Messianism in the Early Work of Gershom Scholem Author(s): Michael Lwy, Gershom Scholem, Michael Richardson Source: New

German Critique, No. 83, Special Issue on Walter Benjamin, (Spring - Summer, 2001), pp. 177-191 Published by: New German Critique Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/827793 Accessed: 11/04/2008 17:46
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Messianism in the Early Work of Gershom Scholem

MichaelLowy

Gershom Scholem is a shining example of the modem Jewish intellectual. He is neither a Talmudistnor a Rabbi, much less a prophet. More modestly: he is a historian,a man of science, of the universitygifted, however, with what spiritualenergy! A - critical - son of the Haskala and a thinkerwho, to be sure, gave up traditionalorthodox belief with its rituals and taboos, and yet, in his own way, remained religious. He is thereforealso a modem Jewish intellectualbecause he is assimilated- stampedby Germanculture,despite his revolt against assimilationand his strugglefor dissimilation(to use the termcoined by FranzRosenzwieg) and despite his Zionism, which in 1923 led him to emigrateto Jerusalem. Still Scholem also belongs to that categoryof the modem intellectual
- Jewish or non-Jewish - who painfully experiences the disenchant-

of ment of the world, that, accordingto Max Weber, is characteristic crithe Romantic to attracted he is For this reason strongly modernity. culturalor religious values of the past - against (Weberian)instrumental rationality and against the quantificationand reification that stem from bourgeois-industrial modernity.He participatesin this broad current of a moder critique of modernity that is inspired by German Romanticismand that sees, in myth, in history,or in religion, a way to combatthis loss of meaning. Like otherRomantics,Scholem is also too modem to simply fall back 177
tique of modernity, to the Romantic protest - practiced in the name of

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Messianismin theEarly Work Scholem of Gershom

on the past: he can no longer belive in the Kabbala-or in the imminent returnof the Messiah- in the way his ancestorsdid. His strategy of the world is world-immanent: he becomes the for the reenchantment historianof the Kabbalaand of Messianism, and throughthis mediation allows the fascinatingspiritualmagic of the Jewish mysticism of bygone centuriesto rise again. Gershom Scholem's work is not only a singular monumentof the modernistwriting of history, it also opens a new perspective on the Jewish religioustradition,since it restoresto it the messianic and apocaview of the lyptic dimensionthat was ignoredby the rationalist-liberal des German Max Weber and Judentumsand sociology. Wissenschaft WernerSombartsaw the spirit of Judaismmerely as calculatingratiomystical, heretical,messinality: Scholem pointed to the subterranean, in the of Judaism.1 and currents anic, history utopian Backgroundand Influences assimilatedBerlin family, Scholemat first Born into a petit-bourgeois, soaked up Germanculture;in his youth he favored the Romanticand neo-Romanticwriters:Jean Paul, Novalis, M6rike, Stefan George, Paul It is highly indicativethat the first book aboutthe Kabbala Scheerbart.2 that he studiedand that would have a considerableinfluence on him is the work of the Christian Theosophand GermanRomanticFranzJoseph Molitor:Philosophieder Geschichteoder iiber die Tradition(published texts he refers to between 1827 and 1853). In variousautobiographical the "deep insights" of this authorand to the "fascinatingeffect" that Molitor's book had on him. Although he rejected the christological speculationsof this "follower of the RomanticphilosophersSchelling and Baader,"he nonethelesspronouncedthat Molitor had "understood
1. It would be incorrectto use the concept of "millenialism" here, since it corre- chiasmusor the "millenium" of which the new testaterminology spondsto a Christian ment speaks. The Demonic in History, David Biale arguesthatBuberand 2. In his dissertation thatinfluenced a unique Weltanschuung Scholem foundin a specific sortof Romanticism theirwhole way of thinking. In his opinionScholem'ssympathyfor a particular tendency inside GermanRomanticism played a decisive role in his intellectualdevelopment, both David Biale, The Demonic in History. in the field of philosophyand of historiography. DoctoralDissertation. GershomScholemand theRevisionof JewishHistoriography, (Los Angeles: U of California,1977) 17. In a conversationwith me Scholemconfirmedhis interestin Romanticismin his early of his work that would put the accent on years, but explicitly forbadeany interpretation sources. Germaninsteadof the Jewish-Hebrew

