatory character. The first step toward the disintegration of
traditional Judaism was the changing of the fast of the Tenth of Tebet to
a day of feasting and rejoicing.
Samuel
Primo, a man who entered Shabbethai's service as secretary at the time
when the latter left Jerusalem for Smyrna, directed in the name of the Messiah
the following circular to the whole of Israel:
"The first-begotten Son of God, Shabbethai Zevi, Messiah
and Redeemer of the people of Israel, to all the sons of Israel, Peace! Since
ye have been deemed worthy to behold the great day and the fulfilment of
God's word by the Prophets, your lament and sorrow must be changed into joy,
and your fasting into merriment; for ye shall weep no more. Rejoice with
song and melody, and change the day formerly spent in sadness and sorrow
into a day of jubilee, because I have appeared."
This message produced wild excitement and dissension
in the communities, as many of the pious orthodox rabbis, who had hitherto
regarded the movement sympathetically, were shocked at these radical innovations
Solomon
Algazi, a prominent Talmudist of Smyrna, and other members of the rabbinate,
who opposed the abolition of the fast, narrowly escaped with their
lives.
In Constantinople.
At the beginning of the year 1666 Shabbethai again
left Smyrna for Constantinople, either because he was compelled to do so
by the city authorities or because of a desire and a hope that a miracle
would happen in the Turkish capital to fulfil the prophecy of Nathan Ghazzati,
that Shabbethai would place the sultan's crown on his own head. As soon as
he reached the landing-place, however, he was arrested at the command of
the grand vizier, Ahmad Köprili, and cast into prison in chains. An
under-pasha, commissioned to receive Shabbethai on the ship, welcomed him
with a vigorous box on the car. When this official was asked later to explain
his conduct, he attempted to exonerate himself by blaming the Jews for having
proclaimed Shabbethai as their Messiah against his own will.
Shabbethai's imprisonment, however, had no discouraging
effect either on him or on his followers. On the contrary, the lenient treatment
which he secured by means of bribes served rather to strengthen them in their
Messianic delusions. In the meantime all sorts of fabulous reports concerning
the miraculous deeds which the Messiah was performing in the Turkish capital
were spread by Ghazzati and Primo among the Jews of Smyrna and in many other
communities; and the expectations of the Jews were raised to a still higher
pitch.
At Abydos ("Migdal 'Oz").
After two months' imprisonment in Constantinople,
Shabbethai was brought to the state prison in the castle of Abydos. Here
he was treated very leniently, some of his friends even being allowed to
accompany him. In consequence the Shabbethaians called that fortress "Migdal
'Oz" (Tower of Strength). As the day on which he was brought to Abydos was
the day preceding Passover, he slew a paschal lamb for himself and his followers
and ate it with its fat, which was a violation of the Law. It is said that
he pronounced over it the benediction "Blessed be God who hath restored again
that which was forbidden." The immense sums sent to him by his rich adherents,
the charms of the queenly Sarah, and the reverential admiration shown him
even by the Turkish officials and the inhabitants of the place enabled Shabbethai
to display royal splendor in the castle of Abydos, accounts of which were
exaggerated and spread among Jews in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In some parts
of Europe Jews began to unroof their houses and prepare for the exodus. In
almost all synagogues Shabbethai's initials, "S.Z," were posted; and prayers
for him were inserted in the following form: "Bless our Lord and King, the
holy and righteous Shabbethai Zebi, the Messiah of the God of Jacob." In
Hamburg the council introduced this custom of praying for Shabbethai not
only on Saturday, but also on Monday and Thursday; and unbelievers were compelled
to remain in the synagogue and join in the prayer with a loud "Amen."
Shabbethai's picture was printed together with that of King David in most
of the prayer-books; and his cabalistic formulas and penances were embodied
therein.
These and similar innovations caused great dissensions
in various communities. In Moravia the reached such a pitch that the government
had to interfere, while at Sale, Africa, the emir ordered a persecution of
the Jews. This state of affairs lasted three months (April to July), during
which time Shabbethai's adherents busied themselves in sending forged letters
to deceive their brethren in distant communities. It was also during this
period that Shabbethai, in a general desire for innovations aiming at the
abrogation of all laws and customs, transformed the fasts of the Seventeenth
of Tammuz and the Ninth of Ab (his birthday) into feast-days; and it is said
that he contemplated even the abolition of the Day of Atonement.
Nehemiah Ha-Kohen.
At this time an incident happened
which resulted in discrediting Shabbethai's Messiahship. Two prominent Polish
Talmudists from Lemberg, Galicia, who were among the visitors of Shabbethai
in Abydos, apprised him of the fact that in their native country a prophet,
Nehemiah
ha-Kohen, had announced the coming of the Messiah. Shabbethai ordered
the prophet to appear before him.<paratext>A ix. 212a, s.v. Nehemiah
ha-Kohen; and Nehemiah obeyed, reaching Abydos after a journey of three months,
in the beginning of Sept., 1666. The conference between the two impostors
ended in mutual dissatisfaction, and the fanatical Shabbethaians are said
to have contemplated the secret murder of the dangerous rival.
Adopts Islam.
Nehemiah, however, escaped to Constantinople, where
he embraced Mohammedanism and betrayed the treasonable desires of Shabbethai
to the kaimakam, who in turn informed the sultan, Mohammed IV. At the command
of Mohammed, Shabbethai was now taken from Abydos to Adrianople, where the
sultan's physician, a former Jew, advised Shabbethai Islam as the only means
of saving his life. Shabbethai realized the danger of his situation and adopted
the physician's advice. On the following day (Sept. 16, 1666; comp. Büchler
in "Kaufmann Gedenkbuch," p. 453, note 2, Breslau, 1900), being brought before
the sultan, he cast off his Jewish garb and put a Turkish turban on his head;
and thus his conversion to Islam was accomplished. The sultan was much pleased,
and rewarded Shabbethai by conferring on him the title (Mahmed) "Effendi"
and appointing him as his doorkeeper with a high salary. Sarah and a number
of Shabbethai's followers also went over to Islam. To complete his acceptance
of Mohammedanism, Shabbethai was ordered to take an additional wife, a Mohammedan
slave, which order he obeyed. Some days after his conversion he had the audacity
to write to Smyrna: "God has made me an Ishmaelite; He commanded, and it
was done. The ninth day of my regeneration."
Disillusion.
The effects of the pseudo-Messiah's conversion on the
Jewish communities were extremely disheartening. Prominent rabbis who were
believers in and followers of Shabbethai were prostrated by compunction and
shame. Among the masses of the people the greatest confusion reigned. In
addition to the misery and disappointment from within, Mohammedans and Christians
jeered at and scorned the credulous and duped Jews. The sultan even purposed
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; and only the contrary advice of some of his counselors
and of the sultana mother prevented these calamities. In spite of Shabbethai's
shameful fiasco, however, many of his adherents still tenaciously clung to
him, pretending that his conversion was a part of the Messianic scheme. This
belief was further upheld and strengthened by false prophets like GhPrimo,
who were interested in maintaining the movement. In many communities the
Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Ab were still observed as feast-days
in spite of bans and excommunications.
Meanwhile Shabbethai secretly continued his plots,
playing a double game. At times he would assume the rôle of a pious
Mohammedan and revile Judaism; at others he would enter into relations with
Jews as one of their own faith. Thus in March, 1668, he gave out anew that
he had been filled with the Holy Spirit at Passover and had received a
revelation. He, or one of his followers, published a mystic work addressed
to the Jews in which the most fantastic notions were se.g., that he was the
true Redeemer, in spite of his conversion, his object being to bring over
thousands of Mohammedans to Judaism. To the sultan he said that his activity
among the Jews was to bring them over to Islam. He therefore received permission
to associate with his former coreligionists, and even to preach in their
synagogues. He thus succeeded in bringing over a number of Mohammedans to
his cabalistic views, and, on the other hand, in converting many Jews to
Islam, thus forming a Judæo-Turkish sect
(Donmeh),
whose followers implicitly believed in him.
This double-dealing with Jews and Mohammedans, however,
could not last very long. Gradually the Turks tired of Shabbethai'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 surprised while 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.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Shrine of False Messiah in Turkey May Be
Razed
By Jay Michaelson | Fri. May 18, 2007
Far away from the eyes of the Jewish mainstream, in
modern-day Turkey there live hundreds, if not thousands, of crypto-Jews —
and today, one of their most sacred shrines is in danger.
This is the hidden, fascinating tale of the doenmeh,
descendants of the faithful followers of the 17th-century false messiah Sabbetai
Tzvi, who converted to Islam in 1666. Tzvi's own conversion came under duress:
The Ottoman sultan demanded that he don the turban or die after nearly one-third
of European Jewry had come to believe he was the messiah and had begun swarming
into Turkey, expecting the long-awaited triumph of the Jews.
Tzvi chose to convert, and most of his followers lost
hope — but not all of them. Many saw the conversion as a heroic act
of tikkun, or repair, and followed their messiah's lead by outwardly becoming
Muslims while secretly maintaining their messianic Jewish faith. They were
called doenmeh, meaning "turncoats"— a pejorative term not unlike marrano
("pig.") Among themselves, they were called ma'aminim, "believers." Sabbateanism
did not die out in 1666, or even 10 years later when Tzvi himself died. There
were subsequent messiahs — largely forgotten men like Baruchiah Russo
and Jacob Frank — and, as recent scholarship has shown, Sabbateanism
greatly influenced the 18th-century emergence of Hasidism. And then there
are the doenmeh, who live on until the present day, in secretive communities,
at first primarily in Salonika and today almost entirely in present-day
Turkey.
A move to tear down the Turkish home where Tzvi is
said to have lived, however, may now disturb the balance the community has
cultivated for centuries.
Over the years, most of the doenmeh assimilated into
Islam; many more were annihilated during the Holocaust, and still more have,
in modern-day Turkey, come to see their background as a curious but largely
irrelevant heritage. But even those who did assimilate usually maintained
some knowledge of their ancestry, and doenmeh were among the founders of
the secular Turkish republic. Today, many doenmeh are among Turkey's elite,
though it is taboo to speak their names; since doenmeh are regarded as traitors
by both Muslims and Jews, it is scandalous to accuse a person of being one
of them, even if his or her identity is an open, unspoken secret.
(Recently-deceased Turkish foreign minister Ismail Cem, for example, was
"outed" by several Turkish newspapers, but he denied being a Sabbatean, and
Iglaz Zorlu's best-selling 1999 memoir, "Yes, I am a Salonikan," stirred
controversy throughout the country.) But the secret is open, like the doenmeh
cemeteries outside of Istanbul, with their distinctively unadorned gravestones,
and the mosques where doenmeh are known to pray.
Barry Kapandji is one of the few doenmeh descendants
willing to openly acknowledge his ancestry — and even he wouldn't use
his real name ("totally out of the question," he said). Kapandji, 33, was
told by his father that he was a doenmeh when he was nine years old. Since
then, he has been fascinated by his heritage. Kapandji first contacted me
a few months ago, when he learned that the house in Izmir (formerly Smyrna)
in which Tzvi is believed to have lived was slated for demolition by the
municipality to make way for a park. No one would help him: The doenmeh he
knew were afraid of going public, and the Jewish community wanted nothing
to do with this sect of heretics.
"This is a crime against culture, history and my heritage,"
Kapandji told me. "The Jewish community elders do not want the house turned
into a museum.... They would like Sabbetai's name to be eradicated from
history."
The Forward was not able to obtain a comment from the
Izmir Jewish community, but it is true that in traditional Jewish circles
it is customary to add the epithet "Yemach shemo," "May his name be blotted
out," to the names of Sabbetai Tzvi and other heretics. Usually, the epithet
works: Few know their names today. Yet, Kapandji said, "Sabbetai Tzvi, for
better or for worse, helped shape the history of the Jewish people, and we
should acknowledge him for that."
But is the house at 920 Agora Girisi, half-ruined and
barely distinguishable from others in the old Jewish neighborhood (now mostly
destroyed), really the birthplace of Sabbatai Tzvi, the "mystical
messiah"?
Yes, according to Dr. Cengiz Sisman, an expert on
Sabbateanism who received his doctorate from Harvard University. Sizman cited
a wealth of evidence, including 1925 and 1940 newspaper reports of the house
(the architecture of which is clearly described) being used as a "visiting
site by believers," a 1935 book by noted historian Abraham Galante, and a
1961 account by writer John Freely of a group of believers lighting candles
and performing a ritual on the third floor of the building.
By the 1990s, however, few doenmeh were maintaining
the old rituals, and the house, like the rest of the area, had fallen into
disrepair. It appeared briefly in a French-language documentary on the doenmeh
by filmmaker Michel Grosman, but only a few interested parties, like Sisman
and Kapandji, were even aware that it had been slated for demolition. Last
month, Kapandji interceded with the Izmir municipality and, on the basis
of testimony by elders from the Sabbatean and Jewish communities, temporarily
halted the destruction of the house — or at least what remains of
it.
Today, Sisman said, "neither the Jewish nor the Sabbatean
groups are particularly keen to utilize the house for any kind of Sabbatean
or Jewish purpose." For the Jews, it is the home of a heretic best forgotten;
and the few doenmeh still aware of their ancestry fear being branded as traitors
if they are exposed.
Surely, though, if this house is what Sisman and Kapandji
believe it to be, it is an important relic of a key episode in Jewish history.
Of course, as shown by Israel's many Crusader tombs doubling as the supposed
burial places of prophets and rabbis, the fact that a place is venerated
by believers does not mean that it is what they believe it to be. Then again,
there are reasons to think that this instance might be different. The doenmeh,
after all, have lived in the same place, continuously, since the time of
Tzvi himself, and have maintained a secret tradition of belief, liturgy,
ritual, even recipes. Kabbalah scholar Avraham Elqayam recently published
an article describing the mystical significance of a newly unearthed doenmeh
cookbook, and Zeek, an online journal of which I am an editor, is publishing
translations of Sabbatean hymns and first-person accounts of Tzvi at prayer,
compiled by David Halperin, professor emeritus of religion at the University
of North Carolina.
So perhaps it's not as much of a stretch to suppose
that a secret community, living continuously in one place, might preserve
historical memory more accurately than, say, Jews returning to the Land of
Israel after centuries away — or, for that matter, the mother of the
Emperor Constantine, who is supposed to have identified most of the Christian
holy sites in Israel while on a pilgrimage of her own. "I come from a family
of academics," Kapandji said. "We aren't accustomed to claiming things without
any evidence."
Kapandji wants to see the house as some kind of museum,
though he acknowledged that openly discussing Tzvi himself is still taboo
in Turkish society. Sisman thinks the house should be preserved for Turkish
reasons, as a testament to that country's "multicultural heritage."
Perhaps the house is of significance to Jews, as well.
Sabbateanism was a dynamic, mystical and progressive movement — it was
the first to put women in positions of leadership and to question the authority
of normative Judaism — that was, according to many, an antecedent of
Zionism. (Israeli presidents Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Zalman Shazar were both
scholars of the movement, and Theodor Herzl's opponents labeled him a "new
Sabbetai Tzvi.") In an age in which many people are seeking alternative forms
of Jewish expression, perhaps it is worth remembering those that did not
survive.
Or rather, those that still, secretly, endure.
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