Gershom Gerhard Scholem
Quick Summary
Gershom Gerhard Scholem (1897–1982) was a pivotal Israeli scholar who revolutionized the academic study of Jewish mysticism, particularly Kabbalah. Before Scholem, the scholarly investigation of Jewish mysticism was largely neglected, often dismissed as obscure or retrograde.12
Scholem's rigorous application of philological and historical methods brought a new level of scholarly understanding to this field. His seminal work, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941), laid the groundwork for future research. He is credited with identifying Moses de León as the likely author of the Sefer ha-Zohar (Book of Splendor), a foundational text in Kabbalah. Scholem's work demonstrated that the Zohar was a medieval creation, challenging traditional attributions. His scholarship significantly advanced the understanding of Kabbalistic doctrines, such as the sefirot (divine emanations) and Lurianic Kabbala.132
Ask Britannica AI about this topic
Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.
JudaismSchool of Isaac the Blind…of the eminent Kabbala scholar Gershom G. Scholem (1897–1982), Isaac’s general vision of the universe proceeds from the link he discovers between the hierarchical orders of the created world and the roots of all beings implanted in the world of the sefirot. A Neoplatonic influence is evident in the reflections…
Read More…of the eminent Kabbala scholar Gershom G. Scholem (1897–1982), Isaac’s general vision of the universe proceeds from the link he discovers between the hierarchical orders of the created world and the roots of all beings implanted in the world of the sefirot. A Neoplatonic influence is evident in the reflections…
Read More- JudaismModern Jewish mysticism
…only with the work of Gershom G. Scholem (1897–1982) and his disciples. This research addressed all the many areas of Jewish mysticism, but in every area the gaps in knowledge remain serious. Critical editions of mystical texts are few in number; unpublished documents are cataloged incompletely; and only a few…
Read More…only with the work of Gershom G. Scholem (1897–1982) and his disciples. This research addressed all the many areas of Jewish mysticism, but in every area the gaps in knowledge remain serious. Critical editions of mystical texts are few in number; unpublished documents are cataloged incompletely; and only a few…
Read More - Merkava
…the Supernatural World (Yorde Merkava); Gershom Gerhard Scholem, a modern Jewish scholar of mysticism, suggests that the words may have implied a descent into the depths of self. The oldest literary sources of the movement are two hekhalot texts: the “Lesser” attributed to Rabbi Akiba, the “Greater” to Rabbi Ishmael…
Read More…the Supernatural World (Yorde Merkava); Gershom Gerhard Scholem, a modern Jewish scholar of mysticism, suggests that the words may have implied a descent into the depths of self. The oldest literary sources of the movement are two hekhalot texts: the “Lesser” attributed to Rabbi Akiba, the “Greater” to Rabbi Ishmael…
Read More