“The Book of Splendor.” This is the central work in the literature of the Kabbalah. It is a collection of several books that included short midrashic statements, homilies, and discussions on the weekly portions of the Torah and many other topics. The most cited rabbi of the Zohar is Simeon b. Yohai.

Yet the most controversial question surrounds the actual composition and editing of the book. The kabbalists of Safed believed in the antiquity of the whole of the Zohar. The book, however, was published by the Spanish kabbalist Moses b. Shem Tov de Leon in the late thirteenth century. Some considered Moses de Leon to have been the actual author of the Zohar. He immersed himself in the lore of the kabbalistic schools of Spain, where he developed a close relationship with the kabbalist Joseph Gikatilla. By 1286, Moses de Leon had penned the Midrash ha-Ne’elam, the “Mystical Midrash,” which formed the principal part of the Zohar. The major part of these writings is in Aramaic, but Moses de Leon also composed Hebrew writings on ethics and the eschatology of the soul.

The critical importance of the Zohar in the development of Kabbalah and in the life of the Jewish community can be seen in the vast commentaries written on its contents. Many have not survived, with the notable exception of Moses Cordovero’s seven-volume Or ha-Yakar. The most important commentary for a more literal understanding of the Zohar is Ketem Paz by Simeon Labi of Tripoli (1570), of which the Genesis section has been printed. Second in importance is the Or ha-Chammah, a commentary by Abraham b. Mordecai Azulai. Azulai’s commentary includes an abridgment of Cordovero’s writings and a commentary by Abraham Galante, one of Cordovero’s pupils. This work was printed in 1896-98, reflecting the Cordovero school of Zohar exposition.

The Zohar has been translated into Latin, French, and English. Its contents, its disputed dates of publication, its questionable authenticity and antiquity, have been the source of a raging debate during these most recent centuries. The great nineteenth-century scholars of Judaism, including Leopold Zunz, saw the Zohar as a product of the thirteenth century. Many chose to solve the problem of the Zohar in accordance with their own subjective views. Whatever its true date of publication, its influence on the subject of mysticism remains paramount. It is the great sourcebook of the subject we know as Kabbalah.