Podcasts about Scholem

Saverio Campanini"Cabbalisti cristiani"Gershom ScholemAdelphiwww.adelphi.itTre saggi acuminati che illustrano il fascino esercitato dalla Qabbalah sui lettori cristiani d'ogni tempo.A cura, e con un saggio, di Saverio Campanini.Che la Qabbalah sprigioni un fascino difficilmente spiegabile è fuori di dubbio: chiunque entri in contatto con essa si sente interpellato, come se quelle oscure dottrine non aspettassero altri per sciogliere gli antichi nodi dell'irradiazione divina. Un fascino cui non hanno potuto sottrarsi molti lettori cristiani – da Giovanni Pico della Mirandola ai platonici rinascimentali, da Knorr von Rosenroth a Isaac Newton, dagli alchimisti ai «fratelli muratori» –, che con i dogmi segreti della mistica ebraica hanno avvertito una profonda affinità. Massimo studioso della Qabbalah, Gershom Scholem non ha mancato di dire la sua su questa robusta corrente del pensiero europeo. Persuaso com'era che la Qabbalah fosse la quintessenza dell'ebraismo, Scholem ha tentato di denunciare la sua versione cristiana come illegittima, frutto di un malinteso o di una frode, giungendo tuttavia a riconoscere, alla fine della vita, che la passione per quegli insegnamenti esoterici era stata accesa in lui proprio dalla lettura di un cabbalista cristiano. E così, nei tre illuminanti saggi qui raccolti, non solo troveremo una storia di quel pensiero sotterraneo, ma potremo anche scorgere in filigrana una riluttante autobiografia.Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) è una delle massime figure nel campo degli studi ebraici, in particolare della mistica, in cui ha tracciato nuovi percorsi di ricerca. Oltre che autore di opere fondamentali sulla Cabbalà, è stato docente universitario e ha svolto un'intensa attività di conferenziere.IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarewww.ilpostodelleparole.itDiventa un supporter di questo podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/il-posto-delle-parole--1487855/support.

This episode explores the concept of the Qliphoth, tracing its evolution from Jewish mysticism to modern occult practices. It begins by distinguishing between the traditional Kabbalistic understanding of the Klippot and the reinterpreted Qliphoth in Hermetic Qabalah. We then delve into the historical emergence and theological significance of the Klippot in Kabbalah, particularly within the Zohar and Lurianic Kabbalah. The focus then shifts to integrating Qliphothic elements into modern occultism, especially within Left-Hand Path traditions. We examine the contributions of Aleister Crowley, Kenneth Grant, and Thomas Karlsson in redefining and expanding the understanding and application of Qliphothic magic. We highlight various practices, such as invocation, sigil magic, pathworking, and shadow work, that practitioners employ to engage with the Qliphoth for personal transformation and spiritual growth. WATCH DR SLEDGE'S VIDEO MY COURSES

What is Qabalah? This is a scholarly exploration of Hermetic Qabalah, an esoteric tradition steeped in history and rich in spiritual practice. This detailed video presentation covers the evolution of Hermetic Qabalah from its origins in ancient Jewish mysticism through its adaptation in Christian and Renaissance thought to its pivotal role in contemporary Western esotericism. We start by defining Hermetic Qabalah and distinguishing it from Jewish Kabbalah and Christian Cabala, highlighting the unique blend of mysticism, philosophy, and theology that characterizes each form. Discover how figures like Giovanni Pico della Mirandola influenced the Christian reinterpretation of Kabbalistic ideas and how these ideas permeated Renaissance thought. The video further delves into the core structure of the Tree of Life, explaining its symbolic representation of the universe's spiritual and material aspects. Learn about the sefirot, the paths that connect them, and their implications for personal and spiritual development. We will also cover primary texts like the Zohar and Sepher Yetzirah, their historical significance, and their roles in the practice of Qabalah. Additionally, we explore the modern application of Hermetic Qabalah in traditions such as Thelema and its integration into practices like modern Witchcraft and the Golden Dawn system. CONNECT & SUPPORT

Franz Kafka var tog avstånd från mycket av den tro och kultur han fostrades i. Samtidigt var han något av en judisk mystiker. Ulrika Björk reflekterar över motsättningen. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play. ESSÄ: Detta är en text där skribenten reflekterar över ett ämne eller ett verk. Åsikter som uttrycks är skribentens egna.I novellen ”Det hemliga miraklet” från 1939 skildrar den argentinske författaren Jorge Luis Borges ögonblicket då huvudpersonen Jaromir Hladík, en tjeckisk judisk författare, erfar ett mirakel. Under tyskarnas inmarsch i Prag grips författaren och döms till döden för sina arbeten om den judiska mystiken. Natten innan avrättningen ber han Gud förlänga hans liv med ett år för att fullborda en oavslutad tragedi. När den dödsdömde nästa morgon står inför exekutionspatrullen stannar den fysiska världen upp, samtidigt som hans tankar pågår som vanligt. Med minnet som dokument slutför författaren under ett år dramat, varpå patrullens fyrfaldiga salva kastar honom till marken.Borges magiska realism – där den gripbara världen sammansmälter med en drömlik verklighet – för vidare en modernistisk genre som författaren Franz Kafka etablerade. Kafka föddes i Prag 1883 och växte upp i en assimilerad judisk borgerlig familj. Vid sin död 1924 hade han ett sextiotal skrifter bakom sig och tre ofullbordade romaner. Med juridisk precision gestaltar hans litteratur tillvarons labyrintiska absurditet.Kafkas stora genombrott kom efter hans död, men en av dem som läste honom under hans livstid var historikern och auktoriteten på judisk mystik Gershom Scholem. Enligt honom vittnar författarskapet om den moderna människans vilsenhet genom att förmedla ett särskilt judiskt förhållande till traditionen i en värld där Gud har dragit sig undan. Kafka är en ”kättersk kabbalist” skriver Scholem i ett brev till vännen Walter Benjamin.Kabbala är det hebreiska ordet för 'tradition' och kommer från verbet för 'att ta emot'. Det är också namnet på en medeltida mystisk lära om den skapande guden som drar sig samman för att ge utrymme åt sin skapelse. Samma gud strålar också ut i världen och uppenbarar sig i tingen. Men hos Kafka kan den fördolde gudens uppenbarelse inte längre erfaras. Allt som återstår är ett meningslöst tomrum.En rad ur det självbiografiska Brevet till fadern – som kom ut först på 1950-talet – verkar bekräfta Kafkas hållning till sitt judiska arv: ”Något bättre sätt att förvalta detta arv än att så fort som möjligt frigöra sig från det kunde jag inte komma på; just en sådan frigörelse tycktes mig vara det mest pietetsfulla”, skriver sonen. Brevet till fadern är en oförsonlig uppgörelse med en förtryckande far och dennes slentrianmässiga religiositet. Den ger därför röst åt upplevelsen av traditionsförlust. Även om fadern fått med sig ”en viss judendom” från sin hemby saknar den i sonens ögon ett egenvärde för fadern och kan därför inte förmedlas.Bilden av Kafka som en internationell modernist var länge förhärskande. Men mot slutet av det kalla kriget började han citeras på den kritiska scenen och som nära förbunden med sitt historiska Prag. För Vaclav Havel var Kafka en förebild. Och i en inflytelserik studie från 1974 byggde de franska filosoferna Gilles Deleuze och Félix Guattari en teori kring en dagboksanteckning från 1911 där han hänvisar till ”de små nationernas litteratur” och den egna förtrogenheten med jiddisch. Boken Kafka. För en mindre litteratur påminde om att Kafkas transnationella tillhörighet var både språklig och politisk – han publicerade sig i samma österrikiska tidskrifter som den politiska sionismens grundare Theodor Herzl.Den språkliga historien – den judiska, tjeckiska och tyska – blev nu en del av den kritiska Kafkatolkningen, och den dolda traditionen i Kafkas egna texter började framträda. Tänk till exempel på den lilla varelsen Odradek i novellen ”Familjefaderns bekymmer” från 1919. Medan vissa hävdar att namnet Odradek är av slaviskt ursprung anser andra att det är tyskt, får vi veta, men ingen kan säga säkert. Själva varelsen är en platt stjärnformad trådspole överdragen med trådändar av skiftande slag och färger. Genom sin konstruktion kan den stå för sig själv på två ben men tycks aldrig ha haft något egentligt ändamål. Den är meningslös och ändå fullbordad. Det är det som bekymrar familjefadern, som undrar om varelsen kommer att överleva honom själv och rulla framför fötterna på hans barn och barnbarn.I en hyllning till Kafka tio år efter hans död tolkar Walter Benjamin Odradek som spåret av en bortglömd centraleuropeisk judisk tradition. Den lilla varelsen sätter oss i kontakt med en förnationell värld – inte slavisk, inte tysk, men formad av båda. Vissa uttolkare menar att novellen väver in Kafkas egna översättningar av hebreiska böner.I en annan novell omtolkar Kafka myten om Babels torn. I ”Stadsvapnet” från 1920 avbryts tornbygget inte genom en högre makts ingripande, som i den bibliska berättelsen. Nej, det är storheten i själva idén om ett torn som räcker upp till himlen som förlamar krafterna och får Babels människor att skjuta fullbordandet på framtiden.Byggandet av tornet misslyckas därför att det inbegriper föreställningen att tiden är gränslös, harlitteraturvetaren Stéphan Mosès föreslagit i en tolkning från 1992. Som Kafka skriver var det som om man ”räknade med att kunna hålla på i århundraden”. Berättelsen står därför i kontrast till Borges novell om den judiske författaren i Prag. I ”Det hemliga miraklet” är tiden förtätad till ett enda ögonblick: stunden då den fysiska världen stannar upp och författaren fullbordar sin tragedi i minnet.I skärningspunkten mellan de två novellerna finner Mosès en historiesyn som han förbinder med mellankrigstidens tysk-judiska generation och kallar ”den historiska tidens aktualisering”. Sedan upplysningen hade den europeiska filosofin dominerats av tanken att historien rör sig framåt. Historia betydde kontinuitet, kausalitet och vetenskapliga framsteg. Istället för att (i Hegels och Marx efterföljd) optimistiskt tänka sig historien som en rörelse mot mänsklighetens fulländning hndlar ”den historiska tidens aktualisering” om en diskontinuerlig historia. Vad Kafka och hans generation såg var att historien består av ögonblick som inte låter sig totaliseras. De erkände att kriser, avbrott och slitningar kan vara mer avgörande – till och med mer löftesrika – än en skenbar enhetlighet. Även om tidigare tänkare har uppmärksammat nuets verklighet rör det sig här inte om en flyktig övergång mellan förflutenhet och framtid, nupunkter i en tidslig kedja, utan om en tid som exploderar i otaliga messianska ögonblick. Som hemliga mirakel uppstår de messianska ögonblicken mellan den oändligt förlängbara yttre tiden i Kafkas tolkning av tornbygget och den förtätade inre tiden i Borges berättelsen om den dödsdömde författaren. Och de nämns redan i Talmud, enligt Scholem – samlingen av de allra tidigaste judiska bibelkommentarerna. Där liknas tiden vid änglar ”som återskapas i varje ögonblick i otaliga mängder för att sjunga sin hymn inför Gud innan de förstörs och försvinner i intet.”Ulrika BjörkfilosofLitteraturRobert Alter. Omistliga änglar: tradition och modernitet hos Kafka, Benjamin och Scholem. Översättning: Daniel Pedersen. Bokförlaget Faethon, 2023.Walter Benjamin: ”Franz Kafka: On the Tenth Anniversary of His Death” [1934], Illuminations, utg. Hannah Arendt. Schocken Books, 1968.Walter Benjamin: Gesammelte Briefe. Band IV, 1931-1934. Suhrkamp, 1998.Jorge Luis Borges: Fiktioner. Översättning: Sun Axelsson, Marina Torres, Johan Laserna, Ingegerd Wiking. Albert Bonniers förlag, 1995.Deleuze, Gilles & Guattari, Félix. Kafka. För en mindre litteratur. Översättning: Vladimir Cepciansky & Daniel Pedersen. Daidalos, 2012.Franz Kafka: En svältkonstnär och andra texter utgivna under författarens levnad. Översättning: Hans Blomqvist & Erik Ågren. Bakhåll, 2007.Franz Kafka: Brevet till fadern. Översättning: Hans Blomqvist & Erik Ågren. Bakhåll, 2010.Franz Kafka: Till frågan om lagarna och andra texter ur kvarlåtenskapen (1920-24). Översättning: Hans Blomqvist & Erik Ågren. Bakhåll, 2020.Franz Kafka: Dagböcker: december 1911-1913. Översättning: Hans Blomqvist & Erik Ågren. Bakhåll, 2004.Vivian Liska: ”Law and Sacrifice in Kafka and His Readers”, Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society, 8 (2022), s. 256-274)Stéphane Mosès. Historiens ängel. Rosenzweig, Benjamin, Scholem. Översättare: Ervin Rosenberg. Bokförlaget Faethon, 2023.Gershom Scholem: The Messianic ea in Judaism and other Essays on Jewish Spirituality. Översättning Michael A. Meyer & Hillel Halkin. Schocken Books, 1971.

