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Religious Metaphysics and the Nation-State: The Case of Oskar Goldberg Author(s): JUDITH FRIEDLANDER Source: Social Research,

Vol. 59, No. 1, Religion and Politics (SPRING 1992), pp. 151-168 Published by: The New School Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40970687 . Accessed: 10/02/2014 01:21
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Metaphysics / Religious / and the / Nation-State: / The Case of Oskar / Goldberg ' BY JUDITH FRIEDLANDER
z
le judasme libertaire et utopie, en Europe centrale, In Redemption

a number MichaelLwygroupstogether ofscholars sociologist and Austriaof the interwar fromGermany years,describing with anarchist Mostof these themas religious Jews leanings.1 secular in Jewswho studiedsacredtexts people are, however, the laws of the Halakhah and academicsettings, the rejecting in theworldof politics in yeshivas. Heretics guidanceof rabbis with traditional broke ranks anarchist too, they teachings by and seekinga home fortheJewish Zionists becoming people. like faithful to oppose the Still,theycontinued, anarchists, whichTheodor Herzl,the father modelof thenation-state of had embraced. When some of them Zionism, enthusiastically in Palestine,theyjoined the progressive settledeventually and triedto createa binational branchof the movement state forArabsand Jews. GershomScholemis one of the best knownmembersof to thegoalsof progressive Zionism, group.Committed Lwy's in 1923wherehe succeededin satisfying he movedto Palestine
1 Michel et utopie (Paris: PUF, 1988). Lwy, Rdemption

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his intellectualdreams more fullythan his political ideals. In his new home, Scholem challenged the assimilationist, neoKantian school of Hermann Cohen, which dominated the lifein Berlin at the Akademie frWissenschaft intellectual des of Critical those who followed the rationalism of Judentums. philosophers,Scholem defied the logic of Kant Enlightenment and turned to the study of Cabala to interpreta collectionof medieval texts,dismissed by Cohen and most of his disciples. Thanks to Scholem's independence of spirit, Jewishmysticism gained recognition in the 1920s and became a legitimate subject of scholarship, but one firmly controlled by its latter-daychampion. In a very few years, Scholem had the he needed to determinethe directionof work in the authority field, endorsing the analyses of those whom he liked and suppressingthe work of others. Oskar Goldberg did not meet with Gershom Scholem's approval. Although criticalof the neo-Kantians too, Goldberg offended Scholem all the same, on political and theological unknown,but grounds. As a result,Goldberg today is virtually during the years between the two wars he fascinated people, Jews and Gentiles alike, many of whom were political anarchists and shared Goldberg's vigorous opposition to all branches of Zionism. Known as the leading proponent of the school of "mystical der Herbrer rationalism,"Goldberg published Die Wirklichkeit (The Realityof the Hebrews), his most controversialwork, in 1925.2 Scholem, by this time,had moved to Jerusalem,but his views of the book made the rounds quickly.Calling Goldberg demonic, Scholem discredited the man's work in correspondence and publications,firstin a lettercirculatedin Berlin by Leo Strauss and Walter Benjamin,3then in an entryappearing
2 Oskar derHebrer Die Wirklichkeit (Berlin:DavidVerlag,1925). Goldberg 3 See Scholem's workin his memoir Walter The to Goldberg's reactions Benjamin: Publication of America, tr.H. Zohn(Philadelphia: Jewish Society Story ofa Friendship, 1981 [1975]).

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as "a small fat man who looked like a rationalist mystical stuffeddummy and [who] exerted an uncanny magnetic who gathered power over a group of Jewishintellectuals aroundhim."5 Oskar Goldberg.Many Scholemwas not alone in despising as well,including othersexpressedrevulsion Thomas Mann, of in who createda nasty In Doktor Faustus. portrait Goldberg who neverlikedhim,the novelist to Scholem, contrast turned of after collaborationMann many years against Goldberg in the 1920s,then rationalist studiedBible withthe mystical used his ideas freelyin the firstvolume of Joseph and His Brothers. Mann also had Duringtheperiodof their friendship, contribute to his Mass und Wert and Goldberg journal (Weight
Measure).6

