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DIASPORA & SHABBETAI ZEVI.   Term Paper ID:26206 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines the exile & dispersion of the Jews & the leadership of Shabbetai in 17th Cent. messianic movement.... More...

8 Pages / 1800 Words 8 sources, 12 Citations, MLA Format $32.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Examines the exile & dispersion of the Jews & the leadership of Shabbetai in 17th Cent. messianic movement. Paper Introduction: The story of the Diaspora is a key element in the history of the Jewish people and in the focus of their aspirations and purposes in the world. The word "Diaspora" is derived from the Greek for "a scattering" or "to scatter about." The word has come to signify the body of Jews today living not in Israel but scattered outside the boundaries of Israel. Diaspora is much more than this, however, being seen as both a way of life and an intellectual concept, as a state of being and a state of mind. An examination of the way the idea is treated in the Bible and in other writings of the time will help point out the variety of Jewish experience in the Diaspora. Some historians date the Diaspora from the time of the destruction of the first kingdom of Judah and the captivity in Babylon, but this would make Diaspora synonymous with exile. It is mo Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Some historians date the Diaspora from the time of the destruction ofthe first kingdom of Judah and the captivity in Babylon, but this wouldmake Diaspora synonymous with exile. The strugglebetween this group and the Hellenizers came to a head in the reign of theSeleucid monarch Antiochus IV, also called Epiphanes. In 1648, it is known that Shabbetai spoke the Name of God in publicand proclaimed himself the Messiah for the first time. The Jews of the Diasporawere profoundly affected by this process, and even the Jews of Palestinewere influenced by it. The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. Jerusalem, Israel: Keter, 1971.Shaw, Stanford J. The worst indignity came when a symbol of the pagan god ofheaven (equivalent to the Greek Zeus) was set up and a pig, abhorrent tothe Jews, sacrificed to it (Feuerlicht 23-24). Shabbetai went to Jerusalem and circled thecity seven times on horseback, receiving the adoration of the populace anda few rabbis. Elisha ha-Ashkenazi, also called Nathan of Gaza, who hadbeen studying along similar lines and who engaged in asceticism andexercises in moral purification while concentration ont he Zohar. In 1662 he decided to settle in Jerusalem. Between 1646and 165 he contracted two marriages that ended in divorce. He may have been following in the example ofthe prophet Hosea who married a whore, but in any case they were married.He became more troubled about his violations of the law and sought toexorcise his demons, and he entered into an extended period of stability("Shabbetai Zevi" 1222-1224). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971.Scholem, Gershom. The preservation of Jewish ideas became of paramountimportance in the Diaspora, the scattering of the Jewish people to otherparts of the world, but always with a sense of belonging to Palestine andof maintaining certain traditions as a consequence. These Jews werenow living in Diaspora, something that had become a voluntary absence fromtheir homeland. He allowed histroops to plunder and kill in Jerusalem, and the city walls were pulleddown. He also tried at this time to ridhimself of his demonic obsessions by means of practical Kabbalah. There were some Jews who resented this process and who triedto resist it, among them the Hasidim ("the pious") who struggled to retaintheir traditions and who preached loyalty to the Torah (the Law) above all. Jews, God and History. He was part of a messianic movement,one of several that developed in response to the forces of history and tothe hope within every Jew for a changed circumstance and a new politicaland social reality that would include their freedom from the tyranny theyhad faced for so long. The Book of Daniel was probably written by the Hasidim. These were later called ma'asim zarim, orstrange or paradoxical actions. What measures does one take to preserve the identity of such a people, and how does one enforce such measures when there is no political power, no police, no army to make these measures enforceable? It was in reaction to the news of theChmielnitski massacres of Jews in the Ukraine and Poland in 1648 that hefirst claimed to be the Messiah. Religious prescriptions became all-powerful so that there was no opportunity for change to meet the needs