Rabbi Dr. Marc B. Shapiro presents the historical rise of the Reform movement and the rabbinic response to it. We explore the origins of the first generation of the Reform movement, examining Scholem's thesis and Rabbi Shapiro's insightful thoughts on it. We uncover the fundamental advocacies of the first-generation Reformers, their rabbinical backing and opposition, and how their beliefs diverge from contemporary Reform movements. Rabbi Shapiro provides illuminating examples of halakhic reforms advocated by the first generation and draws intriguing and surprising parallels with Modern Orthodox and Hareidi practices today. Discover the development and distinctions of the second-generation Reform movement, shedding light on its emergence and evolution. As we navigate through the landscape of Jewish sectarianism, Rabbi Shapiro shares his personal views and hopes for addressing sectarian issues within Judaism today. Lastly, he shares his thoughts on the Haredi approach to Zionism in the aftermath of October 7th, the impact of Hakham José Faur a'h and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks a'h, as well as some other personal anecdotes that blew us away. *This episode is dedicated to the neshama of Meir ben Moshe a'h — Abdolrahim Ilian, the late father of our dear friend, Rod Ilian. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/judaismdemystified/support

We continue our series on mysticism by exploring Judaism and its mystical tradition, including the famous Kabbalah but also going beyond it.Sources/Recomended Reading: Dan, Joseph (1986). "The Early Kabbalah". Classics of Western Spirituality Series. Paulist Press. Fine, Lawrence (2003). "Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship". Stanford University Press. Idel, Moshe (1987). "The Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia". State University of New York Press. Idel, Moshe (1988). "Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah". State University of New York Press. Idel, Moshe (1990). "Kabbalah: New Perspectives". Yale University Press. Idel, Moshe (1995). "Hasidism: Between Ecstacy and Magic". SUNY Press.Kaplan, Aryeh (translated by) (1990). "The Bahir: Illumination". Red Wheel/Weiser; Revised ed. edition. Kraemer, Joel L. (2010). "Maimonides: The Life and World of one of Civilization's Greatest Minds". Doubleday & Co Inc. Krassen, Mosheh Aaron. “Introduction: Rabbi Israel Ba'al Shem Tov: Prophet of a New Paradigm.” In Israel ben Eliezer. Pillar of Prayer. Translated by Menachem Kallus. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2010. Lobel, Diana (2021). "Moses and Abraham Maimonides: Encountering the Divine". Academic Studies Press. Miller, Moshe (translated by) (1994). "The Palm Tree of Devorah". Targum. Russ-Fishbane, Elisha (2015). "Judaism, Sufism, and the Pietists of Medieval Egypt: A study of Abraham Maimonides and his times". Oxford University Press. Scholem, Gershom (1995). "Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism". Schocken Books; Revised edition. Scholem, Gershom (1996). "On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism". Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; Revised ed. edition. Wolfson, Elliot R. (1997). “Jewish mysticism: A Philosophical Overview,” in History of Jewish Philosophy, Daniel Frank, Oliver Leaman (eds.). Wolfson, Eliot R. (2011). “Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia and the Prophetic Kabbalah”. In Jewish Mysticism & Kabbalah (ed. Frederick E. Greenspahn). New York University Press. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Dancing is never just dancing." The Tbilisi-based DJ talks about nightlife politics, the Left Bank collective and Eastern European club culture live from ICKPA Festival. Tbilisi has been experiencing a club music renaissance over the last few years, with clubs like Bassiani and Khidi opening their doors to top tier DJs from around the world and simultaneously heralding an era of world class nightlife. While techno has reigned supreme at these venues, they left a gap that the relatively new space, Left Bank, has aimed to fill. Opening in 2021, it's provided a platform for what it calls "wildly diverse electronic sounds" beyond four-to-the-floor, and it's kicking off its new record label with a thirteen-track V/A, "Stop What You're Doing," this week. Ash Scholem has been a member of the Left Bank collective and social space since its inception, and in this episode of the RA Exchange recorded live at ICKPA Festival—an event co-run by contingents from the Georgian and Ukrainian dance music communities—he speaks with the Exchange's senior producer, Chloe Lula, about his involvement with the venue. He also brings his background in political science and sociology to bear, shedding light on how Eastern European socioeconomics affect nightlife; the ways in which revolutionary ideals have become ingrained into Georgian nightlife culture and how people party; the fight for queer rights and drug policy reform in Tbilisi and broader thoughts on the role dance music plays in politics and legislative change during times of crisis. Listen to the episode in full, and grab a copy of "Stop What You're Doing" on Friday, October 20th.

