Elijah - the Biblical prophet, who has enjoyed a lively and multi-faceted career since his assumption to heaven; Shabbetai Zevi - perhaps the foremost messianic pretender in Jewish history; Abraham Miguel Cardoso - physician, theologian, former crypto-Jew, and one of Shabbetai Zevi's most loyal followers; and Natan ben Noah - a physician and friend of Cardoso's. All of these fascinating characters are brought together in an intriguing colophon found on the first page of a manuscript of the Zohar recently donated to the University of Toronto Library (Friedberg Collection MS 5-015).

The colophon, written by Natan ben Noah, reads as follows:

This is the book which Elijah, of blessed memory, indicated to Amira¹ that he should read and peruse day and night. Later the brother of Amira gave it as a gift to the great rabbi A.M.K.,² of blessed memory. When the latter fell³ and was about to enter the life of the next world, he gave it to me as a present and he ordered me to treat it with great veneration.

the lowly of spirit,
Natan Noah

Shabbetai Zevi, Mystical Messiah (1626-1676)
Shabbetai Zevi was the central figure in the largest and most widespread messianic movement in all of Jewish history. Born in Smyrna to a family of Byzantine and ultimately Ashkenazi origins, Shabbetai Zevi displayed signs of genius at a young age. He received a traditional education, but at the age of fifteen left the yeshivah (academy) and began to live a life of abstinence and solitude. He also began studying the kabbalah at this time. He seems to have suffered from an extreme form of manic-depression for most of his life. When he was experiencing his highs he had visions in which he imagined himself the Messiah. Few people took him seriously until Nathan of Gaza took up his cause. Nathan proclaimed him to be the Messiah, claiming to have seen visions to this effect, and began a campaign on his behalf throughout the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. The movement caught on quickly and entire communities were swept up in messianic fervor. The movement reached its climax in July and August 1666. The Turkish authorities, perhaps anxious about the unrest stirred up by Shabbetai Zevi, imprisoned him, but offered him the chance to save his life by apostatizing. He consented and converted together with his wife and several of his followers.

The apostasy created shock waves of disbelief and horror throughout the Jewish world and it took some time before the truth sunk in. Many of Shabbetai Zevi's followers did not desert him and even followed him into apostasy, forming a sect called the Dšnmeh. Others remained within the fold, but still held on to the belief in Shabbetai Zevi as the Messiah, even after his death in 1676, fervently hoping for his resurrection and return. Among the latter was Abraham Miguel Cardoso, one of his greatest followers, whom we will discuss below. But eventually most people came to terms with reality and accepted the painful truth that this was yet another false messianic experience.

The Zohar

The Zohar is the most important work of the kabbalah, the primary and most influential branch of the Jewish mystical tradition. Attributed to the second-century sage, Simeon ben Yohai, it is generally thought by scholars to be a pseudonymous work produced in the late thirteenth century by Moses de Leon and his school of Spanish kabbalists. It is a complex work consisting of over twenty separate units. The bulk of the work consists of a loose commentary on the Pentateuch. It includes a great number of mystical tales about the life and times of Rabbi Simeon and his disciples, as well as a wealth of mystical lore which has proved to be a rich source of information and inspiration for generations of mystics.

Throughout the fourteenth century the Zohar circulated among mystic circles, perhaps in fascicles, since no complete manuscripts survive from this period. The most complete medieval manuscript of the Zohar in existence is in the Friedberg Collection at the Fisher Library. It once belonged to Shabbetai Zevi.

Shabbetai Zevi and the Zohar

Shabbetai Zevi had a special relationship to the Zohar which may be attributed at least in part to his Byzantine origin. There is no question that the Zohar played a pivotal role in Byzantine kabbalah, and Shabbetai Zevi would likely have been imbued with a sense of the Zohar's importance as he studied the kabbalah in his youth. The Friedberg Zohar is of Byzantine origin, written at the turn of the fifteenth century by the famous scribe, Shabbetai Balbo. This copy of the Zohar may have been a family heirloom which his family brought with them when they moved from Greece to Smyrna. If so, it was obviously to be preferred over the printed version which first appeared in Mantua in 1559.

