Sabbatai Zevi
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Search complete. 53 mentions across 28 episodes found for "Sabbatai Zevi".
Sep 14, 2026
Reuven BrandHOST
In Shinov, they used to say L'david, but it was known that the Rapshitzer and the Devre Chaim, Rebbe Chaim Tzanzer, did not recite L'david.
Reuven BrandHOST
Now, it was assumed for a long time that the reason why some Chassidim did and some Chassidim did not say L'David had something to do with the Shabtai Tzvi controversy, whether or not.
Reuven BrandHOST
But apparently, Rav Shimon Zalachover says he heard the following tradition from Rapshitz.
Reuven BrandHOST
And I'm just going to tell you what Dr. Lyman told this story from Rav Shimon Zalachover.
Shlomo YisraeliHOST
No, no, no.
Shlomo YisraeliHOST
That, that is, that is Shabtai Tzvi.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
Shabtai Tzvi.
Shlomo YisraeliHOST
Shabtai Tzvi was another big catastrophe.
Shlomo YisraeliHOST
He was a Mashiach shaker.
Shlomo YisraeliHOST
He was not, uh, you know.
speaker_0HOST
A great deal of modern, secular Jewish social justice language uses Tikkun Olam to mean something closer to charitable action, drawing loosely on both the older legal sense and Luria's mystical one, without being identical to either.
speaker_0HOST
A century after Luria, a troubled young man from Smyrna named Sabbatai Zevi, immersed in Kabbalah since his youth, was proclaimed to be the promised Messiah by a prophet named Nathan of Gaza, who interpreted Sabbatai's mission through a radical reading of Luria's cosmic drama in the year sixteen sixty-five.
speaker_0HOST
The response was staggering.
speaker_0HOST
Across the Mediterranean world, in the Holy Land, in Italy, in Holland, in Germany, entire Jewish communities sold their homes and possessions in anticipation of the imminent messianic age.
speaker_0HOST
Nobody can put a precise number on how many Jews came to believe he was the Messiah.
speaker_0HOST
But by any reckoning, it was the most widespread messianic movement since the fall of the Second Temple, sweeping communities that had no contact with one another into the same expectation at the same time.
speaker_0HOST
Then, in sixteen sixty-six, Ottoman authorities arrested him, gave him the choice of death or conversion, and Sabbatai Zevi chose to convert to Islam on the spot.
speaker_0HOST
The movement he built did not fully die.
Simon JacobsonHOST
But you can't say I'm gonna sin and then do teshuva.
Simon JacobsonHOST
This was one of the mistakes that the Frankisten, Jacob Frank and his gang, as well as Shabtai Zvi, they, they touched upon.
Simon JacobsonHOST
They knew a little Kabbalah, and they ended up doing things that were completely mamish the worst possible things you could do al pi Torah with the claim we're redeeming the high...
Simon JacobsonHOST
These, these great sparks.
Harrison SmithHOST
This is not a vague, obscure cult off over in the corner.
Harrison SmithHOST
People often have that sort of accusation if you talk about things like the Frankists, the Sabbateans, Sabbatai Zebi.
Harrison SmithHOST
It's the same thing that was happening back then.
Harrison SmithHOST
Sabbatai Zebi back then, half or more of the Jewish population on the planet thought he was the Messiah and were following him.
Harrison SmithHOST
This is not talking about an obscure cult in order to distract from Judaism.
Harrison SmithHOST
I'm talking about mainstream Judaism.
Barak HullmanHOST
and the years after were not much easier landlords would lease out inns and taverns to jews across the countryside and as i have said many times in the stories if a jew fell behind on their payments the landlord would treat them like property practically a slave and if there was a bad year then the husband wife and his children could all be thrown into an underground prison until the debt was somehow paid off And the Jewish people were worn down.
Barak HullmanHOST
And also, there was Shabtai Tzvi, who in 1648, the same year of those massacres, declared himself Mashiach.
Barak HullmanHOST
And his movement exploded across the Jewish world.
Barak HullmanHOST
You can imagine the despair the people had been under, seeing so many Jews murdered.
Barak HullmanHOST
And here, Mashiach is here.
Barak HullmanHOST
Many, many people joined Shabtai Tzvi, believing that he was going to take them to the Holy Land.
Barak HullmanHOST
And in 1666, under pressure from the Ottoman Sultan, he converted to Islam.
Barak HullmanHOST
It was one of the most devastating crises of faith in Jewish history.
Hans UtterHOST
Um, and so, but again, it's just swept u- it was swept under the carpet.
Hans UtterHOST
And so, you know, this is y- this is really kind of a basic tenet almost, right? You can see this sort of corrupted stream, you know, wending its way through Europe as well, right? And, and, and, and coming even with, if you look at Jakob Frank, right? And, and so his orgiastic religion with incest with his own daughter, right? You know, you know, he's, he's the incarnation of Sabbatai Zevi converted to Catholicism.
Hans UtterHOST
And many Europeans, you know, y- noblemen even became part of the Frankist, even if they were Jewish, they became part of this Frankist movement because also they got to have-- There was orgies and there's all this other stuff that was part of it.
Hans UtterHOST
But you know what it's say- and it was not, um...
Hans UtterHOST
You started with Polish nobility, et ceteras, right? So they joined this movement, y-you know, and, and probably one of the biggest, you know, is he the Messiah? Well, I don't-- I guess not.
Hans UtterHOST
The world's still going.
Hans UtterHOST
So said Sabbatai Zevi, the world didn't end either, you know? He just...
Hans UtterHOST
[chuckles] That guy, you know.
Reuven BrandHOST
Anything that has to do with Sabbateanism, you can imagine, is already going to be highly problematic and highly controversial.
Reuven BrandHOST
But we can avoid this controversy about the Shabtai Tzvi, which is interesting in and of itself, but not for today, by pointing out that there is a second approach to this L'david story predating this controversial story about ShopSitesV and a safer that was published.
Reuven BrandHOST
You see it in your source number four.
Reuven BrandHOST
This is the Xerox.
Chaim WolosowGUEST
And the mood was very, very down of the Jewish people.
Chaim WolosowGUEST
On top of that, during that period of time before the Baal Shem Tov, there were also some false messiahs, the Shabtai Tzvi, who claimed that he was the Messiah, and he had a tremendous following amongst the Jewish people.
Chaim WolosowGUEST
Eventually, he ended up converting to the Islam.
Chaim WolosowGUEST
The same thing is his follower was from the Frankist, who also claimed to be the Messiah, and then eventually he converted to Christianity.
Meshul VolosonGUEST
And the mood was very, very down of the Jewish people.
Meshul VolosonGUEST
On top of that, during that period of time before the Baal Shem Tov, there were also some false messiahs, the Shabtai Zvi, who claimed that he was the Messiah, and he had a tremendous following amongst the Jewish people.
Meshul VolosonGUEST
Eventually, he ended up converting to the Islam.
Meshul VolosonGUEST
The same thing is his follower was from the Frankist, who also claimed to be the Messiah, and then eventually he converted to Christianity.
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