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53-602: The esoteric explanations of gilgul were articulated in Jewish mysticism by Isaac Luria in the 16th century, as part of the metaphysical purpose of Creation. Reincarnation is an esoteric belief within many streams of modern Judaism but is not an essential tenet of traditional Judaism. It is not mentioned in classical sources such as the Hebrew Bible , the classical rabbinic works ( Mishnah and Talmud ), or Maimonides ' 13 principles of faith . Kabbalah, however, teaches

106-642: A belief in gilgul ; hence, the belief is universal in Hasidic Judaism , which regards the Kabbalah as sacred and authoritative. Among well-known rabbis who rejected the idea of reincarnation are Saadia Gaon , David Kimhi , Hasdai Crescas , Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi (early 14th century), Joseph Albo , Abraham ibn Daud , and Leon of Modena . Among the Geonim , Hai ben Sherira argued with Saadia Gaon in favour of gilgulim . Rabbis who believed in

159-520: A friend and protegé late in his career, Cynthia Ozick merits mention among those in Scholem's inner-circle. His late-career relationships with Allen Ginsberg , Harold Bloom , and George Steiner were also significant (though his relationship with Steiner was, characteristically, somewhat combative). Scholem was also friendly with the author Shai Agnon and the Talmudic scholar Saul Lieberman . As

212-912: A lifelong friendship that ended when Benjamin committed suicide in 1940 in the wake of Nazi persecution. Scholem dedicated his book Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism ( Die jüdische Mystik in ihren Hauptströmungen ), based on lectures 1938–1940, to Benjamin. In 1915 Scholem enrolled at the Frederick William University in Berlin (today, Humboldt University ), where he studied mathematics, philosophy, and Hebrew. There he met Martin Buber , Shmuel Yosef Agnon , Hayim Nahman Bialik , Ahad Ha'am , and Zalman Shazar . In Berlin, Scholem befriended Leo Strauss and corresponded with him throughout his life. He studied mathematical logic at

265-726: A major, unofficial but widely acknowledged figurehead of mystical, historical and theological currents within both Reform and (much more controversially) Conservative Judaism after World War II and the Destruction of the European Jewry in the Holocaust, Scholem's stature within Jewish tradition is roughly comparable to the role played before the First World War and during the interwar period by Martin Buber . In

318-527: A mystical "philosophy" of Gnosis esoteric knowledge. Instead, the tradition of Meditative Kabbalah has similarity of aim, if not form, with usual traditions of general mysticism; to unite the individual intuitively with God. The tradition of theurgic Practical Kabbalah in Judaism, censored and restricted by mainstream Jewish Kabbalists, has similarities with non-Jewish Hermetic Qabalah magical Western Esotericism . However, as understood by Jewish Kabbalists, it

371-470: A she-ass, with a man as a rabbit or hare". Tzaddikim can reincarnate as a fish, because "fish do not have to be ritually slaughtered before being rectified via eating". David Roskies in The Shtetl Book mentions the following beliefs: "The soul of a tsadek becomes the soul of a fish. The soul of a butcher who eats treyf meat becomes the soul of a black crow. The soul of a dishonest khazn becomes

424-511: A term for their own doctrine in order to express the belief that they were not innovating, but were merely revealing the ancient hidden esoteric tradition of the Torah . This issue has been crystalized until today by alternative views on the origin of the Zohar , the main text of Kabbalah, attributed to the circle of its central protagonist Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in the 2nd century CE, for opening up

477-425: Is censored and forgotten in contemporary times because without the requisite purity and holy motive, it would degenerate into impure and forbidden magic. Consequently, it has formed a minor tradition in Jewish mystical history. Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem ( Hebrew : גֵרְשׁׂם שָׁלוֹם ) (5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982) was a German-born Israeli philosopher and historian . Widely regarded as

530-711: Is divided into three general streams: the Theosophical/Speculative Kabbalah (seeking to understand and describe the divine realm), the Meditative/Ecstatic Kabbalah (seeking to achieve a mystical union with God), and the Practical Kabbalah (seeking to theurgically alter the divine realms and the World). These three different, but inter-relating, methods or aims of mystical involvement are also found throughout

