The Myth of Zarathustra: Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem and the Nationalisation of Jewish Myth

Abstract

In 1898–1900, Martin Buber wrote his first article, ‘Zarathustra’, devoted to Nietzsche, and in 1901 he was appointed editor of Die Welt, the organ of the World Zionist Organization. The prox­imity of the two dates was not coincidental in Buber’s political and intellectual development: it is not surprising if he discovered Nietzsche and Zionism at the same time. He saw the German philosopher and the Jewish national movement as embodying modern, secular and vital forces that rebelled against a nor­malisation of private and public life that finally leads to deca­dence, and necessitated different conditions of existence for the individual and the people. In the year in which he published his article, his poem ‘Das Gebet’ appeared in the pages of the newspaper that he was to edit, and it is impossible not to see that the subject of the poem, the Jewish people, is viewed from a Nietzschean perspective: Lord, Lord, shake my people, Strike it, bless it, furiously, gently, Make it burn, make it free, Heal your child.