¹ Lewy, Guenter, Religion and Revolution (New York. 1974).Google Scholar Lewy does not go beyond the Jewish millennialist rebellion against the Romans under Bar Kochba from 132 to 135 C.E. Since the book is concerned with revolutionary millenarianism and since Jewish active rebellion declined after Bar Kochba, Lewy may have decided that later Jewish millenarianism fell outside his framework. However, there was a series of millennialist Jewish revolts in Persia in the second half of the eighth and first half of the twelfth centuries. In his work on religion and crisis cults, La Barre includes an appendix on Jewish ‘false messiahs’, but he does not attempt a causal analysis, and his account contains a number of inaccuracies. Barre, Weston La, The Ghost Dance: The Origins of Religion (London, 1970).Google Scholar

² Scholem, Gershom, Sabbatai Sevi, Princeton, 1973. Scholem‘s work is a phenomenal piece of scholarship, but I do not believe that he has said the last word on the interpretation of the movement. I hope to present an alternative, more sociological interpretation, but this will require a chapter to itself.Google Scholar

³ Silver, Abba Hillel, A History of Messianic Speculation in Israel (New York, 1927)Google Scholar. Greenstone, Julius H., The Messiah Idea in Jewish History (Philadephia, 1948)Google Scholar (first published in 1906). Aescoly, Aaron Zeev, Jewish Messianic Movements (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1956). Aescoly provides a useful collection of documents on Jewish messianism.Google Scholar

⁴ Talmon, Yonina, ‘Pursuit of the Millennium: The Relation between Religious and Social Change’, Archiveseurope'ennesdesociologie 3 (1962): 125–48.Google ScholarIdem, ‘Millenarian Movements’, Archives europeennes de sociologie 7(1966): 159–200.CrossRefGoogle ScholarThrupp, Sylvia L., ed., Millennial Dreams in Action (The Hague, 1962), esp. pp. 17–27Google Scholar. Lewy, , op. cit., pp. 246–64.Google ScholarBarkun, Michael, Disaster and the Millennium (New Haven, 1974).Google ScholarQueiros, Maria Isaura Pereira de, ‘Messianic Myths and Movements’, Diogenes 90 (1975): 78–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarBarre, Weston La, ‘Materials for a History of Studies of Crisis Cults: A Bibliographic Essay’, Current Anthropology 12 (1971): 3–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarLanternari, Vittorio, ‘Nativistic and Socio-Religious Movements: A Reconsideration’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 16 (1974): 483–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵ For reasons of space I do not go beyond the sixteenth century in this article, but I intend to deal with later Jewish millenarianism elsewhere. The differences between the Sephardim and the Ashkenazim with regard to messianism are discussed in an article, published as a separate pamphlet, by Cohen, Gerson D., Messianic Postures of Ashkenazim and Sephardim (Prior to Sabbatai Sevi) (New York, 1967).Google Scholar Cohen's focus is on the differences at the rabbinical level rather-than at the popular level. For a discussion of his arguments see below. I use the term ‘millenarianism’ rather than ‘millennial movement’ since according to most definitions of social movements–which assume a minimal degree of organization-many widespread expectations among Jews of an imminent millennium have not been movements. Weinryb notes the tendency among Jewish historians to use the term ‘movement’ in a loose way and to label any information on messianic expectations and false messiahs as ‘messianic movements’. Weinryb, Bernard D., The Jews of Poland (Philadelphia, 1972), p. 366.Google Scholar

⁶ Talmon, , ‘Pursuit of the Millennium’, op. cit.Google Scholar

⁷ Sarachek, Joseph, The Doctrine of the Messiah in MedievalJewish Literature, 2nd ed. (New York, 1968), pp. 30–33.Google ScholarBaer, Yitzhak, A History of the Jews in Spain, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1966), p. 249.Google ScholarScholem, Gershom, The Messianic Idea in Judaism (New York, 1971), pp. 30–33.Google Scholar

⁸ I am excluding a messianic incident in Crete in the second half of the fifth century because it is outside the period under discussion.

