AS I HAVE REPEATEDLY ACKNOWLEDGED in this book, Jewish bibliographers and librarians have played an immensely important role in the creation of a solid basis for the study of Jewish culture in an era of national rebirth.The significance of their work in collecting data on the history of the books published for the Jewish reading public in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and for an understanding of what that history implies is exemplified in the labours of Abraham Ya'ari, to whom this chapter is devoted.

I did not know Abraham Ya'ari. He died in 1967, shortly before I entered the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1968. I began my studies of Jewish philosophy, kabbalah, and Hebrew literature while still a member of a kibbutz in the Jordan Valley—a small partner in one of the great enterprises of Zionism that today's journalists and scholars often see, from the vantage point of fashionable cafés, as no more than a real estate development project. At that time, I met Abraham Shapira (otherwise known as Patchi), who was then, as today, a member of Kibbutz Yizra'el; and like Abraham Ya'ari, he was an important promoter of Hebrew culture.

One evening Shapira persuaded me to join him in a visit to the home of Yehudah Ya'ari, Abraham's brother. Like Abraham, Yehudah had studied library science, but devoted most of his life to creative writing. He sat us down in his large and impressive library. I am, of course, an insatiable bookworm, and he noticed that while Patchi was exchanging pleasantries with him, I was eyeing his books with curiosity. He asked if I was a student. I told him that I was. ‘In which department?’ ‘Jewish philosophy and kabbalah.’ Judah smiled and said: ‘Ha! Gershom Scholem's department! Well, I have a story for you about him and a book of mine. One day he came here, and like you, he was running his eyes over my books.His eyes lit up when he saw a particular book, which he removed from the shelf, saying to me: “From the six days of Creation, that book was meant to be in my library. How did it get to you? It seems that the First Cause has brought me here so that I can take it from you on permanent loan.”