Scholem described the Benjamin: The Storyof a Friendship,

in the Encyclopaedia Long afterGoldberghad died Judaica.4 to attackthe man in Scholemcontinued and been forgotten, at the end of his life.In Walter written twopersonalmemoirs

Controversial and intriguing, Goldberghad an impressive some of whom,like Mann,rejectedhimin circleof admirers, the end, whileothersremainedfaithful. Even his critics, as Scholem'squote shows,conceded that Goldbergattracted a in before the First World War and in largefollowing Germany the interwar he enjoyed may indeed years.The popularity then felt Mann, explainwhyScholem, compelledto discredit him.To Scholem's even Walter came under dismay, Benjamin some of the man's ideas very Goldberg's spell, finding at least as Erich interpreted by interesting, Unger,themystical rationalist's brilliant was for disciple. Unger largely responsible about how theJews,a stateless theory developing Goldberg's
4 Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Macmillan, 1971),7:705-706. 5 Scholem, Walter Berlin toJerusalem: is From Benjamin, p. 96. The othermemoir Memories tr.H. Zohn(NewYork:Schocken, 1980 [1977]). ofMyYouth, 6 See, for on Greekmythology articles in MassundWert, no. 3 example, Goldberg's 1938)and no. 5 (May-June 1938). (January-February

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people, maintained ties to each other by means of their metaphysicalreality. Goldberg's enemies characterized the philosopher as a Jewish fascist,but his supporters included left-wing political his who activists, incorporated theological analysis into people their politicalcritique of European nationalism.Fittingneatly into Lwy's categoryof religiousanarchists,more so, perhaps, than Gershom Scholem himself, the followers of Goldberg gained inspirationfromthe way theirteacher "demonstrated" the existence of a magical and rituallypowerful relationship between the ancient Hebrews of the days of the Pentateuch and their deity. The Jews lost their privileged connection to YHWH, Goldberg explained, when theyorganized themselves into a state,appointed Saul as king,and banished theirGod to the heavens above. Put another way, Goldberg's ideas the politicalopposition his disciples confirmedmetaphysically of all nation-states, formation the to including the expressed State of Israel. Simon Guttmann,for example, the last survivingstudentof Goldberg,who died in London in 1990 at the age of 98, spent the final years of his life promotingthe Palestiniancause and A refusingto speak to anyone suspected of Zionistinclinations. settled Guttmann third-world of struggles, supporter long-time in London after World War II and founded a photographic agency that provided pictures to newspapers and journals rarelyavailable frommainstreamservices.AfterGoldberg died in 1952, Guttmanninheritedthe philosopher's papers. I became interested in Oskar Goldberg and his circle of followersin the late 1970s while doing research on French of the generationof 1968 who had recently Jewishintellectuals of ways.7 As theyanalyzed their returnedtoJudaismin a variety reasons for making a return, many challenged the comproFrance in mises Jews had to make in late eighteenth-century
in FranceSince 1968 (New Intellectuals JudithFriedlander, Vilnaon theSeine:Jewish Haven: Yale University Press, 1990). 7

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of the Frenchnation-state. order to become citizens Despite in time and context,the discussionsI obvious differences of thosegoing Francewere reminiscent heard in present-day on in Germanyduring the interwaryears, when Jewish debatedthe wisdomof abandoningthe assimilaintellectuals and seekingother ideal of GermanJewry tionist/nationalist as themselves of Jews.8 Opinionsvariedgreatly ways defining thenand now,but the questionsraisedby Goldbergand his in France issuesforintellectuals burning grouphaveremained as theyreviewthe optionsopen to thosewho wantto live as Jewsin themodernworld: the ofpracticing with thepossibility (1) Assimilation, Judaism as a not their Christians private activity, religion, practice way as partof a separatenationalor cultural identity. (2) Internationalsocialism, as envisioned by turn-ofof the social democrats-mostnotablymembers the-century Marxistsan Bund and the Socialist Austro-Hungarian Jewish ideologywhichchallengesa people's allegianceto any one of autonomous but promotesthe development nation-state, in a multiethnic state. cultures in duplicating in Israel the which has resulted (3) Zionism, secularmodelof the Europeannation-state.
The Debatein France

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Richard Marienstras, Shakespearian scholar and professorof English at the of Paris VII, reviewed the three possibilities University to him,Jewslosttheir availableto French Jews.9 Accordingly culturalidentity when they during the French Revolution, in to sacrifice their "national" autonomy exchangefor agreed
8 See, for etutopie. example, Lwy's Rdemption of his views,see RichardMarienstras, For a good summary Etreun peuple en (Paris:Franois 1975). diaspora Maspro,

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becoming citizensof the state. The termsof Jewishemancipation were clearlystated in 1791, Marienstrascontinued, in the famous declarationof Count Stanislasde Clermont-Tonnerre, a champion of the cause, but a dubious friend of the Jewish as a nation and people: "We must refuse the Jews everything give them everything as individuals; they must constitute neither a political group nor an order withinthe state; they must become citizensas individuals."10 Rejecting the terms of this emancipation, Marienstras democraticlaw, challenged the wisdom of eighteenth-century which stipulated that Jews could only enjoy the rights of citizensif theyagreed to assimilateand become "Frenchmenof the faith of Moses," culturally homogeneous members of societywho went to a Jewishhouse of prayer. AlthoughJews were granted religious freedom,he continued, theylost every of developing theirnational autonomy. They could possibility attend synagogue, the way French Catholics and Protestants went to church, but they had to become members of the withthe French nation: speak the same language and identify same cultural heritage. Now, nearly two hundred years later, Marienstrascalled on Jews to challenge the legitimacyof the contract and to demand that France drop its eighteenthcenturystipulationthat there be only "one nation" withinthe state. Opposing all nation-states, Marienstras refused the Zionistoption as well and called on France to let unpracticing Jews like himself develop a secular Jewish culture in a state. multinational Jews would have new options, Marienstrasexplained, once minoritynationalism developed in France the way it had in Eastern Europe between the two wars. To see how this might work,the French should read about the culturaloptions open to Jews in Vilna, Warsaw, and elsewhere in Eastern Europe before 1939. Inspired by the work of the Russian historian
10Count Stanislasde Clermont-Tonnerre, L'Histoire de cited in Lon Poliakov, Wagner, l'antismitisme 1968),vol.3, De Voltaire p. 234, note2. (Paris:Calmann-Lvy,

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SimonDubnow,thecelebrated forDiasporaJewry,11 apologist Marienstras did notproposea nostalgic return to thepast,but a serioussearchformodelsthatmight servethe interests of in the Diasporatoday. ethnic groupsliving Marienstras opened a debatethatmanysoonjoined, among them the philosopher/sociologist Shmuel Trigano. Agreeing with Marienstras thatJews should reject the model of the in Franceand the formof Judaismpracticed nation-state in theWest,he did notsupporttheidea of minority nationalism or anyotherseculardefinition ofJewish culture either.In his in needed to live a state infused with the valuesof view, Jews Critical ofpresent-day theideasof Israel,he followed Judaism. Ahad Ha'am and called for the development of a spiritual one thateliminated the restrictions center, placed on Jewsby WesternEuropean definitions of culture.12 Ahad Ha'am's model also appealed to people like GershomScholem and MartinBuber,but it stillcalled for the creationof a Jewish Marienstras state, something opposed.13 Yet another converts to groupalsojoined thedebate:recent ultraorthodox Members of this last Judaism. grouppresented themostextreme of universalism and thenation-state critique ofanyI encountered in France.And itis they wholed me back to OskarGoldberg. One of theirmostarticulate is spokesmen Before to orthodox he Benny Levy. converting Judaism, studiedwith Louis Althusser at thecole NormaleSuprieure in the 1960sand playeda majorrole in May 1968,eventually the Maoistmovement La Gauche Proltarienne. In founding and intellectual of 1973,Levybecamethesecretary companion a he held until thephilosopher died Sartre, position Jean-Paul sevenyearslater.Finally, in 1983,Levy a of joined community
tr.I. Friedlander Publications 1927 [19031). History, (Philadelphia: Jewish Society. 12See, for tr. Leon Simon (Philadelphia: example,Ahad Ha'am, Selected Essays, Publication of America, Jewish Society 1912). 13See, for ShmuelTrigano, La Rpublique etlesJuifs example, (Paris: aprs Copernic Les Presses 1982). d'aujourd'hui,
11 An Essay in the Philosophy See, for example, Simon Dubnow, JewishHistory: of

