A Hidden Liturgy, A Forgotten Flame: The Secret Songs of Shabbetai Tzvi’s BelieversIn a groundbreaking study, historian Hadar Feldman Samet uncovers this forgotten world in her newly published book, The Poetry of the Sabbatean Believers (Magnes Press). Drawing from rare manuscripts housed in Jerusalem and Harvard, Samet brings to light a corpus of over 1,500 ritual songs, revealing a complex spiritual tapestry that blends Kabbalistic devotion, Ottoman musical forms, and messianic yearning.***Shabbetai Tzvi, Light of IsraelOne of the mysteries connected to the community of Shabbetai Tzvi's followers is the great treasure of Sabbatean ritual poetry, written in a mixture of Ladino, Turkish, and Hebrew, performed during their secret gatherings—much of which still remains unknown and preserved in manuscripts.The new book by Hadar Feldman Samet, "The Poetry of the Sabbatean Believers," now published by Magnes Press, is a groundbreaking study that includes an updated selection of translations of the songs into Hebrew.Hadar Feldman SametMarch 19, 2025Throughout their existence, a cloud of secrecy surrounded the “Believers”—followers of Shabbetai Tzvi who converted to Islam following his own conversion in 1666. They were known by various names, most notably the derogatory Turkish term “Dönme” (“turned ones”), implying an insincere conversion and hinting at unusual sexual practices.The conversion to Islam released the Sabbatean believers from the obligations of Jewish communal life and rabbinic authority, allowing them to develop an independent path based on faith in their messiah and the cultural traditions that shaped their worldview. They maintained a distinct communal structure, and their zealous secrecy regarding their beliefs and practices fueled myths, rumors, and accusations from their inception to this very day—among both Jews and non-Jews.About 200 families converted between Shabbetai Tzvi’s conversion and his death—or “disappearance”—in 1676. However, the formation of a distinct Sabbatean community took shape later, in the 1680s, through two main waves of conversion in 1683 and 1686, during which approximately 250 additional families joined.There are different versions regarding the events that led to the creation of the community of believers, but central to many of them is an act by Shabbetai Tzvi’s last wife, Yokheved, known in Turkish as Ayşe, daughter of the Salonican yeshiva head and student of Nathan of Gaza, Rabbi Yosef Filosof. Yokheved-Ayşe declared that the spirit of Tzvi had entered her brother, Yaakov Filosof, thereby designating him as the messiah’s successor and leader of his followers.Due to the concern of the rabbis of Salonika over the influence of Yosef and Yaakov Filosof, they informed the Ottoman authorities about them. The two were summoned to the Sultan and converted to Islam. Upon returning to Salonika, the converts persuaded other Sabbateans to convert as well, presenting it as part of a redemptive correction.Following the conversion, Yaakov Filosof—who was called "Kerido", meaning "beloved"—established Salonika as the center of the Sabbatean converts and from there disseminated his teachings to various cities across the empire. His followers were later known as the "Ya‘qobilers", a Turkish plural form meaning "Jacobites."A few years later, the community of believers split with the rise of another figure: Baruch Russo, known as Barukhia, who claimed the soul of the messiah had reincarnated in him. His followers were known by various names, the most familiar being "Coniosos", a Spanish plural of the name "Conio" or "Honio", and "Karakaşlar", meaning "those with black eyebrows."This led to a further division, resulting in a third group that saw itself as returning to the pure Sabbatean faith. This group later became known as the "Kapancılar", meaning "the secluded ones" or "the shut-ins."** The mystical Sabbatean beliefs are presented together with imagery that resonated with the hearts of believers who were not necessarily part of the scholarly elite, in a lyrical language accessible to all, seasoned with the Turkish language that was commonly spoken among them.On the surface, the communities created separation among themselves—for example, by prohibiting marriage with those outside their group and through distinctions in appearance. However, it seems that over the years, and especially during the second half of the 19th century, the divisions between the groups became less rigid. Over time, Salonika became the center for the three Sabbatean groups until two major