Gershom Sholem on Messianic Clarity

Efrat hills, originally uploaded by Leubitz.

I am reading the delightful Lamentations of Youth: The Diaries of Gershom Scholem, 1913-1919. December 18, 1916:

"What is needed is purity, and lots of it. What mustn't happen is for someone to go there to become someone else, which will only rarely take place; but his entire youth must be offered up, and he must enter into marriage with the Volk. He shall be a "bridegroom of blood" for Judah. The sacrifices that we bring to Zion are more powerful than anything our fathers can come up with, as we sacrifice our broken hearts. And our hearts are broken because we have been raised in Exile. [. . .] The secret society is the stage of fertilization. The Volk can be fertilized only in small doses. Afterwards, there will naturally follow another stage at which point Zionism appears, or better yet, when it breaks through to the surface.

We young people are all in some way myth-mongers, some of us very strongly so. We could easily create a mythic garland to celebrate Zion and the coming of Herzl out of the East (whose name won't be a pseudonym but will have to be in absolute truth: Ahad ha-am. One from among the People).

Zion is what nourishes and nurtures our fantasy. Nevertheless, it seems to me that God won't permit his name to be muddled with new and outrageous myths. He wants to spread messianic clarity. The Messiah will not propagate any more new myths, but will lure old myths out of hidden granite gorges, and will pass mighty judgment on them. He gave Buber the task of preparing the way, but Buber proved to be an unfaithful servant by turning all the values upside down. What does the Messiah care about the judgment of his chamber slave? The Messiah will keep his silence and bring forth a better judgment. Tomorrow is Hanukkah!"