ḤAYYIM MAL'AK:

By: Kaufmann Kohler, M. Seligsohn

Polish Shabbethaian agitator; lived in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. According to Jacob Emden ("Torat ha-Ḳena'ot," p. 55), Ḥayyim was at first named "Mehallek" (the wanderer), because he traveled to Turkey to learn there the Shabbethaian doctrines, which name was afterward changed by his followers to "Mal'ak" (apostle). But it seems from Ḥakam Ẓebi's answer to Saul, rabbi of Cracow (ib.), that he was called "Mal'ak" before he went to the East. At first, like Judah Ḥasid, Ḥayyim headed a Ḥasidic sect and did not openly profess Shabbethaianism. Later (in 1699), when a large group of Ḥasidim made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem under the leadership of Judah Ḥasid, Ḥayyim headed a similar pilgrimage to Jerusalem; but while the former went through Tyrol and Venice, Ḥayyim and his companions traveled via Constantinople. At Jerusalem Ḥayyim made the acquaintance of Samuel Primo, Shabbethai Ẓebi's secretary, and became a fervent admirer of his master. He presided over a small group of Shabbethaians, and preached to them Shabbethaian doctrines. Emden says (l.c.) that Ḥayyim carried with him an image of Shabbethai Ẓebi and taught his followers to worship it. Banished from Jerusalem, he went to Salonica, where he joined the Dönmeh, and wandered as a preacher through various parts of Turkey. At Constantinople he was excommunicated (c. 1708); a year later, when he reappeared there, he was banished. He then returned to Poland through Germany, preaching Shabbethaianism as he went.

K. M. Sel.