List of Jewish messiah claimants

The Messiah in Judaism means anointed one; it included Jewish priests, prophets and kings such as David and Cyrus the Great.^[1] Later, especially after the failure of the Hasmonean Kingdom (37 BCE) and the Jewish–Roman wars (66–135 CE), the figure of the Jewish Messiah was one who would deliver the Jews from oppression and usher in an Olam HaBa ("world to come"), the Messianic Age.

See also: List of messiah claimants

Some people were looking forward to a military leader who would defeat the Seleucid or Roman enemies and establish an independent Jewish kingdom. Others, like the author of the Psalms of Solomon, stated that the Messiah was a charismatic teacher who would give the correct interpretation of Mosaic law, restore the monarchy of Israel, and judge mankind.^[2]

This is a list of notable people who have been said to be the Messiah ben David, either by themselves or by their followers. The list is divided into categories, which are sorted according to date of birth (where known).

1st century

• Jesus of Nazareth (ca. 4 BC–30/33 CE), in Galilee and the Roman province of Judaea. Judeans who believed him to be the Messiah were the first Christians, also known as Jewish Christians. As of 2015, it is estimated that there are 2.3 billion Christians in the world,^[3] making Jesus of Nazareth the most widely followed and most famous Jewish Messiah claimant in human history. Aside from Christians, Muslims also believe that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah but not the Son of God. Aside from the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth is mentioned by Josephus in the Antiquities of the Jews and by Tacitus in his Annals.
• Several Jewish rebels and military leaders lived in the 1st century, including Judas of Galilee, Theudas, Simon of Peraea, and Athronges, all of whom are only documented by Josephus in surviving accounts. None of them was explicitly stated to have been thought of as a Messiah but some scholars make this as an inference.^[4]

2nd century

With the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the appearance of Messiah claimants ceased for a time. Sixty years later a politico-messianic movement of large proportions took place.

• Simon bar Kokhba (also: Bar Kosiba) (?– died c. 135), led a revolt against the Roman Empire in 132–135 CE. Bar Kokhba was hailed as Messiah-king by Rabbi Akiva, who referred to him using Numbers xxiv. 17: "There shall come forth a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite through the corners of Moab," and Hag. ii. 21, 22: "I will shake the heavens and the earth and I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms...." (Talmud tractate Sanhedrin 97b). His messiahship was doubted by some, but bar Kokhba led a rebellion and founded a short-lived Jewish state. He was killed in the siege of Betar, which was the final battle of the Third Jewish–Roman War that devastated Judea.

5th century

• Moses of Crete. The unsuccessful conclusion of the Bar Kokhba revolt put an end for a while to messianic movements, but messianic hopes were nonetheless cherished. In accordance with computations found in the Talmud, the Messiah was expected to appear in the years 440 (Sanh. 97b) or 471 ('Ab. Zarah 9b). This expectation in connection with the disturbances in the Roman Empire attendant upon invasions may have raised up hopes of the Messiah. Moses of Crete appeared about this time and won over many Jews to his movement. He promised to lead the people, like the ancient Moses, dry-shod through the sea back to Israel. In about 440–470, his followers, convinced by him, left their possessions and waited for the promised day, when at his command many cast themselves into the sea to return to Israel, many found death while others were rescued. The putative Messiah himself disappeared.^[5] Socrates of Constantinople states that Moses of Crete fled, while the Chronicle of John of Nikiû claims that he perished in the sea. While he called himself Moses, the Chronicle gives his actual name as 'Fiskis'.^[6]

7th century

The Khuzestan Chronicle records an otherwise-unknown messianic claimant who arose alongside the Muslim conquest of Khuzestan.^[7][8]

8th century

The claimants that followed played their roles in the Orient, and were at the same time religious reformers whose work influenced Karaite Judaism. Appearing at the first part of the 8th century in Persia:

• Abu Isa.^[9] He lived in the reign of Marwan II (744–750).^[10] Known as Abu Isa, he claimed to be the last of the five forerunners of the Messiah and that God had chosen him to free Israel. Having gathered a large number of followers he rebelled against the caliph in Persia.^[11] He was defeated and killed at Rai. His followers claimed that he was inspired, offering as proof the fact that he wrote books - even though he was illiterate. He founded the first sect that arose in Judaism after the destruction of the Temple, the 'Isawiyya.
• Yudghan, called "Al-Ra'i" ("the shepherd of the flock of his people"), who lived and taught in Persia in the first half of the 8th century. He declared himself to be a prophet, and was regarded by his disciples as the Messiah. He came from Hamadan, and taught doctrines he claimed to have received through prophecy. According to Shahristani, he opposed anthropomorphism, taught the doctrine of free will, and held that the Torah had an allegorical meaning in addition to its literal one. He admonished his followers to lead an ascetic life, to abstain from meat and wine, and to pray and fast often, following in this his master Abu 'Isa. He held that the observance of the Sabbath and festivals was merely a matter of memorial. After his death his followers formed a sect, the Yudghanites, who believed he had not died but would return at a future date.
• Serene (his name is given variously in the sources as Sherini, Sheria, Serenus, Zonoria, Saüra, Severus) the Syrian was born a Christian. He preached in the district of Mardin between 720 and 723. Those Christian sources dependent on Theophilus's history report that "Severus" proclaimed himself Messiah;^[12] the Zuqnin Chronicle reports that he proclaimed himself Moses "sent again for the salvation of Israel".^[13] Serene promised "to lead you into the desert in order to introduce you then to the inheritance of the Promised Land which you shall possess as before";^[14] more as a "prophet like Moses" than as a Davidic "anointed one" as such. The immediate occasion for his appearance may have been the restriction of the liberties of the Jews by the caliph Omar II (717–720) and his proselytizing efforts.^[15] Serene had followers even in Spain, where the Jews were suffering under the oppressive taxation of the new Arab rulers they had enthusiastically welcomed, and many left their homes for the new Moses.^[16] These Jews paid instead a tithe to Serene.^[17] Like Abu 'Isa and Yudghan, Serene also was a religious reformer. According to Natronai b. Nehemiah, gaon of Pumbedita (719–730), Serene was hostile to rabbinic Judaism laws. His followers disregarded the dietary laws, the rabbinically instituted prayers, and the prohibition against the "wine of libation"; they worked on the second day of the festivals; they did not write marriage and divorce documents according to Talmudic prescriptions, and did not accept the Talmudic prohibition against the marriage of near relatives.^[18] Serene was arrested. Brought before Caliph Yazid II, he declared that he had acted only in jest, whereupon he was handed over to the Jews for punishment.^[19] Natronai laid down the criteria by which Serene's followers might rejoin the synagogue; most of said followers then presumably did so.^[20]

12th century

Under the influence of the Crusades the number of Jewish Messiah claimants increased, and the 12th century records many of them;

• One appeared in France (c. 1087) and was slain by the French.^[21]
• Moses ben Abraham Darʿī [he], a Moroccan teacher, gained a large following. He was convinced that the Messiah would free the Jews in the Almoravid countries at Passover 1127.^[22]
• David Alroy, who was born in Amadiya, appeared in Persia about 1160 declaring himself a Messiah. Taking advantage of his personal popularity, the disturbed and weakened condition of the caliphate, and the discontent of the Jews, who were burdened with a heavy poll tax, he set out upon his political schemes, asserting that he had been sent by God to free the Jews from the Muslim yoke and to lead them back to Jerusalem. For this purpose he summoned the warlike Jews of northern Persia and his coreligionists of Mosul and Baghdad to come armed to his aid and to assist in the capture of Amadia. From this point his career is enveloped in legend. His movement failed, and he is said to have been assassinated, while asleep, by his father-in-law. A heavy fine was exacted from the Jews for this uprising. Alroy had many followers in Khoy, Salmas, Tabriz, and Maragheh, and after his death, these formed a sect called the Menahemists, from the Messianic name "Menahem," assumed by their founder. Benjamin Disraeli wrote the novel Alroy based on Alroy's life.^{[citation needed]}
• The Yemenite Messiah, was an anonymous alleged forerunner of the Messiah from Yemen, who appeared in Fez. The Muslims were making determined efforts to convert the Jews living there. He declared the misfortunes of the time to be prognostications of the coming Messianic kingdom, and called upon the Jews to divide their property with the poor, preaching repentance that those who gave their worldly possessions to the poor would gain a treasure in heaven. This anonymous Messiah candidate was the subject of Maimonides' Iggeret Teman. He continued his activity for a year, when he was arrested by the Muslim authorities and beheaded at his own suggestion, it is said, in order that he might prove the truth of his mission by returning to life.^[23] Nothing is known beyond the mention of him in Maimonides' "Iggeret Teman" (The Yemen Epistle).

