The Sabbatean Prophets

Notes to Pages 49–58 191
33. See, e.g., David Gitlitz, Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews (Philadelphia:
Jewish Publication Society, 1996). While there are those who claim
crypto-Judaism was essentially an invention of the Inquisition, I believe that
much converso testimony reflects real practices.
34. The role of Kabbalah in Sabbateanism is the subject of a major scholarly debate,
mainly between Gershom Scholem, who argued for the centrality of
Lurianic Kabbalah in the rise of Sabbateanism, and Moshe Idel, who argues
against it. See Scholem, Sabbatai àevi, ch. 1; Idel, “‘One from a Town, Two from
a Clan’”; Idel, “Shabbatai [Saturn] the Planet.”
35. The picture I present here is based on the writings of Gershom Scholem,
Moshe Idel, Elliot Wolfson, R. J. Z. Werblowsky, and Mordecai Pachter, though
I am not certain that any one of them would agree with the my entire composite.
36. Idel, Messianic Mystics, 265–69 and elsewhere.
37. See in general Jacob Katz, Divine Law in Human Hands: Case Studies in Halakhic
Flexibility (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1998), esp. 78–84.
38. I have no intention of entering the debate over the age of these books. However,
they are clearly pseudepigraphic.
39. See Aescoly, Jewish Messianic Movements, 305–08 and notes; R. Abraham b.
Eliezer ha-Levi, Shloshah Ma’amare Ge’ulah: Nevu’at ha-Yeled, Mashreh Kitrin,
Iggeret Sod ha-Ge’ulah, ed. Amnon Gross (Jerusalem: Aaron Barazani, 2000), 1–
106. Note that the person who brought this text to press was Rabbi Jacob
Zemah, that most messianic of contemporary Palestinian sages, and a Portuguese
former converso.
40. Again, see Katz, Divine Law; Moshe Hallamish, Kabbalah: In Liturgy, Halakhah
and Customs [Hebrew] (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2000).
41. It is discussed in Avraham Elqayam, “The Mystery of Faith in the Writings of
Nathan of Gaza” [Hebrew] (Ph.D. diss., Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
1993), 32–66.
42. Scholem, Sabbatai àevi, 436; quoted from Leyb b. Oyzer.
43. Idel, Messianic Movements, 127.
44. Meir Benayahu, The Toledoth ha-Ari and Luria’s ‘Manner of Life’ (Hanhagoth) (Jerusalem:
Ben-Zvi Institute at the Hebrew University, 1967), 224.
45. Scholem, Sabbatai àevi, 387–88 n122; Barnai, Sabbateanism, 46.
3. Nathan of Gaza
1. Scholem, Sabbatai àevi, 199–206.
2. This important episode is discussed in detail in ibid., 203–13. Much of what I
have to say here consists of a shift in emphasis on certain aspects of the vision.
3. Ibid., 204–214.
4. Ibid., 205.
5. The following version is from ibid., 204–05. The account is found in Columbia
University Library MS X893-Z8, 1:20, fol. 16v-17r (reproduced in: Scholem,
Major Trends, 417–18); a shorter version in Oxford Neubauer MS. 2571 (repro-