The Zohar (Hebrew Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language; revived in the 1880s: זֹהַר‎, lit Splendor or Radiance) is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the mystical aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an eternal and mysterious Creator and the mortal and finite universe (His creation). While it is heavily used by some denominations, it is not a denomination in and of.^[1] It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah The term Torah , also known as the Pentateuch (Greek: Πεντάτευχος from πεντα- penta- [five] and τεῦχος teuchos [tool, vessel, book]), refers to the Five Books of Moses—the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts. A "Sefer Torah" (סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה, "book of Torah") or (the five books of Moses Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a religious leader, lawgiver, and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew (Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּנוּ‎, Lit. "Moses our Teacher/Rabbi"), is the most important prophet in Judaism, and is also considered an important) and scriptural interpretations as well as material on theosophic Theosophy , designates several bodies of ideas since Late Antiquity. The Greek term is attested on magical papyri (PMag. Leid. W.6.17: ἡ ἄγαν θεοσοφία) theology, mythical cosmogony Cosmogony, or cosmogeny, is any theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. The word comes from the Greek κοσμογονία , from κόσμος "cosmos, the world", and the root of γί(γ)νομαι / γέγονα "to be born, come about". In the specialized, and mystical psychology Psychology is the study of human or animal mental functions and behaviors. In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is a psychologist. Psychologists are classified as social or behavioral scientists. Psychological research can be considered either basic or applied. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in. The Zohar contains a discussion of the nature of God In Judaism, the name of God is more than a distinguishing title; it represents the Jewish conception of the divine nature, and of the relationship of God to the Jewish people. To show men the sacredness of the names of God, and as a means of showing respect and reverence for them, the scribes of sacred texts used terms of reverence so as to keep, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, redemption, the relationship of Ego to Darkness and "true self" to "The Light of God," and the relationship between the "universal energy" and man. Its scriptural exegesis Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term Biblical exegesis is used for greater specificity. The goal of Biblical exegesis can be considered an esoteric Esotericism or Esoterism is a term with two basic meanings. In the dictionary sense of the term, "esoterism" signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, and derives from the Greek ἐσωτερικός , a compound of ἔσω (esô): "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward", mystic. Its antonym is & form of the Rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, can mean the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. But the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writing, and thus corresponds with the Hebrew term Sifrut Hazal . This more specific sense of "Rabbinic known as Midrash Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible, which elaborates on the Torah.

The Zohar is mostly written in what has been described as an exalted, eccentric style of Aramaic Aramaic is a Semitic language belonging to the Afroasiatic language family. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic subfamily, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic group of languages, which also includes Canaanite languages such as Hebrew and Phoenician. Aramaic script was widely adopted for other languages and is, a language spoken in the Land of Israel The Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants. Mainstream Jewish tradition regards the promise as applying to all Jews during the Roman Period in the first centuries of the Common Era.

The Zohar first appeared in Spain Spain (pronounced /ˈspeɪn/ spayn; Spanish: España, pronounced [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.[note 6] Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for in the 13th century, and was published by a Jewish writer named Moses de Leon. De Leon ascribed the work to Shimon bar Yochai Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, Shimon son of Yohai, Simon son of Yohai or Rashbi (Hebrew: רשב"י‎, pronounced "Rash-bee", from Rabbi Shimeon bar Yochai.), was a famous rabbi who lived in the era of the Tannaim (scholars of the Mishnah) in the area of what is today Israel during the Roman period, after the destruction of the Second, a rabbi The basic form of the rabbi developed in the Pharisaic and Talmudic era, when learned teachers assembled to codify Judaism's written and oral laws. In more recent centuries, the duties of the rabbi became increasingly influenced by the duties of the Protestant Christian Minister, hence the title "pulpit rabbis", and in 19th century of the second century CE during the Roman persecution^[2] who, according to Jewish legend,^[3][4] hid in a cave for thirteen years studying the Torah and was inspired by the Prophet In religion, a prophet is an individual who believes they have been contacted by, or has encountered, the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other humans. The message that the prophet conveys is called a prophecy Elijah Elijah or Elias (pronounced /ɨˈlaɪ.əs, meaning: The Lord is my God/) (Hebrew: אליהו, Eliyahu; Arabic:إلياس, Ilyās), whose name (El-i Yahu) means "Yah is my God," was a prophet in Israel in the 9th century BC. He appears in the Hebrew Bible, Talmud, Mishnah, New Testament, and the Qur'an. According to the Books of Kings, to write the Zohar. This accords with the traditional claim by adherents that Kabbalah is the concealed part of the Oral Torah.

