The Father of Jewish Mysticism offers an incisive look at the early life and writings of Gershom Scholem (1897-1982), the father of modern Jewish mysticism and a major 20th-century Jewish intellectual.

Daniel Weidner offers the first full-length study, published in English, of Scholem's thought. Scholem, a historian ofthe Kabbalah and sharp critic of Jewish assimilation, played a major role in the study and popularization of Jewish mysticism.

Through his work on the Kabbalah, Scholem turned the closed world of mystical texts into a force for Jewish identity. Skillfully drawing on Scholem's early diaries and writings, The Father of Jewish Mysticism introduces a young, soon-to-be legendary intellectual in search of himself and Judaism.

About the Author

Daniel Weidner is Professor of Comparative Literature at Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. He is the author of Bibel und Literatur um 1800 and editor of the Handbuch Literatur und Religion, Blumenberg Lesen: Ein Glossar, and Profanes Leben: Walter Benjamins Dialektik der Sakularisierung.

Reviews

"With a finely grained analysis of the correspondence and diaries of Gershom Scholem, buffeted by an anguished self-examination as a Jew and Zionist, Weidner deftly deciphers the intellectual ethos that informed the publications of the 'father' of the academic study of Jewish mysticism."-Paul Mendes-Flohr, Professor Emeritus of the University of Chicago and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

"Weidner offers a discerning decipherment of Scholem's writings in all their literary registers-political, personal-and a richly textured account of his inner life in all its beguiling ambiguities and self-concealments. In situating Scholem between secular history and ahistorical religion, Weidner allows an eminent representative of Jewish thought in times of crisis to speak to us with renewed relevance."-Vivian Liska, author of German-Jewish Thought and its Afterlife. A Tenuous Legacy

"Daniel Weidner's book is a work of intellectual virtuosity. Weidner shifts between Scholem's many worlds with an assured and easy hand, exploring the relationships between Scholem's writing, his biography and his political development. Weidner does not shy from showing discrepancies and inconsistencies in Scholem's work but rather employs them to extract observations Scholem hid like secret gems, between the lines. This is the best and most comprehensive work on Scholem since David Biale's seminal work"-Nitzan Lebovic, Lehigh University

"With great sensitivity Daniel Weidner enters the very guarded heart of Gershom Scholem's personal, spiritual and theological-political journey from Berlin to Jerusalem. It is a singular and intimate approach to the crucible of a great thinker all too Jewish yet all too German, testimony to his refusal to live in deferral."-Menachem Lorberbaum, Tel Aviv University

"The Father of Jewish Mysticism is the first comprehensive portrait of Gershom Scholem as a writer. Through sensitive readings and scrupulous research, Daniel Weidner illuminates the subtlety, range, and abiding influence of Scholem's work."-Brian Britt, Virginia Tech

Book Information
ISBN 9780253062086
Author Daniel Weidner
Format Paperback
Page Count 250
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 372g