583-487: Is the most well known, but it is not the only typological form, nor was it the first form which emerged. Among the previous forms were Merkabah mysticism (c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE), and Ashkenazi Hasidim (early 13th century) around the time of the emergence of Kabbalah. Kabbalah means "received tradition", a term which was previously used in other Judaic contexts, but the Medieval Kabbalists adopted it as

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636-839: The Sefer Yetzirah , its inauguration in the Bahir , its exegesis in the Pardes and the Zohar to its cosmogonic, apocalyptic climax in Isaac Luria's Ein Sof that is known collectively as Kabbalah . After generations of demoralization and assimilation in the European enlightenment, the disappointment of messianic hopes, the famine of 1916 in Palestine, and the catastrophe of

689-677: The Final Solution in Europe Scholem gathered and reassembled these sacred texts from many of the archives that had been disarranged, orphaned, confiscated under Nazi rule or otherwise washed up in Genizah cataloging the flood of fragments and disordered, decontextualized manuscripts into an annotated and relatively organized sequence of texts available to scholars and seekers within the reception of this tradition. Many other Jewish scholars assisted in this process of recovery once it

742-607: The Renaissance onwards: theological Christian Cabala (c. 15th  – 18th century) which adapted Judaic Kabbalistic doctrine to Christian belief, and its diverging occultist offshoot Hermetic Qabalah (c. 19th century – today) which became a main element in esoteric and magical societies and teachings. As separate traditions of development outside Judaism, drawing from, syncretically adapting, and different in nature and aims from Judaic mysticism, they are not listed on this page. The Kabbalistic form of Jewish mysticism itself

795-570: The Sanhedria Cemetery . Jürgen Habermas delivered the eulogy. Scholem became a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He taught the Kabbalah and mysticism from a scientific point of view and became the first professor of Jewish mysticism at the university in 1933, working in this post until his retirement in 1965, when he became an emeritus professor. Scholem directly contrasted his historiographical approach on

848-712: The University of Jena under Gottlob Frege . He was in Bern in 1918 with Benjamin when he met Elsa (Escha) Burchhard, who became his first wife. Scholem returned to Germany in 1919, where he received a degree in Semitic languages at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich . Together with Benjamin he established a fictitious school – the University of Muri. Scholem wrote his doctoral thesis on

901-555: The Vilna Gaon ; and - amongst others - from the 19th/20th-century: Yosef Hayyim , author of the Ben Ish Hai . With the 16th-century rational systemization of Cordoveran Kabbalah by Alkabetz and the subsequent new paradigm of Lurianic Kabbalah by Luria, Kabbalah replaced rationalism as the mainstream traditional Jewish theology, both in scholarly circles and in the popular imagination. Isaac Luria taught new explanations of

954-449: The "finest writings..." from the major currents of Jewish mysticism could only be found in long block quotations in antisemitic texts, where some "nincompoop who had quoted and translated the most wonderful, the most profound things," had assembled them "in order to decry them as blasphemies." (This was a strong, somewhat exaggerated statement for expressive effect that Scholem attributes to Ernst Bloch in his memoirs—but there he co-signs

1007-547: The 17th century messianic movement, known as Sabbateanism , was developed from the Lurianic Kabbalah . In order to neutralize Sabbateanism, Hasidism had emerged as a Hegelian synthesis . Many of those who joined the Hasidic movement, because they had seen in it an Orthodox congregation, considered it scandalous that their community should be associated with a heretical movement. In the same way, Scholem produced

1060-595: The Germans' collective sense of guilt. Various stories and essays of the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges were inspired or influenced by Scholem's books. He has also influenced ideas of Umberto Eco , Jacques Derrida , Harold Bloom , Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben , and George Steiner . American author Michael Chabon cites Scholem's essay, The Idea of the Golem , as having assisted him in conceiving

1113-613: The Jewish diaspora) is incontrovertible, his relationship to the manifest ethics of Zionism was more ambiguous and critical than Buber's. After his emigration from Berlin to Palestine, Scholem became a librarian, heading the Department of Hebrew and Judaica at the National Library. In 1927 he revamped the Dewey Decimal System , making it appropriate for large Judaica collections. Scholem's brother Werner

