Mysticism, History, and a "New" Kabbalah
Gershom Scholem and the Contemporary Scene
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5348347 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shaul Magid (0000-0001-8125-6240, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 101 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 511-525 |
| Publication date | 2011-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Jewish Quarterly Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-6682 • E-ISSN: 1553-0604 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/jqr.2011.0032 |
| OpenAlex | W1965407400 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 15 |
The academic discipline of Jewish mysticism has become one of the most robust in the field of Jewish Studies. Rarely has there been a disciple in the academy that has been so dominated by one individual, in this case Gershom Scholem. Scholem not only initiated the field, he also drew its boundaries and set the terms of scholarly method and debate. And, he became a subject in the field as well as a contributor. This essay explores Scholem's ideas about contemporary Kabbalah and his "invested scholarship" as part of his larger cultural project of reconstructing Jewish existence through secularism and Zionism. I argue that Scholem's denial of the possibility of authentic Kabbalah in the contemporary world was founded on his commitment to secularism (in the form of Zionism) as the only way Jews - and Judaism - could survive. Ultra-Orthodoxy, the community where "authentic" Kabbalah was housed, was, for Scholem a relic of the past that would eventually disappear or become irrelevant. On this Scholem was mistaken. This essay explores the ways in which scholars of Kabbalah have emerged from Scholem's shadow in light of that fact and begun to take contemporary Kabbalah seriously. They have also challenged his larger historiographic and Zionist agenda and, by expanding the methods and theories deployed to analyze kabbalistic works, have shed new light on Kabbalah, not only as Jewish metaphysics but as a producer of cultural capital in Israel and the Diaspora
Islam · Jewish history · Jewish mysticism · Jewish studies · Judaism · Kabbalah · Political science · Scholarship · Secularism · Theology · Theosophy · Zionism · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Jewish Identity and Society · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Violence, Religion, and Philosophy
Zakhor, Jewish history and Jewish memory
Gershom Scholem
“Gershom Scholem's Ambivalence Toward Mystical Experience and His Critique of Martin Buber in Light of Hans Jonas and Martin Heidegger”
Introduction. Kabbalah And Modernity
The Book in the Jewish World, 1700-1900
Public Religions in the Modern World
Formations of the Secular
Presenting and Representing Gershom Scholem
Ask No Questions
Rabbinism Versus Kabbalism
The Modernization of Kabbalah
Religion after Religion
The New Age of Kabbalah
Yosef H. Yerushalmi's Zakhor- Some Observations
Toward a New History of Sufism
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |