Den Quatsch lesen. Gershom Scholem's Kabbalistic Library in 1923

A Study of Gershom Scholem's library (of which the catalogue is preserved) in 1923, the year of his immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine, in the specific department of Kabbalah, allows a perception of his collector's taste, of his early orientations and of the first, uncertain steps of the great scholar in the obscure world of Kabbalistic literature. Scholem's own narrative about the beginnings of his interest in Kabbalah is partly confirmed on the basis of his reading lists but a more nuanced picture of his initial uncertainties emerges from these first hand documents.