Kabbalah Research in the Wissenschaft des Judentums (1820–1880): The Foundation of an Academic Discipline

George Y. Kohler

Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2019

Kabbalah Research in the Wissenschaft des Judentums (1820–1880)

The Foundation of an Academic Discipline

George Y. Kohler

Volume 47 in the series Europäisch-jüdische Studien – Beiträge

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110623963

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

George Y. Kohler, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.

Reviews

“This book will certainly lead to a radical revision of our view of 19th century science of Judaism. Against the verdict of Gershom Scholem who accused its leaders of an apologetical repression of Kabbala, Kohler can demonstrate in detail that its pioneers were engaged in a deep investigation of Jewish mysticism. They nevertheless rejected it on strict ethical grounds, since Kabbala was opposed to the very idea of Jewish monotheism. In this line Kohler’s book might lead to another revision of the post Scholem Science of Judaism with its specific politico theological orientation towards Jewish nationalism.”

Prof. Christoph Schmidt, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

“In his groundbreaking work George Y. Kohler challenges the pervasive narrative of the suppression and neglect of the Kabbalah in the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement. The book presents the most detailed and in-depth study of 19th century Kabbalah scholarship to date, and reveals the complexity of the Wissenschaft’s attitude to Kabbalah.”

Prof. Boaz Huss, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Lazarus Ben David, Peter Beer and Isaak Markus Jost (1822–1832) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
Leopold Zunz and Moritz Freystadt (1818–1832) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
The Young Abraham Geiger (1840) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
Meier Hirsch Landauer and Abraham Adler (1838–1845) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
Michael Sachs and David Joel [1845–1849] Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Moritz Steinschneider (1850) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
Adolf Jellinek (1851–1852) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	100
First Reactions to Jellinek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
Adolf Jellinek [1853–1854] Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
The Mature Abraham Geiger (1853–1856) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
Ignaz Stern’s Study on the Composition of the Zohar (1858) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Isaak Markus Jost’s last Discussion of Kabbalah (1859) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
Heinrich Graetz’s Study of Early Mystical Literature (1859) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
The Seventh Volume of Graetz’s History of the Jews (1863) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
Leopold Loew’s Review of Graetz’s Discussion of the Zohar (1863) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Graetz’s Account of Kabbalah during the 15th to the 18th century (1864–68) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
Abraham Geiger’s Last Word on Kabbalah (1871) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	212
Ludwig Philippson and Leopold Stein (1864– 1877) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Kabbalah in Jewish Textbooks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	236
Epilog – the Years 1894–1907 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	264
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	270

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Audience: Historians and theologians with an interest in German-Jewish thinking and history.
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 272
Keywords: Kabbala; Wissenschaft des Judentums; Deutsch-jüdische Geschichte

eBook

Published: March 18, 2019
ISBN: 9783110623963

Hardcover

Published: March 18, 2019
ISBN: 9783110620375