Gershom Scholem: Charisma, "Kairos" and the Messianic Dialectic

Author(s): Amos Funkenstein and Bill Templer

Source: History and Memory, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring - Summer, 1992), pp. 123-140
Published by: Indiana University Press
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Amos

Funkenstein

Gershom

Scholem:

and theMessianic

1. Formulating

Charisma,

Kairos

Dialectic

the Problem

Scholem devoted virtually his entire lifework to the

its origins and impact. His
the
of
Kabbalah,
study
towering
achievement reflects far more than "une vie d'analyse pour un
to modulate
moment
that well-known maxim
de synthese,"
- a
de Coulanges
historian
Fustel
the
classical
coined
by
as a
motto, by the way, that was likewise hardly applicable
even of its author. Roughly
the first fifteen
characterization
a
on
academic
creativity centered
years of Scholem's
Gershom

formidable task: the systematic tracking down and evaluation

libraries and archives. In the
of kabbalistic texts in European
he
assembled
these voluminous materials,
that
followed,
years
of
dint
his
meticulous
accessible
rendered
by
philological
them
into
the
architectonic
grand
fashioning
spadework,
of an
edifice.
Scholem
design
imposing
historiographic
a painstakingly precise picture of the origins and
delineated

transformations of Jewish mysticism, isolated many of itsmajor

and wrote the early
motifs in a series of separate monographs
movement.
of
the
Shabbatean
history
to the data was marked
His
by a rigorous
approach
of
criteria.
Yet
he was far
philological-historical
application
from being a naive positivist and remained quite cognizant of
never trying to conceal
his own metahistorical
presuppositions,
was characteristically and
Scholem's
method
their presence.
stubbornly immune to the intellectual fads of his time. And
there was no lack of such new scholarly vogues during the
course of his long career: one need but recall the obsession of
the "history
a
associations

of
religions"
la Retzenstein,

existentialism,

structuralism,

with
and
school
analogies
the phenomenological
method,
the new hermeneutics,
psycho

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Amos

124

Funkenstein

it is astonishing how
Indeed,
analysis and depth psychology.
on
and
Scholem's
rarely
conceptual
figures
insights leaned
other disciplines; often, they even expressed his negative views
about them. In this light, the echo his work has found in
that continues)
other fields (a reverberation
both within and
more
is
the
studies
of
all
the
Jewish
beyond
pale
astounding,
an impact and resonance
if not paradoxical:
that far exceeds
scholar
since
of the
that of any other
the beginnings
am
I
with
whose
work
familiar.
des
Judentums
Wissenschaft
In the present essay I intend to explore the possible reasons
from the Scholem
echo
this powerful
behind
emanating
oeuvre, as well as his position as representative of a new style
in the Wissenschaft des Judentums - this despite the fact that his
as he himself admitted, was centered solely on
specialist field,
a single (and indeed relatively late) form of expression
of
and
intellect
Jewish spirituality
that lies at the
circumstance
It is precisely this paradoxical
I wish to pose here. Can we find a
heart of the question
- other
on merely
than one
based
cogent
explanation
features

immanent

to

account

for

Scholem's

extraordinary

far
scholarly authority extending
visibility, his
degree
own field - in a word, for his
of
his
the
confines
beyond
scientific charisma}
That charisma remains difficult to explain if we resort only
the internal
to elements
immanent to his field. Admittedly,
assets and advantages of his work as a teacher and scholar
the span of his creative career,
were
immense; yet during
a
were
number of other achievements elsewhere, no less
there
in diverse
and
various
findings
spectacular
pioneering,
to
across
But
of
studies.
the
subfields
gamut
paraphrase
Jewish
than any
Martin Buber: was it not Gershom
Scholem, more
to establish a new
other scholar, who singlehandedly managed
still remains:
If so, the substance of my question
discipline?
the scientific
how was Scholem able to succeed in persuading
was in fact an independent new
his
that
community
specialty
fail in their attempts
discipline? Why did others, for example,
to gain legitimacy for the subfield of the literature of ethical
in its scope, and its
instruction (mussar), equally voluminous
How did it come
as
a
associated movements,
special discipline?
of

