Kabbalah Research in the Wissenschaft des Judentums (1820–1880): The Foundation of an Academic Discipline (Europäisch-jüdische Studien – Beiträge Book 47)

In recent years more and more scholars have become aware of the fact that the 19th century movement of the Wissenschaft des Judentums engaged in essential research of kabbalistic texts and thinkers. The legend of Wissenschaft’s neglect for the mystic traditions of Judaism is no longer sustainable. However, the true extent of this enterprise of German Jewish scholars is not yet known. This book will give an overview of what the leading figures have actually achieved: Landauer, Jellinek, Jost, Graetz, Steinschneider and others. It is true that their theological evaluation of the "worth" of kabbalah for what they believed was the ‘essence of Judaism’ yielded overall negative results, but this rejection was rationally founded and rather suggests a true concern for Judaism that transcended their own emancipation and assimilation as German Jews. "In recent years more and more scholars have become aware of the fact that the 19th century movement of the Wissenschaft des Judentums engaged in essential research of kabbalistic texts and thinkers. The legend of Wissenschaft's neglect for the mystic traditions of Judaism is no longer sustainable. However, the true extent of this enterprise of German Jewish scholars is not yet known. This book will give an overview of what the leading figures have actually achieved: Landauer, Jellinek, Jost, Graetz, Steinschneider and others. It is true that their theological evaluation of the "worth" of kabbalah for what they believed was the 'essence of Judaism' yielded overall negative results, but this rejection was rationally founded and rather suggests a true concern for Judaism that transcended their own emancipation and assimilation as German Jews."-- Back cover Die, Europäisch-jüdischen Studien"" repräsentieren die interdisziplinär vernetzte Kompetenz des neuen, Zentrums Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg"" (ZJS). Das Zentrum versammelt die wichtigsten Institutionen dieser Region, die sich mit Jüdischen Studien befassen - darunter die einschlägigen Universitäten und Einrichtungen in Berlin und Potsdam. Der interdisziplinäre Charakter der Reihe zielt insbesondere auf geschichts-, geistes- und kulturwissenschaftliche Ansätze sowie auf intellektuelle, politische und religiöse Grundfragen, die jüdisches Leben und Denken heute inspirieren und in der Ve