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Messianism in the Early Work of Gershom Scholem

Author(s): Michael Lwy, Gershom Scholem, Michael Richardson

Source: New German Critique, No. 83, Special Issue on Walter Benjamin, (Spring - Summer,

2001), pp. 177-191

Published by: New German Critique

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/827793

Accessed: 11/04/2008 17:46

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Messianism in theEarly Workof GershomScholem

MichaelLowyGershomScholem is a shiningexampleof the modem Jewish intel-lectual. He is neithera Talmudistnor a Rabbi,much less a prophet.Moremodestly:he is a historian,a man of science, of the universitygifted, however,with what spiritualenergy!A - critical- son of the

Haskalaand a thinkerwho, to be sure, gave up traditionalorthodoxbelief with its ritualsand taboos, and yet, in his own way, remainedreligious.He is thereforealso a modem Jewish intellectualbecause heis assimilated stampedby Germanculture,despitehis revolt againstassimilationand his struggle or dissimilation to use the termcoinedbyFranzRosenzwieg)and despitehis Zionism,which in 1923 led him toemigrate o Jerusalem.Still Scholemalso belongs to thatcategoryof the modem intellectual- Jewish or non-Jewish - who painfully experiences the disenchant-ment of the world, that, accordingto Max Weber, is characteristicofmodernity.For this reasonhe is stronglyattractedo the Romanticcri-tique of modernity, to the Romantic protest - practiced in the name ofculturalor religiousvalues of the past - against(Weberian) nstrumen-tal rationalityand against the quantificationand reificationthat stemfrom bourgeois-industrialmodernity.He participatesn this broadcur-rent of a moder critique of modernitythat is inspiredby GermanRomanticismandthatsees, in myth, in history,or in religion,a way tocombat his loss of meaning.Like otherRomantics,Scholemis also too modem to simplyfall back

177


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178 Messianism n theEarly Work f GershomScholem

on the past:he can no longerbelive in the Kabbala or in the immi-nentreturnof the Messiah- in the way his ancestorsdid. His strategyfor the reenchantment f the world is world-immanent:e becomes thehistorian of the Kabbalaand of Messianism,and throughthis media-tion allows the fascinatingspiritualmagic of the Jewish mysticism ofbygonecenturies o riseagain.Gershom Scholem's work is not only a singularmonument of themodernistwriting of history, it also opens a new perspectiveon theJewishreligioustradition, ince it restores o it the messianic andapoca-lyptic dimension thatwas ignoredby the rationalist-liberaliew of theWissenschaftdes Judentumsand Germansociology. Max Weber andWernerSombartsaw the spiritof Judaismmerely as calculatingratio-nality:Scholempointedto the subterranean,mystical,heretical,messi-anic,andutopiancurrentsn thehistoryof Judaism.1BackgroundandInfluencesBorninto a petit-bourgeois, ssimilatedBerlinfamily,Scholemat firstsoakedup Germanculture; n his youth he favoredthe Romanticandneo-Romanticwriters:JeanPaul,Novalis, M6rike,StefanGeorge,PaulScheerbart.2t is highly indicative hat the firstbook aboutthe Kabbalathathe studiedand thatwould have a considerablenfluenceon him isthe workof the ChristianTheosophandGermanRomanticFranzJosephMolitor:Philosophieder Geschichteoder iiberdie Tradition publishedbetween 1827 and 1853). In variousautobiographicalexts he refers tothe "deep insights"of this authorand to the "fascinatingeffect" thatMolitor's book had on him. Althoughhe rejected the christologicalspeculationsof this "followerof the RomanticphilosophersSchellingand Baader,"he nonethelesspronounced hat Molitorhad "understood

1. It would be incorrect o use the conceptof "millenialism" ere,since it corre-spondsto a Christianerminology chiasmusor the "millenium"f which the new testa-mentspeaks.2. In his dissertationThe Demonicin History, DavidBiale argues hatBuber andScholemfound n a specificsortof Romanticism uniqueWeltanschuunghat nfluencedtheirwholewayof thinking.In his opinionScholem'ssympathy or aparticularendencyinside GermanRomanticismplayeda decisiverole in his intellectualdevelopment,bothin the field of philosophyandof historiography.David Biale, The Demonic in History.GershomScholemand the RevisionofJewishHistoriography,DoctoralDissertation.LosAngeles:U of California,1977) 17.In a conversationwith me Scholemconfirmedhis interest n Romanticismn his earlyyears,but explicitlyforbadeany interpretationf his work thatwouldput the accentonGermannsteadof the Jewish-Hebrewources.


