Discussion+Questions+Week+1


 * Gershom Scholem, "Toward an Understanding of the Messianic Idea in Judaism" (first published in German in 1959) **

__ terms __ **Halakhah:** Jewish law

**Kabbalah:** can be used to indicate Jewish mysticism in general, or a specific form that developed in the 13th century **Lurianic Kabbalah:** a school of Jewish mystical thought that developed in the 16th century, and which features a theory of primordial cosmic catastrophe known as "the breaking of the vessels" **merkabah:** a type of Jewish mysticism from late antiquity oriented around visions of the divine chariot **//Zohar//:** the central text of Kabbalah, composed in the 13th century.


 * 1) How does Scholem contrast Jewish and Christian forms of messianism?
 * 2) How can messianism, in Scholem's view, be both past-looking (restorative) and future-looking (utopian)?
 * 3) What tensions does the apocalyptic or catastrophic aspect of messianism introduce into Judaism?
 * 4) How does Maimonides respond to the apocalyptic form of messianism?
 * 5) How, at the conclusion, does Scholem relate the messianic idea in Judaism to Jewish powerlessness?

Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, eds., The Book of Legends, trans. William G. Braude (New York: Schocken, 1992), 194-195.
 * from //The Book of Legends// **// [What is the // Book of Legends // ? Brief explanation here.] //
 * 1) How is Bar Kokhba (Ben Koziva) presented in these rabbinic texts? Is he a positive or negative figure? What are his major characteristics? What makes him so impressive?
 * 2) How do Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yohanan ben Torta respond to the idea of Bar Kokhba as messiah?
 * 3) What do we learn is the reason for Bethar’s ability to withstand the Roman seige? How does the Roman emperor Hadrian overcome Bethar?
 * 4) How is the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt depicted in these texts? What does this depiction suggest about the rabbinic attitudes towards the revolt?