GERSHOM SCHOLEM'S TEN UNHISTORICAL APHORISMS ON KABBALAH: TEXT AND COMMENTARY

Abstract

In 1958, Gershom Scholem published a series of ten aphoristic statements entitled Zehn unhistorische Satze iiber Kabbala.' Although later republished in the third volume of his collected German essays, Judaica,2 these aphorisms have received little or no attention in the English-reading world, despite their considerable interest both for Scholem's own thought and as philosophical reflections on some fundamental issues in the Kabbalah.3 The word unhistorical in the title immediately suggests Scholem's intention to take off the hat of historian and philologian which he wore in most of his writings and to look at his material from a different perspective. Since Scholem's primary achievements lay in the history and philology of the Kabbalah, his more philosophical and theological reflections have often been treated as occasional pieces, peripheral to his main contribution. I have argued elsewhere that an understanding of Scholem as an historian requires an examination of these writings and