13th century

• Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia (b. 1240–after 1291), the Kabbalist, began the series of putative Messiahs whose activity is deeply influenced by their Kabbalistic speculations. Because of his mystic studies, Abulafia came to believe first that he was a prophet; and in a prophetic book, which he published in Urbino (1279), he declared that God had spoken to him. It is thought, though not proven, that in Messina, on the island of Sicily, where he was well received, and won disciples, he declared himself the Messiah and announced 1290 as the year for the Messianic era to begin. Solomon ben Adret, who was appealed to with regard to Abulafia's claims, condemned him, and some congregations declared against him. Persecuted in Sicily, he went to the island of Comino, near Malta (c. 1288), still asserting in his writings his mission. His end is unknown. Two of his disciples, Joseph Gikatilla and Samuel, both from Medinaceli, later claimed to be prophets and miracle-workers. The latter foretold in mystic language at Ayllon in Segovia the advent of the Messiah. Abulafia gained much modern notoriety as the name for the computer of a character in Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum.
• Nissim ben Abraham (?), another individual making claims of prophethood, active in Avila around 1295. His followers told of him that, although ignorant, he had been suddenly endowed by an angel with the power to write a mystic work, The Wonder of Wisdom, with a commentary thereon. Again an appeal was made to Solomon ben Adret, who doubted Nissim's prophetic pretension and urged careful investigation. The prophet continued his activity, nevertheless, and even fixed the last day of the fourth month, Tammuz, 1295, as the date for the Messiah's coming. The credulous prepared for the event by fasting and almsgiving, and came together on the appointed day. Instead of finding the Messiah, some saw on their garments little crosses, perhaps pinned on by unbelievers to ridicule the movement. In their disappointment some of Nissim's followers are said to have gone over to Christianity.

15th century

• Moses Botarel of Cisneros (?), active around 1413. After the lapse of a century another claimant came forward with Messianic pretensions. According to H. Grätz (l.c. viii. 404), identified as Moses Botarel. He claimed to be a sorcerer able to combine the names of God.

16th century

• Asher Lammlein, Asher Kay (Käei) (?), a German proclaiming himself a forerunner of the Messiah, appeared in Istria, near Venice in 1502, and announced that if the Jews would be penitent and practice charity the Messiah would come within half a year, and a pillar of cloud and of smoke would precede the Jews on their return to Jerusalem. He found believers in Italy and Germany, even among some Christians. In obedience to his preaching, people fasted and prayed and gave alms to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, so that the year came to be known as the "year of penitence." However, by the end of the year of penitence Lammlein had either died or disappeared.
• David Reubeni (1490–1541?) and Solomon Molcho (1500–1532) was an adventurer who travelled in Portugal, Italy, and Ottoman Turkey. He pretended to be the ambassador and brother of the King of Khaibar, a town and former district of Arabia, in which the descendants of the "lost tribes" of Reuben and Gad were supposed to dwell. He claimed he was sent to the Pope and the powers of Europe to secure cannon and firearms for war against the Muslims, who prevented the union of the Jews living on the two sides of the Red Sea. He denied expressly that he was a Messiah or a prophet (comp. Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 256), claiming that he was merely a warrior. The credence which he found at the papal court in 1524, the reception accorded to him in 1525 at the Portuguese court (whither he came at the invitation of John III, and where he at first received the promise of help), and the temporary cessation of persecution of the Marrano; all gave the Portuguese and Spanish Marranos reason to believe that Reuveni was a forerunner of the Messiah. Selaya, inquisitor of Badajoz, complained to the King of Portugal that a Jew who had come from the Orient (referring to Reuveni) had filled the Spanish Marranos with the hope that the Messiah would come and lead Israel from all lands back to Israel, and that he had even emboldened them to overt acts (comp. H. Grätz, l.c. ix. 532). Reuveni met Rabbi Solomon Molcho, a former Spanish Christian who had reverted to Judaism. Reuveni and Molcho were arrested in Regensburg on the orders of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain. He was taken to Mantua, in Italy where, having been baptized a Catholic, he was convicted of heresy and burned at the stake in November, 1532. A spirit of expectancy was aroused by Reuveni's stay in Portugal. In Herrera del Duque, close to Puebla de Alcocer (Badajoz, Extremadura), a Jewish girl of 15 described ecstatic visions in which she spoke with the Messiah, who took her to heaven, where she saw those who had been burned seated on thrones of gold, and who assured her of his imminent return. She (known only as the Maiden of Herrera) was enthusiastically proclaimed a prophetess, and such was the commotion caused by her alleged visions that the Toledo Inquisition had her promptly arrested.

