Gershom Scholem: Kabbalah and Counter-History

by David Biale

Through a lifetime of passionate scholarship, Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) uncovered the “domains of tradition hidden under the debris of centuries” and made the history of Jewish mysticism and messianism comprehensible and relevant to current Jewish thought.

In this paperback edition of his definitive book on Scholem’s work, David Biale has shortened and rearranged his study for the benefit of the general reader and the student. A new introduction and new passages in the main text highlight the pluralistic character of Jewish theology as seen by Scholem, the place of the Kabbalah in debates over Zionism versus assimilation, and the interpretation of Kafka as a Jewish writer.

Genres: Jewish, Religion, Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep yet brief introduction to Gershom Scholem, a German Jew who studied the historiography of mysticism, called himself both a "Religious Anarchist" and an "Anarchist Zionist," (I personally don't believe that's a "thing") was deeply influenced by a friendship with Walter Benjamin, and wrote a lot of criticism of Zionism in Hebrew.

There's not too much here about Kabbalah especially, but plenty about how Scholem's understanding of it plus other movements like the Sabbatians, Jacob Frank, Hasidism and Zionism inform his take on Jewish history. There's no one way to be Jewish, and those who say there is, and those who search for an "essence" of Judaism, are usually the ones furthest from their impossible goal.

Reading this during the genocide of Gaza was dizzying. Before 1948, there were Jewish immigrants to Palestine who had no interest in creating a state. Some, like a group called Brit Shalom, wanted to learn Arabic and just be Jewish Palestinians. Others, like Scholem, were just rebelling against German assimilationism. Scholem's attacks on the right wing of Zionism, the only kind that survives today, and his criticism of "Labor" Zionism are sharp. He's right there, in Jerusalem, reading and writing in Hebrew, and he knows all the stuff the Zionists are anxious to forget if they'd even ever learned it. This is Zionist history from a singular viewpoint and it's extraordinary.

He is also credited with kicking off the academic study of Kabbalah and with raising it out of obscurity. It's a fascinating book about a person whose views about Judaism in Palestine and the Diaspora are needed now more than ever.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty exhaustive summary https://www.commentary.org/articles/h...