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MichaelLowy 179

the Kabbalabetter than the highest religious Jewish authorities[Ged-olei Hochmat srael]of his time."3Soon the young Scholemwouldrebelagainstthe assimilation-friendlyideologyof his family- his father hrewhim out of theirhouse becauseof his "antipatriotic"tance duringthe war! - in that he turnedto thesourcesof Judaism,"in search of the tradition ost to my social circle,that attractedme with its greatmagic."4This search ed him, on the onehand- first underthe influenceof MartinBuber- to a studyof Jewishmysticism,andon the other,to Zionism.His not-orthodox eligiousatti-tudebringshim close to Buber,yet his Zionismis moreradical:he pas-sionately repudiatesthe Jewish-Germancultural symbiosis, and thisrefusal would ultimatelydistancehim as much from Martin Buber asfrom FranzRosenzweig.Timeof BildungScholem's diaries from 1913-1917 (publishedin 1995) allow us toreconstruct he developmentof his ideas and the extraordinaryntellec-tualvitalitythatcharacterizeshisphaseof Bildung[education].This document ransplants s rightin the middle of a Bildung-labora-tory, in which religionandrevolution,Zionist dreamand anarchistuto-pia, German Romanticisimand Jewish mysticism, KierkegaardandMartinBuber,mix and react with each other. These diariescontain notonly the rawmaterial romhis two well-knownautobiographical orks,WalterBenjamin.Geschichteeiner Freundschaftand VonBerlin nachJerusalem,but also an astonishingchronicleof encountersandreadings,enrichedwithphilosophical, olitical,andreligious rainsof thought.

In thesepages one witnesses the formation f a rebelliousJewishcon-sciousness, thatrevoltsagainstthe worldwar, againsta solidly middle-class Jewish-Germanociety, and even againstthe rulingZionist con-formism.Despite his precociousand enthusiastic urn towardsZionism,which he comprehends s a revolutionarymovement,Scholem does not3. The firstcitationstems from a 1937 letterto SalmanSchocken,citedby DavidBiale in GershomScholem: Kabbala and Counter-History.Biale, Gershom Scholem:Kabbala and Counter-History Cambridge:HarvardUP, 1979) 216. (This book is arevised and improvedversion of his dissertation,TheDemonic in History.)The secondquotecomes fromtheHebrewversionof Scholem'sautobiography,Mi-BerlinLe-Yerush-alaym - which is more complete than the various Europeantranslations.GershomScholem,Mi-BerlinLe-YerushalaymTelAviv: Am Oved,1982) 127.4. Scholem, Von Berlin nach Jerusalem.JugenderinnerungenFrankfurt/Main:Suhrkamp, 977)68.


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180 Messianism in the Early Workof Gershom Scholem

conceal his hostile stance towards its founding father:WerejectHerzl.He is toblamefor theZionismof today [... ]whichisanorganization f grocers,whogrovelbeforeeveryonepowerful![ ..]His onlythoughtwasthe JewishState.And this we reject.Because wepreachanarchy.That s: we do not want a state,but rathera freesoci-ety (with which Herzl'sAltneulandhas nothingto do!). We as Jewsknow enoughaboutthehorrendousdol-state,as thatto whichwe aresupposed o submit n order o worship t andbring t ouroffspringaswelcomesacrifice o its greedandlust forpower.5

It is remarkable how very similar this critique of Herzl is to that ofanother "libertarianZionist" Bernard Lazare, whom Scholem undoubt-edly did not know at this time.All of these pages are stamped by the reading of the Bible and of theGerman Romantics6 - as well as by Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. After areading of an Eichendorff novel Scholem exclaims:

This shows how deeplywe belongto Romanticism:hatwe can takeinall the oscillationsandmovementsof Romanticism o fully andcom-pletely,with all theirvarietyandthegreathalo ofjoy that s overit.7As a strict opppent of the war, Scholem shares. along with his brotherWerner (who would later become a communist representative) and withWalter Benjamin (whom he meets in 1915), tremendous sympathy forthe antimilitaristic standpoint of Karl Liebknecht. We must, he writes

despairingly in his journal, run against the wall until it collapses...Very early on, the young rebel becomes interested in mysticism, but

not yet in the Kabbala: In a note from 1916 he evokes a history of mys-ticism from Lao-Tse, Plotinus, and Meister Eckhart to the GermanRomantics, Schelling, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Rilke, and Martin Buber(the only Jewish author in this list!). During the years of 1914 and 1915he primarily understands himself as a student of Buber, whose rediscov-ery of Hassidism and Jewish Mysticism he praises. "In Judaism - up tothat point the classical religion of rationalism, of rational calculation -he discovered the irrational, emotion, and longing, which is the mother

5. Scholem,entryfrom 20 Jan.1915, TagebiichernebstAufsdtzenundEntwiirfenbis 1923. 1. Halbband1913-1917,ed. KarlfriedGriinder nd FriedrichNiew6hner,withHerbertKopp-OberstebrinkFrankfurtMain:JiidischerVerlag,1995)81 .6. Scholem,Tagebiicher1: 157.7. Scholem,Tagebiicher1: 215.


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Michael Lowy 181

of renewal."8Still, underthe influence of WalterBenjamin,he contin-ued to distancehimself from this firstmaster,whom he reproaches orhis unclearstance towardsWorldWarI9 and,strikingmoredeeply,hishazy ideologyof "experience"Erlebnis].Around 1917 he begins to discover the Kabbala. One of the lastentries in this diary alreadyhints at what is to come: "The theory oflanguageof the Kabbalahas to this day found no worthy nterpreter.OhGerhardScholem,what all wouldyouhaveto do?"

Attractionof the KabbalaScholem's great originalityas a historian consisted in discovering,or rather,rediscovering,a nearlycompletelyforgottenarea of the reli-gious traditionof Judaism- the mystical teachings from the Kabbalaup to the heretical Messianism of the SabbataiZwi. In his first articleon the Kabbala from 1921 he praises the magical, "unbourgeois,explosive"characterof the Jewishtradition.11n contrast o Buber,hetakes a decidedly historicistapproach:n historyhe finds an adequateculturalanswer to the cold and abstractrationalismof the bourgeoisworld. It is indicativeof his stance thathe defines history in the ety-mological sense of Bindung (to the past, "Bindung nach riickwdrts")as religio.12What attractshim above all to the old mysticaltexts is the escatalogi-cal vision that runsthrough hem.In his 1921 essay on the Kabbalaheis interested n the propheticconcepts accordingto which, "messianichumanitywill speak in hymns."13 a theme that is reencountered nBenjamin'swritingson the theoryof language).And he implicitlycon-trasts messianic and historicaltime, in that he emphasizes that "notworldhistorybut the Last Judgement"will be responsible or the posi-tive or negativevaluationof tradition;14 a formulation imeddirectlyagainstHegelianhistoricism,which"telescopes" oth into eachother.

8. Scholem,Tagebiicher1:112.9. See Scholem,entry romAug. 1916,Tagebiicher1:361f.10. Scholem,entry romAug. 1916,Tagebiicher1:386,11. Scholem,"LyrikderKabbala?"Der Jude VI (1921-22), TagebichernebstAuf-sdtzen undEntwiirfenbis 1923. 2. Halbband1917-1923, ed. KarlfriedGriinder,HerbertKopp-Oberstebrinknd FriedrichNiew6hner with assistance from Karl. E. Gr6zinger(Frankfurt/Main:iidischerVerlag,2000) 657.12. Scholem,VonBerlin nachJerusalem210.13. Scholem,"Lyrikder Kabbala?"68.14. Scholem,"LyrikderKabbala?" 84.


