Gershom Scholem: From a Critique of Martin Buber’s Hassidism to Its Negation
Keywords:
Gershom Scholem, Martin Buber, The Hasidic movementAbstract
The article discusses Martin Buber’s interpretation of the Hasidic movement and Gershom Scholem’s criticism of the enterprise. Its aim is twofold: the first is to reconstruct the polemic between Buber and Scholem. I follow the sources and the course of Scholem’s arguments, while at the same time I heed to Buber’s responses, when he did respond. The second goal is to understand the development of this polemic. Scholem’s criticism of Buber’s interpretation of Hasidism only reached its immoderate form in his article from 1961. The article concludes that we should understand Scholem’s criticism of Buber on a larger basis than one that is purely scholarly. In order to understand the Buber-Scholem polemic around the Hasidic movement we should take into account not only their disputes on erudite matters but also their political attitudes, as well as their personal relations.
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