17th century

Main article: Sabbateans

Further information: Dönmeh and Lurianic Kabbalah

Sabbatai Zevi depicted in 1665

• Sabbatai Zevi (Hebrew: שַׁבְּתַי צְבִי, romanized: Shabbeṯāi Ẓevi; born at Smyrna, 1626; died at Dulcigno, 1676), a Sephardic Jewish rabbi and Kabbalist who was proclaimed to be the Jewish Messiah in 1666 by Nathan of Gaza, and then forcibly converted to Islam in order to avoid the Islamic death penalty under the Ottoman sultan.^[24][25][26] He still has followers today among the Dönmeh (in Turkish: “Apostates”),^[24] who are the modern descendants of the Sabbateans, which were one of the most important messianic movements in the history of Judaism, and whose influence was widespread throughout the European and Ottoman Jewry.^[27] After his death, Sabbatai Zevi was followed by a line of putative followers who declared themselves Messiahs and are sometimes grouped as the "Sabbethaian Messiahs".^[27]
  • Barukhia Russo (1695–1740; Osman Baba), successor of Sabbatai Zevi.
  • Mordecai Mokia (1650–1729), ("the Rebuker") of Eisenstadt, another follower of Sabbatai Zevi who remained faithful to him, Mordecai Mokiaḥ ("the Rebuker") of Eisenstadt, also pretended to be a Messiah. His period of activity was from 1678 to 1682 or 1683. He preached at first that Sabbatai Zevi was the true Messiah, that his conversion was for mystic reasons necessary, that he did not die but would reveal himself within three years after his supposed death, and pointed to the persecution of the Jews in Oran (by Spain), in Austria, and in France, and to the pestilence in Germany as prognostications of his coming. He found a following among Hungarian, Moravian, and Bohemian Jews. Going a step further, he declared that he was the Davidic Messiah. Shabbethai, according to him, was only the Ephraitic Messiah and was furthermore rich, and therefore could not accomplish the redemption of Israel. He (Mordecai), being poor, was the real Messiah and at the same time the incarnation of the soul of the Ephraitic Messiah. Italian Jews heard of him and invited him to Italy. He went there about 1680, and received a warm welcome in Reggio and Modena. He spoke of Messianic preparations, which he had to make in Rome, and hinted at having perhaps to adopt Christianity outwardly. Denounced to the Inquisition, or advised to leave Italy, he returned to Bohemia, and then went to Poland, where he is said to have become insane. From his time a sect began to form there, which still existed at the beginning of the Mendelssohnian era.
  • Jacob Querido (died 1690), son of Joseph Filosof, and brother of the fourth wife of Sabbatai Zevi, became the head of the Shabbethaians in Salonica, being regarded by them as the new incarnation of Zevi himself. He pretended to be Shabbethai's son and adopted the name Jacob Tzvi. With 400 followers allegedly converted to Islam in 1687, following the forced conversion of Zevi himself, forming a sect called the Dönmeh (in Turkish: “Apostates”).^[24] He himself even made a pilgrimage to Mecca (c. 1690). After his death during the pilgrimage his son Berechiah or Berokia succeeded him (c. 1695–1740).
  • Miguel (Abraham) Cardoso (1630–1706), born of Marrano parents, may have been initiated into the Shabbethaian movement by Moses Pinheiro in Leghorn. He became a prophet of the Messiah, and when the latter embraced Islam he justified this treason, saying that it was necessary for the Messiah to be reckoned among the sinners in order to atone for Israel's idolatry. He applied Isa. liii. to Shabbethai, and sent out epistles to prove that Shabbethai was the true Messiah, and he even suffered persecution for advocating his cause. Later he considered himself as the Ephraitic Messiah, asserting that he had marks on his body, which were proof of this. He preached and wrote of the speedy coming of the Messiah, fixing different dates until his death (see Cardoso, Miguel).
  • Löbele Prossnitz (Joseph ben Jacob) (?–1750), (early 18th century). He taught that God had given dominion of the world to the "pious one," i.e., the one who had entered into the depths of Kabbalah. Such a representative of God had been Sabbatai Zevi, whose soul had passed into other "pious" men, into Jonathan Eybeschütz and into himself. Another, Isaiah Hasid (a brother-in-law of the Shabbethaian Judah Hasid), who lived in Mannheim, secretly claimed to be the resurrected Messiah, although publicly he had abjured Shabbethaian beliefs. He was a proven fraud who nevertheless attained some following amongst former followers of Sabbatai, calling himself the "Messiah ben Joseph."

