Good Condition
Gershom Scholem was the master builder of historical studies of the Kabbalah. When he began to work on this neglected field, the few who studied these texts were either amateurs who were looking for occult wisdom, or old-style Kabbalists who were seeking guidance on their spiritual journeys. His work broke with the outlook of the scholars of the previous century in Judaica--die Wissenschaft des Judentums, the Science of Judaism--whose orientation he rejected, calling their "disregard for the most vital aspects of the Jewish people as a collective entity: a form of "censorship of the Jewish past." The major founders of modern Jewish historical studies in the 19th century, Leopold Zunz & Abraham Geiger, had ignored the Kabbalah; it did not fit into their account of the Jewish religion as rational & worthy of respect by enlightened minds. The only exception was the historian Heinrich Graetz. He'd paid substantial attention to its texts & to their most explosive exponent, the false Messiah Sabbatai Zevi, but Graetz had depicted the Kabbalah & all that flowed from it as an unworthy revolt from the underground of Jewish life against its reasonable, law-abiding & learned mainstream. Scholem conducted a continuing polemic with Zunz, Geiger & Graetz by bringing into view a Jewish past more varied, more vital & more interesting than any idealized portrait could reveal.--Arthur Hertzberg, 1995
Publication Data:
Author(s): Gershom Scholem
Publisher: Shocken Books
Pages: 348
Language: en
Category: Religion and Spirituality
Genre: Judaism -- Addresses, essays, lectures., Messiah.
ISBN: 0042960037
Condition Note:
NO DUST JACKET. PAGES SLIGHTLY YELLOWING. Sold by the U.K Charity Kisharon Langdon. Offering Opportunities and Support for People within the Autism and Learning Disability Community.