Leyb Ben Ozer's "Bashraybung Fun Shabsai Tsvi": An Ashkenazic Appropriation of Sabbatianism

Although Sabbatianism existed throughout Europe and the Mediterranean basin, Sabbatian leaders, and for that matter, their opponents, were largely Sephardic or came from a Sephardic milieu. Accordingly, most of the written sources on the movement reflected a Sephardi perspective. An important exception is the "Bashraybung fun Shabsai Tsvi." Written in Yiddish by Leyb ben Ozer, the shamash and a trustee of Amsterdam's Ashkenazic community from 1708 to 1727, the "Bashraybung" provides an extensive Ashkenazi view of Sabbatianism. This view is most apparent in Leyb's warm treatment of three Eastern European Jews who were associated with Shabbetai Ṣevi: Shabbatai's wife, Sarah, and two rabbinic scholars who visited Shabbatai during his imprisonment in Gallipoli, R. Isaiah Ha-Levi of Komarna and R. Aryeh Leyb of Strid. Moreover, Leyb's informants, Ḥayyim Malakh and Neḥemiah Ha-Kohen among others, and his selection (and omission) of material further testify to his Ashkenazic focus. As such Leyb created with the "Bashraybung" an Ashkenazic appropriation of Sabbatianism: Eastern European Jews could be proud of their contribution to the messianic movement. By the same token, once the movement became heretical, these same Jews had to be especially cautious to avoid being caught in its web.