Gershom Scholem

Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) was the world’s preeminent scholar of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. Over the course of his professional life, Scholem published hundreds of books and articles on Jewish mysticism, and trained the next generation of prominent Kabbalah scholars. Scholem’s research and thought wielded tremendous influence in their respective fields, and yet there were many who disagreed with his views.

Gershom (Gerhardt, in German) was the fourth child born to Arthur and Betty Scholem, owners of a printing house in Berlin, Germany. A somewhat assimilated bourgeois Jewish family, as part of the Scholem’s weekly routine, Gershom’s mother would light Shabbat candles at sundown on Friday, and his father would then use them to light his cigarettes. Scholem’s father also worked on Yom Kippur, which was unconventional even among their social set. Yet, his father objected to intermarriage and Gershom’s brother Werner’s marriage to a non-Jewish woman was not well received.

In this complex cultural atmosphere, the adolescent Scholem sought to learn more about his Jewish identity by reading about Judaism and finding teachers with whom he studied the Bible, the Talmud and the Hebrew language. For a short time, he became observant, joining the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Israel youth movement. Later he actively campaigned against the First World War, which led to a clash with his father who saw himself as a German patriot. Scholem then took up Zionism, and decided to prepare for immigration to the Land of Israel. When he began his university studies, he enrolled in mathematics with the intention of making a living as a teacher in Mandatory Palestine.

In his youth, Scholem was very impressed by historian Heinrich Graetz’s writings about the history of the Jewish people, and particularly his criticisms of Kabbalah. Scholem believed that Kabbalah was at the center of Judaism’s spiritual essence, and decided to explore it through scientific tools. He abandoned mathematics, and in 1922 completed his doctorate at the University of Munich with a dissertation on the ancient Kabbalistic book Sefer Habahir ("Book of Illumination"). The next year, his father published the young Scholem’s research in his printing house.

Scholem’s Research and Writings

Scholem immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1923 and brought with him about 2,000 books, 603 of them related to Kabbalah. His first job was to oversee the National Library’s collection of Jewish books. As part of his work, he devised a new cataloging system for Jewish subjects based on the Dewey Decimal System. Implementation of the new system began in 1927, the last year he worked at the Library.

With the opening of the Hebrew University in 1925, he joined as a lecturer and later was appointed full professor, becoming one of the world’s leading scholars of Jewish studies. Scholem’s early research focused mainly on bibliographic issues such as identification of manuscripts and mapping Kabbalist literature. Although he himself did not purchase manuscripts, he photographed many works from libraries around the world and had them bound and added to his personal library. He later delved into historical and ideological aspects of Kabbalah and studied Kabbalistic theology, but he was less interested in practical mysticism.

Scholem's Body of Work

Throughout his long career, Scholem published some 600 books and articles in the field of Jewish mysticism that dealt with Kabbalah, Hasidism and Messianism focusing on the Sabbatean movement. He wrote in Hebrew, English and German and his books were translated into many languages.

Among his best-known works are Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, which was first published in English in 1941; Sabbatai Ṣevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626–1676, first published in Hebrew in 1957; and On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism, first published in German in 1962.

Some of Scholem’s remaining hand-written manuscripts have been published recently, as have biographies of Scholem and several volumes of his correspondence with various thinkers, including Walter Benjamin, Joseph Weiss and Hannah Arendt, as well as small volumes of his poetry and personal diaries. Scholem’s archive in the National Library contains many still unpublished letters, such as his correspondence with S. Y. Agnon and with Rabbi Professor Saul Lieberman.

Along with his extensive research activities and writings, Scholem raised a generation of scholars who later became renowned scholars of Kabbalah in their own right. Among the prominent scholars he trained are Isaiah Tishby, Joseph Weiss, Chaim Wirszubski, Rivka Schatz Uffenheimer, Yosef Ben Shlomo, Joseph Dan and Yehuda Liebes.

The Scholem Library

During his time studying in Germany, Scholem decided to form a library that would encompass all of the literature relating to the subjects of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. With this in mind, he began to acquire books systematically. At this early stage, he had already decided that his library would eventually be passed on to the National Library in Jerusalem. For the rest of his life, Scholem continued collecting books with the goal of realizing this vision of a complete library of Jewish mysticism.

The plan was indeed realized. Following Scholem's death in 1982, his complete collection, which by now numbered 25,000 items, including 4,000 rare books, was transferred to the National Library. The Scholem Library, which is preserved as a unique, unified collection, today includes some 35,000 items, and is considered the most comprehensive collection of its kind in the world. The Gershom Scholem Reading Room at the National Library of Israel is a world-renowned, active center for the research of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, serving generations of scholars who continue to fulfill Scholem's academic vision.

Recordings of Scholem’s Talks and Lectures

As someone who devoted his life to the study of Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem’s name preceded him around the world and aroused great curiosity. He was a sought-after lecturer, and visited and lectured at universities around the world. The National Library preserves recordings of interviews and conversations with him as well as of his lectures on mysticism, Judaism, Zionism, the Holocaust, and personal issues such as his experiences and family history. The conversations were conducted in Hebrew, English and German.

Books and Manuscripts from the Scholem Collection

Gershom Scholem’s deep familiarity with Kabbalistic writings was made possible, among other things, by his many travels over the years to libraries around the world, where he located Kabbalistic manuscripts, and had them photocopied and bound, to add to his vast collection. The thousands of books in the collection were gradually acquired by Scholem over decades from a variety of sources in different countries. As a result, the collection contains many rare items of special value. Scholem would write all sorts of notes and anecdotes on the backs of the books and manuscript photocopies in his library, including research notes, bibliographic information, references, insights, provenance and other various stories. Researchers of mysticism and Judaism from around the world come to the National Library to pore over Scholem’s learned notations.

Amulets and Talismans in the Scholem Collection

Among the tens of thousands of historical items in the Scholem Collection, there are also objects, amulets and talismans of Jewish mystical significance collected by Scholem from various places around the world. Scholem wrote informative and enriching notes on many of these items, as well as on the books and manuscripts in the collection.

Tracing Scholem’s Path

Gershom Scholem continues to be an intriguing figure. His life encapsulated innumerable fascinating human stories, from his childhood in Berlin as a son of a partially assimilated family through the various stages of his life, including immigration to Mandatory Palestine, his groundbreaking academic activity, his unprecedented collecting efforts of Kabbalah-related items, his travels across Europe to save remnants of Jewish culture after the Holocaust, his two marriages, his social and professional relationships with thinkers, writers and scholars, as well as stories about him, some of which were included in his different biographies, as well as in his personal writings, diaries, poems and correspondence which continue to be published years after his death. Scholem wrote his autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem in German. It was translated into English in 1977, a few years before his passing.