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Dissident Rabbi: The Life of Jacob Sasportas
A revelatory account of a spiritual leader who dared to assert the value of rabbinic doubt in the face of messianic certainty
In 1665, Sabbetai Zevi, a self-proclaimed Messiah with a mass following throughout the Ottoman Empire and Europe, announced that the redemption of the world was at hand. As Jews everywhere rejected the traditional laws of Judaism in favor of new norms established by Sabbetai Zevi, and abandoned reason for the ecstasy of messianic enthusiasm, one man watched in horror. Dissident Rabbi tells the story of Jacob Sasportas, the Sephardic rabbi who alone challenged Sabbetai Zevi's improbable claims and warned his fellow Jews that their Messiah was not the answer to their prayers.
Yaacob Dweck's absorbing and richly detailed biography brings to life the tumultuous century in which Sasportas lived, an age torn apart by war, migration, and famine. He describes the messianic frenzy that gripped the Jewish Diaspora, and Sasportas's attempts to make sense of a world that Sabbetai Zevi claimed was ending. As Jews danced in the streets, Sasportas compiled The Fading Flower of the Zevi , a meticulous and eloquent record of Sabbatianism as it happened. In 1666, barely a year after Sabbetai Zevi heralded the redemption, the Messiah converted to Islam at the behest of the Ottoman sultan, and Sasportas's book slipped into obscurity.
Dissident Rabbi is the revelatory account of a spiritual leader who dared to articulate the value of rabbinic doubt in the face of messianic certainty, and a revealing examination of how his life and legacy were rediscovered and appropriated by later generations of Jewish thinkers.
In 1665, Sabbetai Zevi, a self-proclaimed Messiah with a mass following throughout the Ottoman Empire and Europe, announced that the redemption of the world was at hand. As Jews everywhere rejected the traditional laws of Judaism in favor of new norms established by Sabbetai Zevi, and abandoned reason for the ecstasy of messianic enthusiasm, one man watched in horror. Dissident Rabbi tells the story of Jacob Sasportas, the Sephardic rabbi who alone challenged Sabbetai Zevi's improbable claims and warned his fellow Jews that their Messiah was not the answer to their prayers.
Yaacob Dweck's absorbing and richly detailed biography brings to life the tumultuous century in which Sasportas lived, an age torn apart by war, migration, and famine. He describes the messianic frenzy that gripped the Jewish Diaspora, and Sasportas's attempts to make sense of a world that Sabbetai Zevi claimed was ending. As Jews danced in the streets, Sasportas compiled The Fading Flower of the Zevi , a meticulous and eloquent record of Sabbatianism as it happened. In 1666, barely a year after Sabbetai Zevi heralded the redemption, the Messiah converted to Islam at the behest of the Ottoman sultan, and Sasportas's book slipped into obscurity.
Dissident Rabbi is the revelatory account of a spiritual leader who dared to articulate the value of rabbinic doubt in the face of messianic certainty, and a revealing examination of how his life and legacy were rediscovered and appropriated by later generations of Jewish thinkers.
504 pages, Hardcover
Published August 6, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 22, 2020
Once upon a time, observant Jews fell in love with a Messiah, based on fake news. Is this the story of Donald Trump? Well, maybe. But it was also the story of Sabbatai Zevi, a false Messiah who took the Jewish world by storm in the mid-1660s.
Jacob Sasportas of Amsterdam was one of the few rabbis who resisted the mob, and one of the first (if not the first) who wrote at length about his doubts. This book tells the story of Sasportas, and also explains what the argument was about.
Sasportas and the Sabbataeans relied on different religious texts. Sasportas relied on Maimonides, who wrote that a Messiah would observe Jewish law (which Zevi did not always do) and would restore Jewish soveriegnty in the land of Israel (which Zevi never did). Sabbateans relied on vague statements in an obscure book of alleged prophecies called the Book of Zerubbabel- a book that Sasportas had never heard of, and which is now mostly forgotten.
