Sabbatai Ṣevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626–1676

«Paradox is a characteristic of truth. What communis opinio has of truth is surely no more than an elementary deposit of generalizing partial understanding, related to truth even as sulphurous fumes are to lightning.» — epígrafe del volumen, tomado por Scholem de la correspondencia entre el conde Paul Yorck von Wartenburg y Wilhelm Dilthey: la opinión común queda como depósito elemental de una comprensión parcial, frente a la verdad como relámpago.

«A DETAILED HISTORY of the Sabbatian movement, the most important messianic movement in Judaism since the destruction of the Second Temple, has long been badly lacking in Jewish historiography.» — Scholem abre el prefacio situando al sabatianismo como el movimiento mesiánico más importante del judaísmo desde la destrucción del Segundo Templo y declarando el hueco historiográfico que viene a llenar.

«But direct contact with the sources has made me realize that historians have never done justice to this great and tragic chapter in Jewish history, either because they lacked the knowledge or because they lacked even the wish for knowledge.» — Scholem señala que los historiadores no hicieron justicia al episodio por falta de conocimiento o por falta de voluntad de conocerlo.

«As I became more deeply involved with the sources, I became convinced not only that important and vital sources had escaped the eyes of previous scholars, but that even those sources which had been used were often not correctly interpreted.» — Scholem cuenta que al trabajar las fuentes halló no solo materiales inéditos sino interpretaciones erradas de los ya usados.

«Only by combining and analyzing all kinds of sources in the light of historical criticism can one gain a true picture of the age.» — su regla de método: los documentos esotéricos y las especulaciones cabalísticas se tratan con el mismo rango que archivos, manuscritos y pliegos sueltos, y solo el cruce de todos ellos bajo crítica histórica da el cuadro de la época.

«I have written this book on the basis of a particular dialectical view of Jewish history and the forces acting within it. But from the start more than just this view has been at work, guiding my presentation—the view itself is the outcome of a constantly renewed immersion in the sources themselves.» — Scholem declara el sesgo con que escribe —una visión dialéctica de la historia judía— y sostiene que esa visión salió a su vez de la inmersión repetida en las fuentes.

«I have not hesitated to change the opinions I expressed in earlier publications on specific points when renewed consideration of the sources required a new interpretation of the documents or of the historical processes reflected in them.» — Scholem consigna que cambió posiciones publicadas antes cuando las fuentes lo pidieron.

«Nor am I a follower of that school which proceeds on the assumption that there is a well-defined and unvarying “essence” of Judaism, especially not where the evaluation of historical events is concerned.» — Scholem niega que exista una esencia bien definida e invariable del judaísmo con que juzgar los hechos.

«The internal censorship of the past, particularly by rabbinical tradition, has tended to play down or to conceal many developments whose fundamentally Jewish character the contemporary historian has no reason to deny.» — Scholem señala la censura interna de la tradición rabínica como causa de que esos desarrollos quedaran ocultos o minimizados.

«One of the remarkable features of research on Sabbatianism is the tendency to minimize the scope of the movement and to distort its meaning.» — Scholem enuncia la tendencia que objeta en la literatura previa: reducir el alcance del movimiento y torcer su sentido.

«Since the publication of this book in Hebrew, in 1957, and not unconnected with it, a considerable number of hitherto unknown sources have come to light. They supplied an important body of new information which enabled me to correct earlier statements and to present entirely new details, some of them highly significant.» — Scholem cuenta en la segunda parte del prefacio que la edición hebrea hizo aflorar fuentes desconocidas que le permitieron corregir afirmaciones anteriores.

«The most impressive of these documents were contained in the collection of manuscripts that until 1924 had formed a part of the archives of the Sabbatian sect of the Dönmeh in Salonika, which had embraced Islam following Sabbatai Ṣevi’s example and had kept its identity distinct throughout the ages.» — Scholem sitúa el hallazgo mayor en los archivos de la secta sabatiana de los Dönmeh de Salónica, que siguieron el ejemplo de Sabbatai abrazando el islam y conservaron identidad propia.

«The archives had been inaccessible to outsiders and were generally thought to have been lost, especially after the great fire of 1917.» — Scholem consigna que esos archivos se daban por perdidos tras el incendio de 1917.

