Gershom Scholem
To the Editor:
As someone who is as far removed from the Kabbalah as it is possible to be, a mitnagid born and bred, by temperament and taste, I confess to being profoundly moved by Gershom Scholem’s autobiographical essay, “How I Came to the Kabbalah” [May]. He confirms again that there may be a greater wisdom in the search than in the finding. He has not made a mystic of me, but he has, at the least, reduced my bias.
Michael Blankfort
Los Angeles, California
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To the Editor:
I had the privilege of participating in Gershom Scholem’s seminar group when he was a visiting professor at Boston University in 1975. He told us then how he came to Kabbalah and how the whole subject was ridiculed. A favorite anecdote of his concerns one of the professors at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York who, upon learning of Scholem’s investigations in Kabbalah, responded: “Nonsense is nonsense. But the history of nonsense—that’s a science.” . . .
Ruth Birnbaum
Springfield, Massachusetts