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Charisma,

Kairos

and

theMessianic

Dialectic

that a whole cohort in the religious education of Israeli

as
intellectuals during the 1950s and 1960s saw the Kabbalah
the sole living content of Judaism - indeed, that for many of
them Scholem's
constituted
the
presentation of the Kabbalah
concrete
about
and
its
they acquired
Judaism
only
knowledge
for his continuing
traditions? Finally, how can we account
about

influence in the non-Jewish scholarly world and among

the
more
are
These
that
educated
public
questions
generally.
cannot be answered on the basis of his work alone. Insights
can
from the history and
culled
sociology of knowledge
us
to
shed
further
relevant
down
light, bringing
perhaps help
For that reason, I
the path toward an adequate
explanation.
in a reformulated guise,
like to pose
the question
would
social
making use of two key terms borrowed from Weberian
was
of
the
the
dialectical
what
special quality
analysis:
interplay
charisma and
between
of Scholem's work?
2. A Bridge

kairos in the conception

and

reception

toward Actualization

88 of his famous theses "On

the Education
of the
- observations
Race"
that served both Scholem
and
elsewhere as a kind of antithetical foil for
Benjamin
their own ideas about the philosophy of history advancing
that the mystical
remarked
G.
E. Lessing
philosophical
on the nature of the
historical
speculations
Trinity by the
abbot Joachim of Floris in the twelfth century were
Calabrian
"not just some empty whim of fancy."1 In a letter
perhaps
laureate of
written in 1925 to the uncrowned Hebrew
poet
that time, Haim Nachman
Bialik, the young scholar Scholem
adopted a similar tone:
In No.

Human
Walter

At the conclusion
of all these investigations I hope
to
be able to concern myself with what originally induced
me to engage in this research and drove me,
against my
will, to deal with philological
studies, an enterprise
whose
limits I am well aware of - namely to find an
answer

value?

to the question:
have
does
the Kabbalah
a
this
is
Naturally,
question
lying beyond

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any
the

125

Amos

Funkenstein

purview of philology per se; yet the inspired observer

cannot sidestep the query. Without
the slightest sense of
interest
shame, I' confess that it is this philosophical
which will also stand by me during the course of my
historical-philological

research.2

indeed, the young scholar Scholem

already harbored
a change
Kabbalah
that
the
generate
might eventually
hopes
in Jewish studies. In place of the obsessive - and
of paradigm
in Scholem's
view petty-bourgeois
among
preoccupation
historians
and
in
of
the
Jewish
philosophers
religion
nineteenth
rational contents of
century with "dis-enchanted"
Judaism such as halakhah, exegesis and rational reasoning, the
out
to the
held
the promise
of direct access
Kabbalah
and
indeed
romantic
highly
imaginative
mythopoeic,
of Jewish spirituality. And
such access was not
wellsprings
of a
encumbered
by any artificial, ahistorical reconstruction
a
la Berdyczewsky. In
Israelite Urmythos
supposedly submerged
that as a younger scholar he
later years, Scholem
believed
charted a course which constituted a
had, with this approach,
decisive rejection of previously dominant tendencies within the
and a concern with
Wissenschaft des Judentums toward apologia
was
seen
the ways in which Judaism
by others. We may,
And

126

in the wake
of Ernst
recall
the heated
debate,
the purported
lack of
regarding
generalizations
mythopoeic powers in Semitic cultures, about whether the Jews
(or Semites more generally) were endowed with any collective
this pristine power of
imaginative abilities. Scholem discovered
was
and
it
in
the
clear that kabbalism
Kabbalah;
mythopoeia
did not make do with a mere "minimum of a Godhead."
still
In this phase
of his work, Scholem's
thinking was
however,
Renan's

and
of Pico della Mirandola
dominated
by the old hopes
would
Romanticism
that the Kabbalah
German
yield up a
the
the
Kabbalah
had
After
all,
advantage of
prisca philosophia.
- in
contradistinction,
say, to Jewish
being specifically Jewish
in foreign
had
which
always spoken
religious philosophy,
was also
the
Kabbalah
he
idioms.
and
reasoned,
Thus,
tongues
to both
a genuine
alternative
and ossified Jewish orthodoxy.

liberal-rational Kulturjudentum
that reason,
Scholem
For

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Charisma,

Kairos

and

theMessianic

Dialectic

initially fell prey to the temptation of wanting to demonstrate

the antiquity of kabbalistic traditions and texts, most especially
than Adolphe
the Zohar, using more exact philological means
now
with
Franck
had
the
coupled
applied,
bolstering

however, he
origin. Gradually,
hypothesis of autochthonous
himself
from
this
obsessive
for
quest
emancipated
proof of
at
the
Scholem
arrived
originality.
liberating insight that a
in
had
fact
existed, but that there was no
Jewish gnosis
as to whether
the gnostic
definitive answer to the question
tradition as such was of Jewish origin. He noted that the first
kabbalistic texts stemming from the end of the twelfth century
did not perpetuate previous traditions of mystical speculation,
but rather had broken with that legacy, and that the Zohar, as

Graetz had already suspected,

the Jewish historian Heinrich
text authored
was
a
de
by Moses
largely
pseudoepigraphic
were
for
Leon. These
Scholem:
enabled
liberating
they
insights
him to achieve a breakthrough, arriving at a new evaluation of
of
kabbalism and its historical role - a fresh understanding
in its own
the concrete historical relevance of the Kabbalah
time and in ours. And
it was precisely those insights which
to
to a
his
work, opening
up avenues
helped
popularize
broader

readership.

in
initially viewed kabbalism
it
itself
exactly
presented
namely,
as an ancient, autochthonously
evolved tradition. Accordingly,
he viewed it as evolutionary in itsmedieval unfolding, although
revolutionary in its content. But now, with the ensuing shift in
came
to conceive
his perspective,
Scholem
of medieval
a
as
in an altered
kabbalism
of
body
thought and
light:
was
that
he
Nonetheless,
essentially revolutionary.
practice
chose (then and later as well) to leave open and unanswered
a key question as to its roots: had it arisen sua sponte in the
twelfth century, or had kabbalism originated as a result of the
traditional texts of gnostic
discovery of forgotten, subterranean
was
more
The
Kabbalah
provenance?
revolutionary than, for
an
the
of Judaism,
example,
philosophical
interpretation
Thus,

the young Scholem had

the same terms in which

approach
vehemendy
rejected by the early kabbalists as an
undesirable
innovation, since in contrast with Jewish religious
philosophy, kabbalism
sought to conceal the fact that it, too,

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127

Amos Funkenstein

was

translating the
alien language. Yet
the Kabbalah
had
criticism expressed
thirteenth century:

traditional content of Judaism into a totally

of
right from its inception, the opponents
it of Christianizing
accused
tendencies, a
in the polemical
lines penned
in the early

He
[the kabbalist] soiled with his word/ The sanctum of
the Lord
Whatever he put forth/ Is not a penny's worth.
And since he failed in all/ Destruction was his goal:
The "air' he misconstrued/ Much as a bishop would.3

128

to assess the
Let me add that Scholem
did not endeavor
influence on the Kabbalah;
actual scope of Christian
only in
recent years has research been able to shed increasing light
on

this

controversial

dimension.

the early kabbalists

One might wonder whether
themselves
were aware of the revolutionary oudook
in the
embedded
an awareness which coram publico they emphatically
Kabbalah,
denied. Scholem hardly touched on this question; nonetheless,
on

the basis of several indications, there is sufficient evidence

to indicate that the early practitioners of Kabbalah were quite
aware of its almost heretical
it is
implication. On occasion,
as
to
in
it
kabbalists
these
catch
delicto,
early
flagranti
possible

for ancient
traditions.
their disdain
were, openly expressing
Thus, for example, the reversal of the subject in the first verse
into a direct object - as though a being named
of Genesis
- was
had created another being named "God"
"beginning"
as a heretical,
variant
indeed gnostic,
reading, one
regarded
of the Bible
translators
which
the
for the sake of
presumed
the
word
altered
order
had
into Greek
supposedly
now
seized
this
and
kabbalists
the
Yet
upon
intentionally.4
as heresy, as
similar variant readings, previously branded
to transmute heretical
though itwere in their exegetical power
Whether
into
traditions
they were
mysteries.
profound
new
or
in
Scholem's
of being revolutionary
conscious
not,
created
had
indeed
assessment
kabbalists
the medieval
new. In his eyes, the Kabbalah was (to paraphrase a
something
line from Goethe's Faust uttered in self-reference by Mephisto)

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Charisma,

Kairos

and

theMessianic

Dialectic

"Ein Teil von jener Kraft, Die stets das Bdse will und stets das
Gute schafft,,: a movement which always desires the old - and
yet is destined repeatedly to bring forth something new.
This revised assessment by Scholem was accompanied
by a
the ambit of his own evolving
shift in emphasis within
in the mid-1930s,
historical
interests. Beginning
his scholarly
attention came to focus more and more on later kabbalistic
the early modern
If
works and movements
during
period.
more
to
than
Scholem
had done
in
the
engage
nothing
of classical and medieval
texts, supplemented
explication
by
at
more
the
occasional
modern
interpretive
glance
his work would
still stand as an astounding
developments,
edifice
and
achievement.
Yet
its impact and
pioneering
reverberation would not have been as broad and deep. Instead
of the philosophia perennis he had once sought in the Kabbalah,
Scholem now went about demonstrating
its relevance to life in
each respective epoch of history, in particular that of the early
modern
bound
the historical
up with
period.
Closely
were
in
of
the
Kabbalah
the
various
allusions
past
importance
to its contemporary
relevance, here and now. Scholem was
able to persuade
his contemporaries
that it was precisely in
sua res aguntur, since it was only
Lurianic mysticism where
because
of the extreme
of the kabbalistic
consequences
of
Isaac
the
Ashkenazi
"Lion"
of Safed, that
Luria,
teachings
the present-day, quasi-dialectical
(Aujhebung) of
"overcoming"
messianic
within
Zionism
became
i.e., their
hopes
possible:
simultaneous negation and preservation.