«a group of Dönmeh departing for Turkey had handed over some particularly valuable manuscripts to the late rabbi Saul Amarillo in Salonika, who, taking a lively interest in the history of Salonika Jewry, kept the treasure but allowed no rumor about it to reach the scholarly world.» — Scholem reconstruye la cadena de custodia: en el intercambio de poblaciones de 1925 unos Dönmeh entregaron manuscritos al rabino Saul Amarillo, que los guardó sin dejar que corriera noticia.

«They contain, among others, autograph letters written by outstanding figures of the movement, chronicles that no one had dreamed existed, and confirm in a striking manner the new insight into Sabbatai Ṣevi’s character and psychology advanced in the present book.» — Scholem dice que esos papeles traen cartas autógrafas y crónicas insospechadas, y que confirman su lectura del carácter y la psicología de Sabbatai Ṣevi.

«All the new sources have been taken into account in preparing the English edition, which therefore is no mere translation from the Hebrew but embodies the results of the latest research.» — Scholem declara que la edición inglesa no es mera traducción del hebreo sino que incorpora la investigación posterior.

«The credit for the English version is due to Dr. R. J. Zwi Werblowsky, Professor of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who —over several years—invested much time and work in its preparation.» — Scholem atribuye la versión inglesa a Werblowsky, profesor de religión comparada en la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalén.

«Some documents which are composed in a flowery rabbinical style have been condensed to make their content clear without the rhetorical ornament that could not well bear literal translation.» — advertencia de método que condiciona toda cita de este volumen: los documentos de estilo rabínico florido van condensados, y a veces el argumento va solo resumido con remisión a la edición hebrea.

«Biblical quotations are rendered according to the Authorized Version or that of the Jewish Publication Society of America» — las citas bíblicas siguen la Authorized Version o la de la Jewish Publication Society of America.

«Mr. Zalman Shazar, now President of the State of Israel, permitted me to quote extensively from a Yiddish manuscript source in his possession, the Beshraybung fun Shabsai Ẓvi, written 1717/18 by Leyb b. Ozer, the notary of the Ashkenazic community in Amsterdam.» — Scholem agradece el permiso para citar la Beshraybung fun Shabsai Ẓvi, manuscrito yidis escrito en 1717 o 1718 por Leyb b. Ozer, notario de la comunidad asquenazí de Ámsterdam, que será una de sus fuentes mayores.

«the author could assume familiarity with certain ideas, concepts, traditions, institutions, rituals, liturgical practices, historical events, and names» — Scholem explica por qué traducir supuso ampliar: el original hebreo daba por sabidas ideas, instituciones y prácticas que el lector inglés no comparte.

«Scholem unearthed a theory of kabbalistic nihilism in the writings of these hitherto obscure Jewish theologians and prophets.» — Dweck sostiene que lo que Scholem sacó de aquellos teólogos oscuros fue una teoría del nihilismo cabalístico.

«His massive study of Sabbatai Ṣevi and the Sabbatian movement, which eventually appeared in English in 1973 under the title Sabbatai Ṣevi: The Mystical Messiah, had its beginnings in this 1937 Hebrew essay.» — Dweck traza la filiación del volumen: el estudio mayor de 1973 nació del ensayo hebreo de 1937.

«Scholem’s letter to Bialik contained a précis of his research in Kabbalah up to that point and a manifesto for future research in the field.» — Dweck sostiene que la carta de Scholem a Bialik de 1925, escrita a los veintisiete años, fijó su trayectoria para el medio siglo siguiente.

«This is work that certainly cannot be undertaken by a single person, but would require a team of assistants. Should the opportunity present itself, I would be willing to take upon myself the direction of this task.» — la voz es la del propio Scholem en la carta a Bialik, citada por Dweck: la tarea excede a una persona y él se ofrece a dirigirla.

«As he wound his way through the writings of Nathan of Gaza, Abraham Miguel Cardoso, and Jacob Frank, Scholem developed the notion of paradox as a central avenue through which to understand Sabbatianism in specific and Jewish Messianism in general.» — Dweck sostiene que la paradoja es la vía por la que Scholem entendió el sabatianismo y el mesianismo judío entero.

«Scholem closed the letter with a celebration of paradox, not the paradox of messianic theology, but that of the “mystical totality of truth” and its relationship to philological criticism.» — Dweck lee la carta de cumpleaños de Scholem a Salman Schocken de 1937 como una celebración de la paradoja entre la totalidad mística de la verdad y la crítica filológica.

