The Sabbatean Prophets

98 The Sabbatean Prophets
in my house about fifteen times, and I could not understand its nature or
significance. Afterward I came to this city [Tripoli] and in the year 5424
[1664] I was informed from the heavens that in the year 5425 [1665], a little
over five years hence [from the time the light appeared], the king messiah
would be revealed. Afterwards I said, “Perhaps it was a dream, and I
have found a path to wisdom—for the words of the Zohar will have failed if
the messiah is not revealed in 5425!”...[Here Cardoso explains his reading
of the Zohar that proves this.] And so it was—he was revealed at the feast of
Shavu’ot in the year 5425.
Furthermore, one night when my head rested on the bed and my
thoughts and visions roiled, something great occurred to me which I cannot
reveal or explain. In the morning I told it to my household, clarifying only
that it was a dream. I explained to them that one of my [two] wives was
pregnant and would bear a male child; and he would give the light of the
king messiah, but then fall ill within ten days and die. The son was born,
and on the very same day, the news arrived in this city that the king messiah
was revealed. The son who had been born indeed died afterward.
In the month of Shevat in the year 5426 [early spring 1666] a great light
began to appear in the last watch [before dawn] and was revealed to the sister
of my wife Judith, [saying] that God heard my prayers and would send
what was due. Now, this woman often saw amazing visions whose interpretation
I alone merited to understand; and in all this there was no audible
speech. I asked the blessed One that he tell me who [the messiah] would be,
what his nature and powers are; and I also prayed to be given a public sign
and wonder—that I be healed, and that the whole congregation come to
celebrate. That same night a miracle was done for me, for I had been suffering
from a very bad disease in my eyes, called cataracts, and in the morning
I found myself with no cloudiness or darkness. For three days I had [a]
great vision. I asked a further sign for her [the sister-in-law] that her hand
and foot be straightened, 26 in order that all would believe that the light was
revealed from the holy side and not by a shade or false spirit, for there were
those in my household who laughed at the whole matter. The hand and
foot were indeed straightened. And she saw the great bright light while
awake before dawn, so [bright] that she thought it was actually day. It [the
spirit] did not want to complete my remedy because its intention was only
to inform me of its nature, and not others.
After this it began to be revealed to my wife Judith, and I commanded her
to say such-and-such, upon which it revealed itself in the form of a man. It