Most leading rabbis were more wishy-washy about Zevi than was Sasportas. Why? They saw the positive consequences of Zevi-mania: Jews were abandoning their sins and flocking to synagogues. As a result, they were willing to give Zevi the benefit of the doubt at first. Sasportas believed that this repentance was a bubble: if Zevi turned out to be not the Messiah, all these spiritual gains would quickly be reversed.
Jacob Sasportas of Amsterdam was one of the few rabbis who resisted the mob, and one of the first (if not the first) who wrote at length about his doubts. This book tells the story of Sasportas, and also explains what the argument was about.
Sasportas and the Sabbataeans relied on different religious texts. Sasportas relied on Maimonides, who wrote that a Messiah would observe Jewish law (which Zevi did not always do) and would restore Jewish soveriegnty in the land of Israel (which Zevi never did). Sabbateans relied on vague statements in an obscure book of alleged prophecies called the Book of Zerubbabel- a book that Sasportas had never heard of, and which is now mostly forgotten.
Most leading rabbis were more wishy-washy about Zevi than was Sasportas. Why? They saw the positive consequences of Zevi-mania: Jews were abandoning their sins and flocking to synagogues. As a result, they were willing to give Zevi the benefit of the doubt at first. Sasportas believed that this repentance was a bubble: if Zevi turned out to be not the Messiah, all these spiritual gains would quickly be reversed.
August 13, 2020
Visit a Satmar community, and perhaps a quarter of all men and boys under 40 will be named Yoel. Do the same in a Lubavitch community, and a similar amount will be named Menachem Mendel, and for the women and girls, Chaya Mushka. They name their children after leaders who left a profound influence on them.
After reading Dissident Rabbi: The Life of Jacob Sasportas (Princeton University Press) by Yaacob Dweck (Professor of History at Princeton University), my thought was that every Jewish family should name one of them their sons Yakov, in honor of Jacob Sasportas who saved the Jewish people from one of the most significant religious mass hysteria events in history.
Rabbi Jacob Sasportas (c. 1610–1698) was a kabbalist but is most prominently known as one of the primary opponents to the self-proclaimed Messiah Sabbatai Zevi and his Sabbatian movement. One of the few voices of rationality during the irrational exuberance of the Sabbatian movement, Sasportas, perhaps single-handedly saved countless people from joining the deviant movement.
While Sasportas was undoubtedly not the only one to protest against Sabbatai Zevi and the craze that lasted about 18 months, he has become the symbol of the resistance to the movement. Furthermore, those 18 months were indeed an out of control time where entire communities, including the rabbis and the congregants, joined along. People sold all of their possessions and were eagerly awaiting to join Sabbatai Zevi on his journey to Israel. To which there was but a handful of those who did not fall into the trap of Sabbatai Zevi and were vocal opponents of his redemption message.
Dweck has written an extremely dense, methodically detailed, and superbly researched book that details Sasportas’s life and efforts. Dweck’s book is based on the question of why a single individual would oppose a messianic movement as it was taking place. And what were the source and the substance of Sasportas’s opposition to it? In other words, his book explores the truth-value of doubt within the rabbinic tradition as it was expressed by a man living amid the Shabbethaian maelstrom.
Dweck has done a masterful job of looking at the nature of the Shabbethaian crisis and the character of Sasportas’s response to it. One of his themes is that Sabbatai Zevi severely tested Sasportas’s deeply help conviction about the nature of the rabbinate and the character of rabbinic law.
Dweck extensively refers to Zizath Novel Zvi (The Fading Flower of Zvi), a work Sasportas wrote during the height of the Sabbatian messianic movement. There, Sasportas emphasized being suspicious of the Sabbatian movement, which was seen as many as a Sabbatian certainty.
The Sabbatians noted the importance of experience, revelation, and prophecy as evidence that Sabbatai Zevi was the Messiah. To which Sasportas retorted that halacha makes it eminently clear that a series of events are prerequisites for the proclamation of the Messiah, to which Sabbatai Zevi lacked all of them. Sasportas relied heavily on the Rambam, and emphasized skepticism and the tight parameters of halacha, as opposed to the irrational exuberance of the masses.
In the final chapter, Dweck writes how Rav Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar found much in common with Sasportas. The Satmar Rav, who, in his singular zeal against what he saw at the satanic influences of Zionism, saw Sasportas as a soulmate who was daring enough to disconnect from the masses of a heretical movement. He also saw Sasportas as someone who was faithful to the Rambam and rationalism in a fight against modern-day idolatry.
In this remarkable biography, Dweck brings to light one of the most influential, and perhaps least known figures of the Sabbatai Zevi catastrophe. Sasportas was a man who almost single-handedly saved the Jewish people from a modern-day Golden Calf episode. His is a story that is long overdue, but brilliantly detailed here.
After reading Dissident Rabbi: The Life of Jacob Sasportas (Princeton University Press) by Yaacob Dweck (Professor of History at Princeton University), my thought was that every Jewish family should name one of them their sons Yakov, in honor of Jacob Sasportas who saved the Jewish people from one of the most significant religious mass hysteria events in history.
Rabbi Jacob Sasportas (c. 1610–1698) was a kabbalist but is most prominently known as one of the primary opponents to the self-proclaimed Messiah Sabbatai Zevi and his Sabbatian movement. One of the few voices of rationality during the irrational exuberance of the Sabbatian movement, Sasportas, perhaps single-handedly saved countless people from joining the deviant movement.
While Sasportas was undoubtedly not the only one to protest against Sabbatai Zevi and the craze that lasted about 18 months, he has become the symbol of the resistance to the movement. Furthermore, those 18 months were indeed an out of control time where entire communities, including the rabbis and the congregants, joined along. People sold all of their possessions and were eagerly awaiting to join Sabbatai Zevi on his journey to Israel. To which there was but a handful of those who did not fall into the trap of Sabbatai Zevi and were vocal opponents of his redemption message.
Dweck has written an extremely dense, methodically detailed, and superbly researched book that details Sasportas’s life and efforts. Dweck’s book is based on the question of why a single individual would oppose a messianic movement as it was taking place. And what were the source and the substance of Sasportas’s opposition to it? In other words, his book explores the truth-value of doubt within the rabbinic tradition as it was expressed by a man living amid the Shabbethaian maelstrom.
Dweck has done a masterful job of looking at the nature of the Shabbethaian crisis and the character of Sasportas’s response to it. One of his themes is that Sabbatai Zevi severely tested Sasportas’s deeply help conviction about the nature of the rabbinate and the character of rabbinic law.
Dweck extensively refers to Zizath Novel Zvi (The Fading Flower of Zvi), a work Sasportas wrote during the height of the Sabbatian messianic movement. There, Sasportas emphasized being suspicious of the Sabbatian movement, which was seen as many as a Sabbatian certainty.
The Sabbatians noted the importance of experience, revelation, and prophecy as evidence that Sabbatai Zevi was the Messiah. To which Sasportas retorted that halacha makes it eminently clear that a series of events are prerequisites for the proclamation of the Messiah, to which Sabbatai Zevi lacked all of them. Sasportas relied heavily on the Rambam, and emphasized skepticism and the tight parameters of halacha, as opposed to the irrational exuberance of the masses.
In the final chapter, Dweck writes how Rav Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar found much in common with Sasportas. The Satmar Rav, who, in his singular zeal against what he saw at the satanic influences of Zionism, saw Sasportas as a soulmate who was daring enough to disconnect from the masses of a heretical movement. He also saw Sasportas as someone who was faithful to the Rambam and rationalism in a fight against modern-day idolatry.
In this remarkable biography, Dweck brings to light one of the most influential, and perhaps least known figures of the Sabbatai Zevi catastrophe. Sasportas was a man who almost single-handedly saved the Jewish people from a modern-day Golden Calf episode. His is a story that is long overdue, but brilliantly detailed here.
August 24, 2025
super interesting and easy to read book about a not so well known figgure that the Jewish community owns a debt of gratitude for staying strong and clear eyed in a time that almost everyone got swept into the wind of Shabsai Tzvi. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in that era.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews