Origins of the Kabbalah

Scholem's detailed historical study traces the emergence of Kabbalah in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Provence and Catalonia. He examines the Sefer ha-Bahir, the circle of Isaac the Blind, the Gerona kabbalists and possible links with Gnostic and Neoplatonic currents. More technical than Major Trends, it is essential for readers who want to understand how theosophical Kabbalah first took written form and how its key symbols developed.