The Sabbatean Prophets

164 The Sabbatean Prophets
Raphael’s story, determined that Raphael was a fraud, and launched an extensive
campaign against him. Eventually Raphael fled to Posen, where he
was accepted as a true prophet in the whole region; but his past caught up
with him and he escaped to a life in unknown parts and adventures. Among
the further gifts Raphael claimed in Amsterdam and Hamburg were prescience,
palm-reading skill, knowledge of efficacious amulets, and the ability
to cure the sick—all related to his prophetic calling. 2 Raphael illustrates the
way Sabbateanism could be integrated into the identity of an otherwise ordinary
Jewish confidence man in the late seventeenth century for added effect,
a pattern repeated often over the coming decades.
A striking and well-known prophetic incident occurred in Amsterdam
in 1674. The famous Portuguese-Dutch Jewish poet, Daniel Levi de Barrios,
an important figure in the larger world of letters, began experiencing prophetic
ecstasies during the holiday of Passover, the festival celebrating the
redemption of Israel from Egyptian bondage. Ironically, it was Hakham Jacob
Sasportas, the arch opponent of the Sabbateans, but also a friend of de
Barrios, who was called in to deal with the situation. He reports that he
found de Barrios so overcome by prophetic visions and voices that he was at
first unable to speak. De Barrios predicted that the messianic deliverance
would become known before the fast of Tisha be-Av in summer, and that
Shabbatai Zvi would manifest himself as the messiah before the New Year in
autumn. Sasportas blamed the excessive fasts, sleep deprivation, and isolation
de Barrios had practiced—surely in imitation of Nathan and the kabbalists—for
the hyperactivity of the poet’s imagination. 3 This incident is important
for several reasons. It indicates the continued vigor of Sabbatean
beliefs in Amsterdam, in an overt setting, many years after Shabbatai’s apostasy.
De Barrios joins Cardoso as another highly accomplished converso intellectual
who becomes a prophet of Shabbatai, this time in Western Europe.
Sasportas’s response is also telling, since it completely lacks the anti-
Sabbatean vitriol of the Zizat Novel Zvi, and rather takes a medical approach
to de Barrios’ visions.
Around the same time as de Barrios in Amsterdam, a different sort of
prophet arose in Meknes, Morocco, to foretell the return of Shabbatai as
messiah in the coming Passover. This individual, Joseph ibn Zur, was a
poorly educated, working-class Jew who suddenly found himself in the
throes of prophetic ecstasies. Scholem connects this awakening to the visit
of R. Elisha Ashkenazi, father of Nathan. Elisha galvanized the faithful and
probably brought Nathan’s writings to Morocco, creating a connection with