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1166-646: The National Library in Jerusalem. Gerhard (Gershom) Scholem was born in Berlin to Arthur Scholem and Betty Hirsch Scholem. His father was a printer. His older brother was the German Communist leader Werner Scholem . He studied Hebrew and Talmud with an Orthodox rabbi. Scholem met Walter Benjamin in Munich in 1915, when the former was seventeen years old and the latter was twenty-three. They began

1219-487: The aftermath of the Adolf Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, Scholem sharply criticised Hannah Arendt 's book, Eichmann in Jerusalem and decried her lack of solidarity with the Jewish people ( Hebrew : אהבת ישראל "love of one's fellow Jews", ʾahəvaṯ ʾiśrāʾēl ). Arendt responded that she never loved any collective group, and that she does not love the Jewish people but was only part of them. The bitter fight, which

1272-710: The basis for modern Jewish Kabbalah. After Luria, two new mystical forms popularised Kabbalah in Judaism: antinomian - heretical Sabbatean movements (1666 – 18th century), and Hasidic Judaism (1734 – today). In contemporary Judaism, the only main forms of Jewish mysticism which are practiced are esoteric Lurianic Kabbalah and its later commentaries, the variety of schools of Hasidic Judaism , and Neo-Hasidism (incorporating Neo-Kabbalah) in non- Orthodox Jewish denominations . Two non-Jewish syncretic traditions also popularized Judaic Kabbalah through their incorporation as part of general Western esoteric culture from

1325-505: The elder figure). Though Scholem's relationships with Hannah Arendt , Theodor Adorno , Hans Jonas , and Ernst Bloch were more characteristically turbulent than those relationship just mentioned, the frequent citation of these figures in Scholem's published writings and private correspondence demonstrates that they were among his closest and most influential colleagues. Selected letters from his correspondence with thinkers, critics and philosophers have been published. Though appearing as

1378-478: The founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah , Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew University of Jerusalem . Scholem is acknowledged as the single most significant figure in the recovery, collection, annotation, and registration into rigorous Jewish scholarship of the canonical bibliography of mysticism and scriptural commentary that runs through its primordial phase in

1431-592: The gilgul belief. In 2003, two fish cutters claimed to have encountered a talking carp at the New Square Fish Market in Rockland County, New York . The incident occurred in a Hasidic community of about 7,000 members. "The story goes that a 20-pound carp about to be slaughtered and made into gefilte fish for Sabbath dinner began speaking in Hebrew, shouting apocalyptic warnings and claiming to be

1484-478: The hypothesis that the source of the 13th century Kabbalah was a Jewish gnosticism that preceded Christian gnosticism. The historiographical approach of Scholem also involved a linguistic theory. In contrast to Buber, Scholem believed in the power of the language to invoke supernatural phenomena. In contrast to Walter Benjamin , he put the Hebrew language in a privileged position with respect to other languages, as

1537-576: The idea of reincarnation include, from Medieval times, the mystical leaders Nahmanides and Bahya ben Asher ; from the 16th-century Levi ibn Habib , and from the mystical school of Safed , Solomon Alkabetz , Isaac Luria , and his exponent Hayyim ben Joseph Vital ; and from the 18th-century: the founder of Hasidic Judaism , the Baal Shem Tov , later Hasidic Masters, and the Lithuanian Jewish Orthodox leader and Kabbalist

1590-535: The latter's death in flight from the Gestapo in 1940. In addition to his Kabbalah scholarship, a significant portion of Scholem's working life postwar was spent recovering, editing and promoting the literary estate of his dead friend. Martin Buber was a patron, publisher and sponsor of the careers of both Scholem and his best friend Benjamin (despite Benjamin's frequent ingratitude and incorrigible blowing of deadlines and Scholem's occasionally scathing critiques of

1643-525: The modern reader must read Franz Kafka in order to enter into the frame of mind native to the Kaballah, and elsewhere remarked that, "among the peculiarities" Benjamin's writings was its "enormous suitability for canonization; I might almost say for quotation as a kind of Holy Writ." The notion of the three periods, with its interactions between rational and irrational elements in Judaism, led Scholem to put forward some controversial arguments. He thought that

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1696-511: The name of the Rabbi in his canonical account of this visit, Scholem explains elsewhere that this scholar—once the Rabbi of Poznań —was Phillip Bloch. ) The analysis of Judaism carried out by the Wissenschaft school was flawed in two ways, according to Scholem: It studied Judaism as a dead object rather than as a living organism; and it did not consider the proper foundations of Judaism,

