Out of the Depths

It would be interesting to try and think back into that time, as it is happening, to understand a bit better how things happened...

Word gets out. People are hearing of this strange man doing strange deeds, in fact sacrilegious deeds, but an intriguing figure nonetheless he was, sparking much curiosity, touching at a deep feeling inside, a longing for redemption and for a manifestation of G-d, G-d within this world. 

We are interested, curious, but cautious, to let ourselves go and get our hopes up, give way to zealous hope and faith in a manifestation of divine redemption...

What we don't know, again, is how prominent or totally new the concepts were, of Lurianic Kabbalah. Such concepts fit what and whom they were hearing of.

In any case, that it was what it became, eventually - the revelation and the mobilization of the messianic movement, along with the new Lurianic concepts, and in the minds of the people these went in deep.

Career Launch

That revelation, that experience, for Shabbtai Zvi, naturally, was a turning point in his life and his messianic career. His special personality and eccentric behavior developed to a new stage, where he would conduct even stranger things.

Now, it is important to point out, that by strange, we mean bizarre or foreign, almost heathen, in the religious Hebrew jargon. 

So now, because of the revelation, he had high messianic self-consciousness, and along with that, he was conscious and sure of the beginning of the messianic redemptive process. The strange actions took on another level of meaning, as well as his moods: a messianic level. And the deeds and moods got stronger.

 Strange but Logical

There was a rationale behind his behavior: new messianic age, new Torah...

In the latter days, the Torah in the messianic era will be different, an application of the Talmudic principle that certain commandments will be made void, nullified, in the world, in the messianic age in the future.

It was an existing concept, though never spelled out by halachic authorities of course, as it is kind of at odds with what they represent.  

[Other rabbinical voices expressed the opposite position, that this line definitely does NOT mean that in the messianic era- in the messianic era, the halacha, the Torah is consistent, it will surely be the same!]

But for Shabbtai, in his thinking, if (1) he is the Messiah who has come, by divine order or revelation, so (2) part of the messianic redemption gospel has been intitiated, the acutalization has begun, so (3) it is now valid that the Torah is new or renewed, changed, as the kingdoms and the circumstances of existence or changing essentially - some commandments tweaked, flipped, removed.

One of his notable deeds was actually saying the name of ha'Shem, the LORD.

Getting Hitched

Such deeds he would at first do only in the presence of his closer disciples, but then he was driven out of his home town, and so he traveled for a few years between Jewish communities in Asia minor and in Syria, Israel, Egypt. 

He married for the third time - Sarah, a very young woman, from Amsterdam, of Ashkenzai descent, who was also considered by many to be less than sane: she was sure that she was to marry only the Messiah of Israel. Shabbtai apparently had heard of her, and his followers arranged for her to be brought to him... 

The next pivotal moment was in 1665, meeting a young man, in his early twenties, considered to be a prophet. His full name was Abraham Nathan the Ashkenazi, from Gaza. Shabbtai Zvi would change his name to Nathan, and he would be known as Nathan of Gaza, the prophet of Sabbateanism.