⁹ Halkin, Abraham S., ed., Moses Maimonides’ Epistle to Yemen (New York, 1952), p. xx.Google Scholar Most historians have taken it for granted that the location was Lyons, but some have been less certain or have preferred Leon. Both cities are spelt in the same way in Hebrew, both were important towns, and Arab geographers referred to Christian Spain as the ‘land of the Franks’. Baron, Salo Wittmayer, A Social and Religious History of the Jews, vol. 5 (New York, 1957), pp. 199, 383.Google ScholarCohen, , op. cit., p. 7.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Halkin, , op. cit. Maimonides also referred to other messianic incidents in Fex, Morocco, circa 1120 to 1125 and in the Yemen, 1171 to 1172. Other incidents recorded elsewhere during the period occurred in Salonika, 10%, Baghdad, 1120 to 1121 and Persia, circa 1120 to 1147.Google ScholarAescoly, , op. cit., pp. 153–87.Google ScholarMann, Jacob, ‘The Messianic Movements during the First Crusades’ (in Hebrew), ha-Tequfah 23 (1925): 243–61.Google Scholar

¹¹ Baer, , op. cit., pp. 277–80.Google Scholar Abraham Abulafia, an ecstatic cabbalist and prophet from Spain who announced that he received his first prophetic call in Barcelona in 1271, presented himself to the Jews of Sicily as the messiah and predicted that redemption would occur in 1290. He does not appear to have attracted a great number of followers; but some of his adherents prepared for the messianic journey to the Holy Land, and the community of Palermo turned for advice to the Spanish scholar Solomon Adret, who managed to discredit Abulafia as an imposter. Berger, Abraham, ‘The Messianic Self-Consciousness of Abraham Abulafia’, in Blau, Joseph L. et al. , Essays on Jewish Life and Thought (New York, 1959), pp. 55–61.Google ScholarAescoly, , op. cit., pp. 194–213.Google ScholarNeuman, Abraham A., The Jews in Spain vol. 2 (Philadelphia, 1942), pp. 114–15.Google ScholarScholem, Gershom, Kabbalah (Jerusalem, 1974), pp. 53–55.Google Scholar

¹² Some scholars believe that one of the prophets known as Moses, who was extravagantly praised by the famous scholar R. Hasdai Crescas, was in fact Moses ben Isaac Botarel. In addition to writing a great number of books filled with false quotations from historical and imaginary figures, Botarel appears to have had messianic pretentions. Baer, , op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 159–62.Google ScholarScholem, , Kabbalah, pp. 65–66.Google ScholarEncyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem, 1971), vol. 4, pp. 1268–69.Google ScholarAescoly, , op. cit., p. 226.Google Scholar At the same time many marranos tried to leave Spain and migrate to Israel, believing that this would contribute to the coming of redemption. Dinur, B., ‘The Emigration From Spain to Eretz Yisrael after the Disorders of 1391’ (in Hebrew), Zion 32(1967): 161–74.Google Scholar

¹³ Sasson, H. H. Ben, ‘Exile and Redemption through the Eyes of the Spanish Exiles’ (in Hebrew), in Baron, S. W. et al. , Yitzhak F. Baer Jubilee Volume (Jerusalem, 1960), pp. 216–27.Google Scholar An undated document describes millennial excitement in Catania, a port in Sicily. Mann writes that the document must have been written between 1282 and 1516. Aescoly argues that all the signs indicate that the incident occurred at the time of'the generation of the expulsion*. Sicily was under the authority of Spain and the rights of the Jews were similar to those in Spain. The document describes a Jewish prophetess who, having gone through nine months of pregnancy without giving birth, stood outside a synagogue and summoned the congregation to witness manifestations of the coming of the messiah. Various miraculous signs were reported and there was great excitement. The excitement increased when a gentile from southern Greece told the Jews that ambassadors of the messiah had been received by the Spanish monarch. Mann, Jacob, Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature (New York, 1972) vol. 1, pp. 34–35.Google ScholarAescoly, , op. cit., pp. 240–46.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Roth, Cecil, The History of the Jews of Italy (Philadelphia, 1946), p. 179.Google ScholarShulvass, Moses A., Rome and Jerusalem (in Hebrew), (Jerusalem, 1944), pp. 41–67.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Netanyahu, B., Don Isaac Abravanel (Philadelphia, 1953), pp. 200–40.Google ScholarBarzilay, Isaac E., Between Reason and Faith: Ami-Rationalism in Italian Jewish Thought 1250–1650 (The Hague, 1967), pp. 122–31.Google ScholarBaer, Y., ‘The Messianic Movement in Spain in the Period of the Expulsion’ (in Hebrew), Zion 5 (1933): 71–77.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Shulvass writes that the majority of Italian Jews believed in Lamlein's prophecies (op. cit., p. 45). The prophet's name is spelt in English in a variety of ways in the literature: apart from Lamlein, also Lemlein, Lammlin and Laemmlein.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Ibid., pp. 44–45. Shulvass, Moses A., The Jews in the World of the Renaissance (Leiden, 1973), pp. 9, 210.Google ScholarMarx, A., ‘Le Faux Messie Ascher Laemmlein’, Revue des Etudes Juives 61 (1911): 135–38.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Shulvass, , Rome and Jerusalem, pp. 45–48.Google ScholarAescoly, , op. cit., p. 250.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Conversos: former Jews, the majority of whom had been forcibly converted to Christianity. Those converts who continued to practise Judaism in secret are also known as marranos. For reasons of space the present paper does not include a discussion of the widespread millenarianism among the marranos.

