The 18th-Century Jewish Messianist Mystic Who Tried to Fuse Judaism and Christianity

This newsletter has already linked to two episodes of J.J. Kimche’s series of podcasts about the legacy of the 17th-century false messiah Shabbetai Tsvi, whose rise and fall was one of the seminal events of modern Jewish history. After Shabbetai converted to Islam in 1666, most of his erstwhile followers believed their hopes of redemption had been crushed. But a hard core of devotees, including Shabbetai himself, concluded—using the kabbalistic language of his own teachings—that he had converted to redeem the sparks of holiness hidden in the husks of Islam. It was perhaps only a matter of time before someone took the next step and tried to do the same for Christianity.