Redemption Through Sin? Sabbatai Zevi's claim to be the King Messiah was convincing to perhaps more than half of the world's Jews before his apostacy in September 1666. Then the movement went underground, with small communities still holding the faith for nearly 400 years now. What were the actual Kabbalistic doctrines developed by this heretic messiah's prophet, Nathan of Gaza, that actually supported the claims that Shabbatai Zevi was the long awaited Messiah? In this episode, I'll be exploring, in depth, the early writings of the messianic movement - like The infamous and untranslated Treatise on the Dragons - from the struggle of the messiah's soul plunged into the depths of the demonic klippot, his escape via the 'holy ruse,' and the justification of his openly transgressive deeds and eventual apostasy.

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Recommended Readings:

Scholem - Sabbatai Ṣevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626–1676 - 978-0691172095
Freely - The Lost Messiah: In Search of the Mystical Rabbi Sabbatai Sevi - 978-1585673186 (basically a precis of Scholem)
Sisman - The Burden of Silence: Sabbatai Sevi and the Evolution of the Ottoman-Turkish Dönmes - 978-0190698560
Baer - The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks - 978-0804768689
Maciejko - The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755-1816 - 978-0812223439
Maciejko - Sabbatian Heresy: Writings on Mysticism, Messianism, and the Origins of Jewish Modernity - 978-1512600520
Halperin - Sabbatai Zevi: Testimonies to a Fallen Messiah - 978-1906764241
Rapoport-Albert - Women and the Messianic Heresy of Sabbatai Zevi - 978-1906764807
Elior - Jacob Frank's 'Book of the Words of the Lord' - 978-9042936508
בעקבות משיח - blimabooks.com
ספר הבריאה - holzerbooks.com (caveat lector)