²⁰ Aescoly, , op. cit., pp. 251–78.Google ScholarShulvass, , Rome and Jerusalem, pp. 54–64.Google ScholarRoth, Cecil, ‘A Zionist Experiment in the XVIth Century’, Midstream 9 (1963): 76–81.Google Scholar For an English translation of a diary purported to be written by Reubeni, see, Adler, Elkan Rathan, ed., Jewish Travellers (New York, 1966), pp. 251–328Google Scholar (first published 1930). Reubeni's origins are unknown, but from his writings and other evidence historians have argued that he was an Ashkenazi, a Yemenite, an Indian, and a Falasha (Ethiopian Jew). Aescoly, A. Z., ‘David Reubeni in the Light of History‘, Jewish Quarterly Review 28 (1937–1938): 1–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Shohat, Azriel, ‘Notes on the David Reubeni Affair’ (in Hebrew), Zion 35 (1970): 96–116.Google ScholarBirnbaum, Ervin, ‘David Reubeni's Indian Origin’, Historia Judaica 20 (1958): 3–30.Google ScholarCassuto, M. D. U., ‘Who was David Reubeni’ (in Hebrew), Tarbiz 32 (1962–1963): 339–58.Google Scholar The circumstances of Reubeni's death are also disputed. Rodriguez-Monino, A., ‘Les Judaisants à Badajoz de 1493 à 1599’, Revue des étude juives 15 (1956): 73–86.Google ScholarRoth, Cecil, ‘Le martyre de David Reubeni’, Revue des études juives 16 (1957): 93–95Google Scholar. Révah, I. S., ‘David Reubeni: Exécuté en Espagne en 1538’, Revue des études juives 17 (1958): 128–35.Google Scholar

²¹ Aescoly, , Jewish Messianic Movements, p. 251.Google ScholarRoth, , ‘A Zionist Experiment’, pp. 78–79.Google ScholarShohat, , op. cit.Google Scholar

²² Shulvass, , Rome and Jerusalem, pp. 55–61.Google ScholarAescoly, , ‘Reubeni in the Light of History’, pp. 26–27, 35–37.Google Scholar

²³ Aescoly, , Jewish Messianic Movements, pp. 266–78.Google ScholarShulvass, , op. cit., pp. 61–64.Google Scholar

²⁴ Ibid., pp. 79–82. Tamar, David, ‘The Messianic Expectations in Italy for the Year 1575’ (in Hebrew), Sefunol 2 (1958): 61–88. The date 1575 was based on the numerical value ofShiloh, which had for some time been interpreted as a reference to the messiah. The date was also linked to prophecies in Daniel. There was also hope for this date in Salonika.Google Scholar

²⁵ See note 4. The following keeps close to Talmon but adds to her list of explanations.

