Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography

241 Pages·2017·2.79 MB·English

by  Amir Engel

Gershom Scholem
Studies in German- Jewish Cultural History and Literature
Editor: Paul Mendes-Flohr
Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Established in 1990 at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Franz Rosenzweig
Minerva Research Center is funded by the Minerva Foundation, Munich, and the
Ministry of Research and Technology of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Named after the German- Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig (1886– 1929), whose
life and work are deemed emblematic of the German- Jewish cultural legacy, the Center
seeks to honor the cultural achievements of German- speaking Jewry from the Middle
Ages until the Shoah, and its subsequent reconstruction. Through its ramified research
projects, the Center also endeavors to examine the “culture of modernity” through the
prism of German- Jewish cultural and literary history.
Frontispiece. Scholem in his apartment in Jerusalem, mid-1 920s. Photo by Erich
Brauer. Courtesy of the family.

Gershom Scholem
An Intellectual Biography
Amir Engel
The University of Chicago Press Chicago & London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2017 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations
in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the
University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2017.
Printed in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 42863- 5 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 42877- 2 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226428772.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Engel, Amir, author.
Title: Gershom Scholem : an intellectual biography / Amir Engel.
Other titles: Studies in German- Jewish cultural history and literature (Chicago, Ill.)
Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. | Series: Studies in
German- Jewish cultural history and literature / Franz Rosenzweig Minerva
Research Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Identifiers: LCCN 2016019388 | ISBN 9780226428635 (cloth : alk. paper) |
iSBN 9780226428772 (e- book)
Subjects: LCSH: Scholem, Gershom, 1897– 1982. | Jewish scholars—
Germany— Biography. | Jewish scholars— Israel— Biography. | Zionism— History—
20th century. | Mysticism— Judaism.
Classification: LCC BM755.S295 E54 2017 | DDC 296.092 [B] — dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016019388
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
To Ayelet

C o n t e n t s
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
1 · The Stories of Gershom Scholem 1
2 · Writing the Myth of Exile: In Search of
Political Rejuvenation, 1913– 1918 26
3 · Messianism as Symbol: The Lurianic School and the Emergence of
a Mystical- Political Society 62
4 · When a Dream Comes True: Zionist Politics in Palestine, 1923– 1931 94
5 · Against All Odds: Sabbatean Belief and the Sabbatean Movement 124
6 · For the Love of Israel: The Turn from the Fringe to
the Mainstream of Zionist Thinking 168
7 · The Man and the Image 199
Index 215