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the Kabbalabetter than the highest religious Jewish authorities[Gedolei HochmatIsrael] of his time."3 Soon the young Scholemwould rebel againstthe assimilation-friendly ideology of his family - his fatherthrewhim out of theirhouse because of his "antipatriotic" stance duringthe war! - in that he turnedto the sources of Judaism,"in search of the traditionlost to my social circle, me with its greatmagic."4This searchled him, on the one that attracted hand - first underthe influenceof MartinBuber- to a study of Jewish religious attimysticism, and on the other,to Zionism.His not-orthodox tude bringshim close to Buber,yet his Zionism is more radical:he passionately repudiates the Jewish-Germancultural symbiosis, and this refusal would ultimately distance him as much from MartinBuber as fromFranzRosenzweig. Timeof Bildung Scholem's diaries from 1913-1917 (publishedin 1995) allow us to the developmentof his ideas and the extraordinary intellecreconstruct this phaseof Bildung[education]. tual vitalitythatcharacterizes This documenttransplants us right in the middle of a Bildung-laborain which and Zionist dreamand anarchistutorevolution, tory, religion and German Romanticisim Jewish mysticism, Kierkegaardand pia, MartinBuber, mix and react with each other.These diaries containnot works, only the raw materialfrom his two well-knownautobiographical WalterBenjamin. Geschichteeiner Freundschaftand Von Berlin nach Jerusalem,but also an astonishingchronicleof encountersand readings, enrichedwith philosophical, political,andreligioustrainsof thought. In these pages one witnesses the formation of a rebelliousJewish conthat revolts the world war, against a solidly middlesciousness, against class Jewish-German society, and even against the ruling Zionist conformism.Despite his precociousand enthusiasticturntowardsZionism, which he comprehends as a revolutionary movement,Scholem does not
3. The first citationstems from a 1937 letterto SalmanSchocken,cited by David Biale in Gershom Scholem: Kabbala and Counter-History. Biale, Gershom Scholem: Kabbala and Counter-History (Cambridge:HarvardUP, 1979) 216. (This book is a revised and improvedversion of his dissertation,TheDemonic in History.) The second Mi-BerlinLe-Yerushquote comes fromthe Hebrewversionof Scholem'sautobiography, alaym - which is more complete than the various Europeantranslations.Gershom Scholem,Mi-BerlinLe-Yerushalaym (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1982) 127. 4. Scholem, Von Berlin nach Jerusalem. Jugenderinnerungen (Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1977) 68.

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conceal his hostile stance towards its founding father: We rejectHerzl.He is to blamefor the Zionismof today[... ]which is an organization of grocers,who grovelbeforeeveryonepowerful![...] His only thoughtwas the JewishState.And this we reject.Becausewe preachanarchy.Thatis: we do not want a state,but rathera free society (with which Herzl's Altneulandhas nothingto do!). We as Jews know enough aboutthe horrendous idol-state,as thatto which we are supposedto submitin orderto worshipit and bringit our offspringas welcome sacrificeto its greedand lust for power.5 It is remarkable how very similar this critique of Herzl is to that of another "libertarian Zionist" Bernard Lazare, whom Scholem undoubtedly did not know at this time. All of these pages are stamped by the reading of the Bible and of the German Romantics6 - as well as by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. After a reading of an Eichendorff novel Scholem exclaims: This shows how deeplywe belongto Romanticism: thatwe can take in all the oscillationsand movementsof Romanticism so fully and completely, with all theirvarietyandthe greathalo of joy thatis over it.7 As a strict opppent of the war, Scholem shares. along with his brother Werner (who would later become a communist representative) and with Walter Benjamin (whom he meets in 1915), tremendous sympathy for the antimilitaristic standpoint of Karl Liebknecht. We must, he writes despairingly in his journal, run against the wall until it collapses... Very early on, the young rebel becomes interested in mysticism, but not yet in the Kabbala: In a note from 1916 he evokes a history of mysticism from Lao-Tse, Plotinus, and Meister Eckhart to the German Romantics, Schelling, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Martin Buber (the only Jewish author in this list!). During the years of 1914 and 1915 he primarily understands himself as a student of Buber, whose rediscovery of Hassidism and Jewish Mysticism he praises. "In Judaism - up to that point the classical religion of rationalism, of rational calculation he discovered the irrational, emotion, and longing, which is the mother
5. Scholem, entryfrom 20 Jan. 1915, Tagebiicher nebstAufsdtzenundEntwiirfen bis 1923. 1. Halbband1913-1917, ed. Karlfried and Friedrich Griinder Niew6hner,with Herbert / Main:Jiidischer Kopp-Oberstebrink (Frankfurt Verlag, 1995) 81f. 6. Scholem, Tagebiicher1: 157. 7. Scholem, Tagebiicher1: 215.

