Messianism in the Early Work of Gershom Scholem

Author(s): Michael Löwy, 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

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ngc.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We enable the
scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that
promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

http://www.jstor.org
Messianism in the Early Work
of Gershom Scholem

MichaelLowy

Gershom Scholem is a shining example of the modem Jewish intel-

lectual. He is neither a Talmudistnor a Rabbi, much less a prophet.
More modestly: he is a historian,a man of science, of the university-
gifted, 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-
ment of the world, that, accordingto Max Weber, is characteristicof
modernity.For this reason he is stronglyattractedto the Romanticcri-
tique of modernity, to the Romantic protest - practiced in the name of
culturalor religious values of the past - against (Weberian)instrumen-
tal rationality and against the quantificationand reification that stem
from bourgeois-industrialmodernity.He participatesin this broad cur-
rent 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
178 Messianismin theEarly Workof GershomScholem

on the past: he can no longer belive in the Kabbala-or in the immi-

nent returnof the Messiah- in the way his ancestorsdid. His strategy
for the reenchantmentof the world is world-immanent:he becomes the
historianof the Kabbalaand of Messianism, and throughthis media-
tion 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 apoca-
lyptic dimensionthat was ignoredby the rationalist-liberalview of the
Wissenschaftdes Judentumsand Germansociology. Max Weber and
WernerSombartsaw the spirit of Judaismmerely as calculatingratio-
nality: Scholem pointed to the subterranean,mystical, heretical,messi-
anic, andutopiancurrentsin the historyof Judaism.1

Backgroundand Influences
Born into a petit-bourgeois,assimilatedBerlin family, Scholemat first
soaked up Germanculture;in his youth he favored the Romanticand
neo-Romanticwriters:Jean Paul, Novalis, M6rike, Stefan George, Paul
Scheerbart.2It is highly indicativethat the first book aboutthe Kabbala
that he studiedand that would have a considerableinfluence on him is
the work of the ChristianTheosophand GermanRomanticFranzJoseph
Molitor:Philosophieder Geschichteoder iiber die Tradition(published
between 1827 and 1853). In variousautobiographicaltexts he refers to
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-
spondsto a Christianterminology- chiasmusor the "millenium"of which the new testa-
ment speaks.
2. In his dissertationThe Demonic in History, David Biale arguesthatBuberand
Scholem foundin a specific sortof Romanticisma unique Weltanschuung thatinfluenced
theirwhole way of thinking. In his opinionScholem'ssympathyfor a particulartendency
inside GermanRomanticismplayed a decisive role in his intellectualdevelopment, both
in the field of philosophyand of historiography.David Biale, The Demonic in History.
GershomScholemand theRevisionof JewishHistoriography,DoctoralDissertation.(Los
Angeles: U of California,1977) 17.
In a conversationwith me Scholemconfirmedhis interestin Romanticismin his early
years, but explicitly forbadeany interpretationof his work that would put the accent on
Germaninsteadof the Jewish-Hebrewsources.
 MichaelLowy 179

the Kabbalabetter than the highest religious Jewish authorities[Ged-

olei 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,
that attractedme with its greatmagic."4This searchled him, on the one
hand - first underthe influenceof MartinBuber- to a study of Jewish
mysticism, and on the other,to Zionism.His not-orthodoxreligious atti-
tude bringshim close to Buber,yet his Zionism is more radical:he pas-
sionately 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
reconstructthe developmentof his ideas and the extraordinaryintellec-
tual vitalitythatcharacterizesthis phaseof Bildung[education].
This documenttransplantsus right in the middle of a Bildung-labora-
tory, in which religion and revolution,Zionist dreamand anarchistuto-
pia, German Romanticisim and Jewish mysticism, Kierkegaardand
MartinBuber, mix and react with each other.These diaries containnot
only the raw materialfrom his two well-knownautobiographical works,
WalterBenjamin. Geschichteeiner Freundschaftand Von Berlin nach
Jerusalem,but also an astonishingchronicleof encountersand readings,
enrichedwith philosophical,political,andreligioustrainsof thought.
In these pages one witnesses the formationof a rebelliousJewish con-
sciousness, that revolts againstthe world war, against a solidly middle-
class Jewish-Germansociety, and even against the ruling Zionist con-
formism.Despite his precociousand enthusiasticturntowardsZionism,
which he comprehendsas a revolutionarymovement,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
quote comes fromthe Hebrewversionof Scholem'sautobiography,Mi-BerlinLe-Yerush-
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.
180 Messianism in the Early Workof Gershom Scholem

conceal his hostile stance towards its founding father:

We rejectHerzl.He is to blamefor the Zionismof today[... ]which is

an organizationof grocers,who grovelbeforeeveryonepowerful![...]
His only thoughtwas the JewishState.And this we reject.Becausewe
preachanarchy.Thatis: we do not want a state,but rathera free soci-
ety (with which Herzl's Altneulandhas nothingto do!). We as Jews
know enough aboutthe horrendousidol-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 undoubt-
edly 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 Romanticismso fully and com-
pletely, 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 mys-
ticism 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 rediscov-
ery 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, TagebiichernebstAufsdtzenundEntwiirfen

bis 1923. 1. Halbband1913-1917, ed. KarlfriedGriinderand FriedrichNiew6hner,with
HerbertKopp-Oberstebrink (Frankfurt/ Main:JiidischerVerlag, 1995) 81f.
6. Scholem, Tagebiicher1: 157.
7. Scholem, Tagebiicher1: 215.
 Michael Lowy 181

of renewal."8Still, underthe influence of WalterBenjamin,he contin-

ued to distance himself from this first master,whom he reproachesfor
his unclearstance towardsWorldWar I9 and, strikingmore deeply, his
hazy ideology of "experience"[Erlebnis].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
languageof the Kabbalahas to this day foundno worthyinterpreter.Oh
GerhardScholem,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 reli-
gious 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,
explosive" characterof the Jewish tradition.11In contrastto Buber, he
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 ety-
mological sense of Bindung (to the past, "Bindung nach riickwdrts")
as religio.12
What attractshim above all to the old mystical texts is the escatalogi-
cal 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 con-
trasts messianic and historical time, in that he emphasizes that "not
world historybut the Last Judgement"will be responsiblefor the posi-
tive or negative valuationof tradition;14- a formulationaimed directly
againstHegelianhistoricism,which "telescopes"both into each other.
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), TagebichernebstAuf-
sdtzen und Entwiirfenbis 1923. 2. Halbband1917-1923, ed. KarlfriedGriinder,Herbert
Kopp-Oberstebrinkand FriedrichNiew6hner with assistance from Karl. E. Gr6zinger
JiidischerVerlag,2000) 657.
(Frankfurt/Main:
12. Scholem, VonBerlin nachJerusalem210.
13. Scholem,"Lyrikder Kabbala?"668.
14. Scholem,"Lyrikder Kabbala?"684.
182 Messianismin theEarly Workof GershomScholem

Unknown Writingsfrom his Youth

During the time of his education,as he began to edit his first histor-
ical essays, Scholem followed, in a standing dialogue with Walter
Benjamin, a secret thought that is recordedin a series of private vol-
umes. The totality of these only partiallypublishedpapers from 1917-
1933 can be found in the libraryof the Hebrew University in Jerusa-
lem. 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 mes-
sianically inspired writings on Judaism, Zionism, justice or revolu-
tion, 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-Germanphilosopher- because
of the languagebut also of the Romantically-colored religious temper-
who 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 autobiographicalwritings,
in his exchange of letterswith Benjamin,and in conversationsfrom his
lateryears;but these unknownpapersfromhis youth, despite their frag-
mentarycharacter,allow Scholem to appearas one of the great "hereti-
cal"Jewish centralEuropeanthinkersbefore 1933.
Most of this materialappearsin the SuhrkampJewish Verlag in the
second volume of the diaries with the title, Gershom Scholem, Tage-
biichernebst AufzdtzenundEntwiirfenbis 1923. 2. Halbband1917-23.,
The most important files in the Jerusalem archive, probably classified
by Scholemhimself, arethe following:
"EsotericaMetaphysica.Uber Judentumund die esoterischeSeite des
Zionismus 1917-193 . Inclus. einige Briefe, die zur Sache gehoren."
unnumbered,approx.191pp.
"Uber Metaphysik,Logik und einige nicht dazugeh6rendeGebiete
phanomenologischerBesinnung.Mir gewidmet.5. Oktober1917-30.
Dezember1917,"61pp.

"KleineAnmerkungeniiberJudentum.Jena,Winter1917/18,"89pp.
 Michael Lowy 183

"Tagebuchaufzeichnungen.1. August 1918-1. August 1919. Adel-

boden- Bern,"89 pp.1

I shouldadd that these titles are to a certainextent deceptive:the diaries

containmany philosophicalfragmentsas well as personalnotes, and the
file on metaphysicsalso concernsitself with Judaism- andvice-versa.
Alongsisde these large manuscriptsthere are various papers,untyped
and not included in these four collections, including a highly signifi-
cant text, "Theses on the Concept of Justice" (the title obviously
inspired Benjamin),that spans six handwrittenpages. This document,
bearing the date "1919 and 1925", was not incorporatedinto the pub-
lished diaries, probably because the editor considered it to be from
1925. (In the Diaries 1917-1923 a similar yet quite different essay,
"TwelveTheses on the Organizationof Justice."appears)
An interpretation of these early writingsis not easy, even for a reader
familiarwith the (published)thoughtof Scholemand Benjamin.The con-
cept Esoterica,which serves as the title for the first collection,appliesto
the greaterpart of the material.In the frameworkof this essay, I will
restrictmyself to callingattentiontojust a few aspectsof thesewritings.

1. Jewish-GermanThought
The writingscontaina deeplyJewish-Germanthought,even if Scholem
completelydisliked the thesis of German-Jewishculturalsymbiosis (his
argumentsare not to be dismissedout of hand)and insistedthathis work
had exclusively Hebraicorigins. Jewish-Germanfor one because of the
language:it is astonishingthat all of these texts - even those that origi-
nated in Palestine,when Scholemhad alreadymasteredthe Hebrewlan-
guage - were written in German.Jewish-German,however, above all
becauseof the contentof these writings,which stem completelyfromthe
world of CentralEuropeanJews and their culture- througheverything
that differentiatesthem fromthe Jewish cultureof the East (Poland,Rus-
sia) as well as the Jewish cultureof WesternEurope(France,England).
They stem,moreprecisely,fromtheRomanticcurrentsof this culture.
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 "EditorischeVorbe-
merkung," Tagebiicher 1:l9f.
184 Messianismin theEarly Workof GershomScholem

and Zionism"16from 1918 claim ratherelliptically:

bordercrossing.
signifiesanunauthorized
41 JewishRomanticism
42 Romanticismis the only spiritualhistoricalmovement,thathas
Thatit is unaware
limitedJudaism. of thismakesit demonic.17

Holderlinmerits unlimitedadmiration- yet anotherpassion that he

shares with Benjamin- and Scholem does not balk at comparinghim
with the Bible itself in diaryentriesfromAugust 1918-August1919:

Of the Germanpeople,FriedrichHolderlinlived the Zionistlife.

Holderlin'sexistence[Dasein]is the canonof anykindof historical
is basedon this... his rankalong-
life. Holderlin'sabsoluteauthority
sidetheBible.TheBibleis thecanonof writing,Holderlin, thecanon
thatis existence.HolderlinandtheBiblearetheonlytwothingsin the
worldthatcan nevercontradictthemselves.The canonicalcan be
definedas pureinterpretability.18

It is possible that this excerpt refers to Holderlin's Hyperion, whose

exuberant, lyrical description of Greek national revival could have
inspiredScholemto makethis surprisingparallelto Zionism.
A few pages furtherdown the following claim appears,a claim for-
mulatedin the same way in similarwords by Benjaminin his disserta-
tion 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 cri-
tique 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'
and Jewish capitalismare essentially connected."19With implicit refer-
ence to the positivism of Comte, Scholem continueswith this astonish-
ing vituperationspicedwith sarcasticimages:

16. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 300-06

17. Scholem, Tagebicher2: 303.
18. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 347.
19. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 330.
 Michael L6wy 185

It began a metaphysicalrevolutionand competitionin orderto com-

plete the needed identification:order/progress. Since then Judaismhas
been reinterpreted into a strongholdof liberalism,a reinterpretation
per-
formedon the doctrineby Jewishscienceandtheologythroughhideous
acts of incest:the Messianicbecamenever-endingprogressin time. 20

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 par-
ticular 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 fundamentalmis-
takes of the Marburgschool: the lawful, deductiblereductionof all
things into the neverendingtask in the spirit of progress.This is the
thatProphetismhas had to put up with. 21
most pitiful interpretation

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 real-
ity, 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. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 330f.

21. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 339.
22. Scholem,Sammelmappe "UberMetaphysik,Logik... " (1917), Tagebiicher2: 70.
186 Messianism in the Early Workof Gershom Scholem

Even when Benjamin is not mentioned, their mutual affinity is obvi-

ous. 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 "politiciza-
tion" 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 cate-
gory offate:

Almost all areasof humanactionaresubordniateto mythiccategories,

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

and the "truth"of revolutionarypropaganda- it seeks to rip out the
last conflict of violence, into which myth submerges. The cata-
strophic,because redeeming,sower of fateless life is representedin
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 Messian-

ism and the libertarianutopia in Scholem, Benjaminand other Jewish thinkers,see my
book,Redemptionand Utopia.LibertarianJudaismin CentralEurope(Stanford:Stanford
UP, 1990).
24. Scholem, Tagebiicher1: 529.
25. Scholem,unpublished"Theseson the Conceptof Justice."
 Michael Lowy 187

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 currentsof Messianismcan be differentiatedtheoreticallyas well

as historically:a revolutionarycurrentand a transformativecurrent.
The firstone representsitself thus:the Messiahat the end of days, tre-
mendous wars of Edom against Moab, Last Judgment= End of the
World,returnof souls in thatworld,equationof 'atid la-vo' [the future
thatis coming,messianictime]and 'olamha-ba' [thefutureworld,new
creation].Basis: a literalunderstandingof the futureas empiricaltime.

The second says: cleansing of souls, completely internaltransforma-

tion of nature,Last Judgmentneutralized,in any case no end of the
world, differentiationof 'atid la-vo' and 'olam ha-ba.'

Resultant:the end of days- today.Thatworldis this world.Messianic

futureis not empiricalfuture.26

This all-too analytical and somewhat stiff differentiation does not com-
pletely satisfy Scholem, and he quickly adds: "These notons are lay-
ered 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 revolu-

tionary magic. This is: the messianic realm can only be unfolded
throughthe dictatorshipof poverty. [.. I This says: the judgementof
the poor alone has revolutionarypower.

26. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 380.

27. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 38.
28. Scholem, Tagebiicher 2: 556.
188 Messianism in the Early Workof Gershom Scholem

Even when he endeavorsto demarcatethe messianic dimension of

revolution(a sort of hubris)fromthat of Judaism,he still contrastsboth
of themwith liberaland 'progressive'psuedorevolutions:

Revolutionis there,wherethe messianicrealmshouldbe erected

withoutdoctrine.Ultimatelytherecan be no revolutionforthe Jews.
TheJewishrevolutionis solelya reconnection to doctrine.A revolu-
tion,thatin anycasepointstowardsthemessianicrealm,liketheBol-
shevist or Frenchrevolution,must as a matterof principlebe
separatedfromthe weakpseudorevolutions like thatin Germanyin
1848,thatis centeredby '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
to understandthat everyone who behaves in the world differentlythan
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
ratherthanfartherapart:

... Communism,which has a religioushorizon,does not at all depend

on the economy,butrathersolely definesitselfin its way fromthe
of the age to the messianicrealm.And the messianic
relationship
realmcanin factbe erectedtodayhajomimbe-kolotischma'u[today,
if youhearhisvoice/obeymyvoice;Psalms95.7,Sanhedrin 98 a].3

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
since moving to Jerusalem.The majorityof his work on the Kabbalain
the 1920s and 1930s turnedon the messianic-apocalypticdimensionof
phenomena.These themes again also determinedhis first major work,
which he dedicated to Walter Benjamin: Die jiidische Mystik in ihren
Hauptstromungen(1941, dt. 1957). For the Kabbala,specifically in its
29. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 556.
30. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 374.
 MichaelLowy 189