²⁶ Worsley, Peter, The Trumpet Shall Sound, 2d ed. (London, 1970).Google ScholarLanternari, Vittorio, The Religions of the Oppressed (New York, 1965).Google Scholar

²⁷ Barkun, , op. cit.Google Scholar

²⁸ Cohn, Norman, The Pursuit of the Millennium (London, 1957), pp. 53–60.Google Scholar

²⁹ Aberle, David, ‘A Note on Relative Deprivation Theory as Applied to Millenarian and other Cult Movements’, in Thrupp, op. cit., pp. 209–14.Google ScholarAberle, David, ‘The Prophet Dance and Reaction to White Contact’, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 15 (1959): 74–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarGlock, Charles Y., ‘The Role of Deprivation in the Origin and Evolution of Religious Groups’, in Lee, Robert and Marty, Martin E., eds., Religion and Social Control (New York, 1964), pp. 24–36.Google Scholar

³⁰ Thrupp, , op. cit., pp. 16–17.Google ScholarSpier, Leslie, Suttles, Wayne and Herskovitz, Melville J., ‘Comment on Aberle's Thesis of Deprivation’, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 15 (1959): 84–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarLerner, , op. cit.Google Scholar

³¹ Scholem, , Sabbatai Sevi.Google Scholar

³² de Queiroz, , op. cit., 98–99.Google ScholarLewy, , op. cit., pp. 257–64, 572–76.Google Scholar

³³ The discussion on the role of leaders often revolves around the concept of charisma. Worsley, , op. cit., pp. 285–97.Google ScholarWilson, Bryan, The Noble Savages: The Primitive Origins of Charisma and Its Contemporary Survival (Berkeley, 1975).Google Scholar

³⁴ Cohen, , op. cit., p. 29.Google Scholar

³⁵ Mann, , ‘Messianic Movements’, p. 252. Since Maimonides wrote that the incident in ‘Linon’ occurred 105 to 110 years prior to his writing in 1172, there is n o reason to date the movement at 1087–1088.Google Scholar

³⁶ Aescoly, , op. cit., p. 154.Google Scholar

³⁷ Baron, , A Social and Religious History, p. 199.Google ScholarBaer, , A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, pp. 44–47.Google Scholar

³⁸ Ibid., pp. 60–64. Most of the poems of Judah ha-Levi (1080–1141), who witnessed the destruction of Jewish communities by Christian reconquerors and the flight of the Jews from the Almoraindes, end on an apocalyptic note. At one time ha-Levi foretold the appearance of the messiah in 1130 (Ibid., pp. 71–72). Baer mentions the influence of the events on the scholar Abraham bar Hiyya (d. 1136) (Ibid., p. 66). But most of Hiyya's messianic predictions were not imminent ones. He predicted 1136, but he thought 1230 was more probable. He also calculated 1358 and 1403, with 1448 as the latest possible date. Among the speculators 1358 and 1403 became favourite dates. Silver, , op. cit., p. 68.Google Scholar

³⁹ Baer, , op. cit., pp. 129–31, 137.Google ScholarNeuman, , op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 244–47.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Baer, , op. cit., p. 198.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 97–112. Poliakov, Léon, The History of Anti-Semitism, vol. 2 (London, 1974), pp. 157–58.Google ScholarWolff, Philippe, ‘The 1391 Pogrom in Spain: Social crisis or Not’, Past and Present 50 (1971): 4–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴² Baer, , op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 434–39.Google ScholarPoliakov, , op. cit., pp. 200–201.Google ScholarMinkin, Jacob S., Abrabanel and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (New York, 1938), pp. 143–51.Google Scholar

