Shabbethai Zebi's Travelling Circus
I recommend that you read this article in the Jewish Encyclopedia describing the life and times of Shabbethai Zebi.
While the personal side of the story, how a man could come to choose this route and how others could come to enable his journey, is of some interest, my interest lies more with the notions that the public entertained.
First and foremost there was of course the notion that the Jews would return to Israel. But that one is of no particular interest. Then we see accounts of miracles, penances, celebrations and inklings of a new world order.
The accounts of miracles include
During the acquisition there's hope of external intervention as witnessed in the ship account or the unroofing inkling. That the lion should triumph over the dragon (it is of course the large cat that has seven heads, although in the Revelation the cat is a leopard) stresses the dignity of power. And that a prostitute would be a fitting bride for a saint is a metaphor for the union of care and Lust (German, there is no English translation since the time lust changed its meaning) or righteousness and power.
That imprisonment isn't taken as defeat tells us something about the nature of the power concerned, namely that money is more powerful than titles or the esteem on which they rest. So what then is the revolution in all things?
In 1666 the role of social recognition was still overwhelming, but although the Messianic Age may have been conceived of as something else, the actual spirit which showed itself in the celebrations of the summer of 1666 was foreshadowing the rule of opportunism as witnessed today in the stock market.
Actually, it is the figure of the knight, in which righteousness and power are combined, and his reign is ruthless. Opportunism contains an element of power, but also one of social relations. The element that is lacking in opportunism is righteousness. So, really, Zebi's righteousness was just a pretense to marry power to social relations, to let power corrupt social relations, instead to righteousness, but out of this corruption does indeed grow the renewed importance of righteousness.
Besides that it is interesting to see how these notions resurface today, not as premonitions, but as folklore.
While the personal side of the story, how a man could come to choose this route and how others could come to enable his journey, is of some interest, my interest lies more with the notions that the public entertained.
First and foremost there was of course the notion that the Jews would return to Israel. But that one is of no particular interest. Then we see accounts of miracles, penances, celebrations and inklings of a new world order.
The accounts of miracles include
- Abraham prophecising the advent of Zebi,
- a Ukrainian prostitute stating (before her acquaintance with Zebi) that she would be married to the Messiah,
- the advent of the Twelve Tribes of Israel on a ship with silken ropes and sails in Northern Scotland,
- that Zebi would lead back the Ten Tribes to the Holy Land riding on a lion with a seven-headed dragon in its jaws,
- a revolution in all things,
- that the leniency of a prison stay would be a sign of true power,
- that houses were unroofed.
During the acquisition there's hope of external intervention as witnessed in the ship account or the unroofing inkling. That the lion should triumph over the dragon (it is of course the large cat that has seven heads, although in the Revelation the cat is a leopard) stresses the dignity of power. And that a prostitute would be a fitting bride for a saint is a metaphor for the union of care and Lust (German, there is no English translation since the time lust changed its meaning) or righteousness and power.
That imprisonment isn't taken as defeat tells us something about the nature of the power concerned, namely that money is more powerful than titles or the esteem on which they rest. So what then is the revolution in all things?
In 1666 the role of social recognition was still overwhelming, but although the Messianic Age may have been conceived of as something else, the actual spirit which showed itself in the celebrations of the summer of 1666 was foreshadowing the rule of opportunism as witnessed today in the stock market.
Actually, it is the figure of the knight, in which righteousness and power are combined, and his reign is ruthless. Opportunism contains an element of power, but also one of social relations. The element that is lacking in opportunism is righteousness. So, really, Zebi's righteousness was just a pretense to marry power to social relations, to let power corrupt social relations, instead to righteousness, but out of this corruption does indeed grow the renewed importance of righteousness.
Besides that it is interesting to see how these notions resurface today, not as premonitions, but as folklore.
Labels: 32, formalisierung, geschichte, gesellschaftsentwurf, gesellschaftskritik, gesetze, institutionen, kommentar, sehhilfen, wahrnehmungen, zeitgeschichte, ἰδέα, φιλοσοφία
Eingetragen Am/um
10:54
