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.
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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-
ment of the world, that, accordingto Max Weber, is characteristicof modernity.For this reason he is stronglyattractedto the Romanticcritique of modernity, to the Romantic protest - practiced in the name of
culturalor religious values of the past - against (Weberian)instrumental rationality and against the quantificationand reification that stem from bourgeois-industrialmodernity.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
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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 for the reenchantmentof the world is world-immanent:he becomes the 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 apocalyptic dimensionthat was ignoredby the rationalist-liberalview of the Wissenschaftdes Judentumsand Germansociology. Max Weber and WernerSombartsaw the spirit of Judaismmerely as calculatingrationality: Scholem pointed to the subterranean,mystical, heretical,messianic, 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 correspondsto a Christianterminology- chiasmusor the "millenium"of which the new testament speaks. 2. In his dissertationThe Demonic in History, David Biale arguesthatBuberand thatinfluenced Scholem foundin a specific sortof Romanticisma unique Weltanschuung 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.
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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, 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 attitude 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 reconstructthe developmentof his ideas and the extraordinaryintellectual vitalitythatcharacterizesthis phaseof Bildung[education]. This documenttransplantsus right in the middle of a Bildung-laboratory, in which religion and revolution,Zionist dreamand anarchistutopia, German Romanticisim and Jewish mysticism, Kierkegaardand 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 formationof a rebelliousJewish consciousness, that revolts againstthe world war, against a solidly middleclass Jewish-Germansociety, and even against the ruling Zionist conformism.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-Yerushalaym - 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 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 society (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 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 Romanticismso 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, TagebiichernebstAufsdtzenundEntwiirfen bis 1923. 1. Halbband1913-1917, ed. KarlfriedGriinderand FriedrichNiew6hner,with HerbertKopp-Oberstebrink / Main:JiidischerVerlag, 1995) 81f. (Frankfurt 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 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 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, 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 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 positive 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), TagebichernebstAufsdtzen 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.
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Unknown Writingsfrom his Youth During the time of his education,as he began to edit his first historical 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-Germanphilosopher- 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 autobiographicalwritings, in his exchange of letterswith Benjamin,and in conversationsfrom his lateryears;but these unknownpapersfromhis youth, despite their fragmentarycharacter,allow Scholem to appearas one of the great "heretical"Jewish centralEuropeanthinkersbefore 1933. Most of this materialappearsin the SuhrkampJewish Verlag in the second volume of the diaries with the title, Gershom Scholem, Tagebiichernebst 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.
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"Tagebuchaufzeichnungen.1. August 1918-1. August 1919. Adelboden- 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 significant 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 published 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 concept 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 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 CentralEuropeanJews and their culture- througheverything that differentiatesthem fromthe Jewish cultureof the East (Poland,Russia) 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 "EditorischeVorbemerkung," Tagebiicher 1:l9f.
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and Zionism"16from 1918 claim ratherelliptically: bordercrossing. 41 JewishRomanticism signifiesanunauthorized 42 Romanticism is the only spiritualhistoricalmovement,thathas of thismakesit demonic.17 Thatit is unaware limitedJudaism. 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 rankalonglife. Holderlin'sabsoluteauthority thecanon sidetheBible.TheBibleis thecanonof writing,Holderlin, 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 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' and Jewish capitalismare essentially connected."19With implicit reference to the positivism of Comte, Scholem continueswith this astonishing vituperationspicedwith sarcasticimages: 16. 17. 18. 19.
Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 300-06 Scholem, Tagebicher2: 303. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 347. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 330.
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It began a metaphysicalrevolutionand competitionin orderto comSince then Judaismhas plete the needed identification:order/progress. been reinterpreted into a strongholdof liberalism,a reinterpretation performedon 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 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 fundamentalmistakes of the Marburgschool: the lawful, deductiblereductionof all things into the neverendingtask in the spirit of progress.This is the most pitiful interpretation thatProphetismhas 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.
Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 330f. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 339. "UberMetaphysik,Logik... " (1917), Tagebiicher2: 70. Scholem,Sammelmappe
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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: 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 catastrophic,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 Messianism 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."
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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 currentsof Messianismcan be differentiatedtheoreticallyas well as historically:a revolutionarycurrentand a transformativecurrent. The firstone representsitself thus:the Messiahat the end of days, tremendous 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 of the futureas empiricaltime. creation].Basis: a literalunderstanding The second says: cleansing of souls, completely internaltransformation 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 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 throughthe dictatorshipof poverty. [.. I This says: the judgementof the poor alone has revolutionarypower. 26. 27.
Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 380. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 38.
28.
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: Revolutionis there,wherethe messianicrealmshouldbe erected withoutdoctrine.Ultimatelytherecan be no revolutionforthe Jews. to doctrine.A revoluTheJewishrevolutionis solelya reconnection tion,thatin anycasepointstowardsthemessianicrealm,liketheBolshevist or Frenchrevolution,must as a matterof principlebe like thatin Germanyin separatedfromthe weakpseudorevolutions 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, 98 a].3 if youhearhisvoice/obeymyvoice;Psalms95.7,Sanhedrin 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. 30.
Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 556. Scholem, Tagebiicher2: 374.
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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 buzina 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 SabbataiMessiah - 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 "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-
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 mystischeMessias (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.
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Messianismin theEarly Workof GershomScholem
(1959). Accordingto this essay, messianismin the Jewish traditioncontains two closely connected and simultaneouslycontradictorytendencies: 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 fluctuate,but the messianic idea assumes shape only on the basis of a combination 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 revolutionarycatastrophe, togetherwith completeuprootingand total destructionof the existing order makes messianic redemption possible. The secularized messianismof 19th centuryliberalJewish thought,- for which the neoKantianHermannCohen 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.
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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).
