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In Memory of Hermann Cohen

Author(s): Gershom Scholem and Sander L. Gilman


Reviewed work(s):
Source: Modern Judaism, Vol. 5, No. 1, Gershom Scholem Memorial Issue (Feb., 1985), pp. 1-2
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1396360 .
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Gershom Scholem
IN MEMORY OF HERMANN COHEN*
The
Jews
are
given great
men,
and
just
as
constantly ignore
them,
even if
they
touch the inner soul of the
people.
Indeed,
it is
part
of the essence of
Judaism,
that the constant creation of the
Law,
the
single enduring
structure in the consciousness and inner
being
of this
people,
absorbs all
differentiated
figures
into
itself,
the work alone
remaining
the
single
structure evident to all. But the immortal
form,
the
"be-ing" (Da-Sein)
of
those
men,
who
represented Judaism
in their
existence,
directly
influ-
enced the essence as well as the real soul of
Judaism.
All of these men
carry
with them the essence of the ancient
prophets.
When we
today
seek
solace in the treasures of
contemporary Judaism;
when we seek out those
lives,
which we have ourselves understood as
Jewish
lives,
and which we
wish to narrate to our
youth,
we can find no more noble
image
than that
awakened in us
by
Hermann Cohen.
Like all
men,
Cohen misunderstood
himself,
and
many
of his obscuri-
ties
(which perhaps
now dominate our
view) sprang
from his false inter-
pretation
of his own essence. And
yet
it is still this existence which made
the life of
teaching palpable
in the world. Those who saw Cohen in his
old
age
knew how a
great Jew
is constituted. That which we alone can
give
him,
we who did not know him
during
his
life,
is
respect.
Youth
should have
respect
before the
pure greatness,
which has found its
place
in him. The
great path,
which Cohen
consciously
trod,
which made him
a
truly pious
human
being (a
fact which no one could have
judged
stand-
ing apart
from
him),
that
path
is now abandoned and awaits the
youth
who is to trod it. It awaits
us,
me.
If Zionism can not
accept
the structure of the
priest
within
it,
it is
more the loss for
it;
the one real
Zionism, however,
does not need to
accept
it,
for he is in it
just
as the
punctuation
of the Law is
part
of its
course.
Hermann Cohen
completed
the difficult
path
which leads from the
Talmud,
the Bible and Maimonides via Kant and Plato and back to the
Talmud,
the Bible and Maimonides. This difficult
path
is covered
by
a
palisade
of
works,
which while
perhaps
mortal,
are in their own
way
imperishable.
Cohen
completed
his work. Which Zionist will make it bear
1
2 Gershom Scholem
fruit? The demands of such a life are that it be
comprehended
and
completed,
and he who does
this,
can not
go astray.
If we all are like
Cohen then Zionism can be
fulfilled,
then we will be a mamlechet
kohanim,
a nation of Cohanim
(priests)
in the truest sense of the word.
5
April
1918
Translated
from
the German
by
Sander L. Gilman
*The Editor would like to thank Mrs. Fania Scholem and Prof. Nathan Roten-
streich for
making
this
previously unpublished
material available.

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