THE ROOT OF THE ZOHAR CONTROVERSY: A CRISIS OF PRIORITIES

(I request that anyone who desires to fully understand my opinion on this subject read the entire composition carefully and not make assumptions.)

 

 

A CRISIS OF PRIORITIES

 

We approach a Passover holiday that should stand out in our memories from all other Passovers in our lifetimes:  The eve of this Passover happens to coincide with a unique astrological event that occurs every 28 years:  According to ancient tradition, it is the beginning of a new sun cycle, in which the sun assumes the position in which it appeared at Creation.  Millions of Jews worldwide will go out in the morning to witness this spectacle and make bless HaShem, who made all Creation. (hil. berakhoth 10:20[18])   

 

In fact, a great many of religious Jews will wake up before dawn n order to view the sun and make the blessing in a minyan at sunrise—even though there is no legal obligation to do so—, unaware of the great importance the Sages gave to ending the Shema` and beginning the `amidah prayer at that precise time. (hil. Q”Sh 1:12[11], tefillah 7:17)  In fact, the failure to recite the Shema` prayer at its precise time (about 6 minutes before sunrise, leading immediately into the `amidah) is counted in Talmud as one of the reasons for the destruction of the Temple.  But consider the attention being given to the “overriding” sun blessing… There is a whole class being offered locally, and whole books and booklets being published about the significance of this very regular blessing (the beginning of a new sun cycle)… a subject to which RaMBaM devotes half of one halakhah (about 2-3 lines of text). 

 

It is a sign of the times: what the early sages taught as minor details are blown up into issues of overriding importance, while outright halakhic obligations such as Shema` and prayer—to which RaMBaM devotes whole chapters—are pushed aside as being of minor importance. 

 

The prophet Yisha`yahu (Isaiah) foresaw a time when the light of the Jewish people itself will “break forth as the morning, and thy healing shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee, the glory of the LORD shall be thy rear guard.” (Isaiah 58:8)  We will break out of our stubborn paradigms—such as the belief in fasting from food and drink as an end in and of itself—to pursue what truly matters to HaShem on a fast day:  soul-searching, pursuing justice and deeds of loving-kindness.  In short, it will be a time when we finally get our priorities in order. 

 

In my neighborhood, I see another priority anomaly among small children… Two weeks before Passover, and with their parents’ full sanction, children are preparing for another holiday altogether… They are ‘beating the rush’ to collect wood for Lag ba’Omer—holiday of the Kabbalah—in another six weeks.  That day and the days from pior, hundreds of thousands of Torah observant Jews will gather to the grave of one of the greatest of the Tannaim, reaffirming their dedication to a book that he is widely believed to have authored–the Zohar. 

 

Lag Ba’Omer fires burn so high and hot, there is scarcely a year without burn victims, often children.  It is a phenomenon that did not exist in the childhood-days of their no-less pious or kabbalistic-minded parents and grandparents:  Not long ago, Lag ba’Omer was a joyous time for families and friends to enjoy a homely campfire, and sing about the awesome wisdom of Shim’on ben YoHai.  Over the years, it has reached the point where a few years back, the television newscast showed a few misguided pseudo-kabbalists throwing silken sheets on to fires as an offering to demons.  Who would imagine that the Torah’s scathing rebuke (Devarim 32:17) was aimed at our late 58^th century, as much as any other time?

 

 

Consider those who weren’t satisfied in praying there to HaShem in the merit of Shim’on ben YoHai, but directed their prayers to the Sadiq himself, which is pure idolatry.  And even that pails in comparison to the creation of a new ‘Jesus’ out of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Schneerson (if you think I am exaggerating, visit http://www.rebbegod.blogspot.com/.)  Sheer, unabashed idolatry.  HaShem-forbid that we should ascribe such beliefs to all or even most of Chabad, but the silence over this from the Chabad world is deafening.  How can anyone be so blind, reading and hearing the eternal curses for such behavior, year by year, in parashath, BuHuqothai:

 

DEMONIZING THE ZOHAR:  NOT A SIMPLE EQUATION

 

News of these things can drive some to the opposite extreme: a camp of those satisfied with only a half-story… those who brand the Zohar itself as a medieval book of idolatry. 

 

Belief in the authenticity of the Zohar is considered a fundamental tenet of faith in nearly all sectors of the Orthodox Jewish world.  Respected as holy writ by such a geniuses such as the Vilna Gaon and Ben Ish Hai, it has been so in nearly all Jewish communities for centuries.  In my perspective, not only do those who vilify Zohar show imprudence by isolating themselves from the Jewish world, they cultivate a hate for something they don’t truly understand.  Moreover, they do not understand the root of the very real problem they see—which is actually a fundamental mistake that Jews have been making for thousands of years: a crisis of priorities.  That is, an emphasis on the mystical and esoteric studies, as a way out from the harsh reality of the literal Word of HaShem, according to the revealed Oral tradition.   

 

RaMBaM poignantly describes how this crisis in priorities led to our downfall towards the end of the Second Temple era: 

 

וזו היא שאבדה מלכותנו והחריבה בית מקדשנו והאריכה גלותינו והגיעתנו עד הלום. שאבותינו חטאו ואינם, לפי שמצאו ספרים רבים באלה הדברים של דברי החוזים בכוכבים, שדברים אלו הם עיקר עבודה זרה, כמו שביארנו בהלכות עבודה זרה, טעו ונהו אחריהן, ודימו שהם חכמות מפוארות ויש בהן תועלת גדולה, ולא נתעסקו בלמידת מלחמה ולא בכיבוש ארצות, אלא דמו שאותן הדברים יועילו להם ולפיכך קראו אותם הנביאים סכלים ואווילים .  ודאי סכלים ואווילים היו, ואחרי התוהו אשר לא יועילו הלכו.  (רמב”ם, איגרת לחכמי קהל עיר מארשילייא, צרפת)

 

(מנוסח האיגרת המופיע ב-http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/mahshevt/mekorot/igeret-2.htm(

 

This is why our kingdom was lost and our Temple was destroyed and why we were brought to this; for our fathers sinned and are no more because they found many books dealing with these themes of the star gazers, these things being the root of idolatry, as we have made clear in Laws Concerning Idolatry. They erred and were drawn after them, imagining them to be glorious science and to be of great utility. They did not busy themselves with the art of war or with the conquest of lands, but imagined that those studies would help them. Therefore the prophets called them “fools and dolts” (Jer. 4:22). And truly fools they were, “for they walked after confused things that do not profit” (I Sam. 12:21 and Jer. 2:8).   

(RaMBaM, Epistle to the Sages of Marseilles, France)

 

 

Demonizing Zohar-mysticism as medieval and pagan not only misses the point, it is also not as simple an equation as some scholars would have you believe. 

 

Anti-Zoharists often mention Sepher HaYuHasin, which claims the widow of Rav Moshe de Leon admitted that her late husband had personally authored it, falsely claiming the authorship of Shim’on Ben YoHai in order to sell the work.  However, it is difficult to believe a widow would incriminate her own husband in those times.  It is even harder to believe that an author who sought to forge a work in the name of a Tanna in order to increase its buyership would write it in a difficult dialect of Aramaic that only the most advanced Torah scholars could understand.  Wouldn’t he author in the authentic Hebrew of the Tannaim in the Land of Israel at the time?  That would truly increase its readership by making it understandable to the lay scholar.  Furthermore, the “lie” would be accepted more easily—it being easier to fool lower-level scholars than those who are more advanced.   Even advanced scholars would be impressed:  The Mishnah and Pirqei d’Rabi Eli`ezer demonstrate that Hebrew was the language of the Tannaim in the Land of Israel at the time.  Why would Rav De Leon have chosen to use a language that it was known Ribi Shim’on would not have used? 

 

Now consider that, by Moshe De Leon’s time, Aramaic had been the language of Torah scholarship for centuries.  If Zohar were an Oral tradition that had been passed down through the golden age in the schools of Bavel, it would likely have been preserved in Aramaic.

 

The greatest anti-Zoharist work is MithpaHath Sefarim, by Rav Ya`aqov Moshe Emden (1697-1776), the Ya`avetz.  This Torah giant exposes literary inconsistencies in the Zohar: misquoted sections from Talmud and even Scripture.  He cites ritual observances in the Zohar that were ordained by later rabbinical authorities, and a mention of the crusades against the Muslims.  http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=142&letter=Z#409   

 

But wouldn’t a forger who went to the efforts of inventing such an enormous work as the Zohar be at least careful enough not to misquote, and certainly not to mention later historical events?  On the other hand, an organic Oral tradition written down could have misquotes:  Not an oral tradition of halakhah or midrash in the mouths of thousands of scholars, but an organic, esoteric tradition on the subject of Ma’aseh Merkava (the mysteries of the Divine Chariot) and Ma`aseh B:reshith, passed down orally through a very thin chain of students: it is not unlikely that such a tradition would contain a few misquotes, and include applied references to later events. 

 

What is considered the most convincing, damning evidence against the Zohar is the use of a 13^th century-Spanish word “esnoga” for synagogue.  How would Shim’on ben YoHai use such a word?  To me, this very point might be evidence for the integrity of the work:  Why on earth would Rav De Leon, writing a work intended to fool the Torah giants of the world, put a contemporary Spanish word and misquotes in Shim’on ben YoHai’s mouth?  In short, this is the same faulty assumption that Bible critics use to attack the authenticity of the Humash—lehavdil.  They assume such a stupidity on the part of the author; as if the author himself was unaware of the ‘problems’ and contradictions.   It doesn’t take great a great linguist to know that “esnoga” is closely derived from “synagoga”, the Greek term from which the English word is derived.  Ever since the Hellenist era, nearly all non-Hebrew Torah literature is peppered with Greek and Roman words that crept into the lexicon.  Is it so hard to believe that a Spanish-Jewish copyist would prefer to write “esnoga” in place of “synagoga”?  

