The Zohar | My Jewish Learning

On August 4, 1558, the first printing of the Zohar (Jewish Kabbalah) occurred. An excerpt from the article:

"Sefer Ha-Zohar (The Book of Radiance) is a mystical Torah commentary written in Aramaic. It comprises multiple volumes totaling over 1,000 pages.

It is part of the corpus of the Jewish mystical tradition known as Kabbalah, though it is not the first work of that tradition, a distinction that belongs to the 12th-century Sefer ha-Bahir (The Book of Brilliance). The Zohar, however, is now one of the better-known works of kabbalistic literature, thanks to the early 20th-century scholarship of the German-born Israeli philosopher Gershom Scholem and to recent English translations. Though difficult to understand, due to the dense and obscure cosmological system the text inhabits, even in translation, the Zohar invites those willing to explore it into a fantastical universe filled with spiritual contemplation and insight.

Who Wrote the Zohar?
According to traditional Jewish belief, the Zohar was revealed by God to Moses at Sinai, and passed down orally until it was written down in the second century by Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai (known as the “Rashbi,” also sometimes referred to as Simeon ben Yohai). From a historical-critical perspective, the authorship of the Zohar has been a matter of debate for centuries.

Scholars now agree that it was written in 13th-century Spain, likely by the Castilian kabbalist Rabbi Moshe (Moses) de Leon and multiple other authors. The text was apparently written in Aramaic, not a widely used language at the time, in order to create the appearance of having been authored centuries earlier.

Major Themes of the Zohar
Some major themes in the Zohar include the nature of God and the cosmos, the creation of the world, the relationship of God to the world through the sefirot,(attributes of God), the nature of evil and sin, the revelation of the Torah, the commandments, holidays, prayer, rituals of the ancient Temple, the figure of the priest, the experience of exile, and much more.

The Journey
The Zohar is framed as the narrative of what scholar Nathan Wolski describes as a group of “wandering mystics headed by the grand master, Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai,” who converse with each other and interpret the Torah while traveling through the Holy Land. The act of traveling allows for freedom of imagination, and hence anywhere along the journey is considered the ideal place for expounding the deepest mysteries of Torah.

Language
As in previous works of Kabbalah, letters, numbers and words in the Zohar are considered to be powerful entities, indeed the very building blocks of Creation. The power of language includes both divine speech, that creates and continues to re-create the world each day, and human speech, which can influence both this world and the divine realm through prayer and contemplation.

Torah Commentary
Much of the Zohar takes the form of commentary and sermons, following the order of the books of the Torah. However, unlike traditional midrash, the Zohar purports to reveal the secret, inner meanings of the Torah. Biblical characters and stories are treated as symbols of states of the soul and aspects of the divine."