reinterpretationby 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
it a "restitutionof the ideal condition"that is called the "Restorationof
the originaltotality."31The arrivalof the messiah is the consummation
of the tikkun,the "redemption"as "returnof all things to their original
contactwith God."32The olam ha-tikkunis thus the world of messianic
restoration,the wiping away of dirt,the disappearanceof evil.
Beginning in the 1950s Scholem is intensely interestedin "heretical"
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
Sabbatianism,the new "messiah"plays less of a central role than his
centralprophetand theologian,Nathan of Gaza, who was named buz-
ina kaddishaby his adherents- the "holy lamp."Scholem is fascinated
by this strangefigure and his divergentand surprisinginnovations:the
idea of universalredemptionof all sinners- due to the SabbataiMes-
siah - without exception (even Jesus of Nazareth,who is finally given
back to his people); or the pronouncementthat with the messianic age
comes the dominionof a new Tora,the Toraof the Tree of Life, which
revokes all commandmentsand 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 "nihilis-
tic" 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-
ory of Jewish Messianismas restorative-utopiandoctrinein his famous
essay, "Towardsan Understandingof the Messianic Idea in Judaism"
31. Scholem, Die jiidische Mystik in ihrem Hauptstr6mungen(Frankfurt/Main:
AlfredMetzner,1957)- (Frankfurt/Main, 1980:seitenidentischeTB-Edition)294.
32. Scholem,Diejiidische Mystikin ihremHauptstromungen 301.
33. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi. The MysticalMessiah. 1626-1676 (Bollingen Series
XCIII)(Princeton:PrincetonUP, 1973). In Germanas SabbataiZwi.Der mystischeMes-
sias (Frankfurt/Main:
JiidischerVerlag,1992)2207,284-87.
34. Scholem, "Die Metamorphosedes haretischenMessianismusder Sabbatianer
im religi6sen Nihilismus im 18. Jahrhundert"(1963), Judaica 3 (Frankfurt/Main:
Suhrkamp,1973) 207, 217.
190 Messianismin theEarly Workof GershomScholem

(1959). Accordingto this essay, messianismin the Jewish traditioncon-

tains two closely connected and simultaneouslycontradictorytenden-
cies: 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
never been. The weight distributionbetween the two currentscan fluc-
tuate,but the messianic idea assumes shape only on the basis of a com-
bination of both. They are inseparable by virtue of a dialectical
relationshipthatScholemadmirablypresented:

[... ] even the restorativeforcehas a utopianfactor,andin utopianism

restorativefactorsareat 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
past transformedand transfiguredin a dreambrightenedby the rays
of utopianism.36

Scholem also accountsfor the catastrophicand revolutionaryessence

of the messianicview of history:

Jewish messianismis, in its origins and by its nature- this cannotbe

sufficientlyemphasized- a theoryof catastrophe.This theorystresses
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
come only in an era of complete corruptionand guilt. This rift cannot
be overcomeby 'progress'or 'evolution'- only revolutionarycatastro-
phe, togetherwith completeuprootingand total destructionof the exist-
ing order makes messianic redemption possible. The secularized
messianismof 19th centuryliberalJewish thought,- for which the neo-
KantianHermannCohen is a good example- with its idea of unbroken
progressand incrementalperfectionof humanity,has nothingto do with
the traditionof prophetsand Aggadists, for whom the coming of the

35. Scholem, "Towardsan Understandingof the Messianic Idea in Judaism,"The

Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality (New York:
Schocken, 1971) 4.
36. Scholem,"Towardsan Understandingof the MessianicIdeain Judaism"4.
37. Scholem,"Towardsan Understandingof the MessianicIdeain Judaism"7.
 Michael Ldwy 191

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

The bible and the apocalypticwritersknow of no progressin history

leadingto the redemption.[.. .] It [redemption]is rathertranscendence
breakingin upon history,an intrusion,in which historyitself perishes,
transformedin its ruinbecause it is struckby a beam of light shining
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 Understandingof the Messianic Idea in Judaism"7.

Scholem's critiqueof the eliminationof the catastrophicdimensionof JewishMessianism
and of its reductionto the notion of "eternalprogress"of mankindis aimed explicitly at
HermannCohen,but it seems to me thatit is also polemicallyaimedat JosephKlausner,his
colleague at the HebrewUniversityof Jerusalemand nationalisthistorianof Messianism,
for whom "the quintessenceof Jewish Messianism"represents"the ideal of unending
progress,of continualspiritualdevelopment."See JosephKlausner,TheMessianicIdea in
Israelfrom its Beginningto the Completionof theMishna(London:Allen & Unwin, 1956).