The Sabbatean Prophets

140 The Sabbatean Prophets
The North African rabbi’s withering vituperation explodes full force in response
to these events.
Why should I accept all that has been reported Because of the words of
ridiculous prophecies, or epileptic fits, or a frightening evil spirit Who
gathered spirit outside the bounds of truth, to prophesy with the spirit of
Navoth, 34 if not the women, who are bereft of all the conditions necessary
for prophecy Neither wisdom nor strength nor wealth exist in an impure
land. 35 They kneel, bending and falling, to speak the name of their master as
messiah. They bring forth their children; 36 boys and girls are provoked to see in
riddles the breaches of the city of David and its piercing, that will be rebuilt
[] by their king. Their birth pangs are exerted—so many prophets who see
his image imprinted in the seventh heaven, with all the hosts of heaven
standing and declaring, “Make way and give kingship, glory and honor to
your lord!”
Their sons dream dreams which mix much foolishness together with
straw, chaff and waste. Should they be weighed with the weight of prophets
And what hath the straw to do with the wheat 37 They have left the boundaries
of truth and not repented it; they prophesied, but they did so no more; 38 they
are wholly consumed by terrors, as a dream when one awaketh. 39 If they are
prophets and the word of God is in their mouths, and if prophecy built a
house in the Land of Shinar 40 to rest upon those whose intelligence is unprepared
for it, the hasty preparation is good enough for their aptitude []. According
to them, Whom the Lord loveth He correcteth [or proveth] 41 to be a
prophet, without differentiating between those who are worthy and those
who are not worthy and prepared. It is as those fools think, Who has set the
wild ass free 42 from this prophecy
Is it already possible that the most empty of men will lie down in his bed,
and in the morning will find himself a prophet by the decree of God It is
worth as much as the prophecy of a frog or a donkey! 43 Heaven forbid that
we should think a donkey and its master eat from the same trough. 44 And
The bands of the wild ass, 45 the wild donkey, these ignoramuses and their
wives who are imprisoned and tied up, entangled in the roughness of their
materiality—Who hath loosed them 46 Who decided to open the way, a small
wicket 47 to enter the chambers of the king of the universe, in a place where
there stand towering giants of wisdom and fear of sin Are we short of wise,
righteous and accomplished men from Izmir Rabbi Hayyim Benveniste,