⁴³ Lamlein's prophecies also spread among Ashkenazim who had been expelled from parts of Germany and had settled in Istria and other towns of the Venecian Republic. Shulvass, , Jews in the World of the Renaissance, p. 12.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Reeves, Majorie, The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1969), pp. 354, 358, 430–35.Google ScholarWeinstein, Donald, Savonarola and Florence (Princeton, 1970), pp. 62–63, 112–15, 166.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Krauss, Samuel, ‘Le Roi de France Charles VIII et les esperances messianiques’, Revue des etudes juives 51 (1906): 87–96. Krauss speculates that the unknown prophet made his calculations during Lamlein's movement.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ The most important foci of millennial excitement in Italy was Florence, where Savonarola, the Prior of the Dominican Convent of San Marco, preached the coming advent to enthusiastic crowds. For Savonarola, the tribulations of Florence were a sign of its election as the chosen city, the new Jerusalem, the centre of the millennium, a sign that the Florentines were the latter-day Israelites who would reach new spiritual heights and enjoy great riches, power and a large empire. Weinstein, , op. cit., pp. 142–47, 167–69, 374–76.Google Scholar We do not know how much impact Savonarola's campaign had on Italian Jews, but Netanyahu argues that Abravanel, who was a member of the court of Naples and had to flee from the French, must have been aware of Savonarola. Netanyahu, , op. cit., pp. 247–48. Netanyahu notes the parallels between the prophecies of Savonarola and Abravanel. Often the only substantial difference is that the one is referring to the Florentines and Florence while the other is referring to the Jews and Jerusalem. However, the parallels are common features in millenarianism and are not sufficient to conclude that Savonarola had a direct influence on Abravanel.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Roth, , History of the Jews in Italy, pp. 289–94.Google ScholarBaron, , op. cit., vol. 14 (1969), pp. 114–46.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Sharot, Stephen, Judaism: A Sociology (New York and Newton Abbot, 1976), pp. 25–29.Google ScholarPoliakov, Leon, The History of Anti-Semitism, vol. 1 (London, 1965), chs. 2–7.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Zimmels, H. J., Ashkenazim and Sephardim (London, 1958), pt. 2, ch. 9.Google ScholarShulvass, Moses A., Between the Rhine and the Bosporus (Chicago, 1964), pp. 5–13.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Chazan, Robert, ‘The Hebrew First Crusade Chronicles’, Revue des etudes juives 133 (1974): 235–54.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Scholem, Gershom, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York, 1961), pp. 87–90.Google Scholar

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⁵⁴ The ‘practical’ cabbalah of Abulafia—stressing the mystical qualities of sacred names, numbers and letter combinations—was highly magical. Scholem, , Kabbalah, pp. 53–55.Google ScholarAescoly, , op. cit., pp. 194–213.Google ScholarBerger, , op. cit.Google Scholar The cabbalah of Moses Botarel also had a ‘practical' bent. Scholem, , op. cit., pp. 65–66.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Scholem, , Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 188.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Baer, , op. cit., vol. 1, p. 198.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Scholem, , op. cit., p. 186.Google ScholarBaer, , op. cit., vol. 1, pp.249, 269. Baer notes similarities between the cabbalah and the works of the Franciscan Spirituals in their apocalyptic descriptions and messianic computations.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ The Zohar glorified poverty as a religious value, making it a quality of the Shekhinah (Divine Presence). This was a striking innovation in Judaism and possibly reflects the influence of the Christian environment. Poliakov is wrong, however, to link the mysticism of the cabbalah with the poor (Poliakov, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 138).Google Scholar Baer wrote that among the foremost masters of the cabbalah were men of wealthy families as well as others from the lower social strata (Baer, , op. cit., vol. 1, p. 243).Google Scholar He noted the parallels between the Franciscan Joachites of the thirteenth century who attacked the worldliness of the church and the persecabbalists who attacked the Jewish communal leaders for their neglect of the Torah and their exploitation of the poor (Ibid., pp. 261–77, 367–73). Like the Franciscans the cabbalists did not themselves come from the poor; they were from comfortable families but they rejected involvement in the world. On the Franciscans and Joachimist prophecy in Spain, see Reeves, , op. cit., pp. 221–24, 247, 446.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Marx, , op. cit. The influence of the cabbalah is seen in Lamlein's argument that the sinner had to be reincarnated to provide him with the opportunity to become righteous and in his argument that the messiah had to come to repair the sin of the first man, of whom the messiah was the last reincarnaton.Google Scholar

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⁶⁷ Baer, , op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 244–51.Google ScholarPoliakov, , op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 163–68.Google ScholarWolf, , op. cit., pp. 40–44.Google Scholar

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⁷⁴ This form of deprivation has been termed decremental deprivation: expectations remain relatively constant but there is a decline in position and opportunities. Gurr, Ted Robert, Why Men Rebel (Princeton, 1970), pp. 46–52.Google ScholarMorrison, Denton D., ‘Some Notes Toward a Theory on Relative Deprivation, Social Movements and Social Change’, American Behavioural Scientist 14 (1971): 675–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁷⁶ Wilson, Bryan, Magic and the Millennium (London, 1973), pp. 274–308. The experience of expulsion may suggest a comparison between Jews and American Indians. However, the move to the reservations was an exile from the Indians’ sacred land and not, as in the case of the Jews, an expulsion from a ‘host’ society which was itself conceived as exile, at least in the conventional terms of the religious tradition.Google Scholar