GERSHOM SCHOLEM’S DIALECTIC OF JEWISH HISTORY

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the historiosophical assumptions of Gershom Scholem’s interpretation of Sabbatianism. Scholem’s work is based on the “dialectical” understanding of Jewish history. The concept of dialectic has three different aspects in his works. First, the notion refers to the historical relationship and mutual influences between Sabbatianism (and Judaism in a wider sense) and other religions, notably Christianity. Second, dialectic is understood as the internal structure of Jewish history, in which contradictions are resolved on a higher plane. Finally, the internal dialectic of Jewish history and the external dialectic of the Jewish religion’s relationship to other religions points to the undialectical (unmediated) character of the notion of Redemption in Sabbatianism. This paper discusses these three aspects of Scholem’s understanding of the notion of dialectic, and gives an account of his polemics with R. J. Zwi Werblowski, Baruch Kurzweil, Hans Joachim Schoeps and Franz Rosenzweig.