Sabbatai Ṣevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626–1676

1096 Pages·2016·1.8 MB·English

by  Gershom Scholem

BOLLINGE N SERIES XCIII
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GERSHOM SCHOLEM
SABBATAI SEVI
The Mystical Messiah
1626-1676
With a new introduction by Yaacob Dweck
° § °
BOLLINGEN SERIES XCIII
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 1973 by Princeton University Press
Introduction to the Princeton Classics Edition copyright © 2016
by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, NJ 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford Street,
6
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR
All Rights Reserved
THIS IS THE NINETY-THIRD
IN A SERIES OF WORKS
SPONSORED BY BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION
A revised and augmented translation of the
Hebrew edition: Shabbatai Sevi veha-tenucah
ha-shabbethaPith bi-yemei hayyav (Sabbatai
Sevi and the Sabbatian Movement during
His Lifetime), published by Am Oved, Tel
Aviv, Israel, 1957.
First Princeton/Bollingen paperback printing, 1975
Princeton Classics edition, with a new introduction by Yaacob Dweck, 2016
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-691-17209-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016945836
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
Printed on acid-free paper. «
press.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 7 9 10
6 8
TO MY WIFE FANIA
remembrance of all those years
of common purpose

Paradox is a characteristic of
truth. What communis opinio has
of truth is surely no more than an
elementary deposit of generalizing
partial understanding, related to
truth even as sulphurous fumes
are to lightning.
— From the correspondence of
Count Paul Yorck von Warten-
burg and Wilhelm Dilthey
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True Portrait of Nathan of Gaza, sketched by an eyewitness in Smyrna,
1667. From Thomas Coenen, Ydele Verwachtinge der Joden . . .
(Amsterdam, 1669)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF PLATES XV
TABLE OF TRANSLITERATION xix
PREFACE XXi
INTRODUCTION TO THE PRINCETION CLASSICS EDITION XXix
1
THE BACKGROUND OF
THE SABBATIAN MOVEMENT i
i Historical and sociological explanations of the
Sabbatian movement and their deficiencies i
ii Messianism in Jewish history and its two con­
flicting tendencies: the catastrophic-utopian and
the rationalistic forms 8
hi The messianic idea in the kabbalah 15
iv Lurianic kabbalah and its myth of exile and
redemption 22
v The historical role and social significance of
Lurianic kabbalah 44