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of renewal."8Still, underthe influence of WalterBenjamin,he continued to distance himself from this first master,whom he reproachesfor his unclearstance towardsWorldWar I9 and, strikingmore deeply, his [Erlebnis]. hazy ideology of "experience" l Around 1917 he begins to discover the Kabbala. One of the last entries in this diary alreadyhints at what is to come: "The theory of Oh languageof the Kabbalahas to this day foundno worthyinterpreter. Gerhard Scholem,whatall wouldyou have to do?" Attractionof the Kabbala Scholem's great originality as a historian consisted in discovering, or rather,rediscovering,a nearly completely forgottenarea of the religious traditionof Judaism- the mystical teachings from the Kabbala up to the heretical Messianism of the SabbataiZwi. In his first article on the Kabbala from 1921 he praises the magical, "unbourgeois, In contrastto Buber, he explosive" characterof the Jewish tradition.11 takes a decidedly historicist approach:in history he finds an adequate cultural answer to the cold and abstractrationalismof the bourgeois world. It is indicative of his stance that he defines history in the etymological sense of Bindung (to the past, "Bindung nach riickwdrts") as religio.12

What attractshim above all to the old mystical texts is the escatalogical vision that runs throughthem. In his 1921 essay on the Kabbalahe is interestedin the propheticconcepts accordingto which, "messianic humanity will speak in hymns."13(a theme that is reencounteredin Benjamin'swritings on the theoryof language).And he implicitly contrasts messianic and historical time, in that he emphasizes that "not world historybut the Last Judgement" will be responsiblefor the posi- a formulation tive or negative valuationof tradition;14 aimed directly both into each other. againstHegelianhistoricism,which "telescopes"
8. Scholem, Tagebiicher1:112. 9. See Scholem,entryfromAug. 1916, Tagebiicher1: 361f. 10. Scholem,entryfromAug. 1916, Tagebiicher1: 386, 11. Scholem, "Lyrikder Kabbala?" Der Jude VI (1921-22), TagebichernebstAufsdtzen und Entwiirfenbis 1923. 2. Halbband1917-1923, ed. Karlfried Herbert Griinder, and FriedrichNiew6hner with assistance from Karl. E. Gr6zinger Kopp-Oberstebrink Jiidischer (Frankfurt/Main: Verlag,2000) 657. 12. Scholem, VonBerlin nachJerusalem210. 13. Scholem,"Lyrikder Kabbala?" 668. 14. Scholem,"Lyrikder Kabbala?" 684.