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182 Messianism n theEarly Work f GershomScholemUnknownWritingsrom his Youth

Duringthe time of his education,as he beganto edit his first histor-ical essays, Scholem followed, in a standing dialogue with WalterBenjamin,a secret thoughtthat is recorded n a series of privatevol-umes. The totalityof these only partiallypublishedpapersfrom 1917-1933 can be found in the libraryof the HebrewUniversity in Jerusa-lem. They show us an authorvery different from the historian whomone knows: a historian who is certainlycreative,but still subjugatedto the objectivityof historiography.What one discovers in these mes-sianically inspired writings on Judaism,Zionism, justice or revolu-tion, is a young Scholem, a philosopher, theologian, metaphysicist,who gives his speculative imaginationfree rein. These unbelievablyrich, recently published papers (up to 1923) show a spirit very closeto that of Walter Benjamin in Denkstil and difficulty: their affinityand mutual nfluence areimpressive.A new authorappearshere, a Jewish-Germanhilosopher becauseof the languagebut also of the Romantically-coloredeligious temperwho is as interesting n this field as the later Scholemis in the field ofthe history of mysticism. To be sure, one also finds aspects ofScholem'sown philosophyof Judaism n his autobiographical ritings,in his exchangeof letterswith Benjamin,andin conversations rom hislateryears;but theseunknownpapers rom his youth, despitetheirfrag-mentarycharacter, llow Scholemto appearas one of the great"hereti-cal" JewishcentralEuropeanhinkersbefore 1933.Most of this materialappears n the Suhrkamp ewishVerlag in thesecond volume of the diaries with the title, GershomScholem, Tage-biichernebstAufzdtzenundEntwiirfenbis 1923. 2. Halbband1917-23.,The most important files in the Jerusalem archive, probably classifiedby Scholemhimself,arethefollowing:

"EsotericaMetaphysica.Uber Judentum nddie esoterischeSeitedesZionismus1917-193 . Inclus.einige Briefe, die zur Sachegehoren."unnumbered, pprox.191pp."UberMetaphysik,Logik und einige nicht dazugeh6rendeGebietephanomenologischer esinnung.Mirgewidmet.5. Oktober1917-30.Dezember1917,"61pp."KleineAnmerkungeniberJudentum. ena,Winter1917/18,"89pp.


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Michael Lowy 183

"Tagebuchaufzeichnungen.. August 1918-1. August 1919. Adel-boden- Bern,"89 pp.1

I should add that these titles are to a certainextentdeceptive: he diariescontainmany philosophical ragmentsas well as personalnotes,andthefile onmetaphysicsalso concerns tself withJudaism andvice-versa.Alongsisde these large manuscriptshere are variouspapers, untypedand not includedin these four collections, includinga highly signifi-cant text, "Theses on the Concept of Justice" (the title obviouslyinspired Benjamin),that spans six handwritten ages. This document,bearingthe date "1919 and 1925",was not incorporatednto the pub-lished diaries, probablybecause the editor considered it to be from1925. (In the Diaries 1917-1923 a similar yet quite different essay,"TwelveTheses on theOrganizationf Justice."appears)An interpretationf these earlywritings s not easy, even for a readerfamiliarwiththe (published) houghtof ScholemandBenjamin.Thecon-ceptEsoterica,which serves as the title for the firstcollection,appliestothe greaterpartof the material.In the framework f this essay, I willrestrictmyselfto callingattention ojusta few aspectsof thesewritings.1. Jewish-GermanThoughtThewritingscontaina deeplyJewish-Germanhought, ven if Scholemcompletelydisliked the thesis of German-Jewishulturalsymbiosis(hisarguments re not to be dismissedoutof hand)andinsistedthat his workhad exclusivelyHebraicorigins.Jewish-Germanor one because of thelanguage: t is astonishing hat all of these texts - even those thatorigi-natedin Palestine,when Scholemhadalreadymastered he Hebrew lan-guage - were writtenin German.Jewish-German, owever, above allbecause of the contentof thesewritings,whichstemcompletely rom theworld of CentralEuropean ews and theirculture througheverythingthatdifferentiateshem fromthe Jewishcultureof the East(Poland,Rus-sia) as well as the Jewishcultureof WesternEurope France,England).Theystem,moreprecisely, rom heRomantic urrents f thisculture.The connection between Judaism and Romanticismis a questionthat surfaces in several of the texts, from an admiringas well as acritical perspective.For example, two of the "95 Theses on Judaism

15. The texts in the volumes arechronologicallyorderd n the two volumes of theDiaries: the metaphysicaare only reproducedup to 1923; see "EditorischeVorbe-merkung," Tagebiicher 1:l9f.