While the traditional majority view in religious Judaism has been that the teachings of Kabbalah were revealed by God God is the English name given to the singular omnipotent being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism to Biblical The Hebrew Bible is a term referring to the books of the Jewish Bible (Tanakh) as originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew, with some Biblical Aramaic. It is also called the Hebrew Scriptures. The term closely corresponds to contents of the Jewish Tanakh and the Protestant Old Testament (see also Judeo-Christian) and does not include the figures such as Abraham Abraham is the founding patriarch of the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Edomites, and the Midianites and kindred peoples, according to the book of Genesis and Moses Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a religious leader, lawgiver, and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew (Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּנוּ‎, Lit. "Moses our Teacher/Rabbi"), is the most important prophet in Judaism, and is also considered an important and were then transmitted orally from the Biblical era until its redaction by Shimon ben Yochai, modern academic analysis of the Zohar, such as that by the 20th century religious historian Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem (December 5, 1897 – February 21, 1982), also known as Gerhard Scholem, was a Jewish philosopher and historian raised in Germany. He is widely regarded as the founder of the modern, academic study of Kabbalah, becoming the first Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has theorized that De Leon was the actual author. The view of non-Orthodox Jewish denominations generally conforms to this latter view, and as such, most non-Orthodox Jews have long viewed the Zohar as pseudepigraphy Pseudepigrapha are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed authorship is unfounded; a work, simply, "whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past." The word "pseudepigrapha" is the plural of "pseudepigraphon" (sometimes Latinized as "pseudepigraphum"); the Anglicized forms " and apocrypha The term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including "hidden", "esoteric", "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", and "Christian texts that are not canonical" while sometimes accepting that its contents may have meaning for modern Judaism. Jewish prayerbooks A siddur is a Jewish prayer book, containing a set order of daily prayers. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as we know it today has developed. A separate article, Jewish services, discusses the prayers that appear in the siddur, and when they are said edited by non-Orthodox Jews may therefore contain excerpts from the Zohar and other kabbalistic works,^[5] even if the editors don't literally believe that they are oral traditions from the time of Moses.

Authorship

Initial view

Suspicions aroused by the facts that the Zohar was discovered by one person, and that it refers to historical events of the post-Talmudic The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism, in the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history period while purporting to be from an earlier time, caused the authorship to be questioned from the outset.^[2] Joseph Jacobs and Isaac Broyde, in their article on the Zohar for the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901. It is now a public domain resource, cite a story involving the noted Kabbalist Isaac of Acco, who is supposed to have heard directly from the widow of de Leon that her husband authored the Zohar for profit:^[2]

A story tells that after the death of Moses de Leon, a rich man of Avila named Joseph offered Moses' widow (who had been left without any means of supporting herself) a large sum of money for the original from which her husband had made the copy.^[2] She confessed that her husband himself was the author of the work. She had asked him several times, she said, why he had chosen to credit his own teachings to another, and he had always answered that doctrines put into the mouth of the miracle-working Shimon bar Yochai Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, Shimon son of Yohai, Simon son of Yohai or Rashbi (Hebrew: רשב"י‎, pronounced "Rash-bee", from Rabbi Shimeon bar Yochai.), was a famous rabbi who lived in the era of the Tannaim (scholars of the Mishnah) in the area of what is today Israel during the Roman period, after the destruction of the Second would be a rich source of profit.^[2] The story indicates that shortly after its appearance the work was believed by some to have been written by Moses de Leon.^[2]