18th century

• Jacob Joseph Frank (born 1726 in Podolia; died 1791), founder of the Frankist movement, also claimed to be the messiah.^[28] In his youth he made contact with the Dönmeh, secretive followers of previous Messiah claimant Sabbatai Zevi. He taught that he was a reincarnation of King David and the Patriarch Joseph.^{[citation needed]} Having secured a following among some Jews in Turkey and Wallachia, in 1755 he came to Podolia, where the Sabbateans were in need of a leader, and revealed himself to them as the reincarnation of the soul of Berechiah. His followers claimed he performed miracles; and they even prayed to him. His purpose, as well as that of his sect, was to uproot rabbinic Judaism.^[29] He was forced to leave Podolia; and his followers were persecuted. Returning in 1759, he advised his followers to embrace Christianity, and about 1,000 converted and became Polish gentry of Jewish origins. He himself converted in Warsaw in November 1759. But he ran afoul of the Catholic Church and for a time was imprisoned for heresy. However, even in prison he remained the head of his sect.
• Eve Frank (1754–1816/1817), was the daughter of Jacob Frank. In 1770 Eve was declared to be the incarnation of the Shekinah, the female aspect of God, as well as the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary and thus became the object of a devotional subcult herself in Częstochowa.^[30] Historian Jerry Rabow sees her as the only woman to have been declared a Jewish messiah.^[31]

19th century

• Shukr Kuhayl I, 19th-century Yemenite Jewish Messiah claimant.
• Judah ben Shalom (Shukr Kuhayl II), 19th-century Yemenite Jewish Messiah claimant.

20th century

• Moses Guibbory (1899–1985), leader of a British Israelite cult in the United States.^[32]
• Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), seventh Rebbe of Chabad Lubavitch^[33] and son-in-law of the sixth Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880–1950); some of his followers believed that he was the Jewish Messiah during his lifetime, and some of them continue to believe so after his death in 1994.^[34][35][36] The number of believers grew in size after his death.^[37] Some of his followers believe that Schneerson never died.^[34][35][36] While Schneerson remained cryptic about such assertions, many of his followers do believe he was the Jewish Messiah.^[34][35][36] The issue remains controversial within both the Chabad movement and the broader Jewish community.^{[38][39]: 420 [40][41]}

See also

• Judaism's view of Jesus
• List of messiah claimants
• List of people claimed to be Jesus

