Fascinating! ( )

NO OF PAGES: 1000 SUB CAT I: False Messiahs SUB CAT II: SUB CAT III: DESCRIPTION: Messianic longing and expectation, always rife throughout Jewish history, have often found expression in movements prompted by messianic pretenders, forerunners, or prophets. These manifestations have generally been of short duration and of merely local significance. The only messianic movement to engulf the whole of Jewry-from England to Persia, from Germany to Morocco, from Poland to the Yemen-was that aroused by a young kabbalist rabbi from Smyrna, the "messiah" Sabbatai Sevi, and his prophet, Nathan of Gaza, in 1666. Professor Scholem's detailed and authoritative account of the Sabbatian movement from its inception to the founder's death not only illuminates an extraordinary phenomenon in Jewish history but is a major contribution to the general study of messianic movements and their theologies.NOTES: Donated by David Daniels. SUBTITLE: The Mystical Messiah

I like Scholem's matter of fact attitude: the evidence is Nathan of Gaza could read minds, very well, he could, but that did not make Sevi a true messiah. ( )