Moses de Leon (1250–1305) -  A Spanish writer of books on mysticism, Moses De Leon began handing out pamphlets in 1280 that he claimed had been written by Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai (see above). These small books were the beginning of what would later become Sefer ha-Zohar, or the Zohar, the central text of Kabbalah. Perhaps because so many believed that the text was written by such a renowned rabbi—ben Yohai—the Zohar quickly spread among Kabbalah followers in Spain and France and became the foundation of Kabbalah.Though kabbalists doubted the authorship of the Zohar almost from the very beginning, it was not until relatively recently that most scholars began to question whether Yohai had in fact written the Zohar. Those who do believe Yohai authored the Zohar argue that de Leon recovered the lost writings from the cave in which Yohai hid while escaping the Romans and brought them back to Spain. But many now argue that de Leon himself wrote the books, pointing out that the Aramaic used in the Zohar differs from the Aramaic spoken by Yohai.