References

1. Jewish Encyclopedia: Messiah: "In Isa. xlv. 1 Cyrus is called "God's anointed one," ...:
2. Messiah (overview) on livius.org
3. "The Changing Global Religious Landscape". Pew Research Center. 2017-04-05. Retrieved 2022-03-10.
4. Michael Zolondek, We Have Found the Messiah, Wipf and Stock, 2016, pp. 25-78
5. (Socrates, "Historia Ecclesiastica," vii. 38; Grätz, "Gesch." 3d ed., iv. 354–355)
6. (John of Nikiu, "Chronicle," LXXXVI.1–11)
7. Robert Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others Saw It (Princeton: Darwin Press, 1997), 28
8. Khuzistan Chronicle
9. for other forms of his name and for his sect see "J. Q. R." xvi. 768, 770, 771; Grätz, l.c. v., notes 15 and 17
10. This is the dating of the Muslim heresiologist Shahrastani. As of 1997, there was an alternate dating ascribed to the Karaite Qirqisani: Robert Hoyland, 28. Note 60 cites: L. Nemoy, "Al-Qirqisani's Account of the Jewish Sects", Hebrew Union College Annual 7 (1930), 317–397; 328. Stephen M. Wasserstrom, "The Isawiyya Revisited", Studia Islamica 75 (1992), 57–80; EIr, "Abu Isa Esfahani", Yoram Erder, "The Doctrine of Abu Isa al-Isfahani and its Sources", JSAI 20 (1996), 162-199. To that we may now add Halil Ibrahim Bulut, "ISEVIYYE (Islam Dunyasinda Ortaya Cikan Ilk Yahudi Mezhebi)", Ekev Academic Review, 8.18 (Jan. 2004) 297–318; 300–301.
11. Hoyland, ibid.
12. Hoyland, 654. Also Theophanes, trans. Harry Turtledove (U. of Penn. Press, 1982), 93 but without naming him.
13. Hoyland, 28; on the publications of this Chronicle up to 1997: Hoyland, 739.
14. Zuqnin Chronicle apud Hoyland.
15. Jewish Encyclopedia 1901–1905. Hoyland cites instead Leo III's forced baptism of Jews, but if that were the case then Serene should have been agitating against Constantinople rather than against the Muslim amirate.
16. Jewish Encyclopedia
17. Hoyland, citing Theophilus. This must be from the synopsis between Agapius, the 1234 Chronicle, and Michael the Syrian. Theophanes says only that he "deceived" them.
18. Heinrich Grätz, Geschichte der Juden, l.c. note 14. This is the source of the 1901-6 Jewish Encyclopedia;, Grätz had this information from Natronai's Gaonic Responsa [Moda'i]
19. Theophilus in Hoyland, 654, just says that Yazid had him executed.
20. Hoyland 28 n. 59 cites Gaonic Responsa 3.V.10.
21. Cohn-Sherbok, Dan (1997). Jewish Messiah. A&C Black. p. 107. ISBN 9780567085863.
22. Moses al-Dar'i (c.1127) on livius.org
23. The Yemenite Messiah (c.1172) on livius.org
24. "Judaism - The Lurianic Kabbalah: Shabbetaianism". Encyclopædia Britannica. Edinburgh: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020. Rabbi Shabbetai Tzevi of Smyrna (1626–76), who proclaimed himself messiah in 1665. Although the "messiah" was forcibly converted to Islam in 1666 and ended his life in exile 10 years later, he continued to have faithful followers. A sect was thus born and survived, largely thanks to the activity of Nathan of Gaza (c. 1644–90), an unwearying propagandist who justified the actions of Shabbetai Tzevi, including his final apostasy, with theories based on the Lurian doctrine of "repair". Tzevi's actions, according to Nathan, should be understood as the descent of the just into the abyss of the "shells" in order to liberate the captive particles of divine light. The Shabbetaian crisis lasted nearly a century, and some of its aftereffects lasted even longer. It led to the formation of sects whose members were externally converted to Islam—e.g., the Dönmeh (Turkish: "Apostates") of Salonika, whose descendants still live in Turkey—or to Roman Catholicism—e.g., the Polish supporters of Jacob Frank (1726–91), the self-proclaimed messiah and Catholic convert (in Bohemia-Moravia, however, the Frankists outwardly remained Jews). This crisis did not discredit Kabbalah, but it did lead Jewish spiritual authorities to monitor and severely curtail its spread and to use censorship and other acts of repression against anyone—even a person of tested piety and recognized knowledge—who was suspected of Shabbetaian sympathies or messianic pretensions.
25. Karp, Abraham J. (2017). ""Witnesses to History": Shabbetai Zvi - False Messiah (Judaic Treasures)". Jewish Virtual Library. American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE). Archived from the original on 16 October 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2020. Born in Smyrna in 1626, he showed early promise as a Talmudic scholar, and even more as a student and devotee of Kabbalah. More pronounced than his scholarship were his strange mystical speculations and religious ecstasies. He traveled to various cities, his strong personality and his alternately ascetic and self-indulgent behavior attracting and repelling rabbis and populace alike. He was expelled from Salonica by its rabbis for having staged a wedding service with himself as bridegroom and the Torah as bride. His erratic behavior continued. For long periods, he was a respected student and teacher of Kabbalah; at other times, he was given to messianic fantasies and bizarre acts. At one point, living in Jerusalem seeking "peace for his soul," he sought out a self-proclaimed "man of God," Nathan of Gaza, who declared Shabbetai Zvi to be the Messiah. Then Shabbetai Zvi began to act the part [...] On September 15, 1666, Shabbetai Zvi, brought before the sultan and given the choice of death or apostasy, prudently chose the latter, setting a turban on his head to signify his conversion to Islam, for which he was rewarded with the honorary title "Keeper of the Palace Gates" and a pension of 150 piasters a day. The apostasy shocked the Jewish world. Leaders and followers alike refused to believe it. Many continued to anticipate a second coming, and faith in false messiahs continued through the eighteenth century. In the vast majority of believers revulsion and remorse set in and there was an active endeavor to erase all evidence, even mention of the pseudo messiah. Pages were removed from communal registers, and documents were destroyed. Few copies of the books that celebrated Shabbetai Zvi survived, and those that did have become rarities much sought after by libraries and collectors.
26. Kohler, Kaufmann; Malter, Henry (1906). "Shabbetai Ẓevi". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Retrieved 6 October 2020. At the command [of the sultan], Shabbetai was now taken from Abydos to Adrianople, where the sultan's physician, a former Jew, advised Shabbetai to embrace Islam as the only means of saving his life. Shabbetai realized the danger of his situation and adopted the physician's advice. On the following day [...] 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 Shabbetai by conferring on him the title (Mahmed) "Effendi" and appointing him as his doorkeeper with a high salary. [...] To complete his acceptance of Mohammedanism, Shabbetai was ordered to take an additional wife, a Mohammedan slave, which order he obeyed. [...] Meanwhile, Shabbetai secretly continued his plots, playing a double game. At times he would assume the role 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 set forth, e.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 (see Dönmeh), whose followers implicitly believed in him [as the Jewish Messiah]. This double-dealing with Jews and Mohammedans, however, could not last very long. Gradually the Turks tired of Shabbetai'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.
27. Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah: 1626-1676, Routledge Kegan Paul, London, 1973 ISBN 0-7100-7703-3, American Edition, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1973 ISBN 0-691-09916-2 (hardcover edn.); Gershom Scholem, "Shabbetai Zevi," in Encyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Farmington Hills, Michigan, 2007, vol. 18, pp. 340–359. ISBN 978-0-02-865946-6.
28. "Jewish Virtual Library - Jacob Frank".
29. "Archive.org - The Collection of the Words of the Lord Jacob Frank".
30. Maciejko, Paweł. The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755-1816. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011:170-6.
31. Telushkin, Shira, Meet Eva Frank: The First Jewish Female Messiah, Jstor Daily, Jstor, April 27, 2022
32. Harry Neigher (November 6, 1949). "Riddle of Boake Carter Solved by Former Aide". Sunday Herald. p. 33.
33. Thus Lubavitch Hasidism was able to transmit the secrets of Kabbalah in a simple way for all those who had a desire to do so, compatible with the action of the Mitzvot and the Study of the Torah, simple by their intrinsic nature because they are also accessible to Jewish women and children. Otherwise everything would have been reduced to a sectarian and innovative religion, a non-religion like many we have seen in the course of the excessive emotional transport that has fallen into semi-religious movements that are certainly not-traditional, sometimes even illegal for a radically new spirit therefore beyond morality and explicitly rebel themselves to the known laws: they are the pseudo-new age sects that misappropriate esoteric doctrines by making them ritual and dogma:

    I shall reveal to you in this matter what has been buried and hidden in my heart forever, ... and I have never revealed it to anyone ... except for my father-in-law and my grandfather-in-law, may their souls rest in peace [these are "The Old Rabbi," Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady, and his son the middle rebbe]: and this is that our fellows.. . do not know and are unable to estimate the value and the great benefit and great grace that the Vilna Gaon did for us in disagreeing with us.... Because were it not for that controversy, there would have been reason and place to worry and fear that the new system that we paved for ourselves ... would slowly lead us, step-by-step, forward beyond the border meant for the Torah heritage and the commandments.... For by virtue of the power of enthusiasm and fervor of the soul and elevation of spirit in the course of the new system that gripped the hearts of its creators in a storm,.. . in the end the talmudic spirit might have been burned in the flame of the fire of Kabbalah, and that hidden Torah would have diminished most of the figure of the manifest Torah, and the practical commandments might have been cast down in their value before the burning excitement of the secret intentions (This ascetic feature of Rabbi Eliyahu reflected the need of the hour. Many events, currents, and movements had led to a degree of collapse in the life of the people.... Sabbateanism and various other messianic movements, which proclaimed false messiahs, distorted the spirit of the people in the Diaspora. The advent of Hasidism changed the approach to worship and to several fundamental problems. On the other hand, Haskalah was emerging and casting doubt on traditional faith, harming sacred values. In order to prepare the masses of Jews to continue on the traditional path, to restore the Hasidic movement to renewed respect for the study of Torah, and in order to confront Haskalah, ... there was an immense need for the appearance of such a severe personality, exalted, concentrated without compromise, and fearless, like the Gaon)

