Aschkenazi, Tzvi Hirsch (“Chacham Tzvi”). Eduth LeYisrael [polemic against Nechemiah Chiya Chayon]

An exceptionally scarce pamphlet attacking the heresies of Nechemia Chiya Chayon (c. 1655-c.1730). Prepared by the Chacham Tzvi and endorsed by luminaries throughout the rabbinic world. This cherem or excommunication of Chayon provides fascinating information concerning the biography of the mystic wanderer. The rabbis of Izmir, Israel ben Hayim Benveniste and Benjamin Halevi forward to Rabbis Tzvi Hirsch Aschkenazi (Hacham Tzvi) and Moses Hagiz, residents of Amsterdam, a letter they received from the rabbis of Jerusalem, most notably Abraham Yitzchaki, warning against the antics of Chayon, who falsely claims to be a native of the “Upper Galilee.” The Jerusalem missive is dated 1708. In turn, the Izmir rabbis add what they know of the scoundrel, whom they drove out of Izmir. Chayon is no native of the Upper Galilee (i.e. Safed), but rather of Sarajevo, Bosnia, from whence he fled with a maidservant. Chayon disseminates false doctrines of Shabbetai Zevi and his disciple Abraham Michael Cardozo. This attack of 1714 against Chayon was prompted by the recent publication of his heretical work Oz le-Elo-him (Berlin 1713) based on a treatise Raza di-Mehemnuta, which had long been attributed to Shabbetai Zevi himself but which recently Prof. Yehudah Liebes has shown to be the handicraft of Sabbatian heresiarch Cardozo. The assertion of the rabbis of Izmir that Chayon was somehow connected to Cardozo might serve to substantiate Prof. Liebes’ theory. In a second letter from Izmir, the lay leaders of the Jewish community entreat the community of Amsterdam to follow their example and rout from their midst the dangerous mountebank. (Chayon had come under the protection of the Sephardic rabbi of Amsterdam, Solomon Aylion, whose own background was questionable. When Aschkenazi and Hagiz went up against Aylion and the all-powerful Spanish-Portuguese Ma’amad, they found themselves driven from town.) A fourth letter from the rabbis of Frankfort-am-Main explicitly bans the book “Oz le-Elohim.” The acknowledged leader of the generation, Naphtali Katz, in a lengthy epistle to R. Tzvi Hirsch from Breslau, flatly states that Chayon distorted Katz’s written words. It would have been well-nigh impossible for Katz to have acceded to Chayon’s outrageous claims: that he (Chayon) sits to the right of the Shechinah; that he has the power to create worlds; that he possesses a letter of Elijah the Prophet, etc. etc. Furthermore, Katz has examined amulets written by Chayon and found them to be black magic. He accuses Chayon of writing amulets for financial gain. R. Naphtali Katz exposes Chayon’s supposed scholarship as a sham. Even more alarming is the fact that Chayon has abandoned belief in strict monotheism. (Chayon slipped in Cardozo’s brand of dualism.) Katz relates the testimony of an anonymous resident of Jerusalem who happened to spend the night with Chayon in the same lodgings in Egypt, and was frightened out of his wits upon discovering that his roomate engaged in witchcraft all night. In summation, R. Zevi Hirsch Aschkenazi, makes mention of Chayon’s perverse interpretation of the Mishnah Chagigah 2:1 to the effect that it is praiseworthy to pry into the ultimate mysteries of existence. (This queer interpretation of Chayon is also alluded to in R. Joseph Ergas’ polemic work Tochachath Megullah ve-ha-Zad Nachash.) Especially disturbing to the orthodox rabbi is Chayon’s theology (influenced by Cardozo) in which there exists a duality of “First Cause” and “Second Cause.” Clearly, there is no recourse for Chayon but to recant his heresies and sincerely repent of his evil ways. Aschkenazi rattles off the names of the Italian rabbis and communities that have signed on the Cherem against Chayon. See E. Carlebach, The Pursuit of Heresy: Rabbi Moses Hagiz and the Sabbatian Controversies (1990), pp. 75-159; B. Naor, Post-Sabbatian Sabbatianism (1999), pp. 14-20, 145-149