Scholem's
in
essay "Redemption
through Sin," published
1937, constituted an external indicator of this new perspective
on evaluating
to facilitate
the
kabbalism,
serving as well
a
to
broader
two
interested
Some
years
breakthrough
public.5
a series of
held
lectures at
the Jewish
after, Scholem
as
Theological
Seminary in New York, subsequendy published
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism
probably his most famous
on
book. A decade
later his monumental
the
monograph
movement
Shabbatean
Sabbatai
Sevi.
The Mystical
appeared:
In the confines of the present article I will not
Messiah.
to
evaluate the concrete scholarly contribution made
attempt
by

these

and

other

studies,

but

intend

to concentrate,

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as

129

Amos

Funkenstein

the interplay between

kairos and
promised,
primarily on
charisma so clearly reflected in these works and their process
of reception.
3. Kairos

and Charisma

130

is Scholem's
characteristic
telling point of departure
a so-called "Jerusalem
In
the
1930s
school" of
terminology.
historical research crystallized at the Hebrew University under
the aegis of Benzion Dinur and Yitzhak Baer. Their program
was
in the first issue of the new historical
spelled out
to free itself from any
Zion.
The
school wished
periodical

toward apologia;
the history of the Jews should be
as Jewish history, i.e., as the history of one and the
interpreted

tendencies

same

organism

and

not,

as

even

in

the

case

of Graetz,

as

the

the same idea. Although

this organism
history of one and
external
its
absorbed
development
impulses,
repeatedly
immanent
also considered
its own
followed
logic. Scholem
to be a member
of this new
school of Jewish
himself
so regarded by others. Thus, his works
was
and
historiography
numerous

contain
"organism,"

"original,"

instances

of

"sovereign"

the

key
and

terms

"spontaneous."

"organic,"
The

as
was conceptualized
of
inventive, capable
being
organism
was endowed with an unlimited
in
and,
particular,
adaptation
the ideal of spontaneity so
potential for creativity. It embodied
familiar to us since Leibniz and Kant, and especially since the
No past achievement
of this collective
Romantic movement.
its essence for all
body had the power to stamp and determine
the supposed
all formulae
time. Accordingly,
regarding
to be carefully scrutinized and
of Judaism deserved
"essence"
that the essence of Judaism in
relativized. Scholem maintained
era
in
the specific products created
be
found
could
any given
at the time by the Jewish spirit and Jewish life, no matter how
the manifestation.
novel and unpredictable
Thus, Yehezkel
the origin of
of
his
had developed
Kaufmann
interpretation
an
as
Israel
in ancient
monotheism
intellectual-spiritual
ex nihilo, a new primal pattern which had created its
mutation
on
laborious
own
Scholem's
forms. And
insight, based
was
a
form of
that the Kabbalah
new, medieval
research,

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Charisma,

Kairos

and

theMessianic

Dialectic

an
as
served
excellent
expression
creative power
the boundless
of
that
new
the
historical
school
to
wished
Finally,

intellectual-spiritual
of
demonstration

"organism."
highlight Israel's relation to Zion, shifting it into the forefront
In keeping with that chord,
of Jewish historical narrative.
Scholem also paid increasing attention to those manifestations
that had made
within
of kabbalism
their appearance
the
historical Land of Israel.
However,

vocabulary,
to
tend

this

alongside

organicist,

we can note another

recur
in Scholem's

131

"domo-centristic''

that
family of key concepts
as
terms
such
writings:

nihilistic"
and
"dialectical,"
"revolutionary,"
"paradoxical,"
"antinomian."
Such concepts were quite alien to the lexicon
to interpret Jewish history
and Baer, who wished
of Dinur
so
to
it
"with
the
speak (to borrow an image
reading
grain,"
while Scholem was intent on reading
that
from Benjamin),

the grain."
His
history "against
conceptual
terminology
the constructive power of the antithetical forces,
underscored
and in its historical roles.
both in the Kabbalah
This is especially true when it comes to Lurianic kabbalism,

that myth of theocosmic drama born in Safed during

the
sixteenth century. In the Lurianic myth of the contraction,
of the Godhead
self-alienation, restoration and redemption
believed he had found what constituted
the
itself, Scholem
most
and
the
albeit
response
original
powerful
by
Jews,
belated, to the series of traumatic events prior to, during and
after their expulsion from Spain (1492). The situation of exile
of the Jewish people,
its alienation from its homeland, became
here a symbol of the path and unfolding of the Godhead
itself, as well as the final station on the cosmic itinerary. The
Godhead
itself, plagued by the "roots of severity" in its own
is caught up in a cathartic process of self
primal being,
alienation.

