Adventurer, (Pseudo?)-Kabbalist, and Theosophist:Gershom Scholem's Research on Ephraim Joseph Hirschfeld

In his kabbalistic studies, Gershom Scholem arguably showed special interest in biographies of individuals who personify the so-called "anarchic potential" of what he termed "heretical kabbalah." This tendency is also reflected in his research on Ephraim Joseph Hirschfeld (ca. 1755-1820), one of the first Jews admitted to a Masonic order in a German-speaking country. The present article reconstructs Gershom Scholem's investigations of E.J. Hirschfeld based on the collection of materials that he acquired over a period of two decades. A careful analysis of Scholem's copies of Masonic manuscripts and handwritten notes reveals that in the course of his work he eventually qualified his premature evaluation of Hirschfeld as a kabbalist and "forgotten Jewish mystic." In a wider context, the analysis shows how Scholem's dialectical understanding of the history of Jewish mysticism profoundly influenced his understanding of Hirschfeld's life.