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Unknown Writings from his Youth time of his education,as he began to edit his first historthe During ical essays, Scholem followed, in a standing dialogue with Walter Benjamin, a secret thought that is recordedin a series of private volumes. The totality of these only partiallypublishedpapers from 19171933 can be found in the libraryof the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. They show us an authorvery different from the historianwhom one knows: a historian who is certainly creative, but still subjugated to the objectivity of historiography. What one discovers in these messianically inspired writings on Judaism, Zionism, justice or revolution, is a young Scholem, a philosopher, theologian, metaphysicist, who gives his speculative imagination free rein. These unbelievably rich, recently published papers (up to 1923) show a spirit very close to that of Walter Benjamin in Denkstil and difficulty: their affinity and mutualinfluence are impressive. A new authorappearshere, a Jewish-German philosopher- because of the languagebut also of the Romantically-colored religious temperwho is as interestingin this field as the later Scholem is in the field of the history of mysticism. To be sure, one also finds aspects of Scholem's own philosophyof Judaismin his autobiographical writings, in his exchange of letterswith Benjamin,and in conversationsfrom his lateryears;but these unknownpapersfromhis youth, despite their fragallow Scholem to appearas one of the great "heretimentarycharacter, before 1933. thinkers cal"Jewish centralEuropean Jewish Verlag in the Most of this materialappearsin the Suhrkamp Gershom second volume of the diaries with the title, Scholem, Tagebis 1923. 2. Halbband1917-23., undEntwiirfen biichernebst Aufzdtzen
The most important files in the Jerusalem archive, probably classified

by Scholemhimself, arethe following:

und die esoterischeSeite des Uber Judentum "Esoterica Metaphysica. Zionismus 1917-193 . Inclus. einige Briefe, die zur Sache gehoren." unnumbered, approx.191pp. "Uber Metaphysik,Logik und einige nicht dazugeh6rendeGebiete Besinnung.Mir gewidmet.5. Oktober1917-30. phanomenologischer Dezember1917,"61pp. "KleineAnmerkungen iiberJudentum. Jena,Winter1917/18,"89pp.

Michael Lowy 1. August 1918-1. August 1919. Adel"Tagebuchaufzeichnungen. boden- Bern,"89 pp.1

183

I shouldadd that these titles are to a certainextent deceptive:the diaries containmany philosophicalfragmentsas well as personalnotes, and the - andvice-versa. also concernsitself with Judaism file on metaphysics these there are various Alongsisde large manuscripts papers,untyped and not included in these four collections, including a highly significant text, "Theses on the Concept of Justice" (the title obviously inspired Benjamin),that spans six handwritten pages. This document, "1919 and was not into the pubthe date 1925", bearing incorporated lished diaries, probably because the editor considered it to be from 1925. (In the Diaries 1917-1923 a similar yet quite different essay, of Justice." "TwelveTheses on the Organization appears) An interpretation of these early writingsis not easy, even for a reader familiarwith the (published) thoughtof Scholemand Benjamin.The conwhich serves as the title for the first collection,appliesto cept Esoterica, the greaterpart of the material.In the framework of this essay, I will restrict tojust a few aspectsof thesewritings. myself to callingattention 1. Jewish-GermanThought The writingscontaina deeplyJewish-German thought,even if Scholem disliked the thesis of German-Jewish culturalsymbiosis (his completely are not to be dismissed out of and insistedthathis work arguments hand) had exclusively Hebraicorigins. Jewish-German for one because of the language:it is astonishingthat all of these texts - even those that originated in Palestine,when Scholemhad alreadymasteredthe Hebrewlanguage - were written in German.Jewish-German, however, above all becauseof the contentof these writings,which stem completelyfromthe world of CentralEuropean Jews and their culture- througheverything that differentiates them fromthe Jewish cultureof the East (Poland,Russia) as well as the Jewish cultureof WesternEurope(France,England). currents of this culture. They stem,moreprecisely,fromtheRomantic The connection between Judaism and Romanticism is a question that surfaces in several of the texts, from an admiring as well as a critical perspective. For example, two of the "95 Theses on Judaism
15. The texts in the volumes are chronologicallyorderdin the two volumes of the Diaries: the metaphysica are only reproducedup to 1923; see "EditorischeVorbemerkung," Tagebiicher 1:l9f.

