(TRADITIONALLY ATTRIBUTED TO, actually, Moses de Leon). Sepher Hazohar [“The Book of Splendor”]

The most sacred and influential of all Kabbalistic works, the Zohar is the pre-eminent classic of world mystical literature, a quest for Divine unity and a search for insight into the mysteries of God’s Torah. “The Sepher Hazohar has amazed and overwhelmed readers ever since it emerged mysteriously in medieval Spain (Castile) toward the end of the thirteenth century.” Daniel C. Matt, Introduction, in his masterful translation: The Zohar, Pritzker Edition (2004). Many among Rabbinic and Kabbalistic circles feared the printing of such an esoteric work; its meaning might be distorted by Christians in support of their faith, and the majority of Jews themselves would be confused by the implications of the Zohar’s mystical teachings. A textually inferior reprint by Vincenzo Conti of Cremona immediately followed this Mantua edition. See D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963) pp.325-27; Carmilly-Weinberger, pp.53-55