«I was struck by the impoverishment of what some like to call the Philosophy of Judaism. I was particularly incensed by the only three authors whom I knew, Saadiah [Gaon], Maimonides, and Hermann Cohen, who conceived as their main task to construct antitheses to myth and pantheism, to refute them, although they should have concerned themselves with raising them to a higher level.» — Scholem, citado por Dweck, declara el motivo de su entrada en la cábala: el empobrecimiento de la llamada filosofía del judaísmo, y su irritación con Saadia Gaón, Maimónides y Hermann Cohen por construir antítesis al mito y al panteísmo en vez de elevarlos.

«By the late 1930s, however, two central themes had emerged in Scholem’s developing approach to Messianism in general and Sabbatianism in specific: an emphasis on paradox as a hermeneutic key to understanding redemption and an aversion to Maimonides and other bearers of the tradition of philosophical rationalism.» — Dweck fija los dos temas del Scholem de finales de los treinta: la paradoja como clave hermenéutica de la redención y la aversión a Maimónides y al racionalismo filosófico.

«Today, as at the very beginning, my work lives in this paradox, in the hope of a true communication from the mountain, of that most invisible,» — la voz es la de Scholem en esa carta a Schocken, que Dweck llama su momento más délfico; el tramo se corta en el límite de chunk y sigue *smallest fluctuation of history which causes truth to break forth from the illusions of 'development.'*.

«philosophical tradition of Jewish rationalism for a “spiritual disaster” enabled by the political conditions of exile.» — Dweck llama acusación a lo que Scholem hace con el racionalismo judío entero, y sitúa el desastre espiritual que le imputa en las condiciones políticas del exilio; la frase empieza en la plana anterior con *Scholem drew upon the notion of paradox in his indictment of the entire*.

«It is this paradox of a God of religion who is distinct from the First Cause that is the essence of true Judaism, that ‘faith of our fathers’ which is concealed in the books of the Bible and in the dark sayings of» — Scholem en Redemption through Sin, citado por Dweck: la paradoja de un Dios de la religión distinto de la Causa Primera como esencia del judaísmo verdadero; el tramo se corta en el límite de plana.

«In the course of the confusion and demoralization brought on by the exile, this mystery (of which [according to Cardoso] even Christianity was nothing but a distorted expression) was forgotten and the Jewish people mistakenly led to identify the impersonal First Cause with the personal God of the Bible» — sigue la misma cita de Redemption through Sin: el exilio habría hecho olvidar el misterio y llevado al pueblo judío a identificar por error la Causa Primera impersonal con el Dios personal de la Biblia.

«a spiritual disaster for which Saadiah Gaon, Maimonides and the philosophers will yet be held accountable.» — cierre de esa cita, en voz de Scholem: el desastre espiritual del que responsabiliza a Saadia Gaón, a Maimónides y a los filósofos.

«In the long introduction to Sabbatai Ṣevi, Maimonides’s brief would expand considerably.» — Dweck anuncia el cambio: en la introducción larga del propio Sabbatai Ṣevi el papel de Maimónides se amplía.

«By contrast, the Research Institute for Kabbalah, while nominally covering the entirety of the Jewish mystical tradition, actually focused on two specific subfields: Sabbatianism and ancient Jewish mysticism.» — Dweck sostiene que el instituto, que nominalmente cubría toda la mística judía, se concentró en el sabatianismo y en la mística antigua.

«Yet the breathless enthusiasm of a seventeen-year-old, no matter how precocious and sophisticated, need not determine the course of a scholarly career.» — y Dweck acota de inmediato ese factor: el entusiasmo de un muchacho de diecisiete años no decide una carrera.

«Finally the historical study of Messianism may have served Scholem as a stand-in for his own Zionism. The manifestation of the Hegelian spirit in an immanent Jewish garb.» — Dweck propone con reserva que el estudio del mesianismo le sirviera a Scholem de sustituto de su propio sionismo.

«And yet Scholem was too subtle a thinker, too self-aware a scholar, and too ironic about his own project to warrant an easy equivalence between his own commitments to Zionism and the subjects of his scholarly investigation.» — y Dweck niega enseguida la equivalencia fácil entre el sionismo de Scholem y su objeto de estudio.

«The reason for Scholem’s turn to the study of Messianism, if there indeed was one reason, may not be known.» — Dweck cierra la cuestión en abstención declarada: la razón del giro, si hubo una sola, puede no saberse.