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from 1918 claim rather and Zionism"16 elliptically: border anunauthorized 41 Jewish Romanticism crossing. signifies thathas historical 42 Romanticism is the only spiritual movement, it demonic.17 it is unaware of thismakes That limited Judaism. - yet anotherpassion that he Holderlinmerits unlimitedadmiration shares with Benjamin- and Scholem does not balk at comparinghim with the Bible itself in diaryentriesfromAugust 1918-August1919: lived the Zionistlife. Holderlin Of the German people,Friedrich is the canonof anykindof historical existence Holderlin's [Dasein] is basedon this... his rank absolute life. Holderlin's alongauthority thecanon of writing, sidetheBible.TheBibleis thecanon Holderlin, in the andtheBiblearetheonlytwothings Holderlin thatis existence. The canonical can be themselves. worldthatcan nevercontradict as pureinterpretability.18 defined It is possible that this excerpt refers to Holderlin's Hyperion, whose exuberant, lyrical description of Greek national revival could have parallelto Zionism. inspiredScholemto makethis surprising A few pages furtherdown the following claim appears,a claim formulatedin the same way in similarwords by Benjaminin his dissertation on art criticism in Romanticism:"Romanticismis a deductable constellationof the Messianic." Romantic Critiqueof the Idea of Progress Despite his distance from "Jewish Romanticism,"Scholem shares like Benjamin- the Romanticcritiqueof the idea of progress. This critique finds its expressionin the diaries in the form of wild attacks on the liberalismof the Jewish bourgeoisieand on their intellectualorgan, the Wissenschaftdes Judentums:"The 'Wissenschaftdes Judentums' With implicit referand Jewish capitalismare essentially connected."19 ence to the positivism of Comte, Scholem continueswith this astonishspicedwith sarcasticimages: ing vituperation
16. 17. 18. 19. 2: 300-06 Scholem, Tagebiicher Scholem, Tagebicher2: 303. 2: 347. Scholem, Tagebiicher 2: 330. Scholem, Tagebiicher

Michael L6wy It began a metaphysicalrevolutionand competitionin orderto comSince then Judaismhas plete the needed identification: order/progress. been reinterpreted into a stronghold of liberalism, a reinterpretation performedon the doctrine hideous by Jewishscienceandtheologythrough acts of incest:the Messianicbecamenever-ending progressin time. 20

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The doctrines of progress are, for Scholem, a miserable falsification of the Jewish Messianic tradition, for which the philosophy of the Enlightenment is responsible. He attacks the neo-Kantian Marburg school, whose primary representative was Hermann Cohen, with a particular vehemence: The messianic realm and mechanicaltime have plantedthe dastardly bastardidea of 'progress'in the heads of the Enlighteners.Because once one is an Enlightener[. . . ] the perspectiveof messianic time must be distortedinto progress.[. .. ] These are the fundamental mistakes of the Marburgschool: the lawful, deductiblereductionof all things into the neverendingtask in the spirit of progress.This is the most pitiful interpretation thatProphetism has had to put up with. 21 One can wonder if Benjamin did not have this text in front of him when he was writing his "Theses" in 1940 - unless Scholem himself was inspired by discussions with his friend in 1916 to 1919. The Significance of Messianism Messianism is central to the thinking of the young Scholem - as one can see with the passages cited below - not as an object of research, but rather as a philosophy of history, as the key to an interpretation of reality, as prophetic vision. Strangely, although he considers himself in Jewish things to be the teacher of his friend, with resepect to the theme of "Messianism," Scholem often refers to Benjamin as an - almost canonical - source: The largestimage of historywas foundin the conceptof the messianic realm, an image on which it builds its infinitely deep connectionto religion and ethics. Walter[Benjamin]once said:the messianicrealm is always there.This insighthas the greatesttruth- but primarilyin a spherethat,as far as I know, no one has reachedsince the prophets.22
20. 21. 22. 2: 330f. Scholem, Tagebiicher 2: 339. Scholem, Tagebiicher "Uber 2: 70. Scholem,Sammelmappe Metaphysik, Logik... " (1917), Tagebiicher

