One of the most dramatic periods in Jewish history centered on the seventeenth-century emergence of the quasi-mystical, quasi-messianic figure known as Shabbetai Zevi. Born in Smyrna, deep in the Ottoman Empire, in 1626, Shabbetai Zevi became a symbol of a kabbalistic-inspired fervor for the coming of a Jewish Messiah. Many factors contributed to his rise (and eventual fall from grace, which took the form of apostasy), not the least of which was the spiritual renewal of the Israelite city of Safed, where the movement of Kabbalah had achieved a dominant position in Jewish life. This new Kabbalah combined a belief in messianism with mysticism. Interpreting the concept of tikkun (“restoration”) as a step toward world harmony and redemption to be marked by the appearance of the Messiah, the proponents of this Lurianic Kabbalah caused a wave of messianic ferment.

Shabbetai Zevi, a brilliant student and erstwhile ascetic, with deep signs of emotional exuberance and disturbance haunting his narcissistic soul, was a likely instrument for the nascent movement. Trying to live a mystical, ascetic life, he took the liberty of reciting the Ineffable Name of God, the Tetragrammaton that was forbidden by rabbinic law to be pronounced. This led to messianic proclamations and his eventual expulsion from the Smyrna community in the early 1650s. Thus began a journey that, when traced on a map, resembled that of the New Testament’s Paul, except that the latter’s peregrinations were more historically authentic and successful.

Shabbetai Zevi drew his greatest support from Nathan of Gaza, a wily physician who convinced the ebullient/depressed messianic pretender that he was, indeed, the real article. Thus in May 1665, Shabbetai Zevi announced himself as the Messiah and the fury intensified. This movement, strangely enough, was not limited to the simple-minded. Rabbis and scholars were swept up in the excitement, and in Aleppo there was testimony of appearances of the prophet Elijah. This led to further machinations, much of them scurrilous, until the newly appointed king encouraged the liturgical deletion of the Turkish sultan from the prayer recited on behalf of the country’s ruler, substituting instead a formal prayer for Shabbetai Zevi as the messianic king of Israel. This bit of national and religious blasphemy earned Shabbetai Zevi an audience with the grand vizier and eventual imprisonment. Although the movement was reaching its most ecstatic levels during the summer of 1666, Shabbetai Zevi, under Turkish examination, denied making any messianic claims and, forsaking martyrdom, decided to convert to Islam. Putting on a turban, he assumed the name Aziz Mehmed Effendi and was granted the honorary title of Kapici Bashi, “keeper of the palace gates”.