The Sabbatean Prophets

Opponents and Observers Respond 137
will be contempt toward the Torah and its scholars, especially the sages of
the Land of Israel (may it be rebuilt speedily!) who hold them [Nathan and
Shabbatai] to be frauds and fight them to the finish with enough contempt and
wrath. 21
Further on he repeats the warning about those who are weak in faith, that
“although the majority are different and can’t be suspected of this, there are
times when a minority must be, for they have apostatized and abandoned
the faith, as one will find in the chronicles about past messiahs.” 22
Sasportas sought to neutralize the positive significance Nathan arrogated
to previous messiahs by citing them as examples of the danger to faith inherent
in such movements. His insight proved frighteningly accurate. 23
Sasportas played a dangerous game here, however, by using Luria’s circle as
an example of a failed messianic moment. Bringing down Luria, who already
enjoyed an almost canonic status in much of the Jewish world, might
invite an attack on the whole kabbalistic tradition.
The most insidious of the earlier messianic movements to endanger the
Jews was of course Christianity, whose influences on Nathan Sasportas did
not fail to detect. He juxtaposes Jesus with the whole line of failed messiahs:
“He warms himself on the impure dust of Jesus of Nazareth by saying [the
messiah] has already come. And though the majority of Jews cannot be suspected
[of losing faith], a minority is susceptible, as the chronicles of the past
faithfully relate concerning the many who were beguiled by those who
made themselves out as messiahs.” 24
Sasportas is sensitive to the more subtle theological impact of Christianity
as well. “My stomach turned over,” he declares, “when I saw that the
prophecy of Isaiah 53 was interpreted partially as the Christians understand
it.” 25 Later, responding to a letter written by Nathan to Shabbatai’s brothers,
Sasportas reacts to Nathan’s claim that there can be no redeemer for Israel
but Shabbatai: “He exposes things prophetically that do not correspond with
the truth and make it fraudulent. It is really the opinion of the Christians,
who interpret the same thing concerning Jesus of Nazareth. He has followed
their path, the path of heresy, and has not desisted from his evil, even to the
point where he calls [Shabbatai] ‘God’ just like the believers in Jesus!” 26
Clearly, Sasportas detected Nathan’s Christian influences and may well have
understood where they were leading. When he began receiving the letters
of Abraham Miguel Cardoso, whose Christian proclivities were even more
marked, he became scathing over this issue. 27