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Even when Benjamin is not mentioned, their mutual affinity is obvious. It is not always easy to relate these thoughts to each other, since they function so much as "communicating vessels." That holds above all for the astonishing manuscript with the title, "Theses on the Concept of Justice." It must be stressed here that these writings on Messianism despite the numerous references to Maimonides and other halachic sources - go far beyond the frame of a religious exegesis in the spirit of the orthodox tradition, and stress the ethical, social, and historical aspect of the messianic prophecy. One could even speak of a "politicization" of Messianism if Scholem, true to his libertarian apoliticism - did not categorically reject the concept of politics.23 Hence his predeliction for the relationship betweenjustice and the messianic realm: Messianic time as the eternalpresentand justics as Daseiendes, the substantialcorrespondto each other. Were justice not to exist, the messianic realm would not only not exist, but would be completely impossible.Justice,like all Jewishconcepts,is not a limitingconcept, [...] not [ . ]a 'regulativeidea.'24 Scholem contrasts justice, which experiences its fulfullment in the messianic realm, simultaneously with myth and the quite mythic category offate: to mythiccategories, Almost all areasof humanactionaresubordniate first of all fate, which bestows meaning.Justiceis the eliminationof fate from actions . . . The injusticeof our lives manifestsitself in the fullnessof life's singularand fatefulactions. The apocalypticextinguishingof the messianic realm has the value - it seeks to rip out the of revolutionary and the "truth" propaganda last conflict of violence, into which myth submerges. The catasower of fateless life is representedin strophic,because redeeming, the personof the messiah ... The curious dating of this essay ("Theses on the Concept of Justice") "1919 and 1925" - makes it impossible to know if it was written before
23. For a more thoroughinvestigationof the connectionbetween Jewish Messianism and the libertarian utopia in Scholem, Benjaminand other Jewish thinkers,see my Stanford Judaismin CentralEurope(Stanford: and Utopia.Libertarian book,Redemption UP, 1990). 24. Scholem, Tagebiicher1: 529. "Theseson the Conceptof Justice." 25. Scholem,unpublished

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or after Benjamin's essay, "Towards a Critique of Violence," with which it shows obvious affinities (but undoubtedly differences as well). Scholem seems to waver between two concepts of Messianism, the one primarily historical, the other primarily "esoteric." In the diary entries from 1919 he attempts to define them through the following concepts: Two currents of Messianismcan be differentiated as well theoretically as historically:a revolutionary currentand a transformative current. The firstone represents itself thus:the Messiahat the end of days, tremendous wars of Edom against Moab, Last Judgment= End of the of souls in thatworld,equationof 'atid la-vo' [the future World,return thatis coming,messianictime]and 'olamha-ba' [thefuture world,new a of the future Basis: literal as time. creation]. understanding empirical The second says: cleansing of souls, completely internaltransformation of nature,Last Judgmentneutralized,in any case no end of the of 'atid la-vo' and 'olam ha-ba.' world, differentiation Resultant: the end of days- today.Thatworldis this world.Messianic futureis not empiricalfuture.26 This all-too analytical and somewhat stiff differentiation does not completely satisfy Scholem, and he quickly adds: "These notons are layered into infinitely many degrees."27 Revolutionary Events and Messianism Scholem assesses the revolutionary events of his time, in particular Bolshevism, in close connection with Messianism. Although he is by no means a follower of soviet communism, Scholem remains fascinated by the religious meaning of the events in Russia. In the 1918 essay "Bolshevism" (included in the collection "Esoterica-Metaphysica") he uses the concept (perhaps borrowed from Tolstoy?) of the "dictatorship of the poor": Bolshevisim has a centralidea thatconferson its movementa revolutionary magic. This is: the messianic realm can only be unfolded of poverty. [.. I This says: the judgementof throughthe dictatorship the poor alone has revolutionary power.
26. 27.
28.

2: 380. Scholem, Tagebiicher 2: 38. Scholem, Tagebiicher

Scholem, Tagebiicher 2: 556.

