2026 is a perfect time to discuss false messiahs.

- Tova Herzl, Haaretz

2026 is a perfect time to discuss false messiahs. Not only because of the next elections, but also because this year marks significant anniversaries in the history of Jews in distress rallying behind a charismatic, perhaps sociopathic, leader, who ultimately inflicted great harm on our people.

What is surprising about false messiahs is not their ability to attract believers. What is harder to comprehend is how, even after it becomes obvious to any reasonable observer that their promises are empty and that they cause harm rather than provide solutions, there remain people convinced that only they, the self-appointed chosen ones, possess miraculous answers capable of saving the nation from its troubles.

In 1626, exactly 400 years ago, Sabbatai Zevi was born in the Ottoman Empire. With the help of Nathan of Gaza, who possessed extraordinary marketing abilities, he persuaded large segments of the Jewish world that he was the Messiah. Among the traits that impressed his followers was his contempt for established rules. For example, the Torah should be read from an ordinary book rather than a handwritten leather scroll. Ancient laws were not for him; breaking them supposedly demonstrated his unique status.

The Jewish people were freshly traumatized by massacres, and he appeared to offer the redemption they desperately longed for. Those who opposed him were branded heretics, and most rabbis and communal leaders who opposed him chose to remain silent rather than confront the public.

One can imagine the depth of his followers' disappointment when, faced with the choice between execution and conversion to Islam, he chose life. Some followers converted to Islam in his wake; others embraced Christianity. The Jewish world attempted to erase the embarrassment, even deleting communal records which held the truth. Yet hidden circles of believers persisted, convinced that Sabbatai Zevi would soon reveal himself and redeem the Jewish people.

These believers resurfaced with the emergence of the Frankists. Their leader, Jacob Frank, was born in Ukraine in 1726, exactly one hundred years after Sabbatai Tzvi. Although the Frankists were far fewer in number than the Sabbateans, they inflicted considerable damage on Jewish communities. Their actions, for example, contributed to the burning of copies of the Talmud. Like Sabbatai Zevi, Frank eventually converted, this time to Christianity.

After Frank's death, his daughter led the "Messianic Court" in Offenbach, Germany. In 1826, the authorities shut it down. Two hundred years after the birth of Sabbatai Zevi, and aside from a handful of secretive groups, the Sabbatean movement had reached its end.

Before moving to 2026, let us go back to the distant past. In 126 CE, the Roman Emperor Hadrian visited Judea. Among the measures attributed to him and that helped trigger the Bar Kochba Revolt was a ban on circumcision.

The Jewish people, traumatized by the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, during the Great Revolt, rallied behind a military leader who seemed capable of restoring national dignity. For a time, Rabbi Akiva, whose scholarship and spiritual authority are beyond dispute, regarded Bar Kokhba as the Messiah.

The Bar Kokhba Revolt, fueled inter-alia by messianic expectations, ended in devastation even greater than that caused by the Great Revolt, and effectively brought an end to Jewish life in Judea. Notably, Rabbi Jacob Sasportas, one of the few prominent figures who openly opposed Sabbatai Tzvi while the movement was at its height, drew lessons from the Bar Kokhba catastrophe and the destruction it had caused.

Anyone who struggles to understand how large numbers of people could follow "messiahs" who fail to deliver should take a look at election polls. No one would claim that Israel's prime minister is a false messiah in the theological sense. Yet when "Mr. Security" is widely seen as having delivered the opposite; when "Mr. Public Diplomacy" avoids unscripted media appearances; when "Mr. America" has presided over the deterioration of Israel's standing in every sector in the United States; when "the president's friend" is publicly rebuked by that very president while an agreement with Iran is reached behind his back; when promise after promise remains unfulfilled and conditions appear to worsen across multiple fronts - nevertheless, a third or more of Israelis continue to believe he is best-suited to serve as prime minister.

Four hundred years after the birth of Sabbatai Zevi, it is clear that the problem is not those who make grand promises. Such people have always existed and always will. The problem lies with those among us who, despite the evidence before them, refuse to draw the obvious conclusions. Instead, they surrender to the deeply human longing for miracle solutions and place their faith in leaders who specialize in empty promises and carefully crafted illusions

- Tova Herzl, Haaretz