However, Isaac evidently ignored the woman's alleged confession in favor of the testimony of Joseph ben Todros and of Jacob, a pupil of Moses de León, both of whom assured him on oath that the work was not written by de Leon.^[2] Over time, the general view in the Jewish community came to be one of acceptance of Moses de Leon's claims, with the Zohar seen as an authentic book of mysticism passed down from the second century. The Zohar spread among the Jews with remarkable swiftness.^[2] Scarcely fifty years had passed since its appearance in Spain before it was quoted by many Kabbalists Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the mystical aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an eternal and mysterious Creator and the mortal and finite universe (His creation). While it is heavily used by some denominations, it is not a denomination in and of, including the Italian b includes 291,200 permanent residents; not including about 500.000 Italian-speaking Swiss people, mystical writer Menahem Recanati^[2] and by Todros Abulafia. Certain Jewish communities, however, such as the Baladi Yemenite, Andalusian Andalusia is an autonomous community of Spain and recognized as a historical nationality. It is the most populous (8,285,692 inhabitants in 2009) and the second largest, in terms of land area, of the seventeen autonomous communities of the Kingdom of Spain. Its capital and largest city is Seville (Spanish: Sevilla). The region is divided into (Western Sefardic or Spanish and Portuguese Jews Spanish and Portuguese Jews are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardim who have their main ethnic origins within the crypto-Jewish communities of the Iberian peninsula and who shaped communities mainly in Western Europe and the Americas from the late 16th century on. These communities must be clearly distinguished from:), and some Italian communities, never accepted it as authentic.

Late Middle Ages

By the 15th century, its authority in the Spanish Jewish community was such that Joseph ibn Shem-Tov drew from it arguments in his attacks against Maimonides Moses Maimonides, also known as Rambam, was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher; one of the greatest Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. He was born in Córdoba, Spain on Passover Eve, 1135, and died in Egypt on 20th Tevet, December 12, 1204. He worked as a rabbi, physician and philosopher in Morocco and Egypt. With the contemporary Muslim,^[2] and even representatives of non-mystical Jewish thought began to assert its sacredness and invoke its authority in the decision of some ritual questions.^[2] In Jacobs' and Broyde's view, they were attracted by its glorification of man, its doctrine of immortality Immortality is the concept of living in a physical or spiritual form for an infinite length of time, and its ethical principles, which they saw as more in keeping with the spirit of Talmudic Judaism The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism, in the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history than are those taught by the philosophers,^[2] and which was held in contrast to the view of Maimonides and his followers, who regarded man as a fragment of the universe whose immortality is dependent upon the degree of development of his active intellect. The Zohar instead declared Man to be the lord of the creation, whose immortality is solely dependent upon his morality.^[2]

Conversely, Elijah Delmedigo (c.1458 – c.1493), in his Bechinat ha-Dat endeavored to show that the Zohar could not be attributed to Shimon bar Yochai,^[2] arguing that if it were his work, the Zohar would have been mentioned by the Talmud The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism, in the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history, as has been the case with other works of the Talmudic period,^[2] that had bar Yohai known by divine revelation the hidden meaning of the precepts, his decisions on Jewish law from the Talmudic period would have been adopted by the Talmud,^[2] that it would not contain the names of rabbis who lived at a later period than that of Simeon;^[2] and that if the Kabbalah was a revealed doctrine, there would have been no divergence of opinion among the Kabbalists concerning the mystic interpretation of the precepts.^[6]

Believers in the authenticity of the Zohar countered that the lack of references to the work in Jewish literature were because bar Yohai did not commit his teachings to writing but transmitted them orally to his disciples over generations until finally the doctrines were embodied in the Zohar.^[2] They found it unsurprising that bar Yochai should have foretold future happenings or made references to historical events of the post-Talmudic period.^[2]