1749-436: The non-rational force that, in Scholem's view, made the religion a living thing. In Scholem's opinion, the mythical and mystical components were at least as important as the rational ones, and he thought that they, rather than the minutiae of Halakha , were the truly living core of Judaism. In particular, he disagreed with what he considered to be Martin Buber 's personalization of Kabbalistic concepts as well as what he argued

1802-524: The oldest known kabbalistic text, Sefer ha-Bahir . The following year it appeared in book form as "Das Buch Bahir", having been published by his father's publishing house. Drawn to Zionism and influenced by Buber, he immigrated in 1923 to the British Mandate of Palestine . It may be considered notable that though Scholem's allegiance to the Zionist cause (or the reclamation of Palestine by

1855-527: The only language capable of revealing the divine truth. His special regard for the spiritual potency of the Hebrew language was expressed in his 1926 letter to Franz Rosenzweig regarding his concerns over the "secularization" of Hebrew. Scholem considered the Kabbalists as interpreters of a pre-existent linguistic revelation. Scholem's closest peers included, most famously, Walter Benjamin and Leo Strauss . Though his relationship with Franz Rosenzweig

1908-452: The other pre-Kabbalistic and post-Kabbalistic stages in Jewish mystical development, as three general typologies. As in Kabbalah, the same text can contain aspects of all three approaches, though the three streams often distill into three separate literatures under the influence of particular exponents or eras. Within Kabbalah, the theosophical tradition is distinguished from many forms of mysticism in other religions by its doctrinal form as

1961-414: The process of gilgul and identification of the reincarnations of historic Jewish figures, which Hayyim ben Joseph Vital compiled in his Shaar HaGilgulim . Shaar haGilgulim lists possible reincarnations: "One who has sexual relations with an animal is reincarnated as a bat, one who has relations with a menstruant non-Jewish woman, one who commits adultery is reincarnated as a donkey, with his mother as

2014-467: The sentiment and appropriates it as his own description of the state of affairs in other places.) Due to Scholem's efforts, and those of his students and colleagues, the confused and inscrutable condition of Kabbalistic bibliography and provenance would be significantly remedied after the end of the World Wars and the foundation of the modern state of Israel where Scholem worked as head librarian of

2067-466: The soul of a dog. Because his prayer was as pleasing to the Lord as a dog’s bark. The soul of an informer becomes that of parrot. Because he acted like a parrot: spoke the wrong things at the wrong time to the wrong people." According to Shaar haGilgulim , a soul can even reincarnate in an inanimate object like a stone. Historian Nathaniel Deutsch mentioned a widely reported anecdote as a modern example of

2120-618: The story of his early research "at the start of my path" in 1922 when he went to Berlin to visit "the only Jewish scholar scholar who had engaged in the study of Kabbalah in the previous generation." Gesturing at the rabbi's library of documents, manuscripts and autographs written by the authors of the Kabbalah, some of which had been inscribed in early modern or medieval centuries, Scholem remarked, "How wonderful it is, Herr Professor, that you have read and learned all this!" to which "...the elderly gentleman replied: 'What! And I also have to read all this nonsense?!" (Though he does not mention

2173-487: The study of Jewish mysticism with the approach of the 19th-century school of the Wissenschaft des Judentums ("Science of Judaism"), which sought to submit the study of Judaism to the discipline of subjects such as history , philology , and philosophy . According to Jeremy Adler, Scholem's thinking was "both recognizably Jewish and deeply German," and "changed the course of twentieth-century European thought." At

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2226-961: The study of Jewish Mysticism. Traditional Kabbalists regard it as originating in Tannaic times, redacting the Oral Torah , so do not make a sharp distinction between Kabbalah and early Rabbinic Jewish mysticism. Academic scholars regard it as a synthesis from the Middle Ages , when it appeared between the 13th-15th centuries, but assimilating and incorporating into itself earlier forms of Jewish mysticism, possible continuations of ancient esoteric traditions, as well as medieval philosophical elements. The theosophical aspect of Kabbalah itself developed through two historical forms: " Medieval/Classic/Zoharic Kabbalah " (c.1175 – 1492  – 1570 ), and Lurianic Kabbalah (1569  – today) which assimilated Medieval Kabbalah into its wider system and became