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and Zionism"16rom1918claim rather lliptically:41JewishRomanticismignifies nunauthorizedorderrossing.42 Romanticisms the only spiritual istoricalmovement,hathaslimited udaism. hatt is unawaref thismakest demonic.17

Holderlinmeritsunlimited admiration yet anotherpassion that heshareswith Benjamin and Scholemdoes not balk at comparinghimwith theBible itself indiaryentries romAugust1918-August1919:Of the German eople,FriedrichHolderlinived theZionist ife.Holderlin'sxistenceDasein]s the canonof anykindof historicallife.Holderlin's bsolute uthoritys basedonthis .. hisrank long-sidetheBible.TheBible s thecanon f writing,Holderlin,hecanonthats existence.Holderlinnd heBibleare heonly wothingsn theworld thatcan never contradicthemselves.The canonical an bedefined spurenterpretability.18

It is possible that this excerptrefers to Holderlin'sHyperion,whoseexuberant,lyrical descriptionof Greek national revival could haveinspiredScholemto makethissurprising arallel o Zionism.A few pages furtherdown the followingclaim appears,a claim for-mulated n the same way in similarwordsby Benjamin n his disserta-tion on art criticism in Romanticism:"Romanticism s a deductableconstellationof theMessianic."RomanticCritiqueof the Idea of Progress

Despite his distancefrom "JewishRomanticism,"Scholem shares-like Benjamin the Romanticcritiqueof the idea of progress. This cri-tique finds its expressionin the diariesin the form of wild attacksonthe liberalismof the Jewishbourgeoisieand on theirintellectualorgan,the Wissenschaftdes Judentums:"The 'Wissenschaftdes Judentums'and Jewishcapitalismare essentiallyconnected."19With implicitrefer-ence to the positivismof Comte,Scholemcontinueswith this astonish-ing vituperationpicedwith sarcastic mages:16. Scholem,Tagebiicher : 300-0617. Scholem,Tagebicher2: 303.18. Scholem,Tagebiicher : 347.19. Scholem,Tagebiicher : 330.


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Michael L6wy 185

It began a metaphysical evolutionand competition n orderto com-plete the needed identification:rder/progress.ince thenJudaismhasbeenreinterpretednto a stronghold f liberalism, reinterpretationer-formedon the doctrineby Jewishscience andtheologythroughhideousacts of incest:the Messianicbecamenever-endingprogress n time.20

The doctrines of progress are, for Scholem, a miserable falsificationof the Jewish Messianic tradition, for which the philosophy of theEnlightenment is responsible. He attacks the neo-Kantian Marburgschool, whose primary representative was Hermann Cohen, with a par-ticular vehemence:

The messianic realm and mechanical ime haveplanted he dastardlybastard dea of 'progress'in the heads of the Enlighteners.Becauseonce one is an Enlightener . . . ] the perspectiveof messianic timemustbe distorted ntoprogress. . .. ] These are the fundamentalmis-takes of the Marburg chool: the lawful, deductiblereductionof allthings into the neverending ask in the spiritof progress.This is themostpitifulinterpretationhatProphetism as had to putup with. 21One can wonder if Benjamin did not have this text in front of him whenhe was writing his "Theses" in 1940 - unless Scholem himself wasinspired by discussions with his friend in 1916 to 1919.The Significance of MessianismMessianism is central to the thinking of the young Scholem - as onecan see with the passages cited below - not as an object of research, butrather as a philosophy of history, as the key to an interpretationof real-ity, as prophetic vision.Strangely, although he considers himself in Jewish things to be theteacher of his friend, with resepect to the theme of "Messianism,"Scholem often refers to Benjamin as an - almost canonical - source:

Thelargest mageof historywas found n theconceptof themessianicrealm, an image on which it builds its infinitely deep connection toreligionandethics.Walter Benjamin]once said:the messianicrealmis alwaysthere.This insighthas thegreatesttruth butprimarilyn asphere hat,as faras I know,no onehas reached ince theprophets.22

20. Scholem,Tagebiicher : 330f.21. Scholem,Tagebiicher : 339.22. Scholem,SammelmappeUberMetaphysik, ogik... "(1917),Tagebiicher: 70.


