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Amos
Funkenstein
Gershom
Scholem:
and theMessianic
1. Formulating
Charisma,
Kairos
Dialectic
the Problem
of
religions"
la Retzenstein,
existentialism,
structuralism,
with
and
school
analogies
the phenomenological
method,
the new hermeneutics,
psycho
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
Charisma,
Kairos
and
theMessianic
Dialectic
and
reception
toward Actualization
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
any
the
125
Amos
Funkenstein
research.2
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
Charisma,
Kairos
and
theMessianic
Dialectic
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
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,
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,
127
Amos Funkenstein
was
translating the
alien language. Yet
the Kabbalah
had
criticism expressed
thirteenth century:
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.
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)
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,
as
129
Amos
Funkenstein
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
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,
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,
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,
With
redeemed,
returning
Kabbalah
was
the
to
certain
extent
an
anatomy
of
God
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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,
the
here
on
is
the
the
Amos Funkenstein
136
no
mere
"whim
of
fancy."
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
Charisma,
Kairos
and
theMessianic
Dialectic
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
137
Amos
Funkenstein
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
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
139
Amos
Funkenstein
Notes
140
4 Babylonian
5 Scholem,