Review: Benayahu's "Sefunot, the Sabbatian Movement in Greece"Author(s): Shimon L. KhayyatReviewed work(s):

Sefnt, Sfer Shnh le-er ehillt Yir'l bam-Mizr, Sefer XIVSource: The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 71, No. 4 (Apr., 1981), pp. 253-256Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1454618Accessed: 26/04/2009 19:41

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BENAYAHU'S SEFUNOT, THE SABBATIAN MOVEMENT IN GREECE*

THIS VOLUME OF Sefiint is written entirely by the editor, Meir Benayahu, unlike the other volumes which contain articles and essays by various scholars. The author has devoted all the ten chapters of this book to a single subject, the pseudo-Messiah Shabbethai Sebi.

The study of the Sabbatian movement has been greatly enriched in the last thirty-five years by many newly discovered sources. These sources characterize more accurately the leaders and the followers in this movement, and also help to understand better its development, its influence, and its position in the context of Jewish history in general. The study of the Sabbatian movement has now become very extensive and embraces many areas of research, to such an extent that it has become a major branch of Jewish scholarship. The author takes a new line in his research in that he undertakes to examine the movement's history in each one of its various centers.

In this volume Benayahu examines the movement in only one center, the city of Salonika. In this city the movement found a home for its faith, and here Nathan of Gaza was able to establish a school and expound his doctrines to the local scholars and Rabbis. Benayahu even supposes (p. 76) that the Sabbatians believed that the expected revelation of the Messiah will take place in Salonika.

However, in studying a subject according to its geographical location there is the danger that one might overlook the distinction between the movement and the community that sheltered it, and thus write a history of the Jewish community in Salonika rather than a history of the local Sabbatian movement. In fact, this is precisely what has happened in this case.

Thus the first chapter is dedicated to the outstanding figures in Salonikan Jewry rather than to the ideology of the local Sabbatian movement. The author provides the reader with new details about Nathan of Gaza, Joseph the Philosopher, and others, covering the period from Shabbethai Sebi's death to the mass conversion of the Sabbatians to Islam, a period of sixteen years (p. 7I).

Benayahu offers an abundance of original sources, mostly manu-

* Sefiinot, Sefer Shdnah le-heker kehillot Yisrd'el bam-Mizrah, Sefer XIV. Jerusalem, I977, Pp. I5 + 557.

THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

script, cited whole or in part, from over one hundred manuscripts located in both public and private libraries.

The most important sources recently discovered are the Sefer ha-ma'amnrzm by R. Abraham Rovigo, the writings of Nathan of Gaza addressed to the Italian circles, and the work of Abraham Miranda of Salonika, Yemot mashiah. The latter compiled a collection of letters written by Shabbethai Sebi and Nathan of Gaza and of other significant writings. A manuscript from the circle of Benjamin ha-Kohen and R. Abraham Rovigo deals with kabbalistic secrets and mysteries. All these sources contribute to a better understanding of the Sabbatian faith.

Benayahu has succeeded in clarifying some vague details concerning two leaders of the movement, Solomon Florentin and Joseph the Philosopher, in identifying the main figure in the Donmeh Baruchia, and in shedding light on Shabbethai Sebi's son Ishmael.

The vast amount of material mentioned above is the reason why one would have preferred that this book were divided into two volumes or sections: the first would have comprised only the original sources derived from manuscripts and rare books, while the second would have included an historical and literary analysis of the Sabbatian movement as reflected by these sources. Instead the author has combined the two parts into one whole and thus burdened the reader with rather indigestible material. Thus this book is valuable mainly as a collection of primary sources.

Furthermore, throughout his book the author confronts the reader with his conclusions without first analyzing the sources, as expressed in his repeated and premature statement, "One is led to the conclusion that the masses did not follow the Sabbatian movement." One would have expected the author to draw his conclusions from the analysis of the sources.