ofthe time. Ignorance and superstition replacedthe learning of the past, and prayer and religious contemplation absorbedlife and pushed out secular activities. For several years thereafter he wandered through Greece and Thrace.However, his stay in Thessalonika ended with disaster when he celebrated aceremonial nuptial service under the canopy with the Torah, among otherintolerable acts, and he was expelled by the rabbis once more. (This was probably "theabomination of desolation" mentioned in Daniel 11:31.) Thessalonika had been defeated by the Ottomans in 143 , and in thefifteenth and sixteenth cneturies, they settled large numbers of Jews inthis region. The Jews of Islam. These states, which are richly documented throughout his life, persisted until his death ("Shabbetai Zevi" 1322).His followers, however, described these behaviors in different terms astheological evidence of "illumination" and "fall" or "hiding of the face,"the state whereby God hides his face from him. The Messiah of Ismir. This is the problemthat faced Jewish intellectuals: How does one go about preventing the disappearance of a people which has lost its country, which has been fragmentized into thousands of segments, and which has been strewn over vast land masses amidst alien tongues and alien religions? Shabbetai wasconsidered partly a lunatic and partly a fool. Jewish society was now greatlyinfluenced by the shamanism of the ancient nomadic tribes, and superstitionreplaced science. Shabbetai's rise was rapid, and his fall was rapid. When he returned toSmyrna, he decided to marry Sarah, a woman of doubtful reputation who hadrecently arrived from Italy. The Books of the Law were destroyed and possession of them was madea capital offense (Dimont 86). Set in the fourth andthird centuries B.C., the book is of a time when a process of Hellenizationhad begun to transform parts of the Near East. There he metRaphael Joseph Chelebi, the head of Egyptian Jewry who was also in deepsympathy with ascetic and kabbalistic tendencies. He pursued traditional studies until hediscovered the Kabbalah. He over-reachedhimself in trying to name himself head of the Ottoman Empire, and hischallenge to the rabbinical traditions of the time was met with resistanceand challenge by rabbinical leaders. Anemergency brought about the sending of Shabbetai as an emissary forJerusalem to Cairo, and he did this with some success. The Fate of the Jews. He was expelled again, this time back to Smyrna, where he stayed until1662, keeping largely to himself and enduring a period of profoundmelancholy. The behavior changed from time to time,but generally he showed a predilection for strange and bizarre ritualswhich included pronouncing the Ineffable Name of God, the Tetragrammaton.The precise length of these periods of melancholy differed, but during themShabbetai would withdraw from human contact into solitude to battle thedemonic powers he felt were attacking him ("Shabbetai Zevi" 1222). Therewas a good deal of talk about his strange character and behavior. Shabbetai Zevi founded the messianic movement later named after him,Shabbateanism. London: John Lane, 1931.Lewis, Bernard. It is more proper to see the Diasporaas beginning with the Persian conquest of Babylonia. This bookconcerns the struggle of one body of Jews to maintain their religiousintegrity against foreign influence and persecution. He in essence selected a group of followers hecould lead: In selecting them he was not concerned with friendship, though knowledge and youth are all that a man needs for such a relationship. (Dimont 123). He stayed therefor about a year. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962.Feuerlicht, Roberta Strauss. Over time, the town began to have lessand less compassion for his excesses and for his compulsion to violate thelaw in his illuminated states, sometimes accompanied by imaginedexperiences of levitation. Works CitedDimont, Max I. Anexamination of the way the idea is treated in the Bible and in otherwritings of the time will help point out the variety of Jewish experiencein the Diaspora. Jews made numerouscontributons to Ottoman life in Thessalonika and other areas where they hadbeen settled (Lewis 131-132). He was also met with considerable reserve by many of theleading rabbis of the city, however. He began to speak of aparticular "mystery of the Godhead" which he said had been revealed to himthrough his spiritual struggles. The story of the Diaspora is a key element in the history of theJewish people and in the focus of their aspirations and purposes in theworld. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984.Rivkin, Ellis. Ottoman Jewswere subject to disintegration and abuses along with violent communitystrife, economic decline and poverty, and the domination of life byrabbinical authorities so that most Ottoman Jews withdrew from activeparticipation i society altogether. A power struggleover who should be the high priest in Jerusalem convinced Antiochus thatpeace would be achieved by the rigorous enforcement of Hellenism on thepeople and an equally rigorous attack on what in his eyes was anunimportant local sect, that of the Jews (Rivkin 49-5 ). The word "Diaspora" is derived from the Greek for "a scattering" or"to scatter about." The word has come to signify the body of Jews todayliving not in Israel but scattered outside the boundaries of Israel.Diaspora is much more than this, however, being seen as both a way of lifeand an intellectual concept, as a state of being and a state of mind. Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah 1626-1676. Rabbinical tradition was deformed under the heading of Kabbalahmysticism, and the Zohar of the Kabbalists replaced the Talmud anddominated life automatically and autocratically, with no discussion,commentary, or understanding (Shaw 132). New York: Times Books, 1983.Kastein, Joseph. He also repeatedly claimed to be the Messiah.The rabbis, including his teacher Joseph Escapa, finally intervened andbanned him from Smyrna sometime between 1651 and 1654. The era of Shabbetai was a period in which contacts between mostOttoman Jews and those outside the Empire had been severed. However,he continued to break the religious law and to arouse hostility by doingso. Throughout his life, Shabbetai divided all people into two groups--supporters or adversaries. Between 1642 and 1648 he lived in semi-seclusion, and it isthought by many analysts that he developed a character then that conformsto what psychiatry calls an extreme case of cyclothymia, or manic-depressive psychosis: Periods of profound depression and melancholy alternated with spasms of maniacal exaltation and euphoria, separated by intervals of normality. 14. It was during this period when his parents died. This is the struggle depicted in the Book of Daniel. The Shaping of Jewish History: A Radical New Interpretation. An earlier Jewish communtiy in that area had left when thecity passed under Venetian rule (Lewis 122-123). The Persianspermitted the Jews to return to their homeland, but most of them chose toremain where they were instead of returning to Palestine. Nathan propagandized on Shabbetai's behalf throughout the HolyLand, creating excitement and support among the Jewish masses and helpingShabbetai's influence to rise. The Temple was attacked, and treasure wastaken away. Many Jews began to read Greek literature andphilosophy, wear Greek clothes, interest themselves in democratic forms ofgovernment, and generally showed a predilection toward the culture of theGreek world. New York: New York University Press, 1991. Over time, more and more local rabbis begansupporting the movement, giving more power to Shabbetai (Shaw 132-134). Never did he become the friend of any man (Kastein 2 ).Some have seen in the attitudes and lifestyle of Shabbetai evidence ofpathology. He lived in the seventeenth century and founded thislargest and most important messianic movement in Jewish history. He went toConstantinople in 1658 and met the famous kabbalist David Habillo, anemissary of the Jerusalem community. Themovement came about on the one hand because of the conditions of the Jewishpeople in exile and on the other because of the Jewish religious traditionembodying hopes for political and spiritual revival and redemption.Shabbetai was the central figure in this movement, and his influence wouldbe considerable and would extend beyond his life through the movement hefounded. He was consideredby then to be mentally afflicted and was probably ignored. In Ismir, Shabbetai gainedconsiderable financial support and a mass of followers, dividing the Jewishcommunity on the matter. Nathanencouraged Shabbetai, who in 1665 openly proclaimed himself to be theMessiah. Shabbetai and the movement he would found were alsogreatly influenced by this shift. In his travel, he encountered otherkabbalists and their particular views of the religious issues of the day.He met Nathan b. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University, 1973."Shabbetai Zevi." Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. In any case, this mentalaffliction brought to the fore an essential trait of his character--when hewas in period of illumination he was impelled to commit acts which rancounter to religious law. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.