In this episode J.J. and Dr. Alter explore the literary approach to the Bible, Dr. Alter's magnificent translation, and the impact of both of these works on the study of Bible in the university and the yeshiva. Also typescenes and how Dr. Alter met his wife at a modern-day well. Robert Alter is Professor of the Graduate School and EmeritusProfessor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967. He is amember of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, theAmerican Philosophical Society, the Council of Scholars of theLibrary of Congress, and is past president of the Association ofLiterary Scholars and Critics. He has twice been a GuggenheimFellow, has been a Senior Fellow of the National Endowment for theHumanities, a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies inJerusalem, and Old Dominion Fellow at Princeton University. He haswritten widely on the European novel from the eighteenth century tothe present, on American fiction, and on modern Hebrew literature.He has also written extensively on literary aspects of the Bible. Histwenty-eight published books include two prize-winning volumes onbiblical narrative and poetry and award-winning translations ofGenesis and of the Five Books of Moses. He has devoted book-length studies to Fielding, Stendhal, Nabokov, and the self-reflexivetradition in the novel. Books by him have been translated into tendifferent languages. Among his publications over the past thirtyyears are Necessary Angels: Tradition and Modernity in Kafka,Benjamin, and Scholem (1991), Imagined Cities (2005), Pen ofIron: American Prose and the King James Bible (2010),The Art ofBible Translation (2019), and Nabokov and the Real World 2021).His completed translation of the Hebrew Bible with a commentarywas published in 2018 in a three-volume set. In September 2023 hisbiography of Amos Oz will appear.In 2009 he received the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los AngelesTimes for lifetime contribution to American letters and in 2013 theCharles Homer Haskins Prize for career achievement from theAmerican Council of Learned Societies. In 2019 the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Letters conferred on him an award for literature.He has been given honorary degrees by Yale, Northwestern, theHebrew University of Jerusalem, and three other institutions.

Scholem deals with moderate Sabbateanism, its revival/inversion of gnostic ideas, and I try to stay on point.

From the arts to politics: today we speak to Debbie Scholem, a former professional freelance violinist for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Now in retirement, Debbie is dedicating her energy on her vision for Australia by advocating for a republic.

The Hasidic movement is pretty famous. But few are aware of its deep mystical teachings and connections with Kabbalah. In this episode, we explore the early history of the Hasidim.This episode was written by Seth Weprin and co-written by me (Filip Holm).Sources/Suggested Reading:Idel, Moshe (1995). "Hasidism: Between Ecstacy and Magic". SUNY Press.Idel, Moshe. “Modes of Cleaving to the Letters in the Teachings of Israel BaalShem Tov: A Sample Analysis.” Jewish History 27 (2013): 299-317.Jacobson-Maisels, James. “My Aid Will Come from Nothingness: The Practice of Negative Theology in Maggid Devarav Le-Ya'akov.” In Michael Fagenblat Negative Theology As Jewish Modernity. New Jewish Philosophy and Thought. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2017.Krassen, Mosheh Aaron. “Introduction: Rabbi Israel Ba'al Shem Tov: Prophet of a NewParadigm.” In Israel ben Eliezer. Pillar of Prayer. Translated by Menachem Kallus. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2010.Magid, Shaul. “The Intolerance of Tolerance: Mahaloket (Controversy) and Redemption in EarlyHasidism.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 8, no. 4 (2001): 326-368.Nadler, Allan. The Faith of the Mithnagdim: Rabbinic Responses to Hasidic Rapture. Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.Scholem, Gershom. “The Neutralization of the Messianic Element in Early Hasidism.” In TheMessianic Idea in Judaism. New York: Schocken Books, 1995 [1971]. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

¿Qué tienen en común Kafka, Scholem y Freud? Según el estudiante de Letras Facundo Milman los tres se rebelaron contra sus padres recuperando, a su forma, la tradición de sus abuelos. En este episodio recorremos algunos autores "del viejo continente" desde su aporte desde lo judío al pensamiento universal: Kafka, Scholem, Freud, Arendt, Levinas, Derrida, Steiner y muchos más. La otredad, la hospitalidad, el cuidado del extranjero, la memoria, la interpretación de las lecturas, son algunos de los temas abordados. Por último saltamos de tiempo y continente para hablar sobre el aporte judío a la critica literaria en la Argentina. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/pielef Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/2McoMOo Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2MdHNQn Android Google Play: http://bit.ly/2MaGhhW Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urielromano/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/urielromano/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uriel.romano Website: https://urielromano.com/ Comentarios & Sugerencias: info@pielef.com

17 marzo 2021 - Gianfranco Bonola - Gianfranco Bonola è stato fino al 2017 ordinario di Storia delle religioni presso l'Università di Roma Tre. Dopo aver studiato a Torino, si è perfezionato all'Istituto per le scienze religiose di Bologna e all'Università di Tübingen. Si è occupato del rapporto tra forme di espressione religiosa e filosofia, in particolare di Bibbia e interpretazione in ambito cristiano ed ebraico, con speciale attenzione al tema messianico. In quest'ottica ha accostato (e tradotto) in prevalenza pensatori ebrei del ‘900 come F. Rosenzweig, W. Benjamin, M. Buber, G. Scholem e altri. Praticante di buddhismo zen nella tradizione rinzai, parallelamente si è dedicato anche all'indagine storica di forme di spiritualità orientale legate al buddhismo mahâyâna, con particolare riferimento al confronto cristiano-buddhista durante la missione nel Giappone del XVII. secolo.

durée : 01:25:00 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Philippe Garbit, Albane Penaranda, Mathilde Wagman - Par Emmanuel Hirsch - Avec le Père Bernard Dupuy, Shmuel Trigano, Alexis Nouss et Alexandre Derczanski - Réalisation Malika Mesgach - réalisation : Virginie Mourthé

durée : 01:30:00 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Philippe Garbit, Albane Penaranda, Mathilde Wagman - Par Emmanuel Hirsch - Avec Maurice Hayoun, Benjamin Duvshani, Charles Mopsik, Alexis Nouss, le père Bernard Dupuy et Shmuel Trigano - Réalisation Malika Mesgach - réalisation : Virginie Mourthé

Jay Geller reflects on the history and legacy of German Jewry as a whole through the lens of the history of a single bourgeois family, the Scholems, which is the topic of his recent book The Scholems: A Story of the German-Jewish Bourgeoisie from Emancipation to Destruction. Purchase The Scholems on Amazon The book offers a fascinating look at the history of an entire society through the lens of one family. We can see how each of the four Scholem brothers grew up in the same middle-class German Jewish culture but charted their own political and historical path through the contours of German Jewish history and its diaspora. Gerhard or Gershom Scholem, the Zionist, immigrated to Palestine in 1924 and is most widely known for his scholarship on Jewish mysticism; his brother Werner, who became a leading figure in the German Communist party in the 1920s, was murdered by the Nazis at Buchenwald, and Reinhold and Erich, respectively a nationalist and liberal, made their way to Australia in the 1930s. The Scholem family is simultaneously an eminent middle-class Jewish Berlin family, and it is at the same time also distinctly everyday, showcasing through this microcosm the whole story of Jews in Germany as a whole in the lead-up to the second world war and the Holocaust. We're so excited to discuss share this conversation about the the Scholems and German Jewish history in the largest terms. Listen in as we think through both the history of Jews in Germany, as well as the legacy of German Jewish culture. Jay Geller is the Samuel Rosenthal Professor of Judaic Studies at Case Western Reserve University’s Department of History. In addition to The Scholems, his most recent book, he has also written ‌Jews in Post-Holocaust Germany, 1945-1953.

Scholem Alejchems ‚Tewje‘ ist einer der bekanntesten jiddischen Romane. Das anfängliche Glück, das dem Tewje wiederfährt, ist jedoch nicht von Dauer: einem Hiob gleich muss er ein Unglück nach dem anderen erleiden, bis er letztendlich alles verloren hat. Tewje und seine Familie sind aber nicht nur Einzelschicksale, hier spiegeln sich ebenso diverse politische Entwicklungen im Russland der vorletzten Jahrhundertwende wieder. … Sprecher ist Gerhard Luhofer

