The Sabbateans were a variety of Jewish followers, disciples, and believers in Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), an Ottoman Jewish rabbi and Kabbalist who was proclaimed to be the Jewish Messiah in 1666 by Nathan of Gaza.
Sabbatai Zevi was an Ottoman Jewish mystic, and ordained rabbi from Smyrna. His family origins may have been Ashkenazi or Spanish. Active throughout the Ottoman Empire, Zevi claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah and founded the Sabbatean movement.
Tzvi Hirsch ben Yaakov Ashkenazi, known as the Chacham Tzvi after his responsa by the same title, served for some time as rabbi of Amsterdam. He was a resolute opponent of the followers of the self-proclaimed messiah, Sabbatai Zevi. He had a chequered career owing to his independence of character. He visited many lands, including England, where he wielded much influence. His responsa are held in high esteem.
Jacob ben Joseph Reischer (Bechofen) (1661–1733) was a Bohemian-Austrian rabbi and halakhist.
Isaac Aboab da Fonseca was a rabbi, scholar, kabbalist, and religious writer. In 1656, he was one of several elders within the Portuguese-Jewish community in Amsterdam and for a time in Dutch Brazil before the Portuguese reconquest. He was one of the religious leaders who excommunicated philosopher Baruch Spinoza in 1656.
Nathan of Gaza, also Nathan Benjamin ben Elisha Hayyim haLevi Ashkenazi or Ghazzati, was a theologian and author born in Jerusalem. After his marriage in 1663 he moved to Gaza, where he became famous as a prophet for the Jewish messiah claimant Sabbatai Zevi.
Aaron ben Isaac Lapapa was an Oriental rabbi and Talmudist. He was at first rabbi at Manissa, Turkey, and at an advanced age was called to Smyrna as judge in civil affairs. In 1665, when the Sabbatai Zevi movement was at its height there, he was one of the few rabbis who had the courage to oppose the false prophet and excommunicate him. Sabbatai Zevi and his adherents retorted by deposing him and forcing him to leave the city, and his office was given to his colleague, Ḥayyim Benveniste, at that time one of Sabbatai's followers. After Sabbatai's conversion to Islam, Lapapa seems to have been reinstated.
Nathan Nata ben Moses Hannover was a Ruthenian Jewish historian, Talmudist, and kabbalist.
Moses Hagiz was a Talmudic scholar, rabbi and writer born in Jerusalem during the time of the Old Yishuv. He was also one of the most prominent and influential Jewish leaders in 17th-century Amsterdam. During Hagiz's lifetime, there was an overall decline in rabbinic authority which was the result of migration and assimilation, and Hagiz devoted his career to restoring rabbinic authority. His most prominent talent was as a polemicist, and he campaigned ceaselessly against Jewish heresy in an attempt to unify the rabbinate.
Jacob Hagiz (1620–1674) was a Jewish Talmudist born of a Sephardic Jewish family at Fez, Morocco. Ḥagiz's teacher was David Karigal who afterward became his father-in-law. In about 1646, Ḥagiz went to Italy for the purpose of publishing his books, and remained there until after 1656, supporting himself by teaching. Samuel di Pam, rabbi at Livorno, calls himself a pupil of Ḥagiz. About 1657, Ḥagiz left Livorno for Jerusalem, where the Vega brothers of Livorno had founded a beit midrash for him, and where he became a member of the rabbinical college. There a large number of eager young students gathered about him, among whom were Moses ibn Ḥabib, who became his son-in-law, and Joseph Almosnino, later rabbi of Belgrade. Another son-in-law of his was Moses Ḥayyun, father of Nehemiah Hayyun. Another prominent student of his was Avraham Nathan ben Elisha Chaim Ashkenazi, renowned as Nathan of Gaza, who served as the prophet of Sabbatai Zevi.
Moses ben Mordecai Zacuto, also known by the Hebrew acronym RaMa"Z, was a rabbi, Kabbalist, and poet. Zacuto, who was born into a Portuguese Marrano family in Amsterdam, studied Jewish subjects under Saul Levi Morteira. He also studied secular subjects, such as the Latin language. As a pupil of Morteira, he may also have been, as a youth still in Amsterdam, a fellow student of Baruch Spinoza.
Isaac ben Abraham Uziel was a Moroccan physician, poet and grammarian, born at Fez, Morocco. At one time he held the position of rabbi at Oran, Algeria, but late in life he left that city to settle in Amsterdam, where he opened a Talmudical school which counted among its pupils Manasseh ben Israel and Isaac Aboab da Fonseca. Dissatisfied with the laxity in religious matters which he noticed among many members of the Sephardic community, Uziel delivered a series of lectures which led to the foundation of a new congregation under the name of "Neveh Shalom". In 1610, at the death of Judah Vega, the first rabbi of the new congregation, Uziel was called to the rabbinate.
Rabbi Eliyahu ben Solomon Abraham ha-Kohen ha-Itamari (1640–1729) was a Dayan, almoner and preacher. He was born in Smyrna, where he was educated by R. Benjamin Melamed, a leading Rabbi of İzmir (Smyrna), and became a homiletic preacher. R. Eliyahu's opposition to Sabbatai Zevi and his associates earned him much grief at home. He apparently cared for orphans as his writings display an extremely detailed knowledge of the physical and psychological suffering of the poor. A prolific writer he is best remembered for his ethical work Shevet Mussar, which has seen numerous editions and been translated into many languages. The first edition of Shevet Mussar was issued in Constantinople in 1712.
Abraham ben Jacob Cansino (Cancino) was a seventeenth-century Spanish-Jewish poet. He is the author of Aguddat Ezob (A Bunch of Hyssop), a collection of poems and rhetorical compositions, in three parts, praised very highly by Isaac Cansino and David Abu al-Khair. Abraham Cansino was once arrested by the Spanish authorities for having in his possession copies of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds. His son was also taken, and both were sent to Murcia, Spain, where they were treated like prisoners for a time, and fined; the copies of the Talmud were confiscated. His friends and relatives wrote poems of consolation to him; to these he replied from Murcia.
Jacob Judah Leon Templo was a Jewish Dutch scholar, translator of the Psalms, and expert on heraldry, of Sephardic descent.
Solomon Ayllon was Haham of the Sephardic congregations in London and Amsterdam, and a follower of Shabbethai Ẓebi. His name is derived from the town of Ayllon, in what is now the province of Segovia.
Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen ben Abraham was a Polish-German rabbi.
Hirsch Lehren, also known as Tsebi Hirsch Lehren was a Dutch Jewish merchant and community worker.
Meir bar Hiyya Rofe was a Hebron rabbi, known among other things for his tours of Europe as an emissary from the Holy Land on behalf of the Jewish community of Hebron. His father, Hiyya Rofe, was a very learned rabbi from Safed. Orphaned at a young age, Meir studied in Hebron, leaving about 1648 as an emissary to Italy, Holland, and Germany. On his return journey, he stayed for two years in Italy to publish Ma'aseh Ḥiyya, his father's talmudic novellae and responsa. In Amsterdam he had influenced the wealthy Abraham Pereyra to found a yeshiva in Hebron to be called Hesed le-Avraham, of which Meir himself became the head scholar.
Leyb ben Oyzer or Yehuda Leib ben Ozer Rosencranz (Rosenkrantz), or Leib ben Rabbi Oizers (d. 1727) was an 18th-century shamash ha-kehilla (beadle or sexton of the congregation), trustee, and secretary or notary, of the Jewish community in Amsterdam. He is the author of the Bashraybung fun Shabsai Tsvi, a Yiddish chronicle written in 1718 about the messianic Sabbateanism movement.