After reading this book one does not feel sure about the conversion of Shabbethai Sebi and his followers to Islam. One might suggest that Sabbatianism was strongly influenced by Sufism, as witnessed by the fact that the Sabbatians stressed the importance of love in the rela- tionship between the believer and God; it is sufficient to cite the anecdote about Shabbethai Sebi's wedding (p. 28), and the name given by him to his wife, Michal Hadassah. Indeed the whole episode of Shabbethai Sebi's wife is mystical and Sufi rather than physical, since it reminds us of the image of the beloved woman in Sufi poetry (p. 85). The author misses the metaphorical point of this anecdote, and considers it a historical fact that Shabbethai Sebi's wife had indeed married her own brother after her husband's death. The Sufi origin of this story is implied also in the brother's name, Querido,

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which means "beloved" in Spanish. Hence the author has great difficulty in tracing Querido as a son of Joseph the Philosopher, who in fact had no son that would fit the Querido image. It is all merely an allegorical tale.

Benayahu regards Querido as a real factor in the conversion to Islam of many Jews in Salonika after Shabbethai Sebi's death, without really being able to prove that Querido is a historical person. Moreover, Islam forbids marriage to a sister or a mother (see Charles Hamilton, The Hedaya, Lahore, I963, p. 27). He is therefore compelled to say that "we do not possess even a single piece of evidence from the people who had uprooted themselves from the Jewish nation ... We have merely odd fragments of information written down much later and in various other places" (p. 88).

This historical guesswork has caused Benayahu, as well as everyone else who had written about this movement, to adopt an apologetic defense of it and to suggest that the Sabbatians gave up their ancestral faith and adopted Islam for economic reasons, so that they would be exempt from the taxes payable by non-Muslims. He supposes that wealthy people especially "were burdened with heavy taxes, and out of their love of money and their weak faith abandoned their religion and adopted Islam" (p. 93). Yet this explanation has no support anywhere in his vast collection of original sources.

It seems more reasonable to suggest that the Sabbatian movement was rather a revolt against the authority of the Rabbis, since it advocated making some prohibited acts permissible, on the ground that conventional morality is false. They even loosened the Biblical interdict of adultery by permitting the interchange of wives among several husbands. Some of them had secret affairs with married women, while others were intimate with their own sisters or mothers, and regarded such acts as tikkun (spiritual rite) for the good of their souls (pp. 99, ioo). As mentioned above, Islam, like Judaism, condemns such perverted intimacies.

The only historical evidence from the original sources tor this mass conversion of the Sabbatians to Islam is their rule about wearing the turban (misnefet, Arabic Camamah). However, this too could be an adopted Sufi idea, since the Sufis customarily wore the 'amamah (see T. P. Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam, Lahore, 1885, p. 647).

So far no one has discovered any official document in Arabic or Turkish confirming the conversion of Shabbethai Sebi to Islam, nor do we have any testimony from the imam who presumably officiated at this conversion. The only thing we are sure of is the wearing of the ramdmah.

The fact that the Sabbatian leaders preferred to wander from one

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country to another and from city to city seems to strengthen the similarity with the Sufi movement, which does not recognize the limitations of time or space. Another similarity is the tendency to write mystical poetry in the form of love poems. In this case the publication for the first time of Sabbatian Hebrew poems constitutes an important contribution to the study of Hebrew poetry in the seventeenth century, although one might wish that the author had vocalized the text and had analyzed the contents and the metaphors as well.

Last but not least, this book is a major addition to our knowledge of the Sabbatian movement in particular and of Jewish history in general. We hope that the author will continue to favor us with the fruits of his research in the future.

Dropsie University SHIMON L. KHAYYAT

Article Contentsp. [253]p. 254p. 255p. 256

Issue Table of ContentsThe Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 71, No. 4 (Apr., 1981), pp. 201-274+i-ivVolume Information [pp. i - iv]Front MatterLand Theology in Josephus' "Jewish Antiquities" [pp. 201 - 229]Border Areas and the Roman Burgus in Early Rabbinic Sources [pp. 230 - 238]Edmund Gayton's Anti-Jewish Poem Addressed to Menasseh Ben Israel, 1656 [pp. 239 - 250]Critical Notes, Book ReviewsThe Proper Meaning of "Cum nimis Absurdum" [pp. 251 - 252]Benayahu's "Sefunot, the Sabbatian Movement in Greece" [pp. 253 - 256]Rosenzweig's "Solidaritt" [pp. 257 - 258]Britannica's "The Arabs" [pp. 259 - 260]Readings in Arab Societies and Cultures [pp. 261 - 262]Lassner's "Shaping of 'Abbsid Rule" [pp. 263 - 265]

Short Notices [pp. 266 - 269]Books Received [pp. 270 - 274]Back Matter