Shabbetai Zevi's Odyssey

Shabbetai Zevi was a Jewish man with a Spanish background who contributed to the history of the Jews. He pretended to be the Messiah and gave the Jews hope during a miserable time. Even though he was not the true Messiah, he gave the Jews someone to believe in. During the 17th Century, everyone thought the Messianic Era was approaching to coincide with the predictions that had been made. After initial disbelief, the Jewish people began to accept that Shabbetai Zevi was the Messiah. He rose slowly but fell very fast and it was very unexpected. He was an idealist, a charlatan and very dangerous for the continuation of the Jewish people at the end of his odyssey. This essay will discuss how Shabbetai Zevi came to power, his fall, and the repercussions …show more content…
Many of his followers could not believe nor accept that they had worshipped an imposter. Everyone had opened their hearts to the Messiah and invested all their beliefs into him, only to have him betray them all. Given the choice between death and conversion, Shabbetai Zevi left Judaism to become a Muslim (Mohammedan) (Jewish History 2). Shabbetai Zevi’s apostasy is one of the most dark and tragic moments of Jewish history, as well as confusing to many Jews. Many men sold all their belongings to go to Palestine with him in order to fight. Everyone had been fooled, and no-one had expected this betrayal (Scholem Gershom, The Mystical Messiah, 792, 793). Shabbetai Zevi’s treachery was even a surprise to the ones closest to him, since they too had been tricked. His believers could not cope with the betrayal of someone they held so highly. Only his most faithful believers did not think that Shabbetai Zevi had betrayed his religion or people. They made up the idea that the World was not ready for the Messiah yet and made a belief system called Sabbatain Theology (Scholem Gershom, The Mystical Messiah, 792, 793). This was to keep Shabbetai Zevi’s ideas of morality and fairness alive, so his “true” followers would wait for him when he returned. This was a truly devastating occurrence for the Jewish people because it caused mass conversions to Christianity, Islam and Sabbatain after he converted. This was disastrous to the Jewish population and made everyone think twice about believing in another Messiah again. After Shabbetai Zevi, many other people made false claims about being Messiahs, prophets, or decedents of Shabbetai Zevi. (Grayzel Solomon, A History of the Jews, 448). Overall, Shabbetai Zevi’s lies broke the hearts of the Jewish people and permanently damaged their beliefs. They put their hopes and dreams into a man who was not the Messiah. A man named Jacob Querido claimed that he was the son of