"Safed kabbalah and the Sephardic Heritage"

Jillian Rubin
Jews in the modern world
Professor Lesses
September 11, 2008
“Safed kabbalah and the Sephardic Heritage”, Salonica: City of Ghosts
1. The relationship between the rise of Safed Kabbalah and the messianic movement of Shabbetai Zevi a hundred years later is that people were still considering him a messiah even a hundred years after he died.
2. The life story of Shabbetai Zevi was that he was born into a wealthy merchant family. He was given a traditional rabbi education. When he was a young adult he was afflicted with manic-depression. When he was in a manic phase he would violate Jewish religious law. He was seen as mentally unbalanced. He was no longer allowed to be in Smyrna, and spent the following ten years of his life in the Ottoman Empire. A holy man in Gaza was supposed to cure Zevi. Eventually, Zevi was arrested and in February 1666 he was imprisoned.
3. In Salonica he was very well-known. He spent a great deal of time studying in Salonica. He also prayed in the synagogue of the marranos. However, by 1659 he pronounced the divine name and was made to leave Salonica.
4. He was arrested by the ottoman sultan because when he returned to Smyrna in 1665 he was violating parts of Jewish law. During Passover he was convincing many people to do things that were against Jewish law. It was at this time that about 150 people were in a trance because of him, and had thoughts that Zevi was the Messiah. It was because of this that he was arrested. However, just because he was arrested it did not stop his followers.
5. After he converted to Islam, there was a disturbance for his followers. Some people no longer followed his movement; however there were still people who remained part of it after he converted. Although he had become a Muslim, he still practiced Judaism privately and would celebrate Jewish holidays with his followers when they would visit him
6. The Donmeh were radicals who followed Sabbatai Zevi after he converted to Islam. These people secretly still believed in Zevi’s messiahship. This group of individuals practiced Judaism on the basis of teachings of Sabbatean. Originally, this group had about 200 families in it. A few hundred more families were added to the Donmeh in the 1680s after there was another conversion.
7. Jacob Frank was Zevi’s brother-in-law. He received Zevi’s spirit, after that more people began to convert.