Abstract
The objective of this essay is to explore Gershom Scholem's intellectual appropriation of certain key elements of the German Romantic tradition in his conceptualization of the history of Jewish mysticism. I will show that Scholem is especially indebted to the Romantic concept of the "symbol" and to its powerful impulse to create "a new mythology." I will also show that Scholem developed his principle of historical interpretation about the role of the kabbalah in Jewish history within a matrix of ideas that were typical among Romantic thinkers. In conclusion, I will argue that these intellectual debts made Scholem a fascinating example of a postwar and post-Holocaust German- Jewish thinker.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | IJS Studies in Judaica |
Editors | Mirjam Zadoff, Noam Zadoff |
Publisher | Brill Academic Publishers |
Pages | 97-113 |
Number of pages | 17 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2019 |
Publication series
Name | IJS Studies in Judaica |
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Volume | 19 |
ISSN (Print) | 1570-1581 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2019 Brill Academic Publishers. All rights reserved.
Keywords
- Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
- German Idealism
- German Romanticism
- kabbalah
- new mythology
- postwar culture
- theory of the symbol