Abstract
History conceived as the history of the rabbinic Kabbalah did not survive the eighteenth century; history conceived as the identification of the messiah flourished, with all its protean changes of form, into the twentieth century. But the work of Franz Rosenzweig made a consistent attempt to identify Judaism, not with history, but with meta-history. Where previous Jewish thinkers sought for the messiah in and through the movement of history, to Rosenzweig this was a forlorn endeavour. The messiah, admittedly, had not come; yet the Jew already lived in the kingdom of heaven.
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Notes
‘To be a Jew means to be in Golus’ (Diaspora): F. Rosenzweig, Briefe, no. 36 (Berlin, 1935) 398. Zionism is ‘a diagnostician of genius but a very mediocre practitioner, recognized the evil but gave the wrong therapy’ (‘Bildung und kein Ende’, Kleinere Schriften (Berlin, 1937) p. 86, hereafter cited as K.S.).
For the family background see the article by Rivka Horwitz, ‘Judaism despite Christianity’, Judaism, xxiv, no. 3 (1975).
M. Schwartz, ‘Mkomo shel Franz Rosenzweig ba’filosofiya shel ha’Yahadut’, introduction to Hebrew translation of Der Stern der Erlösung (Jerusalem, 1970) p. 15.
A. Geiger, Nachgelassene Schriften, ii, ed. L. Geiger, Berlin, 1875, pp. 61–63
R. Horwitz, ‘Tfisat Ha’Historiya Ha’Yehudit b’Mahashevet Rosenzweig’, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research (New York, 1969) 10.
The relevant documents are to be found in Judaism Despite Christianity, ed. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, with essays by Alexander Altmann, Dorothy Emmet and H. Stahmer (Alabama, 1969).
This letter is not available in the published Briefe. It is here quoted from the English translation in N. Glatzer (ed.), Franz Rosenzweig, His Life and Thought (New York, 1961) pp. 94–8;
H. Liebeschütz, Von Simmel zu Rosenzweig (Tübingen, 1970) pp. 152ff.
Cf. M. Schwarz, ‘Religious Currents and General Culture’, Leo Baeck Year Book, xvi (1971) pp. 14ff. See also the same author’s ‘Ha’Historiyosofiya Ha’Yehudit B’Mishnot Ranak Ve’Rosen- zweig’, Safa, Mythos, Amanut (Jerusalem, 1967) pp. 198ff.
See M. Schwarz, ‘Ha’Tfisa Ha’Realistit shel Ha’Mythos B’Mishnato shel F. Rosenzweig’, Safa, pp. 185–9. Schelling was the first of Rosenzweig’s guardian angels (Briefe, no. 221, p. 299). The others are given as Kant, Nietzsche, Feuerbach or Goethe (for references see Jacob Fleischmann, Bayat Ha’Notzrut Ba’ Mahashava Ha’Yehudit Mi’ Mendelssohn ad Rosenzweig, Jerusalem, 1964, p. 155).
Cf. A. Altmann, ‘Rosenzweig on History’, in A. Altmann (ed.), Between East and West (London, 1958) p. 210.
See also N. Rotenstreich, Ha’Mahashava Ha’Yehudit ba’Et Ha’Hadasha, ii (Tel Aviv, 1950) p. 237; this criticism is further developed in E. Berkowitz, Major Themes in Modern Philosophies of Judaism (New York, 1974) pp. 47ff, and in D. Clawson, ‘Rosenzweig on Judaism and Christianity’, Judaism, xix, no. 1 (1970) 90ff.
E. Berkowitz, Major Themes in Modern Philosophies of Judaism (New York, 1974) pp. 47ff
D. Clawson, ‘Rosenzweig on Judaism and Christianity’, Judaism, xix, no. 1 (1970) 90ff.
J. Fleischmann, ‘Rosenzweig as a Critic of Zionism’, Conservative Judaism, xxii, no. 1 (1967).
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© 1977 Lionel Kochan
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Kochan, L. (1977). History Denied: Rosenzweig. In: The Jew and His History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02830-6_8
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