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List of Jewish mysticism scholars

Academic-historical research into Jewish mysticism is a modern multi-discipline university branch of Jewish studies. It studies the texts and historical contexts of Judaic mysticism using objective historical-critical methods of Religious studies, such as Philology, History of ideas, Social history and Phenomenology. The historical development of Jewish mysticism under study covers the range of phases, forms and expressions, from early Rabbinic Merkabah mysticism, through Medieval Hasidei Ashkenaz and Classical Kabbalah, early-modern Safed Kabbalah and Sabbateanism, to modern Hasidism and 20th century expressions. It is often seen as a parallel field to academic research into rationalist Jewish philosophy, though some scholars contribute in both areas. In Israel both subjects, together with Ethical literature, share the umbrella department of Jewish thought.

This page lists historian scholars of Jewish mysticism. For theological scholars see List of Jewish Kabbalists: modern teachers of Jewish mysticism

Historical research into Jewish mysticism was first prepared by the 19th century Wissenschaft des Judentums school, whose historiography ignored, opposed or downplayed Kabbalah. The founding of the present flourishing University discipline is attributed to Gershom Scholem and his school in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the 20th century, whose historiography positioned Jewish mysticism as a mainstream vitalising source in the centre of Jewish development. A second generation of scholars are today found in Israel, the United States and Europe. The field is broadly divided into three camps:[1]


Spiritual figures within the Jewish mystical tradition are not listed here, but in Timeline List of Jewish Kabbalists. Contemporary teachers of Jewish mysticism across the Jewish denominations, listed there, should only be listed here if they also publish scholarly-form historical research into Jewish mysticism. Academic scholars of Jewish mysticism have followed a diverse range in personal belief commitment or detachment to Jewish mysticism, independent of their research.

(1817–1891) (Wissenschaft des Judentums, disparaged Kabbalah)

Heinrich Graetz

1901-1906 (Wissenschaft des Judentums)

Jewish Encyclopedia

(1860–1941) (historian and folkist ideologue, initial Hasidism history)

Simon Dubnow

(1856–1939) (folklorist)

Moses Gaster

(1867–1922) (author of Jewish Encyclopedia articles)

Isaac Broyde

(1821–1893) (Austrian Rabbi and scholar)

Adolf Jellinek

(1897–1982) (Founder of academic discipline, Hebrew University, new historiography represented in Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971–1972)

Gershom Scholem

(1878–1965) (Interpretation of Hasidism to his own Existentialist Philosophy, Hebrew University, founder of Neo-Hasidism)

Martin Buber

(1935–2022) (Scholem chair at Hebrew University)

Joseph Dan

(1947-) (revision of Scholem's views and Ecstatic Kabbalah[2])

Moshe Idel

(1949-) (Hebrew University)

Rachel Elior

(1967-) (Hebrew University)

Jonathan Garb

(1959-) (Ben Gurion University)

Boaz Huss

(1965-) (University of Haifa)

J. H. Chajes

(Meditation and the Prophets, Kabbalistic Meditation, Breslov Hasidic history)

Aryeh Kaplan

(Habad Hasidic history)

Jacob Immanuel Schochet

(Kabbalah, Merkabah and Hasisdism)

Nathaniel Deutsch

(surveys each university)

Jewish studies

Jewish thought

Jewish mysticism

Religious studies

Historiography

Gershom Scholem

List of Jewish Kabbalists

of contemporary historian scholarship on all traditions in Jewish mysticism

Don Karr's Bibliographic Surveys