The Sabbatean Prophets

From Mystical Vision to Prophetic Eruption 121
one was anxious to hear the prophecies of his daughters, despite the fact
that there were many prophets aside from them. For everyone wanted to
determine if it was true that the daughters of Hayyim Peña were prophesying
about Shabbatai Zvi, since they all knew that he was a stubborn man
who opposed Shabbatai Zvi—but his daughters were now prophesying concerning
Shabbatai Zvi!
This caused a big tumult in Izmir and was considered a great wonder; and
it was indeed a great wonder. There were those at the time who said that
Shabbatai Zvi declared a few days previously to the same Hayyim Peña that
his daughters must remove their mourning clothing (which they wore for
the death of their mother) and don their best clothes, which they did. When
his daughters expected to prophesy they would put away their mourning
garments and wear their fancy clothes, in which they would prophesy. In
short, everyone saw and heard this, and it shocked and amazed them.
The girls’ prophecy was not in itself unusual in the atmosphere of Jewish
Izmir of that winter. The particular amazement was that these prophetesses
were daughters of a great anti-Sabbatean activist. Leib continues with a reflection
on the effects of the prophetic wave.
Because so many prophets and prophetesses arose in all the cities of Turkey,
everyone believed wholeheartedly that the End of Days had come. For
since the day the Holy Temple was destroyed prophecy was taken from the
Jews; and now so many prophets appeared at once in all the holy congregations
of Turkey—it could only be that the time for redemption had come.
Therefore, beloved [reader], don’t be amazed that everyone believed in
Shabbatai Zvi during those days and erred after him, and that only afterward
it was discovered that the whole thing was emptiness and nothingness.
From this episode you can see what was going on here. These were indeed
miraculous occurrences and wonders, the like of which had never
happened since the day the world was created. How could one not believe
in him And if you want to say they were undoubtedly false prophets, as he
[Shabbatai] proved it [by his later conversion], let me ask you this: How
could it have been known that their prophecy was false
I now want to write the truth, and you can rely and rest assured that I
have invented nothing from my heart. I heard these things from the great
men of the world who saw it with their own eyes and heard it with their
ears. I, the author, do not go about believing anything until I hear it or see it
myself; or when I hear it from the mouths of men of truth who would not