Behemoth. A Journal on Civilisation 2008, 2 (4–25) © 2008 Akademie Verlag ISSN 1866-2447 DOI 10.1524/behe.2008.0012 Carl Schmitt and Ahasver. The Idea of the State and the Wandering Jew Galit Hasan-Rokem Abstract In this article the cultural effects and the specific reverberations in Carl Schmitt’s work of two literary figures emerging in vastly different cultural contexts in the 16 th century, Leviathan and the Wandering Jew, are analyzed using a pair of discursive concepts – political theology and Midrash. Whereas Leviathan is an explicitly discussed figure in Carl Schmitt’s work, Ahasver the Wandering Jew is a concealed figure in his writing – but, however, one that conceivably was in the range of cultural asso- ciations that he and especially the recipients of his work were exposed to. My aim is to show that whereas Schmitt was informed by the kind of stereotypical thinking embodied in the legendary and very popular figure of Ahasver, the figure itself was suppressed and replaced by a seemingly rational political dis- course addressing Leviathan. Keywords: Leviathan; Ahasver; Wandering Jew; Hobbes; Schmitt; Midrash; political theology Midrash and Politico-theological Discourse The title of this article has two parts. In the first line two figures, Leviathan and Ahasver, are characterized using a pair of discursive concepts – political theology and Midrash. Both figures of the first line originate in the Hebrew Bible: Leviathan is appar- ently a mythical beast, with some relationship to Behemoth (Kinnier Wilson 1975), and Ahasverus is the Persian king of the Book of Esther. In the second part of the title, the suggested relationship of two other well-known figures is described in terms of an ideo- logical conflict. Some readers may instantly discern the connecting link between the two lines of the title: Ahasver or Ahasverus is also the most popular name for the legendary figure of the Wandering Jew in Central European, especially German traditions (Ander- son 1965; Daube 1955). I hope to illuminate the initially perhaps somewhat enigmatic relations between the different figures – which I by no means intend to present as analog- ical – in the following discussion. Whereas Leviathan is an explicitly discussed figure in Carl Schmitt’s work, especially (but not only) in his The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes: Meaning and Failure of a Political Symbol (Schmitt 1996; orig. 1938), Ahasver the Wandering Jew is a concealed figure in Schmitt’s writing, however one that conceivably was in the range of