In this episode, I look at Eisler's last days in England, where he found that the Oxford readership he had been promised before being sent to Dachau was taken by someone else, a paper shortage had put a stop to academic publishing, and that foreign Jews without visas were being imprisoned in a British internment camp on the Isle of Man. I also talk with astrology scholar Dr. Nicholas Campion about Eisler's scathing criticisms of newspaper astrological columns and unpack Eisler's final scholarly works on folklore, philology, and ethics. This episode officially concludes the story of Robert Eisler, but there will be a tenth and final episode in the near future that reflects on this project and academic podcasting as a whole after I have had time to hear some feedback. On that note, now that you have heard the story, I would love to hear what you think about it! Guests: Steven Beller (independent scholar), Nicholas Campion (Principal Lecturer in History at Bath Spa University and Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture) Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Music: “Shibbolet Baseda,” recorded by Elyakum Shapirra and His Israeli Orchestra. Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford.   Bibliography and Further Reading: Campion, Nicholas. History of Western Astrology: Volume II, the Medieval and Modern Worlds. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Eisler, Robert. Man into Wolf: An Anthropological Interpretation of Sadism, Masochism, and Lycanthropy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1951. ———. “The Passion of the Flax.” Folklore 61, no. 3 (1950): 114-133. ———.“The Empiric Basis of Moral Obligation.” Ethics 59, no. 2, part 1 (January 1949): 77-94. ———. “Danse Macabre.” Traditio 6 (1948): 187-225. ———.The Royal Art of Astrology: With a Frontispiece, Sixteen Plates, Forty-Eight Illustrations in the Text and Five Diagrams. London: Herbert Joseph, Ltd., 1946. The Mass Observation Archive. http://www.massobs.org.uk/. Scholem, Gershom. “How I Came to the Kabbalah,” Commentary 69, no. 5 (May 1980): 39-53. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we examine the rivalry/friendship between Eisler and the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and reassess Eisler's infamous meeting with Scholem and Walter Benjamin in Paris in 1926. We try to unravel the mystery of why Eisler was disavowed by his government after he was appointed to The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. Finally, we take a look at the ambivalent reception of Eisler's 1922 Orpheus lecture in Hamburg (he gets a spontaneous ovation but his attempted art theft comes back to haunt him) and his strained relationships with the pioneering German intellectual historians Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl. One question remains: how did Eisler's frock coat get stolen? Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Guests: Amir Engel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Steven Wasserstrom (Reed College), and Claudia Wedepohl (The Warburg Institute). Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. Bibliography and Further Reading -Eisler, Robert. Orpheus the Fisher: Comparative Studies in Orphic and Early Christian Cult Symbolism. London: J. M. Watkins, 1921. -Eliade, Mircea. Journal I, 1945-1955. Trans. by Mac Linscott Ricketts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. -Engel, Amir. Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. -Gombrich, Ernst. Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography.  Leiden: Brill, 1970. -Gopnik, Adam. “In the Memory Ward.” The New Yorker, March 16, 2015. -Levine, Emily J. Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. -Scholem, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. New York: New York Review of Books, 2003. -Scholem, Gershom, ed. The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem. New York: Schocken Books, 1989. -Scholem, Gershom. From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I look at Eisler’s last days in England, where he found that the Oxford readership he had been promised before being sent to Dachau was taken by someone else, a paper shortage had put a stop to academic publishing, and that foreign Jews without visas were being imprisoned in a British internment camp on the Isle of Man. I also talk with astrology scholar Dr. Nicholas Campion about Eisler’s scathing criticisms of newspaper astrological columns and unpack Eisler’s final scholarly works on folklore, philology, and ethics. This episode officially concludes the story of Robert Eisler, but there will be a tenth and final episode in the near future that reflects on this project and academic podcasting as a whole after I have had time to hear some feedback. On that note, now that you have heard the story, I would love to hear what you think about it! Guests: Steven Beller (independent scholar), Nicholas Campion (Principal Lecturer in History at Bath Spa University and Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture) Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Music: “Shibbolet Baseda,” recorded by Elyakum Shapirra and His Israeli Orchestra. Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford.   Bibliography and Further Reading: Campion, Nicholas. History of Western Astrology: Volume II, the Medieval and Modern Worlds. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Eisler, Robert. Man into Wolf: An Anthropological Interpretation of Sadism, Masochism, and Lycanthropy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1951. ———. “The Passion of the Flax.” Folklore 61, no. 3 (1950): 114-133. ———.“The Empiric Basis of Moral Obligation.” Ethics 59, no. 2, part 1 (January 1949): 77-94. ———. “Danse Macabre.” Traditio 6 (1948): 187-225. ———.The Royal Art of Astrology: With a Frontispiece, Sixteen Plates, Forty-Eight Illustrations in the Text and Five Diagrams. London: Herbert Joseph, Ltd., 1946. The Mass Observation Archive. http://www.massobs.org.uk/. Scholem, Gershom. “How I Came to the Kabbalah,” Commentary 69, no. 5 (May 1980): 39-53. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I look at Eisler’s last days in England, where he found that the Oxford readership he had been promised before being sent to Dachau was taken by someone else, a paper shortage had put a stop to academic publishing, and that foreign Jews without visas were being imprisoned in a British internment camp on the Isle of Man. I also talk with astrology scholar Dr. Nicholas Campion about Eisler’s scathing criticisms of newspaper astrological columns and unpack Eisler’s final scholarly works on folklore, philology, and ethics. This episode officially concludes the story of Robert Eisler, but there will be a tenth and final episode in the near future that reflects on this project and academic podcasting as a whole after I have had time to hear some feedback. On that note, now that you have heard the story, I would love to hear what you think about it! Guests: Steven Beller (independent scholar), Nicholas Campion (Principal Lecturer in History at Bath Spa University and Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture) Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Music: “Shibbolet Baseda,” recorded by Elyakum Shapirra and His Israeli Orchestra. Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford.   Bibliography and Further Reading: Campion, Nicholas. History of Western Astrology: Volume II, the Medieval and Modern Worlds. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Eisler, Robert. Man into Wolf: An Anthropological Interpretation of Sadism, Masochism, and Lycanthropy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1951. ———. “The Passion of the Flax.” Folklore 61, no. 3 (1950): 114-133. ———.“The Empiric Basis of Moral Obligation.” Ethics 59, no. 2, part 1 (January 1949): 77-94. ———. “Danse Macabre.” Traditio 6 (1948): 187-225. ———.The Royal Art of Astrology: With a Frontispiece, Sixteen Plates, Forty-Eight Illustrations in the Text and Five Diagrams. London: Herbert Joseph, Ltd., 1946. The Mass Observation Archive. http://www.massobs.org.uk/. Scholem, Gershom. “How I Came to the Kabbalah,” Commentary 69, no. 5 (May 1980): 39-53. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I look at Eisler’s last days in England, where he found that the Oxford readership he had been promised before being sent to Dachau was taken by someone else, a paper shortage had put a stop to academic publishing, and that foreign Jews without visas were being imprisoned in a British internment camp on the Isle of Man. I also talk with astrology scholar Dr. Nicholas Campion about Eisler’s scathing criticisms of newspaper astrological columns and unpack Eisler’s final scholarly works on folklore, philology, and ethics. This episode officially concludes the story of Robert Eisler, but there will be a tenth and final episode in the near future that reflects on this project and academic podcasting as a whole after I have had time to hear some feedback. On that note, now that you have heard the story, I would love to hear what you think about it! Guests: Steven Beller (independent scholar), Nicholas Campion (Principal Lecturer in History at Bath Spa University and Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture) Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Music: “Shibbolet Baseda,” recorded by Elyakum Shapirra and His Israeli Orchestra. Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford.   Bibliography and Further Reading: Campion, Nicholas. History of Western Astrology: Volume II, the Medieval and Modern Worlds. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Eisler, Robert. Man into Wolf: An Anthropological Interpretation of Sadism, Masochism, and Lycanthropy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1951. ———. “The Passion of the Flax.” Folklore 61, no. 3 (1950): 114-133. ———.“The Empiric Basis of Moral Obligation.” Ethics 59, no. 2, part 1 (January 1949): 77-94. ———. “Danse Macabre.” Traditio 6 (1948): 187-225. ———.The Royal Art of Astrology: With a Frontispiece, Sixteen Plates, Forty-Eight Illustrations in the Text and Five Diagrams. London: Herbert Joseph, Ltd., 1946. The Mass Observation Archive. http://www.massobs.org.uk/. Scholem, Gershom. “How I Came to the Kabbalah,” Commentary 69, no. 5 (May 1980): 39-53. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I look at Eisler’s last days in England, where he found that the Oxford readership he had been promised before being sent to Dachau was taken by someone else, a paper shortage had put a stop to academic publishing, and that foreign Jews without visas were being imprisoned in a British internment camp on the Isle of Man. I also talk with astrology scholar Dr. Nicholas Campion about Eisler’s scathing criticisms of newspaper astrological columns and unpack Eisler’s final scholarly works on folklore, philology, and ethics. This episode officially concludes the story of Robert Eisler, but there will be a tenth and final episode in the near future that reflects on this project and academic podcasting as a whole after I have had time to hear some feedback. On that note, now that you have heard the story, I would love to hear what you think about it! Guests: Steven Beller (independent scholar), Nicholas Campion (Principal Lecturer in History at Bath Spa University and Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture) Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Music: “Shibbolet Baseda,” recorded by Elyakum Shapirra and His Israeli Orchestra. Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford.   Bibliography and Further Reading: Campion, Nicholas. History of Western Astrology: Volume II, the Medieval and Modern Worlds. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Eisler, Robert. Man into Wolf: An Anthropological Interpretation of Sadism, Masochism, and Lycanthropy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1951. ———. “The Passion of the Flax.” Folklore 61, no. 3 (1950): 114-133. ———.“The Empiric Basis of Moral Obligation.” Ethics 59, no. 2, part 1 (January 1949): 77-94. ———. “Danse Macabre.” Traditio 6 (1948): 187-225. ———.The Royal Art of Astrology: With a Frontispiece, Sixteen Plates, Forty-Eight Illustrations in the Text and Five Diagrams. London: Herbert Joseph, Ltd., 1946. The Mass Observation Archive. http://www.massobs.org.uk/. Scholem, Gershom. “How I Came to the Kabbalah,” Commentary 69, no. 5 (May 1980): 39-53. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I look at Eisler’s last days in England, where he found that the Oxford readership he had been promised before being sent to Dachau was taken by someone else, a paper shortage had put a stop to academic publishing, and that foreign Jews without visas were being imprisoned in a British internment camp on the Isle of Man. I also talk with astrology scholar Dr. Nicholas Campion about Eisler’s scathing criticisms of newspaper astrological columns and unpack Eisler’s final scholarly works on folklore, philology, and ethics. This episode officially concludes the story of Robert Eisler, but there will be a tenth and final episode in the near future that reflects on this project and academic podcasting as a whole after I have had time to hear some feedback. On that note, now that you have heard the story, I would love to hear what you think about it! Guests: Steven Beller (independent scholar), Nicholas Campion (Principal Lecturer in History at Bath Spa University and Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture) Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Music: “Shibbolet Baseda,” recorded by Elyakum Shapirra and His Israeli Orchestra. Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford.   Bibliography and Further Reading: Campion, Nicholas. History of Western Astrology: Volume II, the Medieval and Modern Worlds. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Eisler, Robert. Man into Wolf: An Anthropological Interpretation of Sadism, Masochism, and Lycanthropy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1951. ———. “The Passion of the Flax.” Folklore 61, no. 3 (1950): 114-133. ———.“The Empiric Basis of Moral Obligation.” Ethics 59, no. 2, part 1 (January 1949): 77-94. ———. “Danse Macabre.” Traditio 6 (1948): 187-225. ———.The Royal Art of Astrology: With a Frontispiece, Sixteen Plates, Forty-Eight Illustrations in the Text and Five Diagrams. London: Herbert Joseph, Ltd., 1946. The Mass Observation Archive. http://www.massobs.org.uk/. Scholem, Gershom. “How I Came to the Kabbalah,” Commentary 69, no. 5 (May 1980): 39-53. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I look at Eisler’s last days in England, where he found that the Oxford readership he had been promised before being sent to Dachau was taken by someone else, a paper shortage had put a stop to academic publishing, and that foreign Jews without visas were being imprisoned in a British internment camp on the Isle of Man. I also talk with astrology scholar Dr. Nicholas Campion about Eisler’s scathing criticisms of newspaper astrological columns and unpack Eisler’s final scholarly works on folklore, philology, and ethics. This episode officially concludes the story of Robert Eisler, but there will be a tenth and final episode in the near future that reflects on this project and academic podcasting as a whole after I have had time to hear some feedback. On that note, now that you have heard the story, I would love to hear what you think about it! Guests: Steven Beller (independent scholar), Nicholas Campion (Principal Lecturer in History at Bath Spa University and Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture) Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Music: “Shibbolet Baseda,” recorded by Elyakum Shapirra and His Israeli Orchestra. Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford.   Bibliography and Further Reading: Campion, Nicholas. History of Western Astrology: Volume II, the Medieval and Modern Worlds. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Eisler, Robert. Man into Wolf: An Anthropological Interpretation of Sadism, Masochism, and Lycanthropy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1951. ———. “The Passion of the Flax.” Folklore 61, no. 3 (1950): 114-133. ———.“The Empiric Basis of Moral Obligation.” Ethics 59, no. 2, part 1 (January 1949): 77-94. ———. “Danse Macabre.” Traditio 6 (1948): 187-225. ———.The Royal Art of Astrology: With a Frontispiece, Sixteen Plates, Forty-Eight Illustrations in the Text and Five Diagrams. London: Herbert Joseph, Ltd., 1946. The Mass Observation Archive. http://www.massobs.org.uk/. Scholem, Gershom. “How I Came to the Kabbalah,” Commentary 69, no. 5 (May 1980): 39-53. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In der Kabbala, der jüdischen Mystik, wird der Anfang und Ursprung des Bösen diskutiert. In dem Baum der Sefiroth gibt es die Sefira der Strenge, auch verstanden als Sefira der Unterscheidung. Mit Gott verbunden ist die Strenge ungefährlich, getrennt von Gott jedoch bringt sie Böses hervor. Das Böse ist ursprünglich ein Teil der göttlichen Schöpfung, und kann deshalb überwunden werden. Bei der Zählung der Sefiroth hat sich ein Fehler eingeschlichen. Bina ist die dritte Sefirot, Din/Gebura die fünfte. Die Sefira der Strenge ist Din. Ich spreche fälschlicherweise von Bina. Das ist aber schon bei Scholem uneindeutig und mystisch gesehen auch beides richtig. Podcast von Ronald Engert Quelle: Gershom Scholem, Von der mystischen Gestalt der Gottheit, Frankfurt Main 1977, S. 52-65

