Review: Benayahu's "Sefunot, the Sabbatian Movement in Greece"

Author(s): Shimon L. Khayyat

Reviewed work(s):
Sefnt, Sfer Shnh le-er ehillt Yir'l bam-Mizr, Sefer XIV
Source: The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 71, No. 4 (Apr., 1981), pp. 253-256
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1454618
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BENAYAHU'S SEFUNOT,
THE SABBATIAN MOVEMENT IN GREECE*
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-

THIS

* Sefiinot, Sefer Shdnah le-heker kehillot Yisrd'el bam-Mizrah,

Sefer XIV. Jerusalem, I977, Pp. I5 + 557.

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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 relationship 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,

BENAYAHU'S SEFUNOT-KHAYYAT

255

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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THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

country to another and from city to city seems to strengthen the

which does not recognize the
similarity with the Sufi movement,
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