Gershom Sholem’s Zohar with Annotations (1992)

In 1992 Hebrew University’s Magnes Press produced a limited edition Zohar. It was a facsimile edition containing Gershom Scholem’s annotations. The publisher describes the artifact with these words:

[…] at the end of each volume, follow notes which were found in the books, on loose slips of paper. Scholem deals with expressions which are singular to the Zohar. He points to their origin in the Midrashim or in medieval literature or in foreign languages. Scholem’s comments are not confined to pointing our parallels. Sometimes Scholem himself interprets a statement of the Zohar, occasionally he continues the logic of the Zohar, deriving from it theological conclusions. Other times he relies in the work of others, referring to the scholarly literature.

A couple of weeks ago The Iconic Books Blog reviewed this book and found it a Pseudo Relic. What disturbed them was the fact that Scholem’s handwritten notes were reproduced in their handwritten form, making the “book pretending to be a relic by way of mass reproduction.”