With

redeemed,

returning

Kabbalah

was

the

to

of Israel, it too will be

redemption
to its purified original being. If medieval

certain

extent

an

anatomy

of

God

speculative attempt to determine and influence the interplay

and counterpoint of divine forces - Lurianic Kabbalah was a
in the life of the
biography of God, recounting a catastrophe
and the slow, almost automatic overcoming of that
Godhead

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Amos

Funkenstein

catastrophe.
generation

In
this metahistorical
found
consolation

the
myth,
and
fuel

post-exilic
their
for

hopes.
eschatalogical
The most
in the modern
era,
powerful messianic movement
that of the false messiah
Shabbatai
Zevi (1665-66), was also
within the framework of
given its ideological
underpinning
Lurianic
After
Zevi's
the
symbolism.
apostasy from Judaism,

132

antinomian,

law-negating

characteristics

of

the movement

came

clearly to the fore: thus it was that orthodox Judaism, on the

eve of a wave of secularization
that would be propelled by the
and emancipation,
had in fact been
forces of enlightenment
at an even earlier date by another process - from
undermined
from latent to overt
within, so to speak. This development
antinomianism
is quite evident when viewed in terms of the

in
history of the motif "redemption
through sin." Already
in Scholem's
famous
Lurianic Kabbalah
(a point overlooked
it had played a certain secondary role, albeit
1937 article)
to
earliest eras of the history of Israel. In order
the
relegated
to rescue an especially valuable soul from the clutches of the
- the
of impurity the forces of light
powers
kelippot
a
ruse:
to
resort
that this soul is
they pretend
occasionally
for
in
the
world
for
used
Thus,
purposes.
impure
being
was born as the result of a forbidden act
Abraham
example,
of

sexual

intercourse.6

However,

according

to

Lurianic

narrative, the event had taken place exclusively at a remote

remove in time, in the mythical primal era, in illo tempore,and
as a suggestion relevant to the
certainly cannot be conceived
present. Yet Shabbatai Zevi, and even more so followers of the

theology of Jakob Frank, did in fact interpret this

principle as providing concrete justification for contemporary
In a
acts in violation of the law - as a means of redemption.
can
more
also
be
found
the
attenuated
form,
milder,
principle
- for
of Bratslav
in Hasidism
example, when Rabbi Nahman
one
is like
even
who
the
commands,
"righteous
permits, and
to
to
what
is
forbidden
do
Moses"
everyone else,
stricdy
the realm of
to descend
into that "empty space,"
namely
and
radical skepticism, wordlessness
melancholy.7
of
relevance
the contemporary
viewed
Scholem
Thus,
a
as
a
Lurianic Kabbalah
preparation
paidagogos heis Christon,
nihilistic

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Charisma,

Kairos

and

theMessianic

Dialectic

The
the
for Shabbatean
messianism.
achievement
of
for Jewish history was truly dialectical:
Shabbatean movement
at the same time
the messianic
it preserved
idea, while
it
With
that
Shabbateanism
destruction,
destroying
completely.
the way for the dissolution
of normative
also prepared
an
there
is
additional
Yet
dialectical
aspect here
Judaism.
- a
and
of
(Scholem's)
present
point
interplay, as
uniting past
I see it, between kairos and charisma. Scholem's
view of history
was shaped significandy in the late 1930s and 1940s. As such,
of contemporary
relevance it took on another dimension
one that was immediate and fully in keeping with Scholem's
intentions.

for redemption
The analogy between the national movement
then and now, at the burning edge and in the wake of the
was obvious. The early Christian community
(as
catastrophe,
as the Dead
sect of Essenes)
to
Sea
had wished
well
of
Bible
and
the
the
had
story
eschatalogically
"decipher"
in the desert as the prefiguration of
viewed Israel wandering
own
its
self, typos hemon, in both a positive and a negative
sense. Both stood confronted with a new world:
the former
were blind, faltering, representative of the old world;
the
latter, however, were enlightened and just, a true avant-garde
of the new age in the midst of a decrepit order rushing
toward its final end - quia festinans festinat saeculum
headlong
(and
eyes, the Shabbatean movement
pertransire. In Scholem's
was
likewise a prefiguring of Zionism
its later developments)
in a double
sense, positive and negative. Both were national
movements
for redemption,
nurtured
than a
by more
were
Both
led
thousand years of messianic
expectations.
by a
a
were
Both
self-styled elite,
self-appointed avant-garde.
poised
over the abyss of a catastrophe, walking a dangerous tightrope.
secularization
Both were propelling
forward, whether
they
to
or
not.
intended
But
while
the Shabbateans
consciously
longed for an end to history, a release from history for the

Jewish people, Zionism desired the very opposite: namely, the

reentry of Jews onto history's stage here and now, in this
the former dreamed
world. Whereas
their eschatalogical
acted
latter
in
the
the
midst
of the world.
dreams,
concretely
own
the
While
Shabbateans
their
ultimate
prepared

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133

Amos

Funkenstein

a real, albeit
had
Zionism
limited, concrete
destruction,
must
at
in the
have appeared
least that is how it
chance
to
had
the
within
the
1930s, when Zionism
operate
ability
it
would actually continue
framework of the possible. Whether
to do so was something Scholem, a founder of the circle Brit

134

not

could

Shalom,

know

or

even

surmise.