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Even when Benjamin is not mentioned, their mutual affinity is obvi-ous. It is not always easy to relate these thoughts to each other, sincethey function so much as "communicating vessels." That holds above allfor the astonishing manuscript with the title, "Theses on the Concept ofJustice." It must be stressed here that these writings on Messianism -despite the numerous references to Maimonides and other halachicsources - go far beyond the frame of a religious exegesis in the spirit ofthe orthodox tradition, and stress the ethical, social, and historicalaspect of the messianic prophecy. One could even speak of a "politiciza-tion" of Messianism if Scholem, true to his libertarianapoliticism - didnot categorically reject the concept of politics.23 Hence his predelictionfor the relationship betweenjustice and the messianic realm:

Messianictime as the eternalpresentandjustics as Daseiendes, thesubstantialcorrespond o each other. Werejustice not to exist, themessianic realmwould not only not exist, but would be completelyimpossible.Justice, ike all Jewishconcepts, s not a limitingconcept,[...] not [ . ]a 'regulative dea.'24Scholem contrasts justice, which experiences its fulfullment in themessianic realm, simultaneously with myth and the quite mythic cate-

gory offate:Almost all areasof humanactionare subordniateo mythiccategories,first of all fate, which bestowsmeaning.Justiceis the eliminationoffate from actions. . . The injusticeof ourlives manifests tself in thefullness of life's singularand fatefulactions.The apocalypticextinguishingof the messianicrealm has the valueand the "truth" f revolutionary ropaganda it seeks to rip out thelast conflict of violence, into which myth submerges. The cata-strophic,because redeeming,ower of fateless life is representednthepersonof themessiah ..

The curious dating of this essay ("Theses on the Concept of Justice") -"1919 and 1925" - makes it impossible to know if it was written before23. For a morethoroughnvestigationof the connectionbetweenJewishMessian-ism and the libertarian topiain Scholem,Benjaminand otherJewishthinkers,see mybook,Redemption nd Utopia.Libertarianudaism n CentralEurope(Stanford: tanfordUP, 1990).24. Scholem,Tagebiicher1: 529.25. Scholem,unpublished Theseson theConceptof Justice."


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Michael Lowy 187

or after Benjamin's essay, "Towards a Critique of Violence," with whichit shows obvious affinities (but undoubtedly differences as well).Scholem seems to waver between two concepts of Messianism, the oneprimarily historical, the other primarily "esoteric." In the diary entriesfrom 1919 he attemptsto define them throughthe following concepts:

Two currents f Messianismcanbe differentiatedheoretically s wellas historically:a revolutionary urrentand a transformative urrent.The first one representstself thus:the Messiahatthe end of days,tre-mendous wars of Edom againstMoab,Last Judgment= End of theWorld,return f soulsin thatworld,equationof 'atid la-vo' [thefuturethat s coming,messianic ime]and 'olamha-ba' [thefutureworld,newcreation].Basis:a literalunderstandingf the futureas empirical ime.The second says: cleansingof souls, completelyinternal ransforma-tion of nature,LastJudgmentneutralized,n any case no end of theworld,differentiation f 'atid la-vo' and 'olamha-ba.'Resultant: he endof days- today.Thatworldis this world. Messianicfuture s not empirical uture.26

This all-too analytical and somewhat stiff differentiation does not com-pletely satisfy Scholem, and he quickly adds: "These notons are lay-ered into infinitely many degrees."27Revolutionary Events and MessianismScholem assesses the revolutionary events of his time, in particularBolshevism, in close connection with Messianism.

Although he is by no means a follower of soviet communism,Scholem remains fascinated by the religious meaning of the events inRussia. In the 1918 essay "Bolshevism" (included in the collection"Esoterica-Metaphysica") he uses the concept (perhaps borrowed fromTolstoy?) of the "dictatorshipof the poor":

Bolshevisimhas a central deathat conferson its movementa revolu-tionary magic. This is: the messianic realm can only be unfoldedthrough he dictatorship f poverty. [.. I This says:thejudgementofthepooralone hasrevolutionary ower.26. Scholem,Tagebiicher : 380.27. Scholem,Tagebiicher : 38.28. Scholem, Tagebiicher 2: 556.


