The Jewish Messiahs From the Galilee to Crown Heights [Hardcover]

In this book, Harris Lenowitz explores the fascinating history of Jewish messianic movements. Looking in detail at all of the Jewish messiahs about whom anything is known, he introduces each of these figures in turn, and offers extensive excerpts of the original texts that tell their stories. The messiahs whom we meet in these pages range from the inspiring to the tragic and bizarre. By examining the messianic idea in the tradition which gave birth to it, Lenowitz both sheds new light on this engrossing aspect of Jewish history and provides a firmer basis for understanding contemporary messianic groups.

Introduction - The Ritual; A Note on the Accounts
1. Jesus of Nazareth and Shim'on bar Kosiba
2. The Persian Messiahs: Abu Isa, Yudghan, Mushka; and Serenus of Syria
3. David Alroy
4. David Reubeni and Shlomo Molkho
5. Isaac Luria and Hayyim Vital
6. Shabtia Zevi
7. Yakov Frank
8. The HasidicTzaddik
9. The Yemenite Messiahs: Reprise
Conclusion

The Jewish Messiahsis a detailed academic work that will be most useful to students of Jewish history and thought. --Fort Worth Star-Telegram

This is the first text in English that focuses on primary texts relating to messianism as an active force in Jewish history...Lenowitz's study enriches the material available in English documenting messianic activism in Jewish experience. This material, and the provocative interpretation framing it, may point the way to studies comparing Christian and Muslim millenarian movements, and to further probing of the Jewish sources. --The Jewish Quarterly Review

Rare sources are translated here, providing new insights into figures known primarily from the work of Gershom Scholem. Lenowitz has synthesized and presented in an accessible and reliable form many such texts, making this volume the standard English-language handbook on the subject. --ReligiousStudies Review