Scholar and Kabbalist: The Life and Work of Gershom Scholem (IJA Studies in Judaica, 19)

"The articles collected in Scholar and Kabbalist: The Life and Work of Gershom Scholem present diverse biographical aspects and the scholarly oeuvre of arguably the most influential Jewish-Israeli intellectual of the 20th century. Immigrating to Palestine in 1923, Gershom Scholem became one of the founders of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was the first to establish Jewish Mysticism as a scholarly discipline. The articles collected here reflect the diversity of Scholem's intellectual scope including his contribution to Jewish Studies as a scholar of Kabbalah, religion and history, as a bibliophile and an expert librarian of Judaica. Central aspects of Scholem's impact on Jewish historiography, literature and art in Israel, Europe and the US, are presented to the reader for the first time"-- Provided by publisher. Scholar and Kabbalist: The Life and Work of Gershom Scholem Copyright Contents Scholar and Kabbalis: An Introduction Part 1: The Researcher: Jewish Mysticism 1 Gershom Scholem’s Methodologies of Research on the Zohar 2 Adventurer, (Pseudo?)-Kabbalist, and Theosophist: Gershom Scholem’s Research on Ephraim Joseph Hirschfeld 3 For the Sake of a Jewish Revival: Gershom Scholem on Hasidism and Its Relationship to Martin Buber 4 “Words of Substance Must Have Both One Meaning and Another”: Reappraising the Scholem–Weiss Debate Part 2: Philosophical Context, Literary and Cultural Connections 5 Gershom Scholem’s Kabbalah and the German–Jewish Myth 6 The Zohar as Poetic Inspiration: Nelly Sachs’s Reading of Gershom Scholem 7 “Our Sabbatian Future” 8 The Impact of Sabbatianism on Society and Culture in the Yishuv and in Israel 9 Scholem’s Views on Art and His Approach to Art History Part 3: Biographical Portraits 10 The Scholem Family in Germany and German–Jewish Historical Context 11 Gershom Scholem and Postwar Germany Reconsidered Part 4: The Librarian, Book Collector and Library Owner 12 Making the Dewey Jewey: Gershom Scholem as a Librarian 13 Spiritual Sources for Zion: Gershom Scholem and the Salvage of Looted Books and Manuscripts after the Holocaust 14 The Alacritous Work of Librarians and the Insane Labor of Collectors: Gershom Scholem as Book Collector and Librarian—A Collection of Sources Index