The Zohar is known as the main text of Kabbalah. Its preeminent place in Jewish mysticism does not derive solely from its antiquity or authorship. Other basic works of Kabbalah, such as Sefer Yetzira and Sefer Habahir, are of earlier origin.
Rabbi Shimon himself apparently wrote some of the Zohar… while hiding in a cave from the Roman authorities… The importance of the Zohar is to be attributed rather to its breadth, becoming the source of virtually all subsequent authoritative Kabbalistic teachings of the school of R. Yitzchak Luria and others.
The Zohar currently in our possession is merely a fraction of the original work and claims that the entire work of the Zohar was so large that it would constitute a full load of camels.
1. Origin
Most of the Zohar was written in an exalted style of Aramaic that was spoken in Palestine during the second century of the modern era.
He attributed this work to a second-century rabbi, Simeon ben Yohai. Jewish historiography holds that during a time of Roman persecution, Rabbi Simeon hid in a cave for 13 years, studying the Torah (the five books of Moses) with his son Eliezer.
The fact that the Zohar was found by a single individual, Moses de León, together with the circumstance that it refers to historical events from the post-Talmudic period, caused the authenticity of the work to be questioned from the outset.
As incredible as this story may seem, it at least demonstrates that shortly after its appearance, some believed that the work had been written entirely by Moses de León.
2. Etymology
In the Bible, the word “Zohar” appears in Ezekiel 8:2 and is generally translated as meaning radiance or light. It appears again in Daniel 12:3, “The wise shall shine like the brightness of the heavens.”
3. Language
The Zohar is written mainly in what has been described as a cryptic and obscure style of Aramaic. However, the Aramaic is not very sophisticated and seems to have been written by someone who did not know Aramaic as their mother tongue. In addition, the vocabulary of medieval Spanish and Portuguese prevails in the language of the Zohar.
4. Acceptance within Judaism
While the traditional view of the majority in religious Judaism has been that the teachings of Kabbalah (literally “tradition”) were revealed by God to biblical figures such as Abraham and Moses and then transmitted orally from the biblical era until their writing by Shimon bar Yochai, modern scholarly analysis of the Zohar, such as that of 20th-century religious historian Gershom Scholem, has theorized that De Leon was the actual author.
The view of some Orthodox Jews and Orthodox groups, as well as non-Orthodox Jewish denominations, generally conforms to the latter view, and as such, most of these groups have long viewed the Zohar as pseudepigraphic and apocryphal, although they sometimes accept that its content may have significance for modern Judaism.
Therefore, Jewish prayer books published by non-Orthodox Jews may contain excerpts from the Zohar and other Kabbalistic works, even if the publishers do not literally believe them to be oral traditions from the time of Moses.
5. Parts of the Zohar: summary of the rabbinic view
The traditional rabbinic view is that most of the Zohar and the parts included in it (i.e., the parts mentioned above) were written and compiled by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, but some parts preceded Rashbi who used them, and some parts were written or organized in generations after Rashbi’s death.
However, the Zohar mentions dozens of earlier sources that Rashbi and his Chevraya Kadisha had, and these were apparently the basis of the Kabbalistic tradition of the Zohar.
6. Who wrote the Zohar?
According to traditional Jewish belief, the Zohar was revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and was transmitted orally until it was written down in the second century by Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai (known as “Rashbi,” also sometimes referred to as Simeon ben Yohai). From a historical-critical perspective, the authorship of the Zohar has been a subject of debate for centuries.
Scholars now agree that it was written in 13th-century Spain, probably by the Castilian Kabbalist Rabbi Moshe (Moses) of León and many other authors. Apparently, the text was written in Aramaic, not a widely used language at the time, to create the appearance of having been written centuries earlier.
7. Main themes of the Zohar
Some important themes in the Zohar include the nature of God and the cosmos, the creation of the world, God’s relationship with the world through the sefirot (attributes of God), the nature of evil and sin, the revelation of the Torah, the commandments, holidays, prayer, the rituals of the ancient Temple, the figure of the priest, the experience of exile, and much more.
The Journey
This book is framed as the narrative of what scholar Nathan Wolski describes as a group of “wandering mystics led by the great teacher, Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai,” who converse and interpret the Torah as they travel through the Holy Land. The act of traveling allows for freedom of imagination, and therefore any part of the journey is considered the ideal place to reveal the deepest mysteries of the Torah.
Commentary on the Torah
Much of the Zohar takes the form of commentaries and sermons, following the order of the books of the Torah. However, unlike traditional midrash, the Zohar aims to reveal the secret and inner meanings of the Torah. Biblical characters and stories are treated as symbols of states of the soul and aspects of the divine.
The 10 sefirot
The nature of God (known as Ein Sof, the endless) is one of the main concerns of the Zohar. The 10 sefirot, which first appear in pre-Kabbalistic mystical texts. The sefirot are expressions of God’s being; they are part of God and also represent the ways in which God relates to the world.
These 10 aspects of God also serve as a template for the human spiritual experience. The sefirot are:
- Keter (crown)
- Hokhmah (Wisdom)
- Binah (Understanding)
- Hesed (mercy)
- Din (Justice)
- Tiferet (Beauty)
- Nezah (Eternity)
- Hod (Glory)
- Yesod (Foundation)
- Shekhinah (the feminine aspect of God) or Malkhut (Kingship).
8. How to study the Zohar
According to many traditional teachings, one is supposed to wait until the age of 40 to study Kabbalah, in order to be psychologically and spiritually prepared for these texts.
The dense, complicated, and esoteric nature of these texts makes them ideal for advanced students of Jewish texts. The Zohar requires a strong fundamental knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic, Torah, Talmud, and Midrash.
Although new translations have made the text more accessible, the complex vocabulary and imaginary landscape of the Zohar make study difficult without the guidance of an experienced scholar.