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Even when he endeavorsto demarcatethe messianic dimension of revolution(a sort of hubris)fromthat of Judaism,he still contrastsboth of themwith liberaland 'progressive' psuedorevolutions: realmshouldbe erected is there,wherethe messianic Revolution without doctrine. therecan be no revolution forthe Jews. Ultimately A revoluto doctrine. TheJewishrevolution is solelya reconnection liketheBoltowards themessianic realm, tion,thatin anycasepoints must as a matterof principlebe shevist or Frenchrevolution, in like thatin Germany from the weak pseudorevolutions separated 1848,thatis centered by 'progress.'29 For Scholem,Bolshevismis a messianicreactionto the war. Although he also contrastsit with to Zionism (that is, his own view of Zionism), which does not react to the war but ratherturnsaway from it, he gives that everyone who behaves in the world differentlythan to understand the Zionistcan only becomea followerof Bolshevism. In a section of the the diaries from 1918/1919 there is a definition that seems to bring communismand Jewish Messianismcloser together rather thanfarther apart: butrather on the economy, solely definesitselfin its way fromthe realm.And the messianic of the age to the messianic relationship 'u[today, imbe-kolo tischma canin factbe erected realm todayhajom 98 a].3 if youhearhisvoice/obey 95.7,Sanhedrin myvoice;Psalms Strangely,Benjamin does not follow Scholem into this area. He only succumbsto a fascinationwith Bolshevism several years later, in 1923, thanksto the beautifuleyes of Asja Lacis ... Scholem's LaterPublications What concernedScholem at the time found partialexpression in the historicalresearchthat the scientist Scholem began publishingin 1923 The majorityof his work on the Kabbalain since moving to Jerusalem. dimensionof the 1920s and 1930s turnedon the messianic-apocalyptic phenomena.These themes again also determinedhis first major work,
which he dedicated to Walter Benjamin: Die jiidische Mystik in ihren which has a religioushorizon,does not at all depend ... Communism,

(1941, dt. 1957). For the Kabbala,specifically in its Hauptstromungen

29. 30. 2: 556. Scholem, Tagebiicher 2: 374. Scholem, Tagebiicher

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reinterpretation by Isaac Luria, the great teacher of the Safed school (Zfad, 16th century), the tikkun,the way to the end of all things, is simultaneouslythe way that leads back to the beginning.It brings with of the ideal condition"that is called the "Restoration it a "restitution of The arrivalof the messiah is the consummation the originaltotality."31 of the tikkun,the "redemption" as "return of all things to their original contactwith God."32 The olam ha-tikkun is thus the world of messianic the wiping away of dirt,the disappearance of evil. restoration, in the 1950s is in "heretical" Scholem interested Beginning intensely messianic movements, in particularthose brought into being by the "mystical messiah" of the seventeenth century, SabbataiZwi. In his monumentalstudy from 1957 (written first in Hebrew) dedicated to the new "messiah"plays less of a central role than his Sabbatianism, centralprophetand theologian,Nathan of Gaza, who was named buz- the "holy lamp."Scholem is fascinated ina kaddishaby his adherents this and his by strangefigure divergentand surprisinginnovations:the idea of universalredemptionof all sinners- due to the SabbataiMessiah - without exception (even Jesus of Nazareth,who is finally given back to his people); or the pronouncement that with the messianic age comes the dominionof a new Tora,the Toraof the Tree of Life, which revokes all commandments and bans.33This doctrine is the source of that which Scholem calls the SabbatanicAntinomismand its call for "religiousanarchism." Somehwat later he studies the development of Sabbatanismin the eighteenth century under the leadership of the new Messiah Jakob Frankwith the same regard.This is a movementfroughtwith a "nihilistic" view of redemption,which repudiatesrules and laws of all sorts and strivesfor a sortof"anarchistic, earthlyutopia."34
Around this time - end of the 1950s - Scholem systematizes his the-

doctrinein his famous ory of Jewish Messianismas restorative-utopian of the Messianic Idea in Judaism" essay, "Towardsan Understanding
31. Scholem, Die jiidische Mystik in ihrem Hauptstr6mungen (Frankfurt/Main: AlfredMetzner, 1980:seitenidentische 1957)- (Frankfurt/Main, TB-Edition)294. 32. Scholem,Diejiidische Mystikin ihremHauptstromungen 301. 33. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi. The MysticalMessiah. 1626-1676 (Bollingen Series PrincetonUP, 1973). In Germanas SabbataiZwi.Der mystischeMesXCIII)(Princeton: sias (Frankfurt/Main: Jiidischer Verlag,1992)2207,284-87. 34. Scholem, "Die Metamorphose des haretischenMessianismusder Sabbatianer im religi6sen Nihilismus im 18. Jahrhundert" (1963), Judaica 3 (Frankfurt/Main: 1973) 207, 217. Suhrkamp,

