Gershom Scholem's late scholarship on Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah

Record summary

Gershom Scholem's later publications and collected essays continued to shape historical study of Kabbalah, Hasidism, messianism, and Jewish mystical experience through the 1970s and until his death in 1982. His work provides identifiable texts for comparing visionary language, revelation, ecstatic practice, and modern occult reinterpretation while insisting on historical and philological analysis. The lead matters partly because later scholars challenged aspects of Scholem's periodization and his influential picture of Jewish mysticism. Researchers should consult the original editions and subsequent critiques rather than rely on summaries in esoteric manuals.