Jewish messianism culminating in the rise and dissemination of Sabbatianism - an excursion into messianic Kabbalah and its theological enterprises

Abstract

An examination of Jewish messianism and mysticism from 500 BCE up to and including the seventeenth-century advent of Shabbatai Tzvi and the Sabbatian movement. The study shows that outbreaks of messianic fervour are usually preceded by some form of mysticism, and the more intense the mysticism the more intense the messianism. This is juxtaposed against the rationalist approach of Maimonides who developed the idea of a natural progression of humankind towards a messianic era without an apocalyptic or supernatural component.