In this episode, we examine the rivalry/friendship between Eisler and the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and reassess Eisler's infamous meeting with Scholem and Walter Benjamin in Paris in 1926. We try to unravel the mystery of why Eisler was disavowed by his government after he was appointed to The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. Finally, we take a look at the ambivalent reception of Eisler's 1922 Orpheus lecture in Hamburg (he gets a spontaneous ovation but his attempted art theft comes back to haunt him) and his strained relationships with the pioneering German intellectual historians Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl. One question remains: how did Eisler's frock coat get stolen? Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Guests: Amir Engel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Steven Wasserstrom (Reed College), and Claudia Wedepohl (The Warburg Institute). Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. Bibliography and Further Reading -Eisler, Robert. Orpheus the Fisher: Comparative Studies in Orphic and Early Christian Cult Symbolism. London: J. M. Watkins, 1921. -Eliade, Mircea. Journal I, 1945-1955. Trans. by Mac Linscott Ricketts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. -Engel, Amir. Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. -Gombrich, Ernst. Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography.  Leiden: Brill, 1970. -Gopnik, Adam. “In the Memory Ward.” The New Yorker, March 16, 2015. -Levine, Emily J. Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. -Scholem, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. New York: New York Review of Books, 2003. -Scholem, Gershom, ed. The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem. New York: Schocken Books, 1989. -Scholem, Gershom. From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

In this episode, we examine the rivalry/friendship between Eisler and the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and reassess Eisler’s infamous meeting with Scholem and Walter Benjamin in Paris in 1926. We try to unravel the mystery of why Eisler was disavowed by his government after he was appointed to The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. Finally, we take a look at the ambivalent reception of Eisler’s 1922 Orpheus lecture in Hamburg (he gets a spontaneous ovation but his attempted art theft comes back to haunt him) and his strained relationships with the pioneering German intellectual historians Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl. One question remains: how did Eisler’s frock coat get stolen? Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Guests: Amir Engel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Steven Wasserstrom (Reed College), and Claudia Wedepohl (The Warburg Institute). Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. Bibliography and Further Reading -Eisler, Robert. Orpheus the Fisher: Comparative Studies in Orphic and Early Christian Cult Symbolism. London: J. M. Watkins, 1921. -Eliade, Mircea. Journal I, 1945-1955. Trans. by Mac Linscott Ricketts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. -Engel, Amir. Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. -Gombrich, Ernst. Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography.  Leiden: Brill, 1970. -Gopnik, Adam. “In the Memory Ward.” The New Yorker, March 16, 2015. -Levine, Emily J. Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. -Scholem, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. New York: New York Review of Books, 2003. -Scholem, Gershom, ed. The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem. New York: Schocken Books, 1989. -Scholem, Gershom. From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we examine the rivalry/friendship between Eisler and the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and reassess Eisler’s infamous meeting with Scholem and Walter Benjamin in Paris in 1926. We try to unravel the mystery of why Eisler was disavowed by his government after he was appointed to The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. Finally, we take a look at the ambivalent reception of Eisler’s 1922 Orpheus lecture in Hamburg (he gets a spontaneous ovation but his attempted art theft comes back to haunt him) and his strained relationships with the pioneering German intellectual historians Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl. One question remains: how did Eisler’s frock coat get stolen? Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Guests: Amir Engel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Steven Wasserstrom (Reed College), and Claudia Wedepohl (The Warburg Institute). Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. Bibliography and Further Reading -Eisler, Robert. Orpheus the Fisher: Comparative Studies in Orphic and Early Christian Cult Symbolism. London: J. M. Watkins, 1921. -Eliade, Mircea. Journal I, 1945-1955. Trans. by Mac Linscott Ricketts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. -Engel, Amir. Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. -Gombrich, Ernst. Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography.  Leiden: Brill, 1970. -Gopnik, Adam. “In the Memory Ward.” The New Yorker, March 16, 2015. -Levine, Emily J. Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. -Scholem, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. New York: New York Review of Books, 2003. -Scholem, Gershom, ed. The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem. New York: Schocken Books, 1989. -Scholem, Gershom. From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we examine the rivalry/friendship between Eisler and the great scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and reassess Eisler’s infamous meeting with Scholem and Walter Benjamin in Paris in 1926. We try to unravel the mystery of why Eisler was disavowed by his government after he was appointed to The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation. Finally, we take a look at the ambivalent reception of Eisler’s 1922 Orpheus lecture in Hamburg (he gets a spontaneous ovation but his attempted art theft comes back to haunt him) and his strained relationships with the pioneering German intellectual historians Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl. One question remains: how did Eisler’s frock coat get stolen? Voice of Robert Eisler: Caleb Crawford Additional voices: Brian Evans and Chiara Ridpath Guests: Amir Engel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Steven Wasserstrom (Reed College), and Claudia Wedepohl (The Warburg Institute). Funding provided by the Ohio University Humanities Research Fund and the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College Internship Program. Special thanks to the Warburg Institute and the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford. Bibliography and Further Reading -Eisler, Robert. Orpheus the Fisher: Comparative Studies in Orphic and Early Christian Cult Symbolism. London: J. M. Watkins, 1921. -Eliade, Mircea. Journal I, 1945-1955. Trans. by Mac Linscott Ricketts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. -Engel, Amir. Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. -Gombrich, Ernst. Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography.  Leiden: Brill, 1970. -Gopnik, Adam. “In the Memory Ward.” The New Yorker, March 16, 2015. -Levine, Emily J. Dreamland of Humanists: Warburg, Cassirer, Panofsky, and the Hamburg School. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. -Scholem, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. New York: New York Review of Books, 2003. -Scholem, Gershom, ed. The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem. New York: Schocken Books, 1989. -Scholem, Gershom. From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Follow us on Twitter: @averysquarepeg Associate Professor Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy at Ohio University. He can be reached at collinb1@ohio.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Machia'h et révolution (5/7) - Michael Löwy,Jean Tain,Valentin Denis

