Academic Mysticism II
Maybe, similar to what Rav Kook suggested regarding Atheism, Academia's turn for the modern was esoterically just another "wash mode" that Torah had to go through in Galut, to further cleanse it of accumulated false beliefs. I would include maybe (MAYBE), the dichotomizing tendencies from Hellenic thinking of Kiruv's "Fact vs. Faith" (where silly descriptions of both are profered and Torah Judaism is posited as being "based in fact"), "absolutism vs. relativism", arguing for Torah from ["Maimonidean"] Reason/arguing from [Braslovian] absurd "faith", etc. So back to false Galut beliefs; Academia presenting, in part, reworkings and reinterpretations of Jewish history and belief (defining all the terms in the previous sentence from "Academia" to "belief"), that are strawperson Judaisms, 'studied' into existance for the sake of being rejected for Zionism (Gershom Scholem), or assimilated away from (I have no idea), or accomodated to "the modern world" (which always ends up being dated; again, no idea who would represent this possible position).
There is also an initatory dimension to learning the language the source material is in, presenting oneself to the Societies of symbolic knowledge for schooling in The Craft (Hebrew U, Harvard, U Chicago, etc), use of cult-specific jargon (PoMo-speak, etc), personal pilgrimages in Grad work to the locations of the events studied, etc. I mention this as only a dimension of academia, not that people knowingly go through their Degrees like they're doing Masonic "Degree Work"; well hey, there's another possible indication of academic Hermeticism! And there goes another one; hermetically sealed! this mysticism predominates in Tenured-Left departments that are intellectually hermetically sealed from challenging paradigms, safely Ivory-Towered away from the vagaries of real scientific disciplines.