Gershom Scholem

Founder of the academic study of Kabbalah: the Berlin-born Jerusalem professor who treated the "rubbish heap" of Jewish mysticism as the tradition's hidden mainspring. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941) built the field's architecture: Merkavah → Ashkenazi piety → Zohar → Luria → Sabbatai → Hasidism. Dated the Zohar to de León with philological forensics. Every scholar since either extends or argues with him — both count as influence.