Zwei osteuropäische Juden verlassen ihr Dorf, um auf den Spuren Alexanders des Großen Erlösung für ihr Volk zu suchen. Doch kann dieser wagemutige Plan gelingen? Eine fiktive Reisebeschreibung voller Ironie, entstanden im 19. Jahrhundert. Rezension von Christoph Schmälzle. von Susanne Klingenstein aus dem Jiddischen übersetzt Hanser-Verlag ISBN 978-3-446-26395-6 288 Seiten 28 Euro

Parte final da reflexão sobre sobre Guershom Scholem, maior estudioso do misticismo judaico de todos os tempos.

durée : 00:32:17 - Talmudiques - par : Marc-Alain Ouaknin - . - réalisation : Dany Journo

Continuação da reflexão sobre sobre Guershom Scholem, maior estudioso do misticismo judaico de todos os tempos. Falaremos sobre o teor de suas obras, as suas contribuições para o entendimento do fenômeno religioso do Misticismo e sua historiografia

Nesta oportunidade, refletimos sobre Guershom Scholem, maior estudioso do misticismo judaico de todos os tempos. Falaremos sobre o teor de suas obras, as suas contribuições para o entendimento do fenômeno religioso do Misticismo e sua historiografia.

1973. Bei einem Besuch in München gibt Gerschom Scholem dem BR Nachtstudio ein Interview: über seine Jugend in Berlin und insbesondere über seine Freundschaft zu Walter Benjamin.

By Jasmin Cohan and Danielle GoldsmithHasidism is a Jewish religious group that has its origins in the 18th century contemporary Western Ukraine where it started as a spiritual revival movement. Israel Ben Eliezer, also referred to as Baal Shem Tov or Besht was the founding father of Hasidism. The followers of Hasidism, also known as Pious Ones or Hasidim, were distinguished by their exercise of street piety. Hasidism emerged in 12th century Germany before the religious reforms. Its main difference from modern Hasidism is that the modern Hasidism rejects asceticism and the strong emphasis on the sacredness of daily life. Hasidism is influenced by the Kabbalah movement as Besht was part of the movement.During its inception, Hasidism faced opposition from the Mitnagdim who likened it to Sabbatianism. During this time, Sabbatianism was facing nonstop persecution from the rabbinical orthodoxy. The Mitnagdim perceived Hasidism as unorthodox and Hasidic practices as inconsistent with rationalist Talmudic traditions. There was also tension over authority between the Rabbis and Laymen. The founder of Hasidism, Israel Ben Eliezer was a faith healer, a writer of amulets designed to fight illness, and an exorcist. His earliest followers were his patients. Hasidism merged with the existing traditions and spread to the Volhynia and Podolia regions of Ukraine.According to the teachings of Besht, all people are equal before God including both the ignorant and the learned. He taught people to express their devotion through intense bodily gestures, singing, shouting, dance, and jumping. He also taught the people that divine grace and communion with God was open to all Jews, even the simplest in the society. The Besht did not leave a written record of his teachings, what is known comes from his disciples. After his death, his disciples developed and further refined Hasidism as taught by the Besht. Followers of Baal Shem Tov had many followers who created and became head of Hasidic dynasties.The Rabbi was the recognized leader during these centuries. The emergence of new social structures led to the rise of prophets as the new leaders. Then came the Tzadik, whose doctrine was planned by Elimelech of Lizhensk and Jacob Joseph of Polnoy. Tzaddikim are described as emissaries of God who have the ability to sustain the entire world. The tsaddik was believed to exist on a level that is higher than the angels and also; they possess the power to transform divine judgment to mercy.The Hasidic Shtibl was established as an alternative place of prayer where activities not allowed in the synagogue or prayer houses could be practiced. The Hasidic Shtibl was used as a place for prayer and study. Festivities and other social and recreational activities were also allowed in the shtibl. The shtibl attracted new people to Hasidism as it provided a less formal atmosphere of worship.As Hasidism grew and spread to new regions, the traditional orthodox practices were abandoned. In the late 19th century, Judaism lost its grip on people as more Jews moved to urban centers. Jews interacted with Christians and other religions, leading to many Jews converting and intermarrying with Christians. Teachings and writings of Martin Buber were influential in the new trend of Neo-Hasidism that emerged. Buber revolted against the practices of 19th century Hasidism which was characterized by mysticism and superstition.Before the First World War, some Jews had high hopes of the coming transformation which they believed would eliminate classes, parties, and religions. However, the war led to the brutal disillusionment of the Jews. Although their hopes of becoming part of a German Volksgemeinschaft, or community, were destroyed, Jewish leaders called for the formation of new forms of community.ReferencesAriel, Yaakov. “Hasidism in the Age of Aquarius: The House of Love and Prayer in San Francisco, 1967â1977.” Religion and American Culture, vol. 13, no. 2, 2003, pp. 139–165., doi:10.1525/rac.2003.13.2.139. The Besht: Magician, Mystic, and Leader. Brandeis University Press, 2012. Brenner, Michael. The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany. Yale University Press, 1998. Brown, Benjamin. “Substitutes for Mysticism: A General Model for the Theological Development of Hasidism in the Nineteenth Century.” History of Religions, vol. 56, no. 3, 2017, pp. 247–288., doi:10.1086/689406. Buber, Martin, and Maurice S. Friedman. Hasidism & Modern Man. Princeton University Press, 2016. Loewenthal, Naftali. “The Hasidic Ethos and the Schisms of Jewish Society.” Jewish History, vol. 27, no. 2-4, 2013, pp. 377–398., doi:10.1007/s10835-013-9196-4. Loewenthal, Naftali. “The Hasidic Ethos and the Schisms of Jewish Society.” Jewish History, vol. 27, no. 2-4, 2013, pp. 377–398., doi:10.1007/s10835-013-9196-4. Reinharz, Jehuda. “Martin Buber's Impact on German Zionism before World War I.” Studies in Zionism, vol. 3, no. 2, 1982, pp. 171–183., doi:10.1080/13531048208575824. Scholem, Gershom. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. Schocken Books, 1995. Wodzinski, Marcin. “The Socio-Economic Profile of a Religious Movement: The Case of Hasidism.” European History Quarterly, vol. 46, no. 4, 2016, pp. 668–701., doi:10.1177/0265691416655965.

