ABSTRACT
The appearance in 1665–66 of the mystical messiah Sabbatai Zevi (1626–76) caused a tremendous commotion. In 1665, prompted by his ‘prophet’ Nathan of Gaza, Sabbatai Zevi announced himself as the messiah long awaited by the Jews. The resulting messianic movement found fertile ground among Ashkenazim, who had suffered so much persecution in Poland and Ukraine in the years 1648–1655. Sephardim were no less receptive to the prospect of the end of exile and the beginning of a messianic era, after their expulsion from Spain and the persecution of Conversos by the Inquisition. Furthermore, many Jews had been influenced by a mystical tendency in the form of the Lurianic kabbalah, which had developed since the sixteenth century and spread from its spiritual centre in Safed.
