(This is the conclusion of a two-part series. For the first part, click here.) To say that the Sabbatai Zevi messianic movement of the 17th century was a personality cult would be an understatement. It was surely a great deal more than that--just what, historians are still debating--but … [Read more...]
Messiah of Transgression – Thoughts on Sabbatai Zevi (Part 1)
"Tell me, dunce: are you quite certain you will have a blessed afterlife for believing, without any sign or miracle, in a man insane? Who perpetrated, moreover, one lawless act after another? In Izmir, for example, he spoke the sacred Name of God in the city streets; he taught the rabble and the … [Read more...]
The Messiah and the Whirlwind – A Nativity in August
August seems an odd time for a story about an infant Messiah born in Bethlehem. But the recent occurrence of Tisha be'Av--literally, "the Ninth of the month Av" in the Jewish calendar, which fell on August 1 this year--brought the story to mind. It's a good story, although in some respects a bit … [Read more...]
Sabbatai Zevi, the “Holy Serpent,” and the Passover Plate
This is a post for Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating the Exodus from Egypt, which starts tonight. It's on a subject, though, that at first sight doesn't seem to have much to do with the festival. Snakes. Snakes, not as a zoological but as a psychological reality. Snakes, not for what … [Read more...]
Conspiracy Theories Revisited – The Strange Case of Rabbi Jonathan Eibeschuetz (Part 3)
(This is part 3 of a three-part post. For part 1 click here; for part 2 click here.) In last week's post, I began to describe the scandalous book of Kabbalah that surfaced in Germany in 1725, with the title Va-avo ha-Yom el ha-Ayin, "I Came This Day to the Spring." Rumor had it that the book … [Read more...]