    — Tzemach Tzedek

    IMMANUEL ETKES, TRANSLATED BY JEFFREY M. GREEN The Gaon of Vilna - THE MAN AND HIS IMAGE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London 2002
34. Magid, Shaul (3 July 2019). "Another Side of the Lubavitcher Rebbe". Tablet Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 September 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
35. Nadler, Allan (1 June 2010). "A Historian's Polemic Against 'The Madness of False Messianism'". The Forward. New York City. ISSN 1051-340X. Archived from the original on 2 December 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
36. Sadka, Saul (10 February 2007). "The Lubavitcher Rebbe as a God". Haaretz. Tel Aviv. Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
37. "Psak Din Rebbe Moshiach cropped". failedmessiah.typepad.com. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
38. Berger, David (2008). The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the scandal of orthodox indifference (1. pbk. ed.). London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. ISBN 978-1-904113-75-1. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
39. Telushkin, Joseph (2014). Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-231900-5.
40. Messianic Excess, Rabbi Prof. David Berger (Yeshiva University), The Jewish Week, June 25, 2004
41. Peter Schäfer, Mark R. Cohen, Editors (1998) Toward the Millennium: Messianic Expectations from the Bible to Waco BRILL, ISBN 9789004110373, p. 399

Bibliography

• Note: For individual figures, please check the relevant entries where specified. This bibliography deals with the general concept and historical research related to Jewish messianism.
• Charles, Robert H. (2007) [1916]. The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Nikiu: Translated from Zotenberg's Ethiopic Text. Merchantville, NJ: Evolution Publishing. ISBN 9781889758879.
• Julius Greenstone: The Messianic Idea in Jewish History: Westport: Greenwood: 1972: ISBN 0-8371-2606-1
• Harris Lenowitz: Jewish Messiahs: From the Galilee to Crown Heights: New York: Oxford University Press: 1998: ISBN 0-19-511492-2
• Yehuda Liebes: Studies in Jewish Myth and Messianism: Albany: State University of New York Press: 1993: ISBN 0-7914-1194-X
• Jacob Neusner, William Scott Green and Ernest Francks (eds.) Judaisms and Their Messiahs at the Turn of the Christian Era: New York: Cambridge University Press: 1987: ISBN 0-521-34146-9
• Raphael Patai: Messiah Texts: Detroit: Wayne State University Press: 1979: ISBN 0-8143-1652-2 Also: New York: Avon: 1979:ISBN 0-380-46482-9
• Rabow, Jerry (2002). 50 Jewish messiahs: the untold life stories of 50 Jewish messiahs since Jesus and how they changed the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim worlds. Gefen Publishing House Ltd. ISBN 978-965-229-288-9.
• Jacob Schochet: Mashiach: The Principle of Mashiach in the Messianic Era in Jewish Law and Tradition: New York: SIE: 1992: ISBN 1-881400-00-X
• Gershom Scholem: The Messianic Idea in Judaism: New York: Schocken Books: 1995: 0805210431
• Robert Wolfe: Origins of the Messianic Idea: New York: JREP Print Center: 2003: ISBN 0-9642465-3-8
• Worth, Roland H. (2005-07-30). Messiahs and messianic movements through 1899. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-2311-8.

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia: Pseudo-Messiahs