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Even when he endeavors to demarcate he messianic dimension ofrevolution a sortof hubris) rom that of Judaism,he still contrastsbothof them with liberaland'progressive'psuedorevolutions:

Revolutions there,wherethe messianic ealmshouldbe erectedwithout octrine.Ultimatelyhere anbenorevolutionortheJews.TheJewish evolutions solelya reconnectiono doctrine. revolu-tion, hat nanycasepointsowardshemessianicealm,iketheBol-shevistor Frenchrevolution,must as a matterof principlebeseparatedrom he weakpseudorevolutionsike that n Germanyn1848, hat s centeredy 'progress.'29ForScholem,Bolshevismis a messianicreaction o the war.Althoughhe also contrasts t with to Zionism(thatis, his own view of Zionism),which does not reactto the war but rather urnsaway fromit, he givesto understand hateveryonewho behaves in the world differently hantheZionistcanonlybecome a followerof Bolshevism.In a section of the the diaries from 1918/1919 there is a definitionthat seems to bringcommunismand JewishMessianismcloser together

rather hanfarther part:... Communism,whichhas a religioushorizon,does notat all dependon theeconomy,but ratherolelydefines tselfin its wayfrom herelationshipf the age to the messianic ealm.And the messianicrealm an nfactbe erectedodayhajommbe-koloischmau[today,ifyouhearhisvoice/obeymyvoice;Psalms 5.7,Sanhedrin8a].3

Strangely,Benjamindoes not follow Scholem into this area. He onlysuccumbsto a fascinationwith Bolshevismseveralyearslater,in 1923,thanks o the beautifuleyes of AsjaLacis...Scholem sLater PublicationsWhatconcerned Scholemat the time foundpartialexpressionin thehistoricalresearch hatthe scientistScholembeganpublishing n 1923since movingto Jerusalem.The majorityof his work on the Kabbala nthe 1920s and 1930s turnedon the messianic-apocalyptic imensionofphenomena.These themes againalso determinedhis first majorwork,which he dedicated to Walter Benjamin: Die jiidische Mystik in ihrenHauptstromungen1941, dt. 1957). For the Kabbala,specifically in its

29. Scholem,Tagebiicher : 556.30. Scholem,Tagebiicher : 374.


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MichaelLowy 189

reinterpretation y Isaac Luria,the great teacher of the Safed school(Zfad, 16th century),the tikkun,the way to the end of all things, issimultaneouslyhe way that leads back to the beginning.It bringswithit a "restitution f the ideal condition" hat is called the "Restoration fthe originaltotality."31The arrivalof the messiahis the consummationof the tikkun, he "redemption"s "return f all thingsto theiroriginalcontactwith God."32The olam ha-tikkuns thus the world of messianicrestoration,hewiping awayof dirt, hedisappearancef evil.Beginningin the 1950s Scholemis intenselyinterested n "heretical"messianic movements, in particular hose broughtinto being by the"mysticalmessiah"of the seventeenthcentury, Sabbatai Zwi. In hismonumentalstudy from 1957 (writtenfirst in Hebrew) dedicated toSabbatianism,he new "messiah"plays less of a central role than hiscentralprophetand theologian,Nathanof Gaza,who was namedbuz-ina kaddishaby his adherents the "holylamp."Scholem is fascinatedby this strangefigureand his divergentand surprisingnnovations: heidea of universalredemptionof all sinners- due to the SabbataiMes-siah - withoutexception(even Jesus of Nazareth,who is finally givenback to his people); or the pronouncementhat with the messianic agecomes the dominionof a new Tora,the Toraof the Treeof Life, whichrevokes all commandments nd bans.33This doctrine is the source ofthat which Scholem calls the SabbatanicAntinomismand its call for"religiousanarchism."Somehwat later he studies the developmentof Sabbatanism n theeighteenth century under the leadershipof the new Messiah JakobFrankwith the sameregard.This is a movement roughtwith a "nihilis-tic" view of redemption,which repudiatesrules and laws of all sortsand strives fora sortof"anarchistic, arthlyutopia."34Around this time - end of the 1950s - Scholem systematizes his the-ory of JewishMessianismas restorative-utopianoctrine n his famousessay, "Towardsan Understanding f the MessianicIdea in Judaism"