Moreover,

no

one

at

the time could know whether the entire enterprise of Zionism,

in Europe, might
and indeed the whole of the Jewish people
not perish in the inferno of National Socialist destruction. But
that
the comparison
with Shabbateanism
it was precisely
a
of
the
chance for
Zionist
the existence
underscored
possible
I am using the term
construction. And
project of national
sense in its Weberian
here quite
''chance"
consciously
as
a
for
social
that
action
presents itself in
namely,
possibility
on
rational
is
and
based
calculation.
society
a rough
to present
sketch of the
I have
attempted
transformations of the motif "redemption
through sin." There
is a related and surprising variant of this conception deriving
in the twentieth
of orthodox
from the matrix
thinking
was
not
it
burdened
with the
century, though quite naturally
to his positive attitude
loaded label of such redemption. Due

and its settiement project, the

toward the Zionist movement
Isaac Hacohen
Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Abraham
Kook, often
became
the target of vehement verbal attacks during the 1920s
and 1930s within his own, stricdy orthodox
circles, and on
was

occasion

even

singled

out

for

harsh

condemnation.

Kook

were
the Zionist
halutzim,
pioneers,
for
the
way
Subjectively, he
redemption.
precursors
paving
were
to
and
the Torah
of
them
all
noted, virtually
opposed
thus were sinners against halakhic law. Yet, Kook reasoned, the
was utilizing their zeal in order, despite
cunning of Providence
and that of the
to
their redemption
both
hasten
everything,
land; accordingly, the Zionist enterprise was holy in its nature,
were
not children
of
Kook maintained,
and
they, Rabbi
scattered sparks from the
darkness, but rather represented
asserted

that

the

kelippat noga.
view of the
How
similar and yet different was Scholem's
to
was diametrically opposed
It
land"!
of
the
"redemption
that
Scholem
Kook's
Rabbi
precisely
argued
reasoning.

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Charisma, Kairos and theMessianic Dialectic

the secularization
Zionism
had
arisen from
and
not
it
destruction of messianic
(but
sentiments),
conceptions
had a genuine chance. Zionism's opportunity consisted in the
abandoned
fact that it had
messianism
but was making
use
messianic
of
accumulated
urges. Which brings us
cunning
to a discussion
of Scholem's
attitude
toward
fundamental

because

messianism.

4. Dialectical

135

Messianism

movement
the Shabbatean
lay in the fact
the
of
sacral
Jewish life, it
apotheosis
proclaiming
to
render
that
life
and
acted
fully profane
simultaneously
of a realistically oriented,
secular, facilitating the emergence
movement
from
the
liberated
secularized
redemption
The

dialectic

of

that, while

dreams: "the cunning of

encumbering
baggage of messianic
reason is that it adopts the passions of individuals."8 But from
a distinctive
Zionism also maintained
Scholem's
perspective,
relation with the tradition of messianic
and unique dialectical
- at the same time
and movements
reaffirming
conceptions
and rejecting it, it was both constructive and destructive in its
use of the accumulated
thrust. Zionism made
energy of

without
messianic
expectations
toward the end of his life was
emergent dynamism of the Gush
is why
in the West Bank). This
concrete

and

genuine

itself being messianic

(only
able to witness the
Scholem
Emunim
setders' movement
Zionism represented a real,

chance.

to compare
It is instructive at this juncture
Scholem's
two other
widi
metahistorical
conceptions
contemporary
no less dialectical
in nature,
interpretations of messianism,
and Walter Benjamin.
In
namely those of Franz Rosenzweig
view, Judaism had long since arrived at the goal
Rosenzweig's
which other peoples
(i.e. Christianity) were still striving to
attain. Phrased differendy, the messianic
element - what is
in messianism
and permanent
valuable
is, Rosenzweig
to a higher
but
the
present extrapolated
suggested, nothing
power,

and

now

philosophy

that-which-has-always-been-eternally-present,

in purified form.9 In Benjamin's

theses
of history,
the messianic
dimension

the

here

on
is

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the
the

Amos Funkenstein

136

opportunity, constantly present and repeatedly lost, the wind

blowing out from paradise behind our backs, that-which-has
i.e. the past enhanced,
raised to a
become-eternalty-impossible,
I
that
these
famous
the
theses
way,
suspect
higher power. By
on history, as well as Scholem's
non-historical
theses on the
in a consciously antithetical relation
Kabbalah, were conceived
to Lessing's
theses on the philosophy
of history referred to
earlier - namely, the dream of a third, eternal covenant which
was

no

mere

"whim

of

fancy."

the positive core of messianism

Scholem,
only became
in
visible
after
its
Shabbateanism
destruction
apparent
clearly
and Frankism: messianism now existed, albeit in a tamed form,
a concrete
had
become
within
the framework of what
of
In
realistic
the
the
my view,
planning
future.
possibility,
For

these

three

eternally-present

impossible
(Scholem)
trialogues

modes

of messianism
(Rosenzweig),

that-which-has-always-been

that-which-has-become-eternally

and that-which-has-now-become-possible
(Benjamin)
fruitful
represent one of the last and most
of Germanjewish
intellectual
in
the history

discourse.

I have spoken at length about the 1930s and 1940s. But how
can we account
for the continued
fascination generated
by
Scholem's oeuvre in later decades, and particularly among that
or brought up in Israel after the
generation of Israelis born
of the state? For these, Scholem
establishment
conjured up
the welcome
image of a Judaism that was creative, thoroughly
authentic and not-merely-halakhic. This and more: he invited
them to embark upon an adventure of discovery, the creative
a
a
of
reconstruction
world,
symbolic
mythopoeic
was
to
earlier creative
reconstructive enterprise that
fully equal
endeavors - a contemporary form of Jewish creativity. On
top
view of history suggested that the crucial
of this, Scholem's
was
indeed
secularization
contrast between
tradition and
not
in nature
dialectical
interactive, and
merely antithetical.
to
an interesting question
be
for research would
Indeed,
the extent and scope of kabbalistic
explore
in
fiction and poetry of the 1950s
Israeli
symbolism
and 1960s, particularly among writers who otherwise adopted a
somewhat distant relation to Judaism such as Nathan Zach. A

determine

and

motifs and

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Charisma,

Kairos

and

theMessianic

Dialectic

further related task is the investigation of the German

poet
Paul Celan's
and the symbolism of the
relation to Scholem
are by no means
isolated phenomena,
Kabbalah.
but
These
remain symptomatic of the age.
It is also necessary to explain the attraction which Scholem's
intellectuals and its impact
opus has had for other, nonjewish
on more removed scholarly disciplines. When, after World War
II, the interest in Judaism and its forms of expression became
manifest in circles beyond the immediate compass of Jews and
- this for the first time since the humanism
Jewish scholarship
of the sixteenth century - Scholem's
image of the Kabbalah
offered a rich, heavily nuanced
language woven of symbolism,
one
the stamp of
and
that bore
tradition,
speculation
contrast to the wooden,
in marked
authenticity. This was
universal and saccharine forms of traditional Jewish philosophy
or the literature of moral edification; it also differed from the
legalistic edifice presented by orthodox Judaism, which did not
ex officio,nor
generate any formulae or worldviews whatsoever

to do so.
Finally, a further reason for fascination with the Scholem
oeuvre should be mentioned,
despite the difficulties in trying
to grasp it in precise
terms. This element
is very general,
almost trivial in character, so that it would appear to be valid
universally, serving to motivate an attitude of identificational
as well
as distanced
involvement
observation.
Everything
a
exercises
certain fascination on human beings.
mysterious
The attraction to decipher
strange mysteries is all the more
a
irresistible when it involves
system imbued with the aura of
an
ancient
entire
tradition,
corpus of secret and esoteric
even have
In
such
the scholar may
cases,
knowledge.
common
true in
in
with
the
This
holds
voyeur.
something
to
far
less
terrain
than
that
respect
imposing
represented by
kabbalism. Studies dealing with freemasonry, for example, are
consumed with as great an ardor as they are written. Yet the
motivating force behind such curiosity is not merely a desire
to reveal what was hidden, to remove a mask or lift a veil. In
wished

the

there always
lurks the faint hope
of
background
a
in
buried
such
fields
of
esoterica,
unearthing
precious gem
a motivation
to in candid
terms by Scholem
alluded
in his

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137

Amos

Funkenstein

cited above. Arguably, this is a quite legitimate

it
remains one of the most original and basic of
indeed,
urge;
all knowledge
and the thirst for its
motivations underpinning
revelation. After all, is not the uncovering of a secret - i.e. dis
- the
covery in its literal sense
pure Urbild of any and all
letter to Bialik

