LINKING THE "SABBATEAN SPRING FESTIVAL" WITH "TEKUFOTH" (*) .Sabbatean Messianism was the largest and most momentous messianic movement in Jewish history subsequent to the destruction of the Temple and the Bar Kokhba Revolt. This movement, which swept across the world from England to Persia, from Netherlands to Morocco and from Germany to Yemen, is well documented and known, and is also the topic of many publications. Therefore, I do not intend to expound upon it. I will refer to it by describing a personal reminiscence of my childhood and say a few words in connection with the subject of my paper. It happened during the late 1940s when I was a child... On a particular night it was decided that we – the children - should organize a festive reunion in the cellar of the building in which we lived. I know it was spring for the simple reason that the she-goat of our neighbor had given birth and its milk was to be distributed during the reunion. Possibly also, because the weather in Istanbul was warm enough to afford a reunion in the humid and dark cellar. After having entertained ourselves with the traditional Turkish shadow play, known as "Hacivat and Karagöz" and drunken goat milk, the time came to go home. At this precise moment the organizer of the reunion – the oldest among us – addressed the Sabbatean children: "You are not allowed to go home until the adults finish their meeting, are you?" The children agreed without saying a word, expressing themselves only by nodding. In spite of its ambiguous and unexpected character, I had the intuition that a certain truth lay beyond this question and that it ought to be tacitly respected…? (1) Born and educated in Istanbul, I became aware early about a mysterious people who appeared to be Turks with Jewish affinities. Their elders spoke Spanish at home and sometimes exchanged a few words in this language with my parents. I heard rumors that the approach of Jewish holy days made these "other Turks" tense and they were secretly celebrating them with their own customs. Besides these sporadic manifestations, they never talked about their Jewish ties, and mutual discretion made the subject a never-revealed taboo. It is probably this experience that later influenced the very personal dimension of my future interest in understanding the nature of this phenomenon. The apostasy of Sabbetai Sevi in 1666 produced deep consternation among the people who saw in him the expected Messiah. Instead of admitting that their redeemer was an imposter, many of them looked for an explanation of what had happened. They maintained that the apostasy was in reality the fulfillment of a mission to lift up the holy sparks which was dispersed even among the gentiles, a task which only the Messiah himself could perform to bring Redemption. So the foundation of a new sect with its own ideology, its own commandments, its own liturgy and its own organization was laid, and by creating its own legacy, which would survive for more than three centuries. In fact, the Sabbatean community which flourished in Salonica is the only heretical sect in the history of crypto-Jewry with so well established precepts and institutions. The Ma'minim – believers in Hebrew – as they called themselves were voluntary converts, a phenomenon without a precedent in Jewish history. They were considered as Muslims publicly, but adhered to a heretical Jewish theosophy based on Sevi's messianism. The "Ten Commandments" were replaced with a new religious order based on 18 precepts, las Incomendensas, as they called it in Judeo-Spanish. The definition of adultery in las Incomendensas, suggesting prudence rather than a prohibition, is ambiguous. It is in this context that a peculiar feast, the Sabbatean Spring Festival, was incorporated into the Sabbatean liturgy. Based on its origins and its mode of celebration, this feast usually known as the Lamb Festival remains the most puzzling and eccentric holiday of Sabbatean lore. The feast began at midnight between the 21st and the 22nd day of the month of Adar, at the supposed occurrence of the spring equinox. According to the Sabbatean tradition, the spring equinox represents the beginning of the New Year and the creation of the world. Only married couples were permitted to participate in the ceremony, where the meat of the lamb was eaten for the first time in the year. It was required that at least two married couples or a paired number of married couples participate in the ceremony. Women wore jewels and their best clothes and served at the banquet. At a certain moment, lights were extinguished and the couples would apparently make love after exchanging partners. My paper discusses the eventual relationship of this festival with the Jewish belief of Tekufoth (seasons). Throughout history, most pagan religions and cultures considered time as cyclical. The condition and fate of mankind were therefore explained through events occurring at specific times. Certain days or time periods of sacred significance were celebrated by usually including a particular ritual of sacrifices and meals that at times bordered or led to licentious behavior. Among these, festivals celebrating the creation process and the renewal of nature are of particular interest. They have been celebrated in recorded history for more than five millennia. In ancient Mesopotamia, Sumerians and Babylonians celebrated the renewal of nature indicated by spring rains, as well as by the returning of the rains in autumn. Food sacrifices were dedicated to fertility deities, after which the participants marked their feasting by ritual ceremonies. In Babylon, the Creation epic was read at this occasion to remind the celebrants that order arose out of chaos by means of a struggle between the god of heaven and the goddess of the deep. Later, a sheep was beheaded, its body being thrown into the river, and its head taken into the wilderness. This ritual symbolized the freeing of the community from the powers of chaos. After the populace engaged in carnival-like activities, a banquet was held to celebrate the renewal of nature, man and society.(2) Beliefs and rituals connected with seasonal renewals, and associated with an encounter of a chaotic and sexual nature between deities, have also existed in a variety of cultures. They are almost a universal phenomenon, which is embedded in the symbolic spiritual legacy and collective memory of the Euro-Asian peoples and has played a major role in determining their mystical and religious inclinations and beliefs. Superstitious beliefs connected with the periods of the equinoxes and the solstices have also appeared in Jewish folklore. However, even if the original myth was forgotten, its remnants were preserved in the belief that waters were contaminated by noxious blood, whereby it was prohibited to drink water at the time of the Tekufoth. Jews believed that a venomous drop of blood falling from the heaven at the period of the summer solstice poisoned the waters in streams and rivers, and then refrained from drinking water in this period. The Ritual of Abudarham (written c. 1341) bears the following information: "During seasonal changes it is prohibited to drink the waters of the rivers, for a drop a blood falling from the clouds in the sky would swell the body of anyone who drinks from". A Jewish mystical belief is that Lilith's(3) menses are the source of these drops. Still another legend is that the constellations Scorpio and Leo, or Cancer and Libra engage in a bitter struggle at these four critical moments, and their blood stains the waters.(4) The Hebrew word Tekufah – in plural Tekufoth – literally meaning "period" or "season", also, equinox or solstice, refers to the annual seasonal changes. The four Tekufoth are: the month of Nissan (April) at the spring equinox; the month of Tammuz (July) at the summer solstice; the month of Tishri (September/October) at the autumnal equinox; the month of Teveth (December) at the winter solstice. The Midrash of Psalms reports: "There are four seasons in a year. From the season of Nissan to the season of Tammuz the days borrow from the nights (i.e. the sun lights for a longer time), and from Tammuz to Tishri the days pay back to the nights; from Tishri to Teveth days borrow from the nights but from Teveth to Nissan the days pay back to the nights: which means that the season of Nissan and of Tishri owe nothing to anyone…(5) An old legend, which made its first literary appearance in the 12th century liturgical book Mahzor Vitry, connects this belief with the following biblical events: God turned the waters of Egypt to blood in the spring equinox, and from then on at the time of the equinox drops of blood are deposited on the waters; the same occurs at the summer solstice, when Moses smote the rock and blood flowed from it; at the autumnal equinox; when Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac, blood appeared on his knife; and at the winter solstice, when Jephtah sacrificed his daughter in the fulfillment of his vow to God, her blood mixed with the waters.(6) According to one theory, the very first Tekufah – the spring equinox – in the Jewish calendar took place on Adar 22 at the beginning of Wednesday, the fourth day of the Jewish week, i.e. Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. in the first year of the world's creation. (7) A book published in Amsterdam in 1636 contains informative and depictive material on the Tekufoth (8,see also picture). Moreover, according to another publication, beliefs concerning the Tekufoth were probably still extant amongst European Jewry at the end of the 19th century.(9) The enlightened religious authorities saw the beliefs in Tekufoth as a remnant of paganism, denounced them and tried to suppress them. However these efforts did not prove to be successful (9, 10, 11) and, as a matter of fact, the belief regarding the noxious effect of drinking water drawn at nighttime during the Tekufoth persisted among simple Jewish folk until recently. Another peculiar fact in connection with the Sabbatean Lamb Festival is that it is celebrated during the same season as Nevruz, which is a millenarian, well-established and very popular pagan festival in Turkey, celebrated essentially by mystical heterodoxies and also having analogical aspects with the former. Nevruz means "New Year" in Persian. This festival and its variations are widespread among peoples inhabiting the rural areas of the former Ottoman Empire as well as among peoples ethnically and culturally related to them living elsewhere. The beginning of the New Year in Nevruz is also linked with many biblical themes of deliverance: creation of the world by God, when the duration of night is equal to day; the formation out of mud of the first man, Adam; the return of Adam and Eve to Paradise by God, after He forgave them; Noah, after leaving his ark, set foot on land; Joseph was saved from the pit; Moses divided the Red Sea to save his people; Jonah was delivered to land by the whale; the stars which were in Aries when God created the Universe were ordered by Him to return to their own zodiac signs.(12) On the other hand, a folk pattern reported by Galante, which existed among the Jews of Izmir, the native city of Sabbetai Sevi, also remembered by people who lived in its vicinity, is of interest. This is the belief and popular custom concerning the spring equinox known as la Dulse. According to Galante, people believed that angels who guard the waters in the world are removed at a precise moment during the spring equinox. It was also believed that during this interval – known as la Dulse - when waters are without guardians, the devil poisons them. People should therefore take the necessary precautions in order not to be harmed by drinking water during the night at this moment. (13) La Dulse means, "jam" in Judeo-Spanish. Used as an adjective, dulse means "sweet". Ever since the first half of the 16th century, Nevruz has been traditionally celebrated with great pomp in Manisa, a neighboring town of Izmir where a notable Jewish community existed, by distributing a sweet paste, known as Mesir Paste (of Manisa), Mesir meaning, "feast" in Turkish.(14) The use of the term la Dulse, indicating the perilous moment at Tekufoth during the spring equinox, is unique to the Jews of Izmir and to its neighboring Jewish communities – and the sole apparent reason for using it is because of this sweet paste. There is no doubt that the renewal of nature represented by the Sabbatean Spring Festival also implied themes associated with the creation of the world and man, as well as the reappearance of the Messiah, according to one belief, as the original Adam. The extinguishing of lights and the concomitant sexual orgy is a simulacrum of the darkness, the eschatological, messianic and creational chaos and the free expression of instinctual needs followed by rebirth, as it is conceived in mystical philosophies. According to rumors, during the secret rites observed by Alevi populations in Turkey, which are accompanied by music and drinking, the candles would go out at a certain point and the entire ceremony would turn into an orgy. This festivity is popularly known in Turkish as mum söndü alemi, meaning "festivity of extinguishing candles". Rumors about this custom spread in Turkey and are even extant today. After his conversion, Sabbetai Sevi met and became friendly with a leader of the Ottoman mystical Bektashi order by the name of Mehmet Niyazi. He was a guest at his house of worship and participated in Bektashi rituals in Istanbul and perhaps in Edirne as well. It is also known that in the earliest annals of Sabbateanism, the movement adopted the liturgy of dervishes in the Turkish language transliterated into Hebrew characters. In conclusion, let us note briefly that Sabbateans shared many common of the spiritual and behavioral characteristics of various Ottoman mystical groups. The Sabbateans probably found in the tolerant and even receptive attitude of Ottoman public opinion towards mystical heterodoxies, a legitimate foundation for their tenets. The analogy between their syncretistic, antinomian and secretive mystical lore also seems to have played a cardinal role in establishing a rapprochement and a close relationship between them.(15) It is probably this similarity between Sabbatean lore and Ottoman mysticism that determined – among many other historical, sociological, folkloric, religious mystical factors – the choice, the timing and the mode of celebration of the Sabbatean Lamb Festival, shaping its peculiar and even unique heretical nature.(16) Gad Nassi (*) Lecture presented during The Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies, 2005 Conference, Miami Beach Florida, August 7-9, 2005. NOTES - 1.Extract from Gad Nassi, "Exploring the Pagan, Jewish and Ottoman Roots of the Sabbatean Lamb Festival", Turkish-Jewish Encounters, ed. Mehmet Tütüncü (Haarlem, 2001), pp. 241-260. - 2.Fredericksen Linwood, "Feast and Festival", Encyclopædia Britannica, 7, 1973, pp. 197-202. - 3.A female and nocturnal demon in Jewish mythology, said to have seduced Adam. She symbolized sexual lust and bore demons. - 4.Angelo S. Rappaport, The Folklore of the Jews (London, Soncino Press, 1937), pp. 110-4. - 5.Maurice-Ruben Hayoun , "Saisons Judaïsme" in Dictionnaire Critique de L'Esotérisme, ed. Jean Servier, (Paris: PUF, 1988), pp. 1155-. - 6.Jephtah the Gileadite was one of the many tribal leaders or "judges" of Israel who defended his people from their warring enemies. Before going into the battle, he made a vow that if God gave him victory, he would sacrifice the first thing he saw when he returned home. He won the battle and on his way home his daughter and only child came out to meet him with songs and dances to celebrate his victory. He told her of his vow and she asked him to give her two months to mourn her fate. Finally, as the Bible says, Jephtah "did with her according to his vow… and she knew no man" (Judges 11:39). - 7.Arthur Spier , The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, Its Structure, History, and One Hundred Years of Corresponding Dates, 5660-5760, 1900-2000, (New York: Behrman House, 1952), p. 224. - 8.Isaac de Mattatias Aboab, Seder Berakhot – Orden de las Bendiciones (Hebrew with Portuguese), trans. by Binyamin Senior (Amsterdam: Albert Magnus, 686/7). - 9.Moïse Schuhl, Superstitions et Coutumes Populaires du Judaïsme Contemporain (Paris: L. Blum, 1882), pp. 32-3. - 10.Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition, A Study in Folk Religion, (New York: Behrman House, 1937), pp. 257-9. - 11.Avigdor Aptowitzer, "Isur Shtiath Mayim beSha'ath haTekufah" [Prohibition against Drinking Water during the Period of Seasonal Change] in HaTzofeh (Budapest, 1912), II, pp. 122-6; Levi Ginzberg, "Arba Tekufoth" [Four Seasons] in HaTzofeh (Budapest, 1913), III, pp. 184-6. - 12.M. Abdulhalûk Çay, Türk Ergenekon Bayramý, Nevrûz (Ankara: Türk Kültürünü Ara-þtýrma Enstitüsü, 1988), pp. 22-3. - 13.Avram Galante, Histoire des Juifs de Turquie, (Istanbul: Isis, 1986), VIII, 211-2. - 14.Originally given out for its medicinal value, the distribution of the Mesir Paste later became a well-rooted tradition. The Mesir Celebration began to be held in around 1539 and since then, every year on March 21st, the day of the Nevruz festival, the people gather in front of the Sultan Mosque to catch the Mesir Paste wrapped in paper as it is tossed out to them. - 15.Gad Nassi, "Shabbetaism and the Ottoman Mystical Tradition" in 500 Years in our Heritage, 1492-1992, First International Congress on Turkish Jewry organized by MORIT, Beth Hatefusoth. Tel-Aviv, October 1989. Turkish version of the same paper, "Sabetaycýlýk ve Osmanlý Mistik Geleneði", Tarih ve Toplum, XVI, 75, (Istanbul, March 1990) pp. 143-145. - 16. A detailed description of these factors and their comprehensive analysis, may be found in Gad Nassi, "Exploring the Pagan, Jewish and Ottoman Roots of the Sabbatean Lamb Festival", Turkish-Jewish Encounters, ed. Mehmet Tütüncü (Haarlem, 2001), pp. 241-260. This investigation elaborates for the first time the links between the Sabbatean Lamb Festival and the belief of Tekufoth. Jewish calendar representing the Equinoxes and Solstices, known as Tekufoth. From the book "Seder Berakhot – Orden de las Bendiciones y las Ocaziones en que se Devan Dizir", printed in Hebrew with Portuguese to teach Judaism to Conversos. Edited by Isaac de Mattatias Aboab. Translated by Binyanin Senior. Printed in the printing house Albert Magnus, Amsterdam 1686(7). Author's collection. |
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