Sefer hitavkut (Book of Struggle)

You should know and believe me, and understand, that I did not become zealous against the scoffers for my own glory, or for the glory of my father’s house, but that it was zeal for the Almighty that inspired me, and the flame of God that burned within me. Many waters are incapable of extinguishing love; my entire objective was to create peace between the Jewish people and their heavenly Father; and He it was who decreed upon me to hunt down those hosts who make war against the assembly of the Lord, to make them into a cause of astonishment—Heaven forbid—and to bring about their ruin; thus there burned a flaming fire within Jacob. Now, therefore, men of courageous heart in Teplitz, listen to me, and God will listen to you! Be aware, I pray you, that your limb bears upon it an old leprosy that has broken forth in its stubborn forehead, as has been mentioned in the book entitled Torat ha-kena’ot, twenty years ago, in accordance with the testimony of a reliable individual who is an expert in this area, who has no personal involvement whatsoever with the matter. Once again, his shame has shown up in public—his stench has ascended through his son, a son who causes shame and who creates disgrace, as is stated in the testimony taken from the young men who studied in the Talmudic academy of the enemy—may the name of the wicked rot!—the manner in which a child talks in the marketplace is learned from his father—and the Almighty has now revealed his iniquity through you, and it has become a threefold sin, like the ropes attached to a wagon, and he has displayed the shame of his impurity in the public arena before you. What man is there who will be incapable of understanding this? [ . . . ] Now there are several groups among them: a few of them appear as though they are observant of the Torah, but everything they do is vain, deeds of deceit, for since they acknowledge idol worship, i.e., Shabetai Tsevi—may the name of the wicked rot!—they are like those who deny the Torah in its entirety. [ . . . ] In particular, so long as they perceive that no heed is paid to what they say, they are compelled to conceal the malady of their impurity and their sensuality within their hearts, out of fear that zealots may set upon them; hence they are forced, willynilly, to display signs of purity, to deceive the hearts of the Jewish people into regarding them as bona fide faithful [ . . . ] just like all the deeds of the notorious abominable Eybeschütz, whose entire objective is to promote himself as one in charge of a great Talmudic academy and one who admonishes his coreligionists in public. All this is done in order that they should believe in him, and that no one should criticize his repulsive activities, and that they should not sense the uncleanliness of his private parts [ . . . ] since he has gained such a high reputation with those students who are not worthy, and with boors, that he will get them placed in top positions, as swiftly as a hart that has gone astray, everywhere his control extends, to scatter the seeds of his heresy and so ensure that the leprosy can be unwittingly spread abroad. Such has been the entire objective and intent of this wicked man from start to finish; and even though they curse Shabetai Tsevi, they cannot be trusted. Who has execrated and cursed his king and his god, Shabetai Tsevi, as much as Eybeschütz has? Yet, for all that, it has now been revealed in the open light of day, that he was attached to him like a dog to its master, and indeed there has never been in the world a heretic as crazed as he, a worshiper of vanity and at the same time one seized with terror; against his own wishes, he needed to consent to the persecution of the men of his own sect and of that of his son, and to expel them from here. Accordingly, there is no substance to their deeds, but they are currently akin to the deeds of Esau, who comes along enwrapped in his prayer shawl and sits alongside Jacob, as I have written above.