waves of migration occurred: one following the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), and the second, which was broader in scope, during their forced relocation to Turkish territory—mainly to Istanbul—under the population exchange agreement with Greece in 1923.Because the Sabbateans maintained secrecy for many years, most of the knowledge about them came from external sources—opponents of Sabbateanism, missionaries and travelers who visited the Ottoman Empire, and, from the late 19th century onward, scholars and intellectuals who developed an interest in them. Another important source that sheds light on their traditions comes from testimonies of individuals who knew them personally. In the 1920s, a descendant of the communities publicly revealed information about the believers for the first time, and from the 1930s onward, internal community sources began to surface, offering new insights into their way of life and religion.Among the most important of these discoveries were the manuscripts of the believers’ songs—some of the few and most significant internal documents known to date. The corpus consists of five song manuscripts spanning hundreds of pages, housed in the Ben-Zvi Archive in Jerusalem and the Houghton Library at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.In 1943, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi visited Izmir and took the opportunity to search for sources related to the Sabbateans who lived in the city. From his account, it appears that he managed to penetrate their veil of secrecy, establish connections with them, and learn about their traditions. It seems that his success in acquiring their secret writings can be largely attributed to Gabriel de Boton, a rabbi and intellectual of Salonican origin who had ties with descendants of the believers who had migrated from Salonika to Izmir.Several years before his meeting with Ben-Zvi, Rabbi de Boton had acquired a collection of Sabbatean manuscripts from descendants of the believers he had come to know in Izmir. In 1935, he donated them to the National Library in Jerusalem, with the help of Bachur Israel Nahum from Izmir and Moshe David Gaon (1889–1958), known as a Jerusalemite and a scholar of Sephardic Jewry and Ladino culture.The collection includes Ladino translations of Jewish texts used by the Sabbateans alongside other Sabbatean writings. This collection was handed over to de Boton by Yosef Jirach Shamashi, a member of the community of believers, as payment for a debt of 300 liras for rent that Rabbi de Boton had apparently covered for him, likely due to financial hardship.Ben-Zvi was referred to Rabbi de Boton by a woman of Sabbatean descent who told him that the believers had entrusted their writings to the rabbi. The meeting between the two resulted in Ben-Zvi purchasing two manuscripts of songs for fifty Turkish liras.In addition to the four manuscripts housed since then and still today in the Ben-Zvi Institute Archive, there is another collection of songs in the Hebrew manuscript collection of Harvard University's Houghton Library. A note attached to the manuscript reveals that it was given by a descendant of the believers to Gerhard Kessler, a professor of sociology who left Germany due to his opposition to the Nazi regime and taught at Istanbul University from 1933 to 1950.In 1953, the manuscript given to Prof. Kessler was brought to the Chief Rabbi of Turkey at the time for a basic interpretation of its meaning. In October 1957, Prof. Kessler's son donated the manuscript to the Houghton Library.The Sabbatean ritual songs were published in the book "Book of Hymns and Praises of the Sabbateans", but a significant portion of the poetic corpus still remains unknown and hidden within manuscripts. The multidimensional uniqueness of Sabbatean creativity, the Ottoman context that shaped it, and the rich historical knowledge it contains about the Sabbateans and their surroundings have yet to be thoroughly deciphered and studied in depth.The corpus includes five manuscripts containing approximately 1,500 ritual songs that were performed during the Sabbateans’ secret gatherings. It is written mostly in Ladino, interwoven with Hebrew, Aramaic, and Ottoman Turkish.This is a vast collection of hundreds of ritual songs, most of which were composed during the 19th century. The songs were written in a style accessible to the entire community. The mystical Sabbatean beliefs are conveyed using imagery that resonated with believers who were not necessarily part of the scholarly elite, in