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ultraorthodoxJews in Strasbourg directed by Rav Eliahou Abitbol,a rabbi of Moroccan originwho claimed to be passing down the LithuanianJewishtradition.14 Abitbol founded his yeshiva in 1967 with the idea of raised in secular, assimiattracting young Jewishintellectuals, lated homes, people, in other words, with little Jewish education, but who had had good training in philosophy. Attributinghis appeal to the decline of ideologies, Abitbol solution to the Jewishquestion. As challenged the nation-state he explained it,manyJewsof the generationof 1968 remained of Westernvalues, but theyhad recently lost faithin the critical alternativesprovided to replace them. Responding to their profound sense of intellectualand political malaise, Abitbol provided these formeractivistswith a new way to refuse the and the ideals of the Enlightenment. nation-state According to the rabbi, many Jews have wasted their lives he said, thatlegitimized withthe "Zionistadventure,"an effort, some of man's basest interests- nationalism and the nationstate. It upset him, he continued,to thinkthat people rejected the sacred textsto pursue lowlymattersof no enduring significance. Followinghis new mentor,Levy too rejected the nationstatemodel, includingTrigano's spiritualZionism and the secbothof whichended up being ularismespoused by Marienstras, ideals on European nationalismand the universalistic variations than other More of Enlightenment any group, these thought. ultraorthodoxJews embraced separatism with a passion: "Is withinthe reach of Westernman? phylacteries, wearingtefillin, frommixingwool and linen in I don't believe so. Is refraining one's clothes somethingavailable to Western man?"15
14For see HervHamonand Patrick dataaboutBenny Rotman, Levy, biographical A Sartre: du Seuil,1987,1988);AnnieCohen-Solai, 2 vols.(Paris:Editions Gnration, see Le Nom de tr.A. Cancogni 1987).Forwork (NewYork:Pantheon, byB. Levy, Life, etla lettre Verdier, Vhomme Verdier, 1988).For 1984)and Le Logos (Lagrasse: (Lagrasse: see Friedlander, Vilna of RabbiAbitbol, on Levyand a description moreinformation
on theSeine.

15Takenfrom totheTalmud "From Maoism interview Charm, byStuart published

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in France, likethe BennyLevyand otherultraorthodox Jews whofollowed OskarGoldberg, radicals discovered the political of ritual and the sacred texts. power ThroughJudaismthey and a universal chose to rejectthe ideals of the nation-state culture and sought instead to elaborate their differences. ways on the other hand, like Marienstras nationalists, Minority of and members the JewishLabor Bund earlierthis today to developtheir cultural also tried butthey century, autonomy, did so while holding on to eighteenth-century convictions of creating about the importance a secularnationaltradition. In the process, remained committed to the universalistic they ideals of the Enlightenment. As forZionists likeTriganoand embraced the Scholem, they veryphilosophy theyclaimedto In spiteof themselves, criticize. a theyended up supporting version of Europeannationalism in a land fortheJews.Only in contemporary Franceand Oskar peoplelikeEliahouAbitbol in interwar offered their followers a true, Goldberg Germany if atavistic, to Enlightenment alternative and the thinking nation-state.

Oskar Goldberg16

OskarGoldberg was bornin 1885 in Berlin.Growing up in an assimilated butobservant home,he had botha secularand education.His family enrolledhimin the Friedrichs religious from which he in Gymnasium, passed the Abiturienten-Exam in classical letters 1906 and wenton to a theological seminary a degree in (Beth Hamidrash)fortwo more years,receiving in 1908. Goldbergthenattendedthe universities of theology Berlinand Munich, wherehe tookcoursesin a widevariety of
withBenny Levy,"Commentary 78 (WithSartreAlong the Way): An Interview (December 1984): 51. 16I am to theGerman scholar Dr. Manfred forsharing hiswork on grateful Voigts Oskar Goldbergwithme. His intellectual OskarGoldberg: Der mythische biography, is aboutto be published in Germany. Experimentalwissenschaftler,

