Kitzur Tzitzath Novel Tzvi [abridged compendium of correspondence and polemics against Sabbatian messianism - with notes, corrections and additions by Jacob Emden]

SASPORTAS, JACOB

Jacob Emden

(Altona)

(1757)

FIRST EDITION of Emden's notes

Vinograd, Altona 92; Y. Raphael, Areshet Vol. III, p. 252 (no. 9)

The eminent halachist R. Jacob Sasportas (c.1610-1698), a native of Oran, Algeria, served at various times as Rabbi of the important Sephardic communities of Hamburg and Amsterdam. Initially a follower himself of Sabbatai Tzvi, Haham Sasportas quickly became disillusioned with what he came to realize was collective hysteria, and from then on, became the most outspoken foe of the Sabbatian movement. Emden’s reissue of this work (first published by the author’s son in Amsterdam in 1737), was part of his relentless campaign against the remnant of Sabbatian believers, especially the man he suspected of being its clandestine leader - R. Jonathan Eybeschuetz