In Werner Scholem: A German Life (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), Mirjam Zadoff, Director of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, presents a biography of an individual, a family chronicle, and the story of an entire era. This biography suggests that the ‘non-Jewish’ Communist Jew was not as irreconcilably opposed to the ‘Jewish’ Jew as has previously been thought. It is an extraordinary work that will be referenced for many years to come. Max Kaiser is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. He can be reached at kaiser@student.unimelb.edu.au  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Werner Scholem: A German Life (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), Mirjam Zadoff, Director of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, presents a biography of an individual, a family chronicle, and the story of an entire era. This biography suggests that the ‘non-Jewish’ Communist Jew was not as irreconcilably opposed to the ‘Jewish’ Jew as has previously been thought. It is an extraordinary work that will be referenced for many years to come. Max Kaiser is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. He can be reached at kaiser@student.unimelb.edu.au  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Werner Scholem: A German Life (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), Mirjam Zadoff, Director of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, presents a biography of an individual, a family chronicle, and the story of an entire era. This biography suggests that the ‘non-Jewish’ Communist Jew was not as irreconcilably opposed to the ‘Jewish’ Jew as has previously been thought. It is an extraordinary work that will be referenced for many years to come. Max Kaiser is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. He can be reached at kaiser@student.unimelb.edu.au  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Werner Scholem: A German Life (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), Mirjam Zadoff, Director of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, presents a biography of an individual, a family chronicle, and the story of an entire era. This biography suggests that the ‘non-Jewish’ Communist Jew was not as irreconcilably opposed to the ‘Jewish’ Jew as has previously been thought. It is an extraordinary work that will be referenced for many years to come. Max Kaiser is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. He can be reached at kaiser@student.unimelb.edu.au  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Werner Scholem: A German Life (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), Mirjam Zadoff, Director of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, presents a biography of an individual, a family chronicle, and the story of an entire era. This biography suggests that the ‘non-Jewish’ Communist Jew was not as irreconcilably opposed to the ‘Jewish’ Jew as has previously been thought. It is an extraordinary work that will be referenced for many years to come. Max Kaiser is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. He can be reached at kaiser@student.unimelb.edu.au  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Werner Scholem: A German Life (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), Mirjam Zadoff, Director of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, presents a biography of an individual, a family chronicle, and the story of an entire era. This biography suggests that the ‘non-Jewish’ Communist Jew was not as irreconcilably opposed to the ‘Jewish’ Jew as has previously been thought. It is an extraordinary work that will be referenced for many years to come. Max Kaiser is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. He can be reached at kaiser@student.unimelb.edu.au  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grass roots activist Suse Scholem

An analysis of the Curse Formula Pour Out Thy Wrath upon the Nations recited at the climax of the Passover Seder and suggested alternative texts including the questionable text of "Pour out your Love" discovered by Chayyim Bloch and a stylistically similar piyut of R. Shimon b. Yitzhak which curses the evil inclination instead of the Nations. Complete notes are available at http://madlik.com/2018/03/25/pour-out-your-wrath-on-my-hametz  --------- - An exploration of the prayers and visions of redemption expressed at the climax of the Seder  A Night of Watchings ליל שמרים Exodus 12: 42 ליל שמרים הוא לה' להוציאם מארץ מצרים הוא־הלילה הזה לה' שמרים לכל־בני ישראל לדרתם That was for the LORD a night of watchings (Shemarim) to bring them out of the land of Egypt; that same night is the LORD’s, one of watchings for all the children of Israel throughout the ages. ‘R. Joshua says, In Nisan they were delivered, [and] in Nisan they will be delivered in the time to come’. Whence do we know this? — Scripture calls [the Passover] ‘a night of watchings’, [twice - which means], a night which has been continuously watched for from the six days of the creation. (Rosh HaShana 11b) [i] The Four Cups - The Four stages of Redemption 1.  "I will bring you out from the suffering of Egypt                                                                                   וְהוֹצֵאתִ֣י אֶתְכֶ֗ם מִתַּ֙חַת֙ סִבְלֹ֣ת מִצְרַ֔יִם 2.  and I will save you from enslavement                                                                                                    וְהִצַּלְתִּ֥י אֶתְכֶ֖ם מֵעֲבֹדָתָ֑ם I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements      Exodus 6: 6                                                      וְגָאַלְתִּ֤י אֶתְכֶם֙ בִּזְר֣וֹעַ נְטוּיָ֔ה וּבִשְׁפָטִ֖ים גְּדֹלִֽים and I will take you for me as a Nation, and I will be for you, the Lord"      Exodus 6: 7                                                      וְלָקַחְתִּ֨י אֶתְכֶ֥ם לִי֙ לְעָ֔ם וְהָיִ֥יתִי לָכֶ֖ם לֵֽא-לֹהִ֑ים 3 The Climax of the Seder – Opening the Door for Elijah Bless and drink the third cup of wine.. Pour the fourth cup of wine and pour the cup of Eliyahu and open the door. שְׁפֹךְ חֲמָתְךָ אֶל־הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יְדָעוּךָ וְעַל־מַמְלָכוֹת אֲשֶׁר בְּשִׁמְךָ לֹא קָרָאוּ. כִּי אָכַל אֶת־יַעֲקֹב וְאֶת־נָוֵהוּ הֵשַׁמּוּ. שְׁפָךְ־עֲלֵיהֶם זַעֲמֶךָ וַחֲרוֹן אַפְּךָ יַשִּׂיגֵם. תִּרְדֹף בְּאַף וְתַשְׁמִידֵם מִתַּחַת שְׁמֵי ה' Pour your wrath upon the nations that did not know You and upon the kingdoms that did not call upon Your Name! Since they have consumed Ya'akov and laid waste his habitation (Psalms 79:6-7). Pour out Your fury upon them and the fierceness of Your anger shall reach them (Psalms 69:25)! You shall pursue them with anger and eradicate them from under the skies of the Lord (Lamentations 3:66). First found in Mchzor Vitry compiled by a pupil of Rashi in the 11th century. Pour Out Your Love - Alternative reading Pour out Your love on the nations that know You And on the kingdoms that call upon Your Name For the loving-kindness that they perform with Jacob And their defense of the People of Israel In the face of those that would devour them. May they be privileged to see The Succah of peace spread for Your chosen ones And rejoice in the joy of Your nations. שְׁפֹךְ אַהֲבָתְךָ עַל הַגּוֹיִים אֲשֶׁר יְדָעוּךָ וְעַל מַמְלָכוֹת אֲשֶׁר בְּשִׁמְךָ קוֹרְאִים בִּגְלַל חֲסָדִים שֶׁהֵם עוֹשִׂים עִם יַעֲקֹב וּמְגִנִּים עַל עַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל מִפְּנֵי אוֹכְלֵיהֶם. יִזְכּוּ לִרְאוֹת בְּסֻכַּת בְּחִירֶיךָ וְלִשְׂמֹחַ בְּשִׂמְחַת גּוֹיֶיךָ. “Chayyim Bloch (1881-1973) reported that he found an unusual version of this prayer in a manuscript haggadah that had been compiled in 1521.  He states that this manuscript, which included other poems that are not found in standard haggadot and differing versions of the text, had disappeared during the Holocaust without a trace.  Fortunately, he claims, he retained some notes with this prayer… ….  Chayyim Bloch has a reputation for presenting new texts as ancient documents.” The JPS Commentary on the Haggadah, Joseph Tabory, 2008 Jewish Publication Society p55 Earlier alternative tradition - SIMEON BAR-ISAAC c950[ii] [caption id="attachment_2321" align="alignnone" width="1591"] From: The Authorised Selichot for the Whole Year by Abraham Rosenfeld 1978 p150 Selichot for the Eve of the New Year.[/caption] two views of Redemption – inner/outer – personal/national The considerations I would like to set forth in what follows concern the special tensions in the Messianic idea and their understanding in rabbinic Judaism. These tensions manifest themselves within a fixed tradition which we shall try to understand. But even where it is not stated explicitly, we shall often enough find as well a polemical side-glance, or an allusion, albeit concealed, to the claims of Christian Messianism. Judaism, in all of its forms and manifestations, has always maintained a concept of redemption as an event which takes place publicly, on the stage of history and within the community. It is an occurrence which takes place in the visible world and which cannot be conceived apart from such a visible appearance. Christianity conceives of redemption as an event in the spiritual and unseen realm, an event which is reflected in the soul, in the private world of each individual, and which effects an inner transformation which need not correspond to anything outside. But it remains peculiar that this question concerning the inner aspect of the redemption should emerge so late in Judaism—though it finally does emerge with great vehemence.[iii] The leaven in the bread – The original Passover Purge Jewish a. שִׁבְעַ֤ת יָמִים֙ מַצּ֣וֹת תֹּאכֵ֔לוּ אַ֚ךְ בַּיּ֣וֹם הָרִאשׁ֔וֹן תַּשְׁבִּ֥יתוּ שְּׂאֹ֖ר מִבָּתֵּיכֶ֑ם כִּ֣י ׀ כָּל־אֹכֵ֣ל חָמֵ֗ץ וְנִכְרְתָ֞ה הַנֶּ֤פֶשׁ הַהִוא֙ מִיִּשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מִיּ֥וֹם הָרִאשֹׁ֖ן עַד־י֥וֹם הַשְּׁבִעִֽי Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. Exodus 12: 15 b. “Sovereign of the Universe, it is well known to You that it is our will to do Your will. Who prevents us from doing so? The leavening agent in the dough (the evil inclination within us) and our subservience to the nations. May it be Your will to save us from these so that we can return to fulfilling Your commandments wholeheartedly.” Prayer of Rabbi Alexandrai c. May it be Your will, Lord, our G-d and G-d of our fathers, that just as I remove the chametz from my house and from my possession, so shall You remove all the extraneous forces. Remove the spirit of impurity from the earth, remove our evil inclination from us, and grant us a heart of flesh to serve You in truth. Make all the sitra achara (evil inclination), all the kelipot (barriers), and all wickedness be consumed in smoke, and remove the dominion of evil from the earth. Remove with a spirit of destruction and a spirit of judgment all that distress the Shechina, just as You destroyed Egypt and its idols in those days, at this time. Amen, Selah. (kabalistic kavanah recited before the bedikat HaChametz (searching for the Leaven). Christian Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth. [Corinthians 5:8] “the leaven of the Pharisees,” which is “hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1; d. Mark 8:15). You’re both right Jewish history speaks to our generation in the voice of two biblical commands to remember. The first voice commands us to remember that we were strangers in the land of Egypt, and the message of that command is: “Don’t be brutal.” The second voice commands us to remember how the tribe of Amalek attacked us without provocation while we were wandering in the desert, and the message of that command is: “Don’t be naive.” The first command is the voice of Passover, of liberation; the second is the voice of Purim, commemorating our victory over the genocidal threat of Haman, a descendant of Amalek. “Passover Jews” are motivated by empathy with the oppressed; “Purim Jews” are motivated by alertness to threat. Both are essential; one without the other creates an unbalanced Jewish personality, a distortion of Jewish history and values. Yossi Klein Halevi, CJN, March 11, 2013 ---------------------------- [i] See also Megillah 6b: Where Rabbi Gamaliel argues that in a leap year, Purim is celebrated on the 2nd Adar: “R. Simon b. Gamaliel again reasoned: Just as in most years [we think of] Adar as adjoining Nisan, so here [we keep the precepts] in the Adar which adjoins Nisan. …. The reason of R. Simon b. Gamaliel is that more weight is to be attached to bringing one period of redemption close to another.” Purim and Passover are times of future redemption. See also:  “It is customary not to close the door at all in the house in which we are sitting … and when we go to greet Elijah we do so without any (closed door) obstructing our way.  בספר "מעשה רוקח" מובא: "מצאתי במגילת סתרים, ראיתי מרבנא אלוף אבא - לא היה סוגר דלתי הבית אשר אנו יושבין בו כלל. מעידנא ועד עתה כך מנהגנו, ודלתות הבית פתוחות, וכשיבוא אליהו נצא לקראתו במהרה בלא עיכוב. ואמרינן: בפסח עתידין ליגאל, שנאמר: ליל שימורים הוא לה' - ליל המשומר ובא מששת ימי בראשית" [ii] Paytan Born after c. 950 Born in Mainz, Germany. An important scholar of his time. As a paytan he composed yozerot, kerovot, selihot, hymns, and rashuyyot le-hatanim. It is probable that he sang his piyutim himself. His piyutim bare traces of the language found in early piyutim, and they are marked by the pain of the persecutions of the Jews in Bar-Isaacs' lifetime.   Birth:      after circa 970 Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Death:          1020 [iii] Scholem not only distinguishes between an inner and outer, personal and nationistic view of messinaism, but also distinguishes between catastrophic and utopian trends in messianism:  “I spoke of the catastrophic nature of redemption as a decisive characteristic of every such apocalypticism, which is then complemented by the utopian view of the content of realized redemption. Apocalyptic thinking always contains the elements of dread and consolation intertwined. The dread and peril of the End form an element of shock and of the shocking which induces extravagance. The terrors of the real historical experiences of the Jewish people are joined with images drawn from the heritage of myth or mythical fantasy. The apocalyptists have always cherished a pessimistic view of the world. Their optimism, their hope, is not directed to what history will bring forth, but to that which will arise in its ruin, free at last and undisguised. This catastrophic character of the redemption, which is essential to the apocalyptic conception, is pictured in all of these texts and traditions in glaring images. It finds manifold expression: in world wars and revolutions, in epidemics, famine, and economic catastrophe; but to an equal degree in apostasy and the desecration of God’s name, in forgetting of the Torah and the upsetting of all moral order to the point of dissolving the laws of nature. Little wonder that in one such context the Talmud cites the bald statement of three famous teachers of the third and fourth centuries: “May he come, but I do not want to see him.” This utopianism seizes upon all the restorative hopes turned toward the past and describes an arc from the re-establishment of Israel and of the Davidic kingdom as a kingdom of God on earth to the re-establishment of the condition of Paradise as it is foreseen by many old Midrashim, but above all by the thought of Jewish mystics, for whom the analogy of First Days and Last Days possess living reality. But it does more than that. For already in the Messianic utopianism of Isaiah we find the Last Days conceived immeasurably more richly than any beginning. The condition of the world, wherein the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isa. 11:9), does not repeat anything that has ever been, but presents something new. The world of tikkun , the re-establishment of the harmonious condition of the world, which in the Lurianic Kabbalah is the Messianic world, still contains a strictly utopian impulse. But it always retains that fascinating vitality to which no historical reality can do justice and which in times of darkness and persecution counterpoises the fulfilled image of wholeness to the piecemeal, wretched reality which was available to the Jew. Thus the images of the New Jerusalem that float before the eyes of the apocalyptists always contain more than was ever present in the old one, and the renewal of the world is simply more than its restoration.” Gershom Scholem, The Messianic Idea in Judaism

Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noam Zadoff begins his biography of Gershon Scholem, one of the 20th century’s greatest scholars and an equally perplexing intellectual, at the point where Scholem ends his own autobiography From Berlin to Jerusalem: Memories of My Youth—with his arrival in Jerusalem in 1923. Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back (Brandeis University Press, 2018) situates Scholem’s thought in the context of his biography, by skillfully reading Scholem’s self-fashioning against the grain and together with materials held in his archive. With particular focus on his conflicted and shifting relationship to Germany and German thought and language, Zadoff contributes to the ever-growing scholarship about Scholem. Zadoff moves beyond Scholem’s early ambivalence towards German culture as he sought a Jewish future in Israel during the inter-war years. Despite his early rejection of Jewish-German assimilation and his idiosyncratic Zionist dreams, we find that not only was his world-view framed in reference to Germany—of his youth, the Holocaust, and the after-war years—but this relationship becomes a barometer to understand his evolving thought. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on Scholem’s early period in Jerusalem, his political activities there, relationship to the Hebrew Language, and to the Hebrew University. The next section is about Scholem’s response to the Holocaust and his pivotal role in collecting and reclaiming manuscripts and books that were looted from the Jewish communities of Europe. The last, and perhaps most revealing section, focuses on Scholem’s “return to Germany,” during the last part of his life, particularly his involvement in the Eranos seminars. Zadoff begins the book by asking how the images of Scholem in Israel and Germany could be of the same person, at home he was known as a fiery intellectual, demanding German teacher, and scholar of the kabbalah, while in Germany he was a literary personality and a nostalgic link to German culture of the pre-War years. At its conclusion, we are left with a well argued narrative that does not strip its subject of its complexity. Noam Zadoff is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and of History, and the Director of Olamot Center at Indiana University, Bloomington. Moses Lapin is a graduate student in the departments of History and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an avid lepidopterist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2. Juni 2017, die 153. Folge. Ein paar Notizen zu schwierigen Gedanken, gerade weil man sich konzentrieren kann. Und ein paar Notizen zu Fundstücken... naiven Hoffnungen bei Adorno, wunderbare spitze Formulierungen bei Scholem... dies das, verschiedene Dinge heute...

Dr. Amir Engel, a lecturer in German language and literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the author of the newly published Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography, analyzes the unique legacy of a leading scholar of Jewish mysticism and one of Israel's first public intellectuals. This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.

"Scholem teaches us that the Jewish tradition is so capacious it could embrace its own subversion." George Prochnik returns to The Virtual Memories Show to talk about his new book, Stranger in a Strange Land: Searching for Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem (Other Press). We get into the life of Jewish mysticism's greatest scholar, how the theories of Zionism butted up against the reality of Palestine and Israel, the alchemical friendship of Scholem and Walter Benjamin, the other Walt in Scholem's life, the way Kabbalah serves as the hidden, subterranean layer of Judaism, Scholem's example of a life lived in resistance, the great contrast of Scholem with Prochnik's previous biographical subject, Stefan Zweig, and our author's addiction to Jerusalem and the books he hasn't escaped in 30 years! • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

In a powerful show, author Abdellah Taia talks with co-hosts Kate Wolf and Eric Newman about his new collection from Semiotexte, "Another Morocco;" and also about his experience as the first prominent Moroccan author to come out of the closet; his love of Morocco; how he knew he would lose part of himself when he moved to France; and his bitterness towards French liberal society, which may be less homophobic, but is not tolerant of the young man he was in Morocco. George Prochnik, author of a new book about Gershom Scholem, returns to recommend Scholem's magisterial biography The Mystical Messiah: Sabbatai Sevi about one of the most astonishing figures in Jewish history.

George Prochnik is one of our leading biographers and cultural historians; and he talks with Kate and Medaya about his latest book, "Stranger in a Strange Land: Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem." As he talks about Scholem's life, from his close friendship with Walter Benjamin to his exodus from Europe, to his history excavations of Judaica that were motivated by a desire to enliven contemporary Jewish life - it becomes apparent that Prochnik sees something of his own quest for meaning in Scholem's unique path. Also, Elif Batuman returns to recommend Hanya Yanagihara' s The People in the Trees.