The Sabbatean Prophets

The Jewish Tradition 43
anic age. 12 Another post-expulsion Sepharadi work is the Geniza Pages,
found by Isaiah Tishby, containing acute messianic prophecies related in
spirit to those mentioned above. 13
In Spain itself a very significant prophetic-messianic movement in 1499–
1500 among a group of converted Jews was led by the adolescent Inés of
Herrera. The girl dreamed of a heavenly journey with her recently deceased
mother, in which she learned that the messiah was about to appear. A considerable
number of believers gathered around Inés, and other messianic
prophets were inspired by her example. 14 Much of the considerable messianic
agitation and prophecy among Sepharadi Jews in the late fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries connected to the Kabbalah. 15
An important prophet and messianic voice from outside the Sepharadi
context spoke at this time as well. This was Asher Laemmlein Reutlingen, an
Ashkenazi Jew who led a sizeable movement in 1500–1502, centered in
Northern Italy. Laemmlein’s case is somewhat complex because in that period
of deep shock over the Spanish expulsion, he was outspokenly against
Sepharadi Jews. Laemmlein was also a kabbalist, but his mysticism was
more in the Abulafian and Italian vein than in the Spanish Zoharic tradition.
16 Italian Jews were generally active at the time in expectations of the
impending messianic age, and they carried on a correspondence with their
Palestinian coreligionists about news concerning the Ten Tribes and other
apocalyptic matters. 17
Expulsion-era prophetic messianism reached its peak in the 1520s, with
the appearance of David ha-Reubeni and Solomon Molkho. Reubeni
showed up in Italy in 1524–25 with an identity that has puzzled everyone,
from his contemporaries to modern scholars. He claimed to be from the lost
tribe of Reuben, now living in the desert of Habur, and said his brother was
the king of those Jews. David did not declare himself to be a messiah, but he
was widely taken as one, and he cultivated his image as a prophet and mystic.
The ostensible purpose of his mission to Europe on behalf of his brother
was to gain military support for a campaign against the Muslims in the Holy
Land. He managed to negotiate an audience with the pope, who sent him
along to the king of Portugal to evaluate the request for military assistance.
Reubeni’s presence in Portugal, where he was allowed to practice Judaism
openly at a time when Jews had been expelled from the country, caused an
enormous messianic stir among the Iberian conversos. Reubeni’s mission in
Portugal ultimately failed; he was given short shrift when he returned to Italy,
and his activities were largely thwarted for a number of years. 18