Gershom Scholem : the man and his work /

Scholem (d. 1982), by general consensus the most influential scholar of Judaica of the 20th century, created almost single-handedly the modern academic study of kabala (Jewish mysticism) and through this particularly focused work forced a reconstruction of the entire understanding of Jewish religious life and thought over the past two millennia. In the present collection to honor Scholem's memory, an eminent group of Israeli scholars reconsiders his contribution to a variety of fundamental areas within Jewish studies. The collection includes an excellent, comprehensive introduction to Scholem's scholarly project by Mendes-Flohr; an interesting essay by the distinguished talmudic scholar E. Urbach on Scholem's understanding of contemporary Jewish studies and his opposition to the 19th-century academic model of the Wissenschaft des Judentums; three valuable contributions by Scholem's students J. Ben Shlomo, I. Tishby, and R. Schatz, who write about his work on, respectively, the relation of kabala and pantheism, the Zohar, and Hasidism; a fine essay by J. Dan on Scholem's interpretation of Jewish messianism; an essay by the distinguished philosopher N. Rotenstreich on Scholem's Zionism (an issue central to Scholem's life and work); and finally, M. Beit-Arie's fittingly titled "Scholem as Bibliophile" on the creator of the world's greatest collection of kabala, now housed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Altogether, a valuable volume, which all libraries serving religion and Judaica programs will want. Lower-division undergraduate through graduate. S. T. Katz; Cornell University