2279-570: The three periods within a different frame of reference: there was the primordial inscription and enunciation of the Law in the Torah and the Talmud, the mystical reflections of the Kaballah, and the post-metaphysical phase of mystical writings represented by (for example) the writings of Franz Kafka or the critical mysticism of his friend and correspondent Walter Benjamin. Scholem often told his students that

2332-468: The time Scholem entered his field of study, Jewish mysticism was acknowledged as Judaism's weakest scholarly link by many of the scholars, publishers and cultural leaders of the Jewish community and gentile German scholars who sponsored Scholem's early career, including Martin Buber , Salman Schocken , Franz Rosenzweig , Robert Eisler , Philipp Bloch  [ de ] , Moses Marx, Clemens Baumker , Fritz Hommel and Walter Benjamin . Scholem told

2385-459: The troubled soul of a revered community elder who recently died." In Judaism: For comparison with other religions: Jewish mysticism Academic study of Jewish mysticism , especially since Gershom Scholem 's Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941), draws distinctions between different forms of mysticism which were practiced in different eras of Jewish history . Of these, Kabbalah , which emerged in 12th-century southwestern Europe,

2438-449: Was a Zionist. I am astounded by her ability to pronounce upon movements in which she was once so deeply engaged, in terms of a distance measured in light years and from such sovereign heights." Differing perspectives on the appropriate penalty for Adolph Eichmann further illuminate differences between the two authors. Whereas Arendt felt that Eichmann should be executed, Scholem was opposed, fearing that his execution would serve to alleviate

2491-678: Was a member of the ultra-left "Fischer-Maslow Group" and the youngest ever member of the Reichstag , or Weimar Diet , representing the Communist Party of Germany . He was expelled from the party and later murdered by the Nazis during the Third Reich . Unlike his brother, Gershom was vehemently opposed to both Communism and Marxism . In 1936, he married his second wife, Fania Freud. Fania, who had been his student and could read Polish,

2544-615: Was an inadequate approach to Jewish history, Hebrew language, and the land of Israel . In the worldview of Scholem, the research of Jewish mysticism could not be separated from its historical context. Starting from something similar to the Gegengeschichte of Friedrich Nietzsche , he ended up including less normative aspects of Judaism in the public history. Specifically, Scholem in his scholarly writing that Jewish history could be divided into three periods: Elsewhere, in oral presentation or informal reflection, Scholem inflected

2597-416: Was exchanged in various articles, led to a rift between Scholem and Arendt though they remained mutually respectful thereafter and continued to work alongside one another on various projects, particularly in their work on the literary estate of Walter Benjamin. In an apparently wrathful moment, Scholem wrote to Hans Paeschke that he "knew Hannah Arendt when she was a socialist or half-communist and... when she

2650-529: Was helpful in his later research, particularly in regard to Jacob Frank . In 1946 Scholem was sent by the Hebrew University to search for Jewish books that had been plundered by the Nazis and help return them to their rightful owners. He spent much of the year in Germany and Central Europe as part of this project, known as "Otzrot HaGolah". Scholem died in Jerusalem , where he is buried next to his wife in

2703-430: Was of shorter duration, it was also a deeply influential one. Likewise, though Scholem was never directly introduced to Franz Kafka , he found out later in life that Kafka approved of his comments in a debate. Scholem and Benjamin's discussions of Kafka, spanning decades, played no small role in the elevation Kafka's literary and epistolary writings to canonical status in both secular and mystical literature as writing that

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2756-486: Was prophetic or premonitory of the Holocaust while also having qualities of a kind of post-metaphysical kabbalah. It is a measure of the depth of Scholem's friendship with Benjamin that he wrote two memoirs at the end of his life: his own autobiography tends to be less read or frequently cited than his "Autobiography of a Friendship" recounting his lifelong relationship and work in partnership with Benjamin prior to

2809-560: Was underway, but it is broadly recognized that Scholem initiated this process of textual and archival recovery and rebirth. As Scholem points out in his memoirs, the canon of sacred Jewish writings from the diaspora and the Middle Ages (re: " Kabbalah ") had fallen into such a state of disrepair and oblivion—fragmented and effaced by persecutions from without as well as contortions, conversions and schisms from within Judaism—that many of

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