Shabbetai Zevi and Elijah

Another key factor in this special relationship was Shabbetai Zevi's deep, intimate connection with the prophet Elijah, the first character mentioned in our colophon. Elijah, according to Jewish folklore, is believed to be a precursor of the Messiah. For this reason, a reported sighting of the prophet in the Old Synagogue in Aleppo in 1665 created much excitement. Not long after, in Smyrna, Shabbetai Zevi himself delayed the proceedings at the circumcision of Abraham Gutiere's son "until Elijah had taken his seat". There is also a longstanding Sabbatian tradition that on the twenty-first day of the month of Sivan, 1648, Shabbetai Zevi was anointed Messiah by Elijah. Our colophon would appear to designate Elijah as Shabbetai Zevi's spiritual mentor, for it was Elijah who directed Shabbetai Zevi to read and ponder the Zohar day and night. Eventually this intensive study resulted in Shabbetai Zevi's new understanding of the God of his faith, a personal intimate God, far removed from the impersonal Lurianic conception of the divine.⁴

The Zohar and its apocalyptic vision may have been intimately connected with Shabbetai Zevi's personal self-perception as the Messiah. According to the Zohar, 1648 was to be the year of the redemption and resurrection of the dead. In general terms, this could be interpreted as a year of transformation for the Jewish people. For Shabbetai Zevi, his anointing cere-mony was a rite of passage or initiation, in which both Elijah and the Zohar played major roles. In a manner similar to Sufi initiation rites, Shabbetai Zevi's anointing by Elijah can be seen as a ceremony of incarnation. In mythic terms, Shabbetai Zevi died symbolically, was resurrected, then anointed as the Messiah of the Jewish people and as God-incarnate. Like Elijah's assumption, his death was seen by his followers as an illusion - he really only disappeared and will some day return. This motif of the disappearance and expected return of a great leader is one that occurs in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Remarkably, this phenomenon can be observed at this very moment among a small group of loyal followers of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who remain convinced that he was/is the Messiah, refuse to believe that he died in 1992, and anxiously wait his return.

Shabbetai Zevi's claims of Elijah-revelations put him in a long tradition of great mystics with similar claims. Shabbetai Zevi saw himself as the spring of the Jewish people, promising renewal and new growth. But unlike his predecessors, for whom the Elijah-revelation was a means for maintaining their place within the chain of tradition, Shabbetai Zevi and his circle saw the revelation of Elijah as a symbol of the triumph of mysticism over religious authority and their liberation from it. In this context, Shabbetai Zevi's conversion can be understood as a rejection of Jewish law.

Further connections can be made between Shabbetai Zevi, Elijah, and Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai, the putative author of the Zohar. Shabbetai Zevi liked to go to caves to meditate, much like Simeon ben Yohai who spent a year in a cave with his son. He is even reported to have wished to spend a year in isolation in the cave of Simeon ben Yohai in Peqicin in the Galilee. This is an indication of his deep identification with the Zohar and with its central hero. Elijah, too, was known to dwell in caves and deserts, far from human habitation. According to tradition, Rabbi Simeon derived his mystical knowledge from Elijah.

Thus we see that Elijah is the source of mystic lore and the Zohar is the vessel in which it is contained. This imparts the utmost importance to the Zohar for the inner life and formation of the messianic personality of Shabbetai Zevi, a person for whom dreams and visions played a critical role. We can now understand the first part of our colophon. It was Elijah who opened the secrets of the Zohar to Shabbetai Zevi and was his guide in his inner spiritual development.

Shabbetai Zevi died in 1676. His brother and devoted follower, Eliyahu Zevi, was present at his death in Dulcigno (Yugoslavia). According to the colophon, it was Shabbetai Zevi's brother who gave the Zohar as a present to Abraham Miguel Cardoso.

Abraham Miguel Cardoso (1626-1706)

Cardoso was among the most original Sabbatian thinkers of the latter half of the seventeenth century. He was born in Rio Seco, Spain to a crypto-Jewish family. He studied medicine and theology at the University of Salamanca and in 1648 left Spain for Venice. He went on to Leghorn (Livorno) where he returned to Judaism and began studying rabbinic texts. During this period he was plagued by religious doubts and questions about the nature of monotheism. In 1659 he began a life of wandering, marked by instability, persecutions and personal religious struggles. He first went to Cairo, where he studied Lurianic kabbalah. From there he moved to Tripoli, where he began having revelations through visions and dreams. When word of Shabbetai Zevi's appearance was received, Cardoso became one of the new Messiah's most fervent supporters and began to propagandize on Shabbetai Zevi's behalf. He had many visions of redemption and the Messiah.