 

Besides this, people are generally unaware of how words from much later periods can appear in the writings of the Sages from centuries ago.  Our tradition contains many secrets about future times.  HaRav Yonatan Dawid sent me an incredible source from HaRav Abarbanel (500 years ago), quoted by haRav Elbaz:

 

According to the words of R’ Don Yitzchak Abarbanel, in the future there will be something that will want to harm the world, which the Abarbanel refers to as “אטומתא” (atomta), and this is the flame of black fire which will hang in the sky.

 

The Abarbanel apparently learns this from the Zohar:

 

In the year sixty-six the Messiah will appear in the land of Galilee. A star in the east will swallow seven stars in the north, and a flame of black fire will hang in the heaven for sixty days, and there shall be wars towards the north in which two kings shall perish. Then all the nations shall combine together against the daughter of Yaakov in order to drive her from the world. It is of that time that it is written: “And it is a time of trouble unto Yaakov, but out of it he shall be saved” (Jeremiah 30:7).  (Zohar, Wayyera 119a)

 

Should scholars 700 years from now assume the Abarbanel’s writings were written in our 58^th century, the era of the atom bomb?  Now I haven’t personally seen this in the Abarbanel, and it should be investigated before believed, but if it’s there (and I assume it is), that puts the “esnoga” issue (which is perilously close to the Greek “synagoga”, which goes back 2,000 years) in a different light.

 

Loyal students of RaMBaM who champion the Ya`avetz’s perspective on forgeries of old books don’t realize how they shoot themselves in the foot:  Rav Emden “maintained that The Guide to the Perplexed could not have been written by Maimonides, as he could not imagine that a pious Jew would write a work accepting and promoting what Emden saw as a non-Jewish theology.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Emden  The chief work that de-legitimizes the Zohar de-legitimizes the Guide for the Perplexed as well.

 

A key, bottom-line question is, what drove the brilliant Ya`avetz to attack the Zohar?  A very similar and noble drive that has pushed the Yemenite “Dor Da`im” in the direction they took:  A century ago, in the time of Mori YiHia QafiH (grandfather of Mori Yusuph QafiH), there were those who worshipped a stellar constellation as HaShem Himself.  They based their idiocy on a verse in the Zohar.  Similarly, Rav Emden was an ardent and vocal opponent of the followers of Shabbethai Tzvi.  Fittingly, he wanted to prove that the work on which the fake-Messiah based his doctrines, was false. 

 

We can find the same problem with Talmud:  It is no less than an esoteric teaching in tractate Sanhedrin on which Chabad messianics “prove” that the Messiah can be a resurrected soul from the dead.  The existence of such colorful, strange, and sealed lines in the Talmud, does not bring erudite Torah scholars to dismiss the authenticity and importance of Talmud.  However, it did drive RaMBaM to author a simpler work that he hoped would replace it.  (RaMBaM, Epistle to his student, Rav Yoseph Ben Yehudah)     

 

In fact, how many false doctrines are based on the Tanakh, using and abusing the words of prophets, lehavdil, which were truly composed for the masses to study? 

 

It is written in Talmud that Menashe, king of Y:hudah had Yisha`yahu the prophet tried by the Sanhedrin as a false prophet, because he wrote, (Yisha`yahu 6:1):

 

 

Likewise, Daniel describes HaShem (7:9) as follows:

 

 

How many simpletons have stumbled over such verses and fell through the ages.  Yet we do not turn around and claim these prophets were false, or that the prophecies in their books are not really theirs, HaShem forbid.  Rather, we understand that these verses are allegorical, and not to be understood according to the simple meaning.  Now if this is true regarding the Prophets, whose writings were meant for every Jew to study, and destined to be translated into the 70 languages of the world, how much more so the ‘Torah she-be-Sod’, which was forbidden to be written down in the first place, but taught only to one’s choice student through hints and chapter headings?! 

 

The Talmud Bavli in Hagigah 15a might itself be teaching the folly of attempting to view the most sublime inner secrets of the Torah according to principles of logic.  It is the well-known story of the the four Tannaim who entered “PaRDeS” (the root of the word “paradise”).  They did so through the highest and most powerful and dangerous meditation.  “PaRDeS” is an acronym for the four levels of Torah understanding: “P`sha`t” (simple meaning), “Remez” (hints) and “D‘rash” (derived meaning), and “Sod”.  It is understood (I cannot recall the source) that each of the four represents a different gate that each entered—four different