Studies in the Zohar

By Yehuda Liebes
Translated by Arnold Schwartz, Stephanie Nakache, and Penina Peli

Subjects: Jewish Mysticism
Series: SUNY series in Judaica: Hermeneutics, Mysticism, and Religion
Paperback : 9780791411902, 270 pages, February 1993
Hardcover : 9780791411896, 270 pages, March 1993

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Table of contents

Preface

1. The Messiah of the Zohar: On R. Simeon bar Yohai as a Messianic Figure

2. How the Zohar Was Written

3. Christian Influences on the Zohar

Notes

Bibliography

Sources

Indices

Description

This book deals with the "Book of Splendor" (Sefer ha-Zohar), the greatest achievement of Kabbalah and one of the most influential sources of Western mysticism. This book offers a new interpretation of the Zohar, analyzing both its theoretical content and its historical context; it also brings the theory and the history together by indicating the personal and autobiographical elements in the Zohar's teachings. The author delves into the issues of the messianic elements of the Zohar, the way it was written, and its relationship to Christianity, Gnosticism, and Talmudic literature.

Yehuda Liebes teaches Jewish Mysticism in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism, also published by SUNY Press.