lyrical language accessible to all, enriched with Turkish—commonly spoken among them.Because these poetic texts reflect a practice that was performed musically, their meaning extends beyond the conceptual realm, linking the texts to melodies and a vivid emotional expression of longing and love directed toward the sanctified figure of the messiah.In 1927, as part of his ethnographic journey in search of “exotic Jews,” journalist Azriel Carlebach encountered Sabbateans in Izmir. His impressions from the meeting include references to the secret Sabbatean traditions maintained by the community of believers he met—who, by that time, were already in a state of decline. Yet even so, one can still discern the centrality of their communal gatherings, in which ritual singing played a major role.Less than a decade after Carlebach had witnessed the believers' singing practices in Izmir, Sabbatean writings, as noted, began to be passed outside the community. In my opinion, by that point, these writings no longer held religious value for them—and it's possible they didn’t even know what their contents were.** Because the writings of the believers’ songs reflect a practice that was carried out musically, their meaning extends beyond the conceptual realm, connecting the texts with melodies and a vivid expression of yearning and love directed toward the sanctified figure of the messiah.What became of the tradition of the believers’ songs? Until when did it continue to be performed? These questions are closely tied to our understanding of the various social and ritual forms in which the community framework continued to exist during the years when the manuscripts were handed over—about which our knowledge is limited.We do not know clearly to what extent the Sabbatean song tradition persisted after the manuscripts were transferred, nor whether additional manuscripts are still hidden by members of the community or their descendants—and if so, how many.An exceptional trace of the tradition’s preservation appears four decades after the last known manuscripts were handed over, with the case of the publication of a single Sabbatean song that had been transmitted through oral tradition.The story began when a Sabbatean descendant named Ilgaz Zorlu drew significant attention in Turkey after publicly declaring his Sabbatean roots. Zorlu, an accountant by profession, began publishing articles on Sabbateanism and Sabbateans in popular historical journals in Turkey starting in 1994. In one of his articles, he printed for the first time a version of a song that had been orally transmitted within the Sabbatean community to which his family belonged.Here is the Hebrew translation of the song, rendered by Shlomo, his father:"The gates of the Garden of Delights / Precious stones and sapphires / Joseph himself will open with his own hands // Come, faithfully let us gather / Shabbetai, crown of my head // Upright stand the candles / Our eyes behold / And whoever is worthy shall be rewarded / He shall see the face of God // Come, faithfully let us gather / Shabbetai, crown of my head // The day will come, the time we will see / Our desires will be fulfilled / Our Lord we shall then behold // Come, faithfully let us gather / Shabbetai, crown of my head // Death shall befall the husks / The world shall be our inheritance / And the sons of David shall dance // Come, faithfully let us gather / Shabbetai, crown of my head."Less than a decade passed, and in 2013, the song reappeared—this time in an article by Cengiz Şişman, which explored the language, communal organization, and rituals of Sabbatean communities. Şişman noted that he had been told the song in question—along with other Sabbatean songs—was sung in the community’s gathering house, which was surrounded by walls and called “Ortaevi”, meaning “the central house”, in contrast to “Kahal”, which was also used as a name for the Sabbateans’ place of assembly.In any case, the Sabbateans’ ritual songs are a rare source for understanding the mysteries of the community—their way of life and customs, key figures within the group, the Sabbatean theology they embraced, and details about their rituals and the transformations they underwent over the generations.