Cardoso continued to believe even after Shabbetai Zevi's apostasy in 1666, and wrote many letters and theological treatises to defend his position. He was expelled from many Jewish communities because of his heretical theology and his adherence to the belief in the messiahship of Shabbetai Zevi. In 1681 he was expelled from Smyrna. Around this time he began to refer to himself as the Messiah, son of Joseph, who in tradition was known as the precursor of the Messiah, son of David. While in Rodosto, on the Sea of Marmara, he claimed to have received letters from Shabbetai Zevi's widow, proposing to marry him as "leader of the believers". Apparently they met, but the marriage never took place.

Cardoso prophesied that the redemption would come on Passover 1682 and when this prophecy came to nought he was forced to leave Constantinople and settled in Gallipoli for four years. He returned to Constantinople in 1686 and stayed there for ten years under the protection of Christian diplomats. During this time his children died of the plague and he was hounded by his opponents, who accused him of having illicit sexual relations with various women and fathering illegitimate children. He believed that Shabbetai Zevi would return forty years after his apostasy and therefore tried to settle in the Land of Israel. The rabbis of neither Jerusalem nor Safed would let him settle in their communities, so he moved on to Alexandria in 1703. Three years later, in 1706, he was involved in a family feud and was stabbed by his nephew. On the third day he died.

This evidence jibes with Natan Noah's statement in the colophon of the Friedberg manuscript that Cardoso was smitten and lingered for some three days before succumbing to his wounds. During this time it is likely that he was attended by his friend and confidant, Natan Noah. It was on his deathbed that Cardoso entrusted the Zohar to Natan.

Natan ben Yehudah Noah

Very little is known about the author of the colophon, R. Natan Noah. Another colophon in the same manuscript yields the name of his father Yehudah. Elsewhere, he adds the epithet, "pure Sephardi". Other manuscripts in his possession indicate that he was a doctor (he signs his name on one, "physician and surgeon") and that he had a strong interest in kabbalah. In 1705-1706 we find him in Alexandria commissioning a copy of some of the works of Abraham Miguel Cardoso. From this we can conclude that Natan and Cardoso knew each other and in fact were close friends. It is not inconceivable that it was Cardoso who sparked his interest in Sabbatianism. The fact that the latter entrusted him with his precious copy of the Zohar is an indication of the closeness of their friendship.

The association of the Friedberg manuscript of the Zohar with Shabbetai Zevi would seem to rest entirely on Cardoso's testimony as recorded by Natan Noah. Is Cardoso to be trusted in this matter? Although we have no other evidence to corroborate his claim that this manuscript belonged to Shabbetai Zevi, we have to ask what he would have gained by making a false claim such as this on his deathbed. He did not claim that it was Shabbetai Zevi's request that the Zohar be given to him. This possibility cannot be ruled out, but it is more likely that the initiative was taken by Eliyahu Zevi, who knew Cardoso and admired him. Cardoso, as the primary exponent of Sabbatianism in the period after Shabbetai Zevi's death, was the logical heir to his spiritual legacy as represented by the Zohar.

With the death of Cardoso and the gift of the Zohar to Natan Noah the trail runs cold. We have no information on other owners of this manuscript until the twentieth century. It seems to have remained in Egypt, probably in Sabbatian hands for at least some of that time, until it was acquired by Mr. Friedberg.

From the Balkans to the Middle East and finally to Toronto. The Friedberg manuscript of the Zohar is not only an invaluable resource for scholars of Jewish mysticism, but an important historical artifact, witness to the mystical messianic hopes and aspirations of two of the most colourful and charismatic figures in Jewish history - Shabbetai Zevi and Abraham Miguel Cardoso.

Barry Walfish
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

1 Epithet for Shabbetai Zevi; it is an acronym for: "our lord, our king, may his glory be exalted".
2 i.e., Abraham Miguel Cardoso.
3 i.e., was smitten. See below.
4 Until recently, Isaac Luria, the sixteenth-century kabbalist of Safed, was thought to be the major influence on Shabbetai Zevi's development.

Much of this article is indebted to the research of Dr. Avraham Elqayam which was published in a Hebrew article in the journal Kabbalah 3 (1998): 345-387.

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