Gershom Sholem (1897-1982), was one of the most renowned figures in Modern Jewish Culture of the 20th Century. He is one of the leading researchers of Judaism in general, and of Cabbala, Sevtaota, Mysticism and Jewish Torat haSod especially. Even now, a whole generation posthumously, his fountains of diverse creation have not ceased to flow. His personality and scientific contemplation change form and fill dozens of books and studies. Scholem dealt many times in Hasidism and its world, and the THE LATEST PHASE – called thus after the opening article of the collection – assembles all his papers on the subject for the first time. The range of Hasidism studies by Scholem is wide and diverse: from the Baal Shem Tov's spiritual world and historic figure, through the abolition of messianicism in the Hasidism and ending in his famous controversy with Martin Buber. Thought, History, Bibliography, newly and originally interpreted Historical documents, Piercing criticism of Authors and Books, Innovations and Insights – all these forged new ways of understanding Hasidism, accompany its research and have not lost their essence. All the papers have been reprinted and have had many remarks and annotations added to them, placing the original articles in the unique context in which they were written and enriching them bibliographically. The Editors of the book are Prof. David Assaf from the Department of History of the Jewish People in the Tel Aviv University and Dr. Esther Liebes director of the Gershom Scholem Library in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem.

The present work includes all of Prof. Scholem’s card indexes, which were copied meticulously by Adam Verite. The material was transcribed as it appeared without unification of spelling. The internal references from one index to another were transcribed as they appeared in the original card indexes. The list of geographical place names, wherever identification was positive, contains the current names based on maps and other relevant materials. Since Emden’s works are hard to get by, in particular the manuscripts and editions employed by Scholem, The Hebrew University Magnes Press, in cooperation with the National Library in Jerusalem, has scanned these works and made them available on a CD-ROM that may be ordered directly from the Hebrew University Magnes Press. The initiative for this project was taken by the Gershom Scholem Library and the head librarian, Dr. Esther Liebes, who was involved in all phases of the production of the book