The Sabbatean Prophets

Opponents and Observers Respond 141
who is raised and commended by the king messiah, is worthy of appointment
to the Sanhedrin! And Rabbi Solomon Algazi is girded with his sword
—his books we have here testify to his great wisdom. There are others
whose wisdom is of this caliber in the capital, Constantinople, whose qualities
are worthy of having God’s presence rest upon them. But the spirit of
holiness and prophecy distances itself from the male side to approach the
female side and the femininity of the great deep, unless we say there is
some hidden meaning in this. The failure of their prophecies to be realized
will prove it, and let that suffice; Thou hast made light of all them that err from
Thy statutes, for their deceit is vain. 48
This and numerous other passages in the Zizat Novel Zvi each focus on different
details for the particular recipient of the letter Sasportas is composing.
In this section he begins by lampooning the histrionics of the prophets but
moves quickly to his main theme: their absolute lack of qualifications for the
prophetic calling. His critique centers on the failure of the prophets to conform
to the authority of halakhah and rabbinic tradition. 49 Sasportas is well
aware that these events were regarded as confirmatory miracles and portents
by the masses of believing Jews. He uses extensive skeptical arguments
against both the likelihood of the prophecies being genuine, and their
significance or reliability even if they are. He pointedly employs language
from Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed here, and repeatedly quotes or paraphrases
biblical and rabbinic passages with which the Sabbatean prophets
appear to conflict. For example, he cites the talmudic stipulation that prophets
be persons with wisdom, strength, and wealth, all of which he obviously
feels are lacking in women and children. He also refers back to the dictum
that prophecy can only happen in the Land of Israel.
Sasportas suggests that these prophetic possessions are either epilepsy
(and not just like epilepsy), or the effects of an evil spirit. The juxtaposition
of a medical explanation and a spiritual explanation for possession
(something Sasportas does on several occasions) is typical of early modern
responses to “Enthusiasm”; it appears, for example, in the passage at the beginning
of this chapter, written against the French Prophets. This conjunction
illustrates the integration of what many today would call medieval and
modern ideas. Sasportas’ approach closely resembles the reactions in Christian
Europe, especially in England, to the seventeenth-century outbreak of
prophetic sects in which women and children played a prominent role.