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Messianismin theEarly Work Scholem of Gershom

(1959). Accordingto this essay, messianismin the Jewish traditioncontains two closely connected and simultaneouslycontradictory tendencies: a restorativecurrent,that tends towardsthe restorationof a past ideal condition,a lost golden age, a brokenparadisicalharmony,and a utopian currentthat hopes for a completely new age, a futurethat has between the two currentscan flucnever been. The weight distribution tuate,but the messianic idea assumes shape only on the basis of a combination of both. They are inseparable by virtue of a dialectical thatScholemadmirably presented: relationship
forcehas a utopianfactor,andin utopianism [... ] even the restorative restorative factorsareat work.35 The completely new order has elements of the completely old, but even this old order does not consist of the actualpast; ratherit is a in a dreambrightenedby the rays and transfigured past transformed of utopianism.36

and revolutionary essence Scholem also accountsfor the catastrophic of the messianicview of history:
Jewish messianismis, in its origins and by its nature- this cannotbe This theorystresses sufficientlyemphasized- a theoryof catastrophe. the revolutionary,cataclysmic element in the transitionfrom every historicalpresentto the Messianicfuture.37

Between presentand future,the currentdecline and salvation,yawns an abyss; in many talmudictexts the idea emergesthat the messiah will and guilt. This rift cannot come only in an era of complete corruption catastrobe overcomeby 'progress'or 'evolution'- only revolutionary existof the destruction total and with uprooting complete together phe, The secularized messianic makes order redemption possible. ing messianismof 19th centuryliberalJewish thought,- for which the neoKantianHermannCohen is a good example- with its idea of unbroken has nothingto do with perfectionof humanity, progressand incremental the coming of the whom for and of the tradition prophets Aggadists,
of the Messianic Idea in Judaism,"The 35. Scholem, "Towardsan Understanding Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality (New York: Schocken, 1971) 4. 4. of the MessianicIdeain Judaism" an Understanding 36. Scholem,"Towards 7. of the MessianicIdeain Judaism" an Understanding 37. Scholem,"Towards

Michael Ldwy messiah signifies an all-encompassing shock, a revolutionary storm:

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The bible and the apocalypticwritersknow of no progressin history is rather transcendence [.. .] It [redemption] leadingto the redemption. in which historyitself perishes, breakingin upon history,an intrusion, in its ruinbecause it is struckby a beam of light shining transformed into it froman outsidesource.38 One must realize that themes and interests in the thought of Scholem on Messianism are astonishingly continuous from his early years to his last writings: they run through his work like a leitmotif. Yet his stance is not merely that of an erudite historian of Jewish Messianism: one need only read his work carefully in order to recognize the sympathy - in the etymological sense of the greek word - of the researcherwith his object. Translated by Michael Richardson

38. Scholem, "Towardsan Understanding of the Messianic Idea in Judaism"7. Scholem's critiqueof the elimination of the catastrophic dimensionof JewishMessianism and of its reductionto the notion of "eternal of mankindis aimed explicitly at progress" his Hermann Cohen,but it seems to me thatit is also polemicallyaimedat JosephKlausner, and nationalist historianof Messianism, colleague at the HebrewUniversityof Jerusalem for whom "the quintessenceof Jewish Messianism"represents"the ideal of unending See JosephKlausner,TheMessianicIdea in progress,of continualspiritual development." Israelfrom its Beginningto the Completion Allen & Unwin, 1956). of theMishna(London: