Shabsai Tzvi

The story of Shabtai Tzvi, the most famous and successful false Messiah in the Jewish community, provides a wealth of knowledge and guidance for navigating through the minefields of sheker. Wickedness has so many strategies for preying on ignorance and innocence. Analyzing this story through the writings of Chazal that speak about the tactics of evil and about the human condition will shed light on how this false movement – and so many other charlatans – successfully deceived masses of people. The purpose of this class is to foster the skills for detecting sheker and evil which masquerade as heroism and good.