The Zohar and the tradition of the Book of Splendor

The Zohar ("Book of Splendor") is the central work of the Kabbalah, presented as a mystical commentary on the Torah written in Aramaic and traditionally attributed to the sage Shimon bar Yo'haï (second century). Modern historical criticism, following the work of Gershom Scholem, places its composition in Castile at the end of the thirteenth century and attributes it largely to Moïse de Léon, or perhaps to a circle of kabbalists. The Zohar develops a cosmology founded on the ten séfirot, divine emanations through which the infinite (Ein Sof) manifests and acts in the world, and unfolds a symbolic hermeneutics of great richness. Its authority grew considerably after the expulsion from Spain, and in Safed in the sixteenth century it became one of the foundations of Lurianic Kabbalah. Its influence subsequently extended to the Sabbatean movement, to Hasidism, and even to certain Christian esoteric currents, making it one of the most radiant texts of Jewish spirituality.

Sources & resources

• Sefaria ↗
• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan