Sabbateans (Sabbatians) is a complex general term that refers to a variety of followers of, disciples and believers in
Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), a
Jewish rabbi who was proclaimed to be the
Jewish Messiah in 1665 by
Nathan of Gaza. Vast numbers of Jews in the
Jewish diaspora accepted his claims, even after he became a
Jewish apostate with his
conversion to Islam in 1666. Sabbatai Zevi's followers, both during his "Messiahship" and after his conversion to Islam, are known as Sabbateans. They can be grouped into three: "Maaminim" (believers), "Haberim" (associates), and "Ba'ale Milhamah" (warriors).
[1]
Sabbateans who remained Jews[edit]
Sabbatai Zevi "enthroned" as the
Jewish Messiah, from
Tikkun, Amsterdam, 1666.
In
Jewish history during the two centuries after Zevi's death in 1676, many Jews (including some Jewish scholars) who were horrified
[citation needed] by Zevi's personal conversion to Islam nevertheless clung to the belief that Zevi was still the true Jewish Messiah. They constituted the largest number of Sabbateans during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were vigorously opposed and were eventually forced into hiding their beliefs by the methodical opposition of almost all the leading rabbis who were determined to root out Zevi's
kabbalistically derived anti-traditional teachings and his influence upon the Jewish masses. By the nineteenth century Jewish Sabbateans had been reduced to small groups of hidden followers who feared being discovered for their beliefs that were deemed to be entirely heretical and antithetical to classical Judaism (particularly since the head of the movement, Zevi, had become an openly practicing Muslim for the last ten years of his life until the time of his mysterious and premature death at the age of fifty.)
When the founder of
Hasidic Judaism, Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer, the
Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760), emerged and made his teachings and influence felt through his own disciples, many rabbinical opponents of Hasidism were suspicious that he and his Hasidim were a class of Sabbateans.
[citation needed] Some historians
[who?] have written that many Sabbateans became followers of Hasidism,
[citation needed] which unlike Zevi's movement, followed
Halakha (Jewish law) and eventually opponents of Hasidism were convinced that the Hasidim were not Sabbateans.
[citation needed]
Sabbatai Zevi's conversion to Islam[edit]
Jewish historians
[who?] have stated that it is hard to describe the national sense of shock and trauma that set in when the masses of Jews all over the world learned that someone as famous as Sabbatai Zevi had officially abandoned his faith for Islam. However, the fact remains that Zevi is the most famous Jew to have become a Muslim, which is also what the term Sabbatean has come to denote. Many within Zevi's inner circle followed him into Islam, including his wife
Sarah and most of his closest relatives and friends.
[citation needed] Nathan of Gaza, the scholar closest to Zevi, who had caused Zevi to reveal his Messiahship and in turn became his prophet, never followed his master into Islam but remained a Jew, albeit excommunicated by his Jewish brethren.
[citation needed]
Sabbatean – Sufi similarities[edit]
Claims of ties between Sabbatean Kabbalah and
Sufism go back to the days of Sabbatai Zevi.[2]
[citation needed] This is largely based on the contention that Zevi's exile in the Balkans brought him into close contact with several forms of unorthodox Sufism which existed in the region. The Dönme community of Salonika came to play a significant role in the Sufi life of the region and its members actively involved with a number of Sufi orders, particularly the Mevlevi. Some alleged similarities between Dönme and unorthodox Sufi practice seem
[original research?] to exist, including the violation of
kashrut/halal, sexual license, ecstatic singing, mystical interpretations of sacred scripture, and the practice of ritual meals. However, confirmed direct ties between Sabbatai Zevi and any Sufi order are conjectural and hearsay. The often claimed connection between the movement and
Bektashi Sufism relies merely on circumstantial evidence and coincidence rather than any concrete substantiation. During Zevi's lifetime the Bektashi order had yet to attain widespread popularity in the Balkans; it came to dominate southern Albania only in the late 19th century. Nevertheless, there were a number of other heterodox Sufi movements in the region in the mid-17th century, including the Hamzevis, Melamis and Qalandars.
[citation needed]
The Dönme[edit]
Inside the
Ottoman Empire, those followers of Zevi who had converted to
Islam but who secretly continued Jewish observances became known as the
Dönme (
Turkish:
dönme "convert").
Sabbatean-related controversies in Jewish history[edit]
The Emden-Eybeschutz controversy[edit]
The Emden-Eybeschutz controversy arose concerning the
amulets which Emden suspected Eybeschutz of issuing. It was alleged that these amulets recognized the messianic claims of Sabbatai Zevi.
[citation needed] Emden then accused Eybeschutz of heresy. Emden was known for his attacks directed against the adherents, or those he supposed to be adherents, of Sabbatai Zevi. In Emden's eyes, Eybeschutz was a convicted Sabbatean.
[citation needed]The controversy lasted several years, continuing even after Eybeschutz's death.
[citation needed]
Emden's assertion of
heresy was chiefly based on the interpretation of some
amulets prepared by Eybeschutz, in which Emden professed to see Sabbatean allusions. Hostilities began before Eybeschutz left
Prague; when Eybeschutz was named chief rabbi of the three communities of Altona,
Hamburg, and
Wandsbek (1751), the controversy reached the stage of intense and bitter antagonism. Emden maintained that he was at first prevented by threats from publishing anything against Eybeschutz. He solemnly declared in his synagogue the writer of the amulets to be a Sabbathean heretic and deserving of
cherem (
excommunication).
[citation needed]
The majority of the rabbis in Poland, Moravia, and Bohemia, as well as the leaders of the Three Communities, supported Eybeschutz:
[citation needed] the accusation was "utterly incredible" - in 1725, Eybeschutz was among the
Prague rabbis who excommunicated the Sabbatean sect.
[citation needed](Others
[who?] suggest that the rabbis issued this ruling because they feared the repercussions if their leading figure was found to be a Sabbatean
[citation needed]).
The controversy was a momentous incident in
Jewish history of the period, involving both Rabbi
Yechezkel Landau and the
Vilna Gaon, and may be credited with having crushed the lingering belief in Sabbatai current even in some Orthodox circles. In 1760 the quarrel broke out once more when some Sabbatean elements were discovered among the students of Eybeschutz'
yeshivah. At the same time his younger son, Wolf, presented himself as a Sabbatean prophet, with the result that the
yeshivah was closed.
[citation needed]
Sabbateans and early Hasidism[edit]
Some scholars see seeds of the Hasidic movement within the Sabbatean movement.
[2] When Hasidism began to spread its influence, a serious schism evolved between the
Hasidic and non-Hasidic Jews. The Hasidim dubbed any Jews who rejected the Hasidic movement as
misnagdim ("opponents").
Critics of Hasidic Judaism
[who?] expressed concern that Hasidism might become a messianic sect as had occurred among the followers of both
Sabbatai Zevi and
Jacob Frank. However
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, came at a time when the Jewish masses of Eastern Europe were reeling in bewilderment and disappointment engendered by the two Jewish
false messiahs Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) and
Jacob Frank (1726–1791) in particular.
Sabbateans and modern secularism[edit]
Some scholars have noted that the Sabbatean movement in general fostered and connected well with the principles of modern secularism.[3] Related to this is the drive of the Donmeh in Turkey for secularizing their society just as European Jews promoted the values of Age of Enlightenment and its Jewish equivalent the haskalah.[citation needed]
Egypt
