The Authority of the Zohar

This chapter assesses the various manifestations of the Zohar's increasing authority and the historical and social contexts that finally led to its recognition by most Jewish communities in the early modern period. Declarations concerning the exalted status of the Zohar's protagonists, mainly of R. Shimon bar Yohai, are found in the zoharic literature itself. The choice of R. Shimon for the leading role, his comparison to Moses, and the proclamation of his superiority granted the secrets he conveyed paramount importance. The chapter explains that the purpose of the proclamations made by the kabbalists outside the Nahmanidean circle regarding the importance of the Zohar was to subvert the Catalan school. It then examines how the perception of the Zohar as a sacred and authoritative work increased the cultural power of the elite circles of the Spanish exile and advanced Sephardi cultural dominance in their new settlements and beyond.

The Recanonization of the Zohar in the Modern Era

This chapter reflects on the re-evaluation of the Zohar at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Under the influence of Jewish national and neo-Romantic trends, the book regained somewhat its old status, although the scholars who called for its recanonization insisted on its purely historical importance, denying its sacredness or divine authority. Rather, they emphasized its unique literary value and the central role it had played in Jewish national history. Many groups now engage in the study, commentary, and dissemination of the Zohar and compete for control of the cultural capital it represents. The application of new methods of study and circulation has also expanded its accessibility. All of these changes mark the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Zohar.

The Depiction of R. Shimon bar Yohai and Moses in Zoharic Literature

This chapter examines the strategy of the Zohar to present itself to readers through a juxtaposition of the figures of R. Shimon bar Yohai and Moses. By means of this contrast, the compilers of the work sought to create a canonical literature which was not only comparable to the Torah of Moses but was, they claimed, superior to it. The context for the comparison between R. Shimon and Moses, and for the portrayal of the rabbinic sage as greater than the biblical prophet, is the struggle between competing schools of kabbalah on the Iberian peninsula in the thirteenth century. The dominant school of kabbalah at the time was that of the followers of Nahmanides and R. Solomon ben Adret (Rashba). This competition was the framework in which the zoharic texts were created and in which their distribution and reception began.