** One of the characteristics of Sabbatean poetry is the gender ambiguity of Shabbetai Tzvi in the eyes of his followers, which is revealed through the adoption of the Turkish genre “koçekçe”—erotic dance songs performed by young boys dressed as women, a genre that was widespread in the Ottoman Empire.The Sabbatean song collections, as mentioned, were written mostly in Ladino interwoven with Hebrew, Aramaic, and Ottoman Turkish, and were primarily based on models of popular Ottoman songs of their time. They were composed in accessible, everyday language, aiming to make them understandable to a diverse public within the community.As a result, complex mystical theology was embedded within the frameworks of popular Ottoman song—whose characteristics suited the needs of Sabbatean singing gatherings: simple syntax, limited vocabulary, short lines, and a recurring refrain.The central figure of the Sabbatean song ritual is the messiah Shabbetai Tzvi, who stands at its very heart. Shabbetai Tzvi appears in a vast array of descriptions and titles drawn from Kabbalistic terminology, while simultaneously deeply influenced by conceptions of sacred figures in the Ottoman world.The blend of sources that nourished this communal practice ranges from a belief in the exalted status of the messiah as a figure acting within the divine realm, to a longing for the messiah as an intimate and approachable presence—merging yearning for the heavenly with desire for the earthly in a ritual of devotion.Much like certain Islamic traditions in the believers’ surroundings, in which the figure of the saint is particularly emphasized, the messiah does not replace the ever-present figure of God—but in some ways, surpasses Him in importance, becoming the focal point of faith and religious experience.Among the themes of the songs, one can note the birth of Shabbetai Tzvi as light, a belief closely tied to Islamic tradition regarding the birth of Muhammad. Shabbetai Tzvi is also described in the songs as a beloved, reflecting the influence of Islamic-Sufi love poetry traditions.Another fascinating topic is the fluid perception of gender attributed to Shabbetai Tzvi by his followers. Here too, the influence of Ottoman poetry is evident, where gender ambiguity was deeply rooted and has led researchers to refer to it as “androgynous poetry.” A striking example of this appears in Sabbatean sacred song through the adoption of the “koçekçe” genre—erotic dance songs performed by young boys dressed as women, which were widespread throughout the Ottoman Empire.Who were the poets who composed the Sabbatean poetic corpus? It is now clear that these songs were written by poets from the Sabbatean community in Salonika over several decades, primarily during the 19th century. Some of them signed their pen names within the body of the songs. Two of these Sabbatean poets, Rabbi Tova and Rabbi Ahava, apparently held positions of leadership.My underlying assumption in my research on Sabbatean poetry is that there is a clear connection between it and Ottoman cultural production—to specific Ottoman sources and to phenomena that characterized poetry, music, and popular religiosity in the surrounding society during the 18th century, and especially the 19th.During the formative years of Ottoman culture in the 15th and 16th centuries, music and poetry developed at the Sultan’s court, intended exclusively for a small and educated audience. At the same time, throughout the years, popular traditions existed, carried and transmitted by figures such as wandering singers and Sufi dervishes, primarily in non-urban areas.The development of urban public spaces—where interactions between different populations expanded from the mid-17th century, and even more so during the 18th century—led to a reduction in the separation between elite culture and the everyday culture prevalent among the general population in various fields.These processes were also linked to a shift in the Ottoman government’s attitude toward the masses, expressed in the opening of courtly culture to a broader public and, as a result, to an expansion of the target audience for artistic poetry and music. In this context, court poets began to adopt features of folk poetic genres and created poetry meant to be accessible to wider audiences.The center of these changes was Istanbul, from which they spread to the major cities of the empire. The prominent presence of poetic genres that were widespread in the imperial capital within the corpus of Sabbatean ritual songs serves as evidence that cultural trends which developed and matured in the 18th century had firmly taken root in the urban culture of Salonika, becoming an inseparable part of it during the 19th century.A Selection from the Songs of the Sabbatean BelieversA Redeemer Has Come into the WorldA redeemer has come into the world from Clara and from Mordechai,By the sign of David son of Jesse, the redeemer Shabbetai was born.The light of the sun has shone, joy has awakened—Beloved, beloved, Shabbetai Tzvi!Friend, beloved—beloved, Shabbetai Tzvi!And they said: Blessed is he who comes, and also in the name of the Lord.And let us say: May He who blessed, bless the true redeemer.Beloved, beloved, Shabbetai Tzvi—friend and beloved!Friend, beloved—beloved, Shabbetai Tzvi!Goodness! There is no other redeemer—he is the emissary of the Lord.He is the Messiah and no other—we believe!And in his holy faith—we affirm!They Say Shabbetai TzviThey say Shabbetai TzviWas born, anointed, and elevated to the Shekhinah.In [5]426 (1666), he opened the faith—Shabbetai Tzvi.He entered Ishmael [i.e., Islam] afterward,Until now, he has fulfilled all things—Shabbetai Tzvi.He gave counsel, united with his Lord,And opened this faith for us.Crown of the Highest, primordial man is his praise.They say of him: he is hidden knowledge—Shabbetai Tzvi.He is the only one of the Master of the Universe,And surely with Him, he formed the world.Without doubt, he revealed His divinity,Corrected the worlds through him—Shabbetai Tzvi.And his root is a blessed point,Found at the center of the circle.The thread descended down to the point,He engraved within it and created all—Shabbetai Tzvi.He said: “Your kingdom is a kingdom of all worlds.”It is true—he is the Master of all structures.For he descended and said: “Let there be light!”He is the garment, the cloak of the redeemer—Shabbetai Tzvi.The Sefirot descended down to her,And received her light.In the end of all things, so it was:The altar of the Master of the World arrived—Shabbetai Tzvi.His Lord will call him the Name YHWH,To show that he is united with It.He opened the faith for us—Samekh, secret of 42, better than One, I will love—Shabbetai Tzvi.He is our faith, true and upright.For the sake of understanding, we would die for him.He and His name shall be blessed,Living and existing for all eternity—Shabbetai Tzvi.On Tisha B’AvOn Tisha B’Av the redeemer was born,He donned a crown with Akatriel.He lifted a lament with Adriron—Shabbetai Tzvi, light of Israel.Metatron released the prisoners,And with Sandalfon, he abolished decrees.He was made pure for the sake of the servants—Shabbetai Tzvi, light of Israel.I Entered the Sea of LoveI entered the sea of love, and I saw two beloveds,One bound to the other—they were deeply united.Abraham Michael Cardozo and my master Shabbetai Tzvi,They are in eternal love, deeply enamored.He bound love to love and completed the Name of YHWH,It was difficult to be one—but they became connected.And the waters of this sea are fierce fire,Those who were burned in it—behold, they are blessed.“Love” equals thirteen—it is one, unified,And if they are as one, they shall not be separated.It is good that you have entered the sea of lovers—Burn, and do not leave—you shall be among the honored.IshmaelIshmael—Abraham came, Ishmael.They said: Allah, “and he shall bea wild man,” Ishmael.Because of the covenant he is calleda holy son, Ishmael.And King Shabbetai shall be chosen,and he entered into Ishmael.And he repaired everything—it was within him, Ishmael.Ishmael—Son of the Messiah, Ishmael.He revealed a singular tikkun (repair)when Ishmael was circumcised.At the age of three yearswas Ishmael circumcised.For he separated the husk (kelipah),and remained holy—Ishmael.I’m in Love, in Love, in LoveYou are the Messiah, son of David—Selah!I’m in love, in love, in love—I’ve never seen anyone like you, bridegroom of the bride.I’m in love, I’m in love, in love.Surely, you came in two dimensions,You repaired all the worlds.Behold, you unify all the Sefirot.I’m in love, I’m in love, in love.In sanctities, you are the Holy of Holies.To you lift the eyes of those below and above.To you, both the living and the dead hope.I’m in love, I’m in love, in love.Oh, my beloved—you are the soul of my soul.Master of inner beauty, without equal.Your greatness, kingdoms without end—surely!I’m in love, I’m in love, in love.They Say KaddishMay Shabbetai Tzvi be exalted,May Shabbetai Tzvi be uplifted,May Shabbetai Tzvi be elevated,May Shabbetai Tzvi be raised in glory,May Shabbetai Tzvi be adorned,May Shabbetai Tzvi be praised,May Shabbetai Tzvi be sanctified,May Shabbetai Tzvi be crowned,May Shabbetai Tzvi be blessed,May Shabbetai Tzvi be accepted.Translated from an article that appeared in Haaretz on March 19, 2025, originally published in Hebrew.https://www.haaretz.co.il/literature/tarbut-sifrot/2025-03-19/ty-article/.premium/00000195-af47-d3d1-a19f-ff5f0e290000