Summary
The Zohar, also known as Sefer ha-Zohar, or “The Book
of Radiance,” is now the primary text for students of Kabbalah.
The beginnings of the Zohar first appeared around 1280 C. E., when
a Spanish mystic named Moses de Leon began circulating small booklets
written in Aramaic, a long defunct language. De Leon claimed that
the booklets were taken from ancient texts written by the great second-century
rabbi Simeon ben Yohai.
Rabbi Yohai, fleeing persecution by the Romans in Palestine,
hid in a cave for thirteen years with his son, Eliezar. The Jewish
prophet Elijah supposedly visited Yohai and his son in the cave,
after which God inspired Yohai to write down the wisdom he gathered
from Elijah’s teachings. De Leon claimed his pamphlets contained
Yohai’s writing. Most kabbalists believed de Leon’s story for hundreds
of years, though others have since expressed doubt and think de
Leon wrote the pamphlets himself. Even though De Leon is now widely credited
with authoring the work, the Zohar is still considered a triumph
of poetic writing and mystical thought.
The Zohar is written in a very unconventional style, which
some associate with the technique of “automatic writing.” Automatic writing
requires the writer to enter a mystical trance and then immediately
transcribe whatever thoughts first come to mind, no matter how scattered
or unrelated. Automatic writing could supposedly unveil ideas buried
deep in one’s consciousness, and perhaps bring a writer closer to
understanding God. Others contend that the Zohar’s bizarre style
results not from the automatic writing of one person, but from the
contributions of various authors over hundreds of years.
The Zohar describes the journey of Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai
and ten companions through Galilee, the northern region of Palestine and,
formerly, the kingdom of Israel. Along their journey, the travelers
discuss their interpretations of the Torah, and specifically the Torah’s
main characters. The characters become a part of the narrative of
the Zohar, their lives weaving in and out of those of Yohai and
his group. The companions come and go fluidly within their own group—they
often turn from one character into another.
The Zohar uses the term “Ein Sof,” meaning “the infinite,”
for God. Ein Sof is a departure from the traditional concept of
divinity, which portrays God as a knowable presence, a being in
the heavens that people can comprehend and feel. Ein Sof, on the
contrary, is so vast that it’s unknowable, beyond the boundaries
of human comprehension. Kabbalists believe that at most they can
know merely fragments of Ein Sof, which they receive only through
profound mystical experiences.
Though the Zohar and its teachings spread quickly from
Spain and Italy into other parts of Western Europe, it was slow
to reach Eastern Europe—at least at first. After the expulsion of
the Jews from Spain in 1492, study of the Zohar became more widespread
as Jews fled eastward. The Zohar’s popularity reached its peak in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Zohar remains in print today
and has been translated into English in a twenty-two-volume set.
