Suffering Messiah

In 1665, one Sabbatai Tsevi of Smyrna announced himself to the world as a Kabbalistic messiah who would bring in the final restoration ( tiqqun ). Yet, a year later, under a threat of execution from the sultan of Turkey, Tsevi converted to Islam. Instead of giving up their support for Sabbatai, his followers reconceived his messianism in a way that incorporated his apostasy. According to Kenneth Gross’s summary:

“Tsevi’s conversion was interpreted as a knowing act of self-sacrifice, an embrace of the world of sin . . . . In this way, writes Scholem, ‘the Messiah must go his lonely way into the kingdom of impurity and ‘the other side’ . . . and dwell there in the realm of a ‘strange god’ whom he would yet refuse to worship.’”