Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment (Classics of Western Spirituality)

Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment (Classics of Western Spirituality)
by Daniel Chanan Matt

Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment (Classics of Western Spirituality)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Daniel Chanan Matt
Edition: Paperback
Published: 1983-12
ISBN: 0809123878
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Paulist Press

Book Reviews of Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment (Classics of Western Spirituality)

Book Review: Excellent translation
Summary: 5 Stars

Daniel Matt prepared this very elegant translation of the Zohar. It is only about 2% of the complete Zohar, but it provides an excellent selection of various themes in the Zohar. He prepared a commentary on each selection to assist the novice reader in decoding the language and the allusions in the text. Jews of the 13th Century were more versed in Jewish literature than the average Jew today, so the commentary is very helpful to the modern reader.

The Introduction is also very worthwhile reading. I particularly like Matt's take on how to read the Zohar - read it and let it blow your mind. That is, take what you can from it. The text operates on so many levels that it is profitable reading for almost any audience.

The Zohar itself is structured as midrash on the Torah. Consequently, it is helpful if the reader has some experience with the midrashic process. Midrash can seem really weird to modern people, not schooled in the medieval mindset.

Each selection in this book operates on at least three levels. There is the peshat of the midrash (read it for the basic story). You can decode it according to the doctrine of sfirot (aspects of the Divinity). Finally, there is the ethical/theosophical/ontological content. Some of the selections appear to also relate to peak mystical experiences - either what they are like, or how to produce them.

One way to understand Zohar (which is Gershom Scholem's) is that the Zohar is essentially anti-Maimonidianism. That is, Moses de Leon, the author (there is some dispute about whether some portions were written by committee) did not like Maimonidian rationalism (Aristotle) and was producing a counter-text based on the philosophy of Plato (actually Neoplatonic paraphrases and abridgments produced in Spain).

Summary of Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment (Classics of Western Spirituality)

Zohar-"the book of Splendor, Radiance, Enlightenment"--has fascinated readers from its first appearance in thirteenth-century Spain until today. It is the major text of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. To assure the acceptance of his work within the Jewish community, a Spanish scholar named Moses de Leon claimed that Zohar was an ancient work of the school of the famous Rabbi Shim'on son of Yohai. It was not until our own century that critical scholarship demonstrated that the book's author was Moses de Leon himself. His mosaic of Scripture, Midrash, medieval homily, fiction, and fantasy presents what Professor Daniel Matt describes as "a challenge to the normal workings of consciousness [that] dares one to examine one's assumptions about tradition, God, and self."

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