Letter Hailing Shabbetai Tzvi as the Messiah
This letter hailing Shabbetai Tzvi as the Messiah was signed by twenty-four prominent members of the Amsterdam Jewish community who had founded a learned society, Yeshuot Meshiho, in his honor. It was widely believed that 1666 would be the apocalyptic year. However, in that same year Shabbetai Tzvi was arrested by the Ottoman authorities and, threatened with death, converted to Islam. He was abandoned by all but his most faithful followers.
We’re sorry. The Posen Library’s licensing agreements prevent this image from being printed or downloaded.
Credits
Collection Ets Haim — Livraria Montezinos, Amsterdam, EH 47 A 11 001.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
You may also like
Letter to Raphael Joseph
To our fruit of holiness enwrapped in praise, our man of deeds rich in accomplishment, the exalted prince and honored rabbi. May your light shine like the rising sun, blossom like the flowers! May an…
Portrait of Nathan of Gaza
Nathan of Gaza (also known as Nathan Benjamin ben Elisha Ḥayim ha-Levi Ashkenazi) was born in Jerusalem and moved to Gaza in around 1663. The son of a respected religious scholar, he became a scholar…
Letter
In the name of the Lord:
My brothers and my friends, the inhabitants of Albanian Belgrade [Berat, Albania]: may all who are worthy merit seeing the salvation of the Lord. Hurry and send me the maḥzor…
Letter of Conversion
My brothers, my children, and my friends know this: I understood with great clarity that the True One, whom I alone have known for many generations and for whom I have strived so much, wants me to…
Portrait of Shabbetai Tzvi
Shabbetai Tzvi was the central figure of a messianic movement that swept the Jewish world in the mid-seventeenth century. Born in Izmir (Smyrna), as an adolescent Shabbetai Tzvi embarked on the study…
Engage with this Source
Related Guide
Early Modern Rabbis and Intellectuals on the Move
1500–1750
Carrying books and knowledge, itinerant rabbis and scholars traveled between communities, facilitating cultural exchange.
Related Guide
Early Modern Spiritual Ideologies
1500–1750
Early modern Jewish spiritual life encompassed diverse elements, including theology, ethics, liturgy, and messianism.
You may also like
Letter to Raphael Joseph
To our fruit of holiness enwrapped in praise, our man of deeds rich in accomplishment, the exalted prince and honored rabbi. May your light shine like the rising sun, blossom like the flowers! May an…
Portrait of Nathan of Gaza
Nathan of Gaza (also known as Nathan Benjamin ben Elisha Ḥayim ha-Levi Ashkenazi) was born in Jerusalem and moved to Gaza in around 1663. The son of a respected religious scholar, he became a scholar…
Letter
In the name of the Lord:
My brothers and my friends, the inhabitants of Albanian Belgrade [Berat, Albania]: may all who are worthy merit seeing the salvation of the Lord. Hurry and send me the maḥzor…
Letter of Conversion
My brothers, my children, and my friends know this: I understood with great clarity that the True One, whom I alone have known for many generations and for whom I have strived so much, wants me to…
Portrait of Shabbetai Tzvi
Shabbetai Tzvi was the central figure of a messianic movement that swept the Jewish world in the mid-seventeenth century. Born in Izmir (Smyrna), as an adolescent Shabbetai Tzvi embarked on the study…