Letter Hailing Shabbetai Tzvi as the Messiah
Eliah ben Michael Judah Leon
1666
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This letter hailing Shabbetai Tzvi as the Messiah was signed by twenty-four prominent members of the Amsterdam Jewish community who had founded a learned society, Yeshuot Meshiho, in his honor. It was widely believed that 1666 would be the apocalyptic year. However, in that same year Shabbetai Tzvi was arrested by the Ottoman authorities and, threatened with death, converted to Islam. He was abandoned by all but his most faithful followers.
Credits
Collection Ets Haim — Livraria Montezinos, Amsterdam, EH 47 A 11 001.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
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