kabbalah, cabala and esoteric judaism - the zohar

Kabbalah, Cabala

& Esoteric Judaism

The Zohar

Some fear Kabbalah is a "Jewish New World Order," but based upon publicly available information, those fears appear to be unfounded.

Of course, if there is information not available to the public, then we wouldn't know, would we?

Summary

Kabbalah deals with mystical aspects of Judaism, and is believed to date back to the time of Solomon's Temple, about 1000 BC. Yet many adherents are Christian, finding crossover from the Old Testament. Its strong mystical roots became even more powerful in the Middle Ages. Yet Daniel Chanan Matt finds conflicting information about the Zohar, one of the foundation books of Kabbalah.

Seven hundred years ago, a Spanish Jewish mystic named Moses de Leon began circulating booklets to his friends and fellow kabbalists.[i] These booklets contained teachings and tales that had never been seen or heard. Moses claimed that he was merely the scribe, copying from an ancient book of wisdom. The original had been composed in the circle of Rabbi Shim’on son of Yohai, a famous teacher of the second century who lived in the land of Israel and, according to tradition, spent twelve years secluded in a cave. After Rabbi Shim’on’s death, so the story goes, the book was hidden away or secretly handed down from master to disciple. Only recently had it been sent from Israel to Catalonia in northeastern Spain. Then it fell into the hands of Moses de Leon of Guadalajara. He took it upon himself to spread the ancient secrets, copying portions from the original manuscript and offering them for sale.

But history impinged. In 1291 the Mamluks conquered the city of Acre in Israel and massacred most of the Jewish and Christian inhabitants. One of the few who managed to escape was a young man named Isaac son of Samuel. He journeyed to Italy and eventually to Spain, arriving in Toledo in 1305. Isaac, who later became one of the leading kabbalists of the fourteenth century, was amazed at the reports he heard about the newly discovered Midrash[ii] of Rabbi Shim’on. The book had supposedly been written in Israel, but Isaac was from Israel and had never heard of it.

According to his diary, Isaac sought out those who possessed the booklets and was informed that the distributor was Moses de Leon, whom he located in Valladolid. Moses assured him that he owned the original manuscript composed by the ancient sage, and that he would let Isaac see it if he came to Avila, where Moses now lived. They parted company. Moses set out for his home, but on the way, in the town of Arevalo, he became ill and died. When Isaac heard the news, he went straight to Avila to see if anyone there knew the truth about the book. He was told that immediately following Moses’ death, the wife of Joseph de Avila, the tax collector of the province, had offered her son in marriage to the daughter of Moses de Leon’s widow in exchange for the ancient manuscript. Moses’ widow had responded:

Thus and more may God do to me if my husband ever possessed such a book! He wrote it entirely from his own head. When I saw him writing with nothing in front of him, I said to him, “Why do you say that you are copying from a book when there is no book? You are writing from your head. Wouldn’t it be better to say so? You would have more honor!” He answered me, “If I told them my secret, that I am writing from my own mind, they would pay no attention to my words, and they would pay nothing for them. They would say: ‘He is inventing them out of his imagination.” But now that they hear that I am copying from The Book of Zohar composed by Rabbi Shim’on son of Yohai through the Holy Spirit, they buy these words at a high price, as you see with your very eyes!”

Isaac was aghast when he heard this story. He traveled on to make further inquiries and found support for Moses’ claim that the book was ancient. He heard a report that Rabbi Jacob, a former student of Moses de Leon, had sworn that “the Zohar composed by Rabbi Shim’on son of Yohai . . .” And here the citation from Isaac’s diary breaks off.

Moses de Leon’s name faded. The Zohar was gradually accepted as the ancient wisdom of Rabbi Shim’on and his circle. By the middle of the sixteenth century, it ranked with the Bible and the Talmud as a sacred text. While kabbalists delved into its mysteries, Oriental Jews chanted the strange Aramaic, often unaware of the literal sense. But both groups, and countless others, were inspired and uplifted by the Holy Zohar.[iii]

Editor’s Notes:

Zohar: the Book of Enlightenment

by Daniel Chanan Matt  (2003)

Translates a significant portion of the Zohar of Kabbalah into English. Note that the same author subsequently produced a number of additional volumes translating more of this standard Kabbalah reference.

@ Amazon

The Power of Kabbalah: Technology

for the Soul

by Yehuda Berg  (2004)

In a manner described as rabbi-style cozy, Berg explores accessible ways to apply Kabbalah to life today.

@ Amazon

Nahmanides

(1194-1270)

Kabbalah member Madonna

tells it like it is

The Zohar -- title page of

the first edition (1558)

Other books about societies with secrets and secret societies:

The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital (2002) by David Ovason.

A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry - in Two Volumes (1921) by Arthur Edward Waite.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982) by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln.

The Craft and Its Symbols (1985) by Allen Roberts.

The Trial of the Templars (1978) by Malcolm Barber.

Freemasonry: A Journey Through Ritual and Symbol (1991) by W. Kirk MacNulty.

The Rosslyn Hoax? (2006) by Robert L. D. Cooper.

The Meaning of Masonry (1922) by W. L. Wilmshurst.

Freemason's Guide and Compendium (1950) by Bernard E. Jones.

A Dictionary of Freemasonry (ca. 1890) by Robert Macoy.