The Sabbatean Prophets

128 The Sabbatean Prophets
Shekhinah, and the amnesia—all came together to create an extremely influential
communal event. De la Croix, a Christian, declares that these performances
convinced many to believe in Shabbatai.
Several elements in Suriel’s prophecies further tie them to the larger prophetic
background. De la Croix refers to Suriel’s possessions as Pythonian
fits, suggesting an association not with contemporary enthusiastic movements,
but with the Delphic oracle of classical antiquity. 101 De la Croix also
states that Suriel offered a prophetic interpretation of a comet that had recently
appeared. He records a somewhat convoluted version of this exposition,
connecting the patriarch Jacob and his dream about the ladder to
heaven, the exodus from Egypt, and the comet that Suriel claimed had previously
appeared during the exodus. Once again it seems that this heavenly
portent was interpreted less in a kabbalistic vein than in a Jewish version of
the widespread early modern method of prognostication through heavenly
omens.
The matter of the “new Zohar” is especially significant. Many of the innovations
introduced by Shabbatai and his theologians were attributed to the
New Torah of the messianic age, a concept taught by the Talmud and Midrash.
102 The kabbalists regarded the Zohar as a central part of the Torah, so
the appearance of a new Zohar for the messianic era was not inconceivable.
The Vision of Rabbi Abraham and other detailed prophecies were certainly
regarded as part of this larger New Torah. Some striking parallels to this development
can be found in the Christian world. The English polymath John
Dee, at the end of the sixteenth century, was convinced that the natural
world was deteriorating so rapidly that only the imminent messianic age
could redeem it. He sought to know the divine secrets of nature through his
conversations with angels, and was granted certain knowledge through “a
new exegetical tool: the true cabala of nature.” Using it, Dee would be able
to decipher the rapidly disintegrating Book of Nature and accurately interpret
the eschatological signs embedded there.” 103 In this case, like that of the
Sabbateans, a new Kabbalah was granted by heaven on the eve of the messianic
age in order to help the elect know God’s will. Shortly after Shabbatai’s
period, the German messianist Quirinus Kuhlmann (1651–1689) understood
the impending apocalyptic age through his own poetic prophecies, the
Kühlpsalter. This was a rewriting of the Book of Psalms for the Fifth Monarchy
in the Third Age, the time of the Second Coming. Kuhlmann believed
the words and engravings of this new revelation held the secrets of the messianic
era then beginning. The Kühlpsalter itself was shot through with con-