31. Scholem, Die jiidische Mystik in ihremHauptstr6mungen Frankfurt/Main:AlfredMetzner, 957)- (Frankfurt/Main,980:seitenidentischeTB-Edition)294.32. Scholem,DiejiidischeMystikn ihremHauptstromungen01.33. Scholem,SabbataiSevi. TheMysticalMessiah. 1626-1676 (Bollingen SeriesXCIII)(Princeton:PrincetonUP, 1973).InGermanas SabbataiZwi.Der mystischeMes-sias (Frankfurt/Main:iidischerVerlag,1992)2207,284-87.34. Scholem, "Die Metamorphosedes haretischenMessianismusder Sabbatianerim religi6sen Nihilismus im 18. Jahrhundert"1963), Judaica 3 (Frankfurt/Main:Suhrkamp, 973)207, 217.


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(1959). According o this essay, messianism n the Jewish tradition on-tains two closely connected and simultaneouslycontradictoryenden-cies: a restorativecurrent, hat tends towardsthe restorationof a pastideal condition,a lost goldenage, a brokenparadisicalharmony,and autopiancurrent hathopes for a completelynew age, a futurethat hasnever been. The weight distribution etween the two currentscan fluc-tuate,but the messianicidea assumesshape only on the basis of a com-bination of both. They are inseparable by virtue of a dialecticalrelationshiphatScholemadmirably resented:

[... ] even the restorative orcehasautopian actor,andin utopianismrestorative actorsare atwork.35The completely new orderhas elements of the completely old, buteven this old order does not consist of the actualpast;rather t is apast transformed ndtransfiguredn a dreambrightenedby the raysof utopianism.36

Scholemalso accountsfor the catastrophic ndrevolutionary ssenceof the messianicview of history:

Jewishmessianism s, in its originsandby its nature this cannotbesufficientlyemphasized a theoryof catastrophe.Thistheorystressesthe revolutionary, ataclysmicelement in the transition rom everyhistoricalpresent o the Messianic uture.37Between presentand future,the currentdecline and salvation,yawnsan abyss;in manytalmudic exts the idea emergesthat the messiahwill

come only in an era of completecorruption nd guilt. This rift cannotbe overcomeby 'progress'or 'evolution'- only revolutionary atastro-phe, togetherwith completeuprootingandtotaldestruction f the exist-ing order makes messianic redemption possible. The secularizedmessianismof 19thcentury iberalJewishthought, for which the neo-KantianHermannCohenis a good example- with its idea of unbrokenprogressandincremental erfectionof humanity,has nothingto do withthe traditionof prophetsand Aggadists, for whom the coming of the35. Scholem,"Towardsan Understanding f the MessianicIdea in Judaism,"TheMessianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality(New York:Schocken,1971)4.36. Scholem,"Towards nUnderstandingf the MessianicIdea n Judaism" .37. Scholem,"Towards nUnderstandingf theMessianicIdea n Judaism" .


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Michael Ldwy 191

messiah signifies an all-encompassing shock, a revolutionary storm:The bible andthe apocalypticwritersknow of no progress n historyleadingto theredemption... .] It [redemption]s rather ranscendencebreaking n upon history,an intrusion,n whichhistory tself perishes,transformedn its ruinbecauseit is struckby a beamof light shininginto it fromanoutsidesource.38

One must realize that themes and interests in the thought of Scholemon Messianism are astonishingly continuous from his early years to hislast writings: they run through his work like a leitmotif. Yet his stance isnot merely that of an erudite historian of Jewish Messianism: one needonly read his work carefully in order to recognize the sympathy - in theetymological sense of the greek word - of the researcher with his object.

Translated by Michael Richardson

38. Scholem, "Towardsan Understanding f the Messianic Idea in Judaism"7.Scholem'scritiqueof the elimination f the catastrophicimensionof Jewish Messianismandof its reduction o the notionof "eternalprogress" f mankind s aimedexplicitlyatHermannCohen,but it seems to methat t is alsopolemicallyaimedatJosephKlausner, iscolleagueat the HebrewUniversityof Jerusalem nd nationalisthistorianof Messianism,for whom "the quintessenceof Jewish Messianism"represents"the ideal of unendingprogress,of continual piritualdevelopment." ee JosephKlausner,TheMessianicIdea inIsrael romitsBeginning o theCompletion f theMishna London:Allen&Unwin,1956).

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