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and fields: Eastern religions, folk psychiatry, psychophysics, In in neuroscience. 1915 he medicine, specializing eventually completed a doctoral thesison abnormal biologicaloccurrences in Asian religioussects; in 1917 we find him givinglectureson folkloreand comparativereligionsat the Hommel Instituteof of Munich. the University At some point,perhaps in the yearsjust beforeWorld War I, perhaps during it, Goldberg went to Tibet, where he lived for a while in a monasterywiththe Dali Lama. Gershom Scholem claims that during this period he came under the influenceof the theosophist Helena Petrovna Blavatsky,but Goldberg's supporters deny this. What we know for sure is that his experiences in Tibet contributed to his considerable knowledge of Eastern religionsand thattheycontinued to influence untilthe end of his life.AlthoughGoldberg is best his thinking known for his works on Judaism, he remained fascinatedby the religions of Asia, an interesthe shared with many other in Germanyof the period. intellectuals In the years before and just following World War I, Goldberg founded several study groups, the names of which reflectthe wide and eclecticrange of his interests: (1) In 1911, the Society for Research of Unconscious Soul-Searching Processes in Language and Numbers (Der Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der ubewusst-seelischenVorgaenge in Sprache und Zahl). of (2) In 1917, the SocietyforSociologyand Folk Psychology frdie Soziologie und Volkerpsythe Orient (Der Gesellschaft chologie des Orients), to which almost all members of the theologyfacultiesof Berlin and Munich belonged. This society made interfaith cooperation a primarygoal. the Philosophical Group (Die PhilosophisIn the 1920s, (3) che Gruppe), together with Erich Unger and Adolphe Caspary. This is Goldberg's best known and most infamous group, the activitiesof which intrigued and horrifiedmany, includingGershom Scholem. During the early years of the interwarperiod Goldberg was

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Moses: Ein Zahlengebaude(1908) and Maimonides:Kritikder was the first Glaubenslehre (1935). 17 Die Wirklichkeit Judischen

editorto Thomas Mann's also a contributing journal Massund articleson folkloreand comparative Wert, religion. writing Then, in 1932 Goldbergleft Germanyfor Italy,where he nextto Genevafora briefwhile, moving stayedforsix years, convince theChineserepresentried to time he which during tativeto the League of Nations to promotehis versionof propaganda back home. In 1939 he psychological/cultural from to thehelp he received thanks went to France, colleagues at the Sorbonne,most notablyMarcel Mauss and Lucien in occupied Francein 1941, he Taken prisoner Lvy-Bruhl. visato theUnitedStatesfor an to secure emergency managed to Martinique, his wifeand himself. TravelingfromMarseille in York the of thatyear. New he arrived during spring safely in In the United States,Goldberg pursued his interests in the and publishingregularly parapsychology, theology AmericanGerman newspaperDer Aufbau.When the war ended, he remainedin the United States,but he wantedto to Europe. This he did afterhis wifepassed away in return 1950. Goldbergwentto France and died in Nice two years at theage of sixty-seven. later, der Oskar Goldbergwrotetwomajorbooks,Die Wirklichkeit of whichhe had substance in 1925, the theoretical Herbrer in a small called Bcher before Die Fnf monograph published part of a far more ambitiousphilosophicalproject that torevealin a secondvolumebutneverdid, promised Goldberg his disciples. volumealone Still,the first sorely disappointing caused an enormous storm for reasons I address below. Goldberg's work on Maimonides opposed the medieval to engage the ideas of Aristotle, willingness philosopher's

17Die Wirklichkeit Die fnfBcher derHebrer; Moses:ein Zahlengebade (Berlin, 1908), an excerpt from which has been published in French, "L'Edifice des nombres du nos. 94-95 (June-July1947); Maimonides: Kritik Pentateuque,"La Revue Juivede Genve derJdischen Glaubenslehre (Vienna: H. Glanz, 1935).

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claiming that such an endeavor diluted Jewish thought by to universalizeit. trying Jewishthoughtfromthatof Despite his desire to distinguish other peoples, Goldberg's The Realityof the Hebrewsclearly reflectsthe European philosophical traditionout of which he comes. As Erich Unger notes, Goldberg drew on Leibnitz's discussion of the real and the possible: if it can logicallybe imagined, it can also exist.18Given this line of reasoning, one can provephilosophicallythat God wrote the biblical account. And Goldberg, his disciples claim, did just that, through his In the words of one of his method of "rational mysticism." students: that philosophy It is veryimportant provisionally accept the is Pentateuch neither sublime the poetry, following hypothesis: but a true of ideas, nor a moral allegory, nor an aberration claimto be. Fromthis forthatis whatthescriptures testimony, theprecision ofitsownmission: defines philosophy supposition, ifthedocument itconsiders and itwillonlybe correct authentic, can and it absolutely whoseintegrity respects, perfectly clearly be shown to conformto reason withoutlosing any of its a precise, solidand . . . Goldberg constructed sovereign dignity. and marvelous in which the world extraordinary complete does. from thewayit usually accountsoundsdifferent [biblical] and nonmythic the Hebrews* The Pentateuch, reality, mythic but also more more remote, life,intense, acquiresa veritable ever.19 than palpable What Goldberg hoped to do was to help the Jewish people develop once again their authentic (magical) connection to God, to theirbiological center.Goldberg took the ancient texts or allegories, and claimed not as symbolicstatements literally, he was able to demonstrate that the biblical Hebrews, themselvesa biological entity,had an organic relationshipto
& Reran Paul, 1952),pp. 116-117. Routledee 19 Le Rayon, du problme du judasme," "Versla solution Organede Olga Katunal, 16thyear,n. 2 (March-April-May l'UnionLibraleIsralite, 1935),pp. 21-22, tr. J. Friedlander.
18Erich Unger, The Imaginationof Reason: Two PhilosophicalEssays (London:

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that flourished until the days of King God, a relationship Solomon. is a "transempirical" For Goldberg, science.Biology, biology Eventhough in other is metaphysics. lifeappearsin the words, the laws of have theiroriginin a realm, biology empirical These origins, the"wellsprings" realm oflife, are the beyond.20 of the the mythical age- hence, gods gods are, Goldberg argued, the "biological centers" of the various races of mankind. To quotethelateJacobTaubes,one of thefewphilosophers ofJewish who tookGoldberg's workseriously, thought is the first afterHegel and Schelling to trya Goldberg ofpolytheism: thegodofonepeople philosophic interpretation is distinguished fromthe god of anotherpeople by the inbiological difference centers. which isa genuine Every people has one several (or interconnected) kin-community biological centers. The idea of a god is forGoldberg notrelated to the abstract idea of "humanity" butessentially connected with the ideaofa people.21 and Goldbergalso believedthata people needs a territory thatnot everyterritory is appropriate foreverypeople. But this territory should not become a secular state,or even a liketheone Solomonbuilt.A people could maintain theocracy its magicalconnection to its deityonly if it performed the rituals on controlled its appropriate territory by god(s). ErichUngerdevelopedGoldberg's ideas in a lessoutrageous the importance of rejecting state politics, in way. Stressing Politik und Metaphysik of all Unger argued againstthe utility and went on to show in Die Staatklose existing political parties eines Volkes Formation of the (The Stateless Bildung Jdischen
20See Partisan Review 21 (July-August Jacob Taubes, "FromCult to Culture," in English of Goldberg's work. 1954):387-400, foran excellent analysis 21Ibid., 393. p.

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JewishPeople) thatJews gained strengthfrom theirreligious traditionsand from their unusual circumstancesof being a people withouta state.22 Let me return to Goldberg's controversialideas about the power of ritual before turning to the violent rejection he encountered in print from the pen of his former friend Thomas Mann. Despite Mann's determinationto characterize the philosopher as a Jewish fascist, through his fictional portrait we can still see, I suggest, how intellectualsof the ideologies and Enlightenment period who refutednation-state visionsabout a universalculturemightbe attractedto the ideas of thiscurious metaphysicalrationalist. Accordingto Goldberg,before Solomon builthis temple,the God of the ancient Hebrews walked with His people and had His dwelling place among them. But during the time of the God lost his welcome much-heraldedJewishphilosopher-king, on earth and retreated to heaven. When God left this world, the Jews entered a period of decline from which they have never recovered. Goldberg's "proof" involved a highlysophisticatedphilologof almost ical approach to the text.By studyingthe etymology everyword in the Torah, he claimed to be able to determine the original contextand meaning. Through thisarduous task, Goldberg attemptedto demonstratethat in the early days the Jewsmaintainedtheirmagical relationshipto God by means of ritual.But when King Solomon built his centralsanctuaryand tried to confine God to His heavenly abode, he introduced abstract theological monotheism,which became the basis of In the process, the Jews Judaism and Christianity. postbiblical lost their magical connection to God. They stopped being a and became membersof a state. culticcommunity What is importanthere accordingto Taubes is the following:

und Metaphysik (Berlin: Verlag David, 1921) and Die Staatslose Unger, Politik Volkes (Berlin: Verlag David, 1922). Jdischen Bildungeines

22 Erich

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of notso muchin hisinterpretation I see Goldberg's originality in roughoutlinebyempirical laterconfirmed anthropolmyth, literalness with which he as in theterrifying ogyand ethnology, in into and his setout to translate myth reality uncompromising of archaiccultsand rituals and willto taketherecords seriously with current fashions.23 notmerely as a wayof flirting

Whatis more,Taubes continued, interpretation Goldberg's in was "theonly of thePentateuch Jewish magicalresurgence" WhileGoldberg wasnotalonein seeingtheFive times. modern he sethimself the Booksof Mosesas myth, apartbyaccepting In hisearlyworks, Martin Buberalso of theseaccounts. reality in elements of interest the the Torah, mythical expressed butthelatter's concern was "sheerphraseolTaubes observed, who confronted with someone took the myths When ogy."24 Buberrejected theman and theapproach.Actually, seriously, Buber had no idea whatGoldbergwas talking about,Taubes said, but GershomScholemunderstoodall too well, for he could have gone in a similar direction.As he refused temptation,Scholem turned on Goldberg with venom, thepassionof his epithets. his vulnerability through revealing Other GermanJewishscholarsof religioncriticized Goldfor a stand ethical against Judaism. The berg taking forsupport, had to go elsewhere and thishe did. philosopher Taubes claimed that Goldberg received the support of but Goldberg's biographer,Manfred Voigts, protofascists, that challenges assumption.Still, even if he did, he also a lot of attention fromleft-wing attracted intellectuals Jewish Thomas Mann. and from For many years, the novelist counted himselfamong ardentfans.In preparation forwriting and Goldberg's Joseph His Brothers, Mann studied the Five Books of Moses with and based thefirst volumeof histetrology on Goldberg largely the philosopher's ideas. But withthe passingof years,Mann
23 Taubes, "From Cult to Culture," p. 400. ' Jacob I aubes, personal communication,Berlin, 1984.

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in his turned against Goldberg and ridiculed him mercilessly Faustus. postwarnovel Doktor In chapter 27 the reader meets Chaim Breisacher, a character modeled almost entirelyon Oskar Goldberg. The narratordescribes Breisacher as "a racial and intellectualtype in high, one might also say reckless development and of a ugliness."This repellentJew representsa new kind fascinating of conservati vism, which Mann, through the narrator, conBaron von Riedesel: trastswiththatof the aristocratic as not so muchof "still" it was a matter Here [forBreisacher] conservaand was an afterfor this anti-revolutionary "again"; from theother liberalstandards a revolt tism, bourgeois against notfrom theold but thefront, therearbutfrom end,notfrom from thenew.25 Presentedas a philosopherof culturewithanticultural views, Breisacher describes the historyof culture as a process of is an anathema. Offering degeneration; the veryword progress firsta general critique of world civilization,Breisacher then turns to an analysis of the Old Testament, using many of Goldberg's actual words. Like Goldberg himself,Breisacher the special connectionthe blames King Solomon fordestroying God: to their had Jewishpeople unnerved The man [King Solomon]was an aesthete by erotic sensea progressivist and in a religious excesses blockhead, typical national oftheeffectively ofthecult oftheback-formation present of themetaphysical powerof the folk, concept god, the general humangod in and generally of an abstract intothe preaching the of from the in other words, heaven; people to the religion thescanread need to it we To world. the of only prove religion was finished thefirst he made after dalousspeechwhich temple as though on theearth?" God indeeddwell he asks:"Butwill where thatit Israel'swholeand uniquetaskhad notconsisted therein, all meansforHis and provide a tent, buildGod a dwelling, should
25Thomas Mann, Doktor as AdrainLeverkuhn, Faustus:TheLifeoftheGerman Composer tr. H. T. Low-Porter(New York: AlfredA. Knopf, 1965 [1948]), pp. Told bya Friend, 278-279.

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constant But Solomonwas so bold as to declaim:"Bepresence. holdtheheaven and heaven ofheavens cannot contain Thee; how much lessthis I havebuilded!" housethat Thatisjusttwaddle and oftheend,that thebeginning is thedegenerate of conception the of the with whom God is exiledinto Psalms; poets already entirely thesky, and whoconstantly whereas the singof God in heaven, Pentateuch does notevenknowitas theseatof theGodhead.26

The narrator ends the chapterby returning to his earlier between theold and newconservatism, comparison associating in the processBreisacher's ideas (or Goldberg's) withthoseof NationalSocialism:
I reallyfelt sorryfor the Baron. Here was his aristocratic conservatism outbidbythefrightfully cleverplaying of atavistic thatno longerhad anything cards; by a radicalconservatism aristocratic about it, but rather somethingrevolutionary; more than any liberalism, and yet,as something disrupting a laudable conservative thoughin mockery, possessing appeal. . . . One could easilyhave disputedhim. . . buta sensitive man does not liketo disturb another.. . . Today, we see, of course, that itwasthemistake ofour civilization to havepracticed all too this respectand forbearance. For we found magnanimously after all thattheopposite side metus with sheerimpudence and themostdetermined intolerance.27 Conclusion

For Goldberg'sdisciples,Mann's chargesof fascism were of the writer who once called himself a slanderous, unworthy but not entirely out of character. Giventhe company friend, the mystical rationalist kept,the chargeswere also incongruous. Goldberg,after all, appealed to Jewishactivists with anarchist He attracted it them, seems,by combining leanings. his critiqueof the nation-state with a celebration of tribal of life the of the Five Books of Moses, Judaism, during days when the ancientHebrewsenjoyeda magicalconnection to
26 Ibid.,p. 282. 27 Ibid.,p. 284.

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theirdeity,who walked among them. When Goldberg accused Solomon of puttingan end to the magic by exiling God and establishinga state, his condemnation of the king conformed with their ideology and sense of history.What is more, the rationalist the opportunity to mystical gave Jewishintellectuals to return them to the primitive ritesof their go native,inviting while their and cultural people, maintaining political opposition to nation-states. Finally,Goldberg's work made it possible forstudentsof philosophyto pursue theirinterests in religious mysticism without breaking entirely with the European rationalist tradition. The political/religious agenda of Oskar Goldberg and his followershas not disappeared, even if historicalcircumstances and places have changed. In France, for example, Benny Levy and others identified with May 1968 have recentlymade a return to Judaism for "philosophical reasons."28Abandoning their secular political ideologies, but not their opposition to nation-states, Jewishcommunitiesto they joined ultraorthodox to live on the margins of mind and continue the life the pursue of society as critics of assimilation and the universalizing principlesof the Enlightenment.It is importantto note that of Benny Levy and his friendsdid not embrace the spiritualism Hasidism but the Lithuanian rationalistic tradition, committing themselvesto serious study of the Torah and Talmud and to life in the Diaspora. Like the anarchist followers of Oskar Goldberg, Jewish radicals in contemporary France have brought to their conversion the discipline of politics and the rigorsof years spent studyingEuropean philosophyin secular and ultraorthodox universities. Through mystical-rationalism into Judaism,both groups found waysto turnpoliticalactivism their stand without extremism compromising religious/cultural on nationalismand the nation-state.
28 "I didn't turn to Jewish texts, because I was having an identity crisis. ... I turned to Jewish texts for intellectual reasons. To be more precise, philosophical issues led me to the Jewish texts" (Benny Levy, quoted by Alain Garric, "Une Gnration de Mao Mose," Libration, Dec. 22-23, 1984, p. 29).

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