138

modes of understanding?
can
in academia
influence
also
Scholem's
be
lasting
in terms of the degree
of
of institutionalization
measured
is the only sure
kabbalistic studies. Indeed, institutionalization
criterion for assessing whether a particular subfield has gained
In many
the status of a separate and independent discipline.
institutes of Jewish studies, we now find as many chairs for the
as for the history of Jewish philosophy.
history of the Kabbalah
has
become
chair
for the history of the Kabbalah
A
of
for
institution
every
learning
today
higher
indispensable
where Jewish studies are seriously pursued.
Supply does not
but also stimulates it, thus creating a
only follow demand
and
for scholarly dispute
interaction. The
critical mass
of charisma,, can most certainly be seen
"institutionalization
in Scholem's

manifest

5. By Way

successors,

in bonam

et malam

partem.

of Conclusion

Our original question was: how was Scholem able to anchor

and maintain his charisma as a scholar? In part, we have seen,
as a result of the consistency of the
this proved possible
he
intellectual
dramatic
history which
portrait of Jewish
In Scholem's
and for which he provided evidence.
delineated
was shaped by the circumstances
interpretation, the Kabbalah
in
it
those
which
of the times
arose; yet it also acted to mold
course
same circumstances,
the
of
Jewish history,
influencing
sometimes even decisively. We have also seen that this unified,
on occasion,
of
and persuasive
self-contained
picture was,

relevance for interpreting and dealing with the

to history by
violence
immediate present - without doing
this
I
labeled
have
anachronisms.
harsh
correspondence
interest in Scholem,
between
scholarly and present-oriented
and among his public, the dimension of kairos, without which
was also
there can be no charisma. Yet this correspondence
tremendous

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Charisma,

Kairos

and

theMessianic

Dialectic

at times
in terms of Scholem's
vision of a
articulated
dialectical messianism. As Rosenzweig once noted in respect to
an
also
Scholem
possessed
"incredibly
bright
Hegel,
of time." This
consciousness
his
consciousness
permeated
a
of
him
role
of
intellectual
eminence.
history, assuring
image
was not
out by Scholem
view of history mapped
The
and sparked critique both during his lifetime
uncontroversial
and after his death. Most
attacked
recently, it has been
in
connection
with
the
contemporary
precisely
alleged
Has kabbalism really served as an
relevance of the Kabbalah.
answer, since the sixteenth century, to messianic
urges? In
actual fact, did Shabbateanism
function to pave the way for
the Enlightenment?
Is the history of the Kabbalah merely the
tradition of its texts and views - or rather the history of
unwritten theurgic and meditative practices? In regard to such
controversies,

can

one

demonstrate

that

Scholem

anticipated

the standpoint of his apparent critics, demonstrating

that what
is at issue is litde more
than a matter of emphasis?
This much
abound.
remains
clear: Gershom
Questions
Scholem
relished controversy; he saw it as living proof of the
In this spirit, it is fitting to recall the
vitality of his discipline.
words
of
Solomon
Maimon,
closing
Enlightenment
philo
in
his
Versuch
uber
die
sopher,
Transzendentalphilosophie. "Our
Talmudists
ideas at times
(who most
certainly expressed
a
of
said:
'The
of
wisdom
find no repose,
Plato)
worthy
pupils
neither in this life nor in any future one.' To which they then
relate the words of the Psalmist (84.8):
'They go from strength
"
to strength, Every one of them appears before God in Zion.'
Translated from the German byBill Tempter

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139

Amos

Funkenstein

Notes

140

Die Erziehung des Menschen

Ephraim
Lessing,
in
Sdmtliche
Werke
(Leipzig, 1841), 945.
geschlechts,
2 Gershom
Scholem, Devarim be-Go (English title: Explications
and Implications: Writings on Jewish Heritage and Renaissance)
(Tel Aviv, 1975), 63.
of the Kabbalah)
Reshit ha-Kabbalah
3 Scholem,
(Origins
Not
in
the (expanded)
154.
included
(Jerusalem, 1948),
German version or in its English translation.
1 Gotthold

Talmud, Megillah 8a.

as
translated
ha-Ba'ah
"Mitzvah
baAverah,"
in
in
The
Idea
Messianic
idem,
through Sin,"
"Redemption
78-141.
Judaism (New York, 1971),
6 J. Tishby, Torat ha-Ra ve-ha-Kelippah be-Kabbalat ha-Ari (The
of Luria)
doctrine of evil and the kelippah in the Kabbalah

4 Babylonian
5 Scholem,

(Jerusalem, 1942), 131.

of Bratslav, Likkutei ha-Moharan
7 Nahman
(Anthology of
78a-80a.
1930),
writings) (Jerusalem,
8 G. W. F. Hegel, Philosophie der Geschichte, ed. F. Brunstadt
(Reclam, 1961), 61, 65, 69, 78. See also my Theology and the
to the Seventeenth
Scientific Imagination from theMiddle Ages
Century (Princeton, 1986), 204.
on
9 See my article, "An Escape from History: Rosenzweig
the Destiny of Judaism," History 6f Memory 2, no. 2 (Winter
1990): 117-35.

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