THE FATHER OF JEWISH MYSTICISM New Jewish Philosophy and Thought Zachary J. Braiterman THE FATHER OF JEWISH MYSTICISM The Writing of Gershom Scholem k DANIEL WEIDNER TRANSLATED BY SAGE ANDERSON Indiana University Press Originally published in German as Gershom Scholem by Wilhelm Fink Verlag © Wilhelm Fink GmbH & Co. KG, Paderbom 2003 All rights reserved by and controlled through Wilhelm Fink GmbH & Co. KG, Paderborn This book is a publication of Indiana University Press Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA iupress.org © 2022 by Daniel Weidner All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992. Manufactured in the United States of America First printing 2022 Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-253-06207-9 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-253-06208-6 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-253-06209-3 (ebook) CONTENTS Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works by Gershom Scholem vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Intellectual History and Writing: What It Means to Read Gershom Scholem 1 Part 1. Positioning Speech: Scholem’s Political Education 1. Revolt and Romanticism: A First Language 16 2. Confusion and Polemics: Taking a Position 22 3. Asceticism and Silence: Gaining Authority 28 4. Esoteric Zionism: Politics and Language 36 5. Victory’s Despair: Reality and Crisis 44 6. Looking Back: Rewriting the Past 56 Part 2. Practicing Theory: Scholem’s Early Reading 7. Language and Truth: First Steps 72 8. Lamentations: Thinking Language 80 9. Tradition, Teaching, Doctrine: A Jewish Form of Truth 87 10. Paradox: Fragments of a System 98 11. Prophecy and Messianism: Rethinking History 111 12. Revelation: Problematic Foundations 126 13. Philology: Poetically Spoken 144 vi Contents Part 3. Producing History: Scholem’s Scholarship 14. History of Religion: A Paradigm 163 15. Myth and Mysticism: Fundamental Concepts 169 16. Gnosticism, Misunderstanding, and Symbolism: More Operative Terms? 178 17. History of Messianism: Continuity and Rupture? 186 18. Explosion and Historical Test: The Essential Plot 192 19. Jewish Modernity: A Test of the Present 201 Conclusion: Authority and Silence 209 Bibliography 215 Index 233 ABBREVIATIONS OF FREQUENTLY CITED WORKS BY GERSHOM SCHOLEM German1 Br I, Br II, Briefe. Edited by Itta Shedletzky and Thomas Sparr. Br III 3 vols. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1994–1999. T I, T II T agebücher nebst Äufsätzen und Entwürfen bis 1923. Edited by Herbert Kopp-Oberstebrink, Karlfried Gründer, and Friedrich Niewöhner. 2 vols. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1995–2000. English FBJ From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth. Translated by Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. JJC On Jews and Judaism in Crisis: Selected Essays. Edited by Werner J. Dannhauser. New York: Schocken Books, 1976. KS On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism. Translated by Ralph Manheim. New York: Schocken Books, 1969. LL A Life in Letters, 1914–1982. Edited and translated by Anthony David Skinner. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. 1. Passages from Scholem’s letters and diaries that are not included in the English collections A Life in Letters and Lamentations of Youth have been translated from the German by Sage Anderson. vii viii Abbreviations LY Lamentations of Youth: The Diaries of Gershom Scholem, 1913–1919. Edited and translated by Anthony David Skinner. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. MI The Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality. New York: Schocken Books, 1971. MS On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic Concepts in the Kabbalah. Translated by Joachim Neugroschel. Edited and revised by Jonathan Chipman. New York: Schocken Books, 1991. MT Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. New York: Schocken Books, 1961. PM On the Possibility of Jewish Mysticism in Our Time and Other Essays. Translated by Jonathan Chipman. Edited and selected with an introduction by Avraham Shapira. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1997. SS Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626–1676. Translated by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Decades ago, when I prepared my master’s thesis on Sigmund Freud and Walter Benjamin, friends suggested that I have a look at Benjamin’s intimate friend Gershom Scholem. So I went to get a book on the symbols of Kabbalah, a topic that was for me then probably the most obscure I could imagine. I was surprised to read its lucid and brilliant description of kabbalistic symbolism, a description that came along with striking insights into the nature of language, history, religion, and tradition. I continued to read Scholem and was taken by the richness, depth, and elegance of his thought and writing as well as by the trajectory of his life and his different friendships, mirrored by a rich corre- spondence that allows the reader to witness rigorous and dramatic intellectual dialogues. Some years later, when preparing my dissertation, rumors of more material had already reached me. Ambitious texts from the young Scholem, which had circulated only in fragments, were just about to be published as part of Scho- lem’s early diaries. After some inquiries and conversation, there was a scene I still remember, when Herbert Kopp-Oberstebrink handed me a couple of thick folders containing the manuscript of the second volume of these diaries that he, as well as Friedrich Niewöhner and Karlfried Gründer, kindly allowed me to consult. I began to conceive a doctoral thesis that should deal with the relationship of Benjamin and Scholem, encouraged by my supervisor, Gerd Mattenklott. I marked excerpts, making notes upon notes on what seemed to be a vast dialogue between Benjamin’s and Scholem’s early esoteric writings. I traveled to Jerusalem to find even more materials in the Hebrew National Library with the kind support of Margot Cohnn and later Stephan Litt, and I had countless conversations in the cafeteria of that library where you always find someone working in this field. I felt that something large was emerging and ix