Scholem's famous points re messianism worth knowing continued:
Historical Progression
In a nutshell, Scholem laid out a historical progression of Judaism, with attention paid to mysticism and messianism. After the Bar Kochva revolt, which was messianic and disastrous, from then on, Judaism developed and was inclined to a conservative position.
Jewish mysticism before kabbalah was present but not messianic. Kabbalah mysticism, surfacing in the 13th century, including the Zoharic literature, was not messianic.
Following the catastrophic expulsion from Spain, the spiritual longing for messianic redemption grew, and finally mysticism and messianism merged in the kabbalistic teachings of Luria in the 16th century in Zefat, and spread throughout the Jewish world.
This kabbalistic messianic thinking led to the Sabbatian messianic outbreak in the 17th century, which included an attempt to spiritualize the people and mobilize them to Israel.
Following the great messianic failure, Judaism reacted conservatively towards both mysticism and messianism. Thus the Hasidic spiritual movement of the 18th century onwards was mystical but its messianic aspects were effectively neutralized, void of political mobilization.
Parallel to the Hasidic movement, the Sabbatian failure caused many Jews, mostly in Europe, deep into the enlightenment, a secularization of Jews and Judaism. Eventually secular Jews would produce the Zionist movement, which is political of course, and though some elements of messianism were utilized, Scholem argues it is not essentially messianic.
Political vs. Spiritual
Scholem held assumptions that messianism in Judaism was inclined to public external political expressions, while Christianity was inclined to more private internalized spirituality.
He also held that Judaism and Christianity were separate phenomena. He did not deal much with comparative religion, including comparing messianism within Judaism to Christianity or even early Christianity. This approach he did not consider as relevant enough.
Hasidism, though more spiritual and less political, was “neutralized messianism”, in other words, mostly a spiritual movement, and to the degree that it was messianic, the messianic components there were directed towards political external mobilization, but are tweaked of messianic political drive.
The political expression of messianism, of the messianic attempt, he coined the price of messianism, meaning that to go messianic and political is to pay a price. The Jews paid the price following the Bar Kochva revolt, and they paid the price with the Sabbatian failure…
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