The Sabbatean Prophets

58 The Sabbatean Prophets
from 1668 and 1673/4. 3 Nathan asserts that he was forbidden to reveal the
contents of this vision until after Shabbatai revealed himself publicly as messiah
in Gaza several months later. 4 The vision lasted for twenty-four hours
and provided details about the messianic faith; but the real impact on Nathan
was the experience itself—the immediacy and intensity of the moment,
epitomized in the introductory phrase, “Thus saith the Lord.” These
were the words so often used by the biblical prophets, and they designate
this occurrence as something qualitatively different from any ordinary contemporary
prophetic event. Although some of the circulated documents
from before Shabbatai’s apostasy mention this prophecy, it appears that the
details were intended originally just for the small audience of Palestinian
rabbis around whom the movement originally coalesced. I will present several
versions of the story, to point out some of the themes that occupied and
influenced Nathan at that critical moment.
Nathan of Gaza, from a letter 5 of 1673:
These things [I write] to make known unto you in faithfulness the certainty
of the words of truth, the great cause and reason of the tidings which I have
announced to the assembly of the congregation of Israel concerning our deliverance
and the redemption of our souls. Whosoever knoweth me can
truthfully testify that from my childhood unto this day not the slightest
fault [of sin] could be found with me. I observed the Law in poverty, and
meditated on it day and night. I never followed after the lusts of the flesh,
but always added new mortifications and forms of penance with all my
strength, nor did I ever derive any worldly benefit from my message. Praise
be to God that there are many faithful witnesses to testify to this and to
much more. I studied the Torah in purity until I was twenty years of age,
and I performed the great tikkun which Isaac Luria prescribes for everyone
who has committed great sins. Although praise be to God, I have not advertently
committed any sins, nevertheless I performed it in case my soul
be sullied from an earlier transmigration. When I had attained the age of
twenty, I began to study the book Zohar and some of the Lurianic writings.
[According to the Talmud] he who wants to purify himself receives the aid
of Heaven; and thus He sent me some of His holy angels and blessed spirits
[mal’ahav ha-kedoshim ve-nishmotav ha-tehorot] who revealed to me many of
the mysteries of the Torah. In that same year, my force having been stimulated
by the visions of the angels and the blessed souls, I was undergoing a