The authenticity of the Zohar was accepted by such 16th century Jewish luminaries as R' Yosef Karo Joseph ben Ephraim Caro, also spelled Yosef Karo, or Qaro, was author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch, which is still authoritative for all Jews pertaining to their respective communities. To this end he is often referred to as ha-Mechaber (Hebrew: "The Author") and as Maran (Aramaic: "Our Master& (d.1575), R' Moses Isserles (d. 1572), and R' Solomon Luria (d.1574), who wrote that Jewish law (Halacha Halakha — also transliterated Halocho (Ashkenazic Hebrew pronunciation) and Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish religious law, including biblical law (the 613 mitzvot) and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions) follows the Zohar, except where the Zohar is contradicted by the Babylonian Talmud The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism, in the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history.^[7]

Enlightenment period

Debate continued over the generations; Delmedigo's arguments were echoed by Leon of Modena Leon Modena or Yehudah Aryeh Mi-modena was a Jewish scholar born in Venice of a notable French family which had migrated to Italy after an expulsion of Jews from France (d.1648) in his Ari Nohem,^[2] and a work devoted to the criticism of the Zohar, Miṭpaḥat Sefarim, was written by Jacob Emden Jacob Emden (the Yabets) was a rabbi and notable talmudist, and prominent opponent of the Sabbateans. He was born at Altona June 4, 1697, and died there April 19, 1776. He was the son of the Chacham Tzvi, and a great-great grandson of Elijah Ba'al Shem of Chelm. Emden was the father of Meshullam Solomon, one of two rival Chief Rabbis of England (d.1776), who, waging war against the remaining adherents of the Sabbatai Zevi movement (in which Zevi, a false messiah and Jewish apostate Apostasy is the formal religious disaffiliation, abandonment, or renunciation of one's religion, especially if the motive is deemed unworthy. In a technical sense, as used sometimes by sociologists without the pejorative connotations of the word, the term refers to renunciation and criticism of, or opposition to, one's former religion. One who, cited Messianic prophecies from the Zohar as proof of his legitimacy), endeavored to show that the book on which Zevi based his doctrines was a forgery.^[2] Emden argued that the Zohar misquotes passages of Scripture; misunderstands the Talmud; contains some ritual observances which were ordained by later rabbinical authorities; mentions The Crusades The Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between 1095 and 1291. Other campaigns in Spain and Eastern against Muslims (who did not exist in the second century); uses the expression "esnoga," a Portuguese Portuguese ( português or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that grew from the Latin descended Galician-Portuguese language that was spoken in the mediaeval Kingdom of Galicia, whose territory is now divided between northern Portugal, Galicia and Asturias. It also absorbed influences from the Romance and Arabic languages spoken in the term for "synagogue A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. (it might also be of interest that the word when broken down could mean, "learning together" (syn - gr. together and aghoghei gr. learning or training)"; and gives a mystical explanation of the Hebrew vowel-points Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language; revived in the 1880s, which were not introduced until long after the Talmudic period.^[2]

The influence of the Zohar and the Kabbalah in Yemen, where it was introduced in the 1600s, gave rise to the Dor Daim movement, whose adherents believed that the core beliefs of Judaism were rapidly diminishing in favor of the mysticism of the Kabbalah. The Dor Daim movement, led by Rabbi Yiḥyah Qafiḥ, emerged as a recognizable force in the later part of the 19th century, and considered) the Kabbalists to be irrational, anti-scientific, and anti-progressive in attitude. Its objects were to combat the influence of the Zohar and subsequent developments in modern Kabbalah, which were then pervasive in Yemenite Jewish life, to restore what they believed to be a rationalistic approach to Judaism rooted in authentic sources, and to safeguard the older ("Baladi") tradition of Yemenite Jewish observance that they believed to be based on this approach. Especially controversial were the views of the Dor Daim on the Zohar, as presented in Milhamoth Hashem (Wars of the Lord),^[8] written by Rabbi Qafiḥ A group of Jerusalem rabbis published an attack on Rabbi Qafiḥ under the title of Emunat Hashem (Faith of the Lord), and measures were taken to ostracize members of the movement.

In the Ashkenazi community of Eastern Europe, later religious authorities including the Vilna Gaon (d.1797) and Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (d.1812) (The Baal HaTanya) believed in the authenticity of the Zohar.

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