«TO MY WIFE FANIA in remembrance of all those years of common purpose» — la dedicatoria, firmada sin nombre del autor.

«Fictitious portrait of Josua Helcam, whom the prophet Nathan is said to have appointed as supreme commander over the Ten Tribes of Israel.» — lámina II: retrato inventado del general que se decía nombrado por Natán sobre las Diez Tribus, en pliego en folio de principios de 1666.

«A measure of consistency in the transliteration of Hebrew has been aimed at, but absolute uniformity proved unfeasible.» — la tabla de transliteración declara la inconsistencia del sistema como resultado asumido, no como descuido.

«For names and terms with a more or less established English spelling (e.g., kabbalah, Cordovero) the latter has been used instead of the philologically more accurate transcription.» — el criterio: la grafía inglesa asentada gana a la transcripción filológicamente más exacta, y el nombre Ṣevi es el ejemplo declarado de la incoherencia resultante.

«Fictitious etching from a German broadsheet: Warhafftes Conterfey ‥ des Jüdisch-vermeinten Wunder-Propheten Nathan Levi … (probably Augsburg, 1666). Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio.» — lámina I en el índice de láminas: la propaganda impresa del movimiento corrió por pliegos alemanes, aquí uno que muestra a Natán guiando al pueblo del exilio, la unción de Sabbatai y la toma de La Meca; el pie se reimprime junto a la lámina misma más adelante.

«Sabbatai Ṣevi as Messiah, sitting on the kingly throne, under a celestial crown held by angels and bearing the inscription “Crown of Ṣevi.» — lámina III: grabado a partir de la portada de una edición del Tiqqun Qeriʾah de Natán, con Sabbatai entronizado bajo una corona celeste sostenida por ángeles; pie repetido junto a la lámina.

«Title page of Ticun de la Noche, a Spanish translation of Nathan’s Tiqqun for the nightly devotions (Amsterdam, 5426 = C.E. 1666» — lámina IV: el Tiqqun de Natán para las devociones nocturnas circuló también en traducción española impresa en Ámsterdam; pie repetido junto a la lámina.

«Fictitious news and picture of the arrest and supposed execution of Sabbatai Ṣevi (identified here with Josvahel Cam» — lámina VI: el pliego alemán da por ejecutado a Sabbatai bajo el nombre de Josvahel Cam, con degüello, destripamiento y ahorcadura invertida; el aparato lo rotula como noticia falsa y el pie se repite junto a la lámina.

«Fictitious picture of the expulsion of the Jews from Vienna and other places as they lament their fate and prepare to march to their prophet Nathan.» — lámina VIII: pliego satírico que finge la expulsión de los judíos de Viena camino del profeta Natán; pie repetido junto a la lámina.

«Statement acknowledging the kingship of Sabbatai Ṣevi, written and signed by the members of the yeshibah Yeshuʿoth Meshiho in Amsterdam, dated September 26–28, 1666.» — lámina X: documento de la yeshibah Yeshuʿoth Meshiho de Ámsterdam que reconoce la realeza de Sabbatai, fechado a finales de septiembre de 1666, tres semanas después de la apostasía; pie repetido junto a la lámina.

«The only autograph letter by Sabbatai Ṣevi, written in August, 1676, to the Jewish community of Berat, Albania, asking for a Hebrew prayerbook for the High Holy Days in September, 1676.» — lámina XII: la única carta autógrafa conservada de Sabbatai Ṣevi, del último año de su vida, pide un devocionario hebreo a la comunidad de Berat, en Albania.

«The exposure of the deceit and apostasy of the pretended Jewish messiah, from an authoritative source in Constantinople under the dates November 10 and 20, 1666, via Vienna.» — lámina XI: el último pliego de la serie de Augsburgo, de principios de 1667, expone la apostasía y detalla nueve escenas, entre ellas los bizcochos hallados encima de Sabbatai con que habría roto en secreto sus ayunos milagrosos.

«True Portrait of Sabbatai Ṣevi, sketched by an eyewitness in Smyrna, 1666. From Thomas Coenen, Ydele Verwachtinge der Joden … (Amsterdam, 1669)» — pie del frontispicio A: el único retrato que la edición da por tomado del natural procede del libro neerlandés de Thomas Coenen impreso en Ámsterdam en 1669, y el pie se repite en el índice de láminas con la grafía partida Y dele.

«True Portrait of Nathan of Gaza, sketched by an eyewitness in Smyrna, 1667. From Thomas Coenen, Ydele Verwachtinge der Joden» — pie del frontispicio B: el retrato de Natán de Gaza sale de la misma fuente neerlandesa y se fecha un año después, en Esmirna, 1667.

«THIS WORK WILL bring me some notoriety as a Hebrew writer for the first time, for it is really good, and well suited to make an impression.» — con esta carta de Scholem a Walter Benjamin de finales de 1936 abre Yaacob Dweck su introducción de 2016; la obra anunciada es el artículo hebreo que en inglés se llamó Redemption through Sin.

«For a period of little more than a year in 1665 and 1666, Sabbatai Ṣevi and his prophet Nathan of Gaza had shaken the Jewish world to its very core.» — Dweck resume en una frase el suceso que el libro cuenta: poco más de un año de conmoción del mundo judío entero.

«The law that had governed Jewish life would soon be superseded by a new Torah and a new faith.» — Dweck enuncia el contenido del anuncio mesiánico: una Torá nueva y una fe nueva en lugar de la ley vigente.

«In September 1666, faced with the possibility of martyrdom by the Ottoman authorities, Sabbatai Ṣevi converted to Islam.» — Dweck fecha la apostasía en septiembre de 1666 y la sitúa ante la alternativa del martirio.

«Given that the redemption he had promised had failed to arrive, his remaining followers faced a difficult theological problem: what happens when prophecy fails?» — Dweck formula así el problema teológico que quedó a los creyentes, y con el que Scholem abrió su investigación.

«Born in Berlin in 1897, Gerhard Scholem rebelled against the acculturated milieu of the German Jewish middle class.» — Dweck sitúa el arranque biográfico: nacido en Berlín en 1897 con el nombre Gerhard, Scholem se rebeló contra el medio aculturado de la clase media judía alemana.

«After beginning his studies in mathematics, he earned his doctorate from the University of Munich in 1923 with a dissertation on one of the earliest kabbalistic texts, entitled Sefer ha-Bahir» — Dweck consigna la formación: matemáticas primero y doctorado en Múnich en 1923 con una tesis sobre el Sefer ha-Bahir.

«At the inauguration ceremony of the university on Mount Scopus, Bialik evoked the idea of kinnus, a Hebrew word roughly equivalent to “collection” or “gathering.” He exhorted an audience of more than seven thousand people to gather the fragments of “our literature” and “connect and unify them, and make them whole in the nation’s hands.» — Dweck cita a Hayim Nahman Bialik en la inauguración de la Universidad Hebrea de 1925 llamando al kinnus, reunir los fragmentos de la literatura judía.

«He stressed repeatedly that as long as most kabbalistic works lacked critical editions, scholars would have a limited understanding of the history of Kabbalah specifically and the history of Judaism more generally.» — Dweck resume el programa de aquella carta: sin ediciones críticas de los textos cabalísticos no habría historia de la cábala ni del judaísmo.

«It would be an unpardonable sin for all of us, if the gates to your work were not opened within our midst.» — respuesta de Bialik desde Tel Aviv, citada por Dweck; Bialik llevó el plan al consejo de la universidad y habló con Judah Magnes.

«Sabbatai Ṣevi who may have used practical Kabbalah to approach the heavenly kingdom but still sought, in the end, for a kingdom on earth that would take root in the land of the forefathers.» — Dweck cita a Joseph Klausner, cuya Messianic Idea in Israel despachaba a Sabbatai Ṣevi entre los falsos mesías; en el relato de Klausner, dice Dweck, Sabbatai era un sionista antes de tiempo.

«When calling for a history of Kabbalah in all of its forms and throughout its history, he continued, “And the same can be said for all that branches out from it, that is the messianic movements based upon esoteric wisdom and Hasidism.» — Dweck cita la carta a Bialik para señalar que el mesianismo aparecía allí como asunto derivado y dependiente de la cábala.

«Schocken, a figure who was to play a pivotal role in the making of Scholem’s Sabbatai Ṣevi, functioned as a benefactor of Hebrew and German letters in the first half of the twentieth century.» — Dweck presenta a Salman Schocken como mecenas de las letras hebreas y alemanas y figura decisiva en la hechura del Sabbatai Ṣevi.

«Scholem had known Schocken since his salad days in Germany and maintained a long and difficult relationship with him that often had the dynamic of a client soliciting a patron.» — Dweck describe la relación entre los dos con la dinámica de cliente y mecenas.

«In these texts from 1937, the first an essay that appeared in a periodical and the second a private letter that was not published until decades later, Maimonides appeared as a representative of Jewish rationalism.» — Dweck fecha en 1937 los dos textos —un ensayo publicado y una carta privada que tardó décadas en aparecer— en que Maimónides figura como representante del racionalismo judío.

«In June 1939 he reached a tentative agreement with Schocken to publish them as his first English book, provided publication rights could be obtained from Scholem’s hosts in New York.» — Dweck fecha en junio de 1939 el acuerdo con Schocken para publicar en inglés las conferencias del Jewish Institute of Religion, que serían Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism.

«Upon reading it, Schocken wrote to Scholem and declared that he was finally prepared to fund a scientific venture to study Sabbatai Ṣevi and Jacob Frank.» — Dweck sitúa el origen material del proyecto en la reseña de Scholem al libro de Mortimer J. Cohen sobre Jacob Emden, que decidió a Schocken a financiar la investigación.

«The collective project funded by Schocken under Scholem’s direction bore a number of names. It began as Programm Juedische Mystik, subsequently appeared as Kabbala Forschungsunternehmens, and eventually took the name Ha-Makhon le-Heker ha-Kabbalah (Heb. The Research Institute for Kabbalah» — Dweck enumera los tres nombres que llevó el instituto financiado por Schocken bajo dirección de Scholem.

«Scholem was to have at his disposal a team of extraordinarily talented research assistants, a library stocked with Judaica, funds to obtain photographs of manuscripts, and, most crucially, a publisher for a series of scholarly monographs and critical editions.» — Dweck consigna qué le dio ese acuerdo a Scholem: ayudantes, biblioteca de judaica, fondos para fotografiar manuscritos y editorial propia.

«The three major projects that Scholem’s assistants undertook in the first year—an edition of The Book of Creation by Nathan of Gaza, an edition of the Fading Flower of the Zvi by Jacob Sasportas, and an index of writings related to the Emden-Eibeschütz controversy—all bore directly on Sabbatianism.» — Dweck nombra los tres trabajos del primer año: la edición del Book of Creation de Natán de Gaza, la del Fading Flower of the Zvi de Jacob Sasportas y un índice de la controversia Emden-Eibeschütz.

«His posthumously published diaries indicate that as a young man he had entertained thoughts about his own role as a» — Dweck aporta como factor los diarios póstumos, donde Scholem de joven se habría pensado a sí mismo en papel redentor; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue *redemptive figure*.

«In several articles that he had written in the 1910s and 1920s, Shazar had been one of the first to call for a reevaluation of Sabbatai Ṣevi and the Sabbbatian movement.» — Dweck adjudica a Zalman Rubaschoff, luego Zalman Shazar, la primera llamada a reevaluar a Sabbatai Ṣevi; el troceo imprime *Sabbbatian* con tres bes.

«I do not know whether a letter with such a question exists; I have no memory of having read a letter that posed a question that required me to provide an answer. I have no memory of a negative decision. I am convinced that had I been posed a specific question, I would have found a way to respond affirmatively.» — la voz es la de Salman Schocken en su carta a Scholem, citada por Dweck, ante el acuerdo con Am Oved que tomó por deslealtad.

«I cannot remember whether Scholem offered us this book. In any case, there is certainly no documentation in my files concerning it, but it is quite possible that Scholem had spoken of its publication on occasion and expressed his regret that Schocken would not be able to publish» — la respuesta de Gershom Schocken a su padre cuatro días después, citada por Dweck, que declina toda responsabilidad; los dos testimonios se consignan sin armonizar.

«Wirszubski had edited Nathan of Gaza and Tishby had edited Jacob Sasportas, the two principal intellectual combatants of the movement.» — Dweck llama a Natán de Gaza y a Jacob Sasportas los dos combatientes intelectuales principales del movimiento, y sitúa las ediciones críticas como base de la interpretación, a la manera de la filología alemana.

«Ultimately Scholem published the two-volume study of Sabbatai Ṣevi in 1957 and a volume of collected essays and documents relating to Sabbatianism in 1974.» — Dweck fecha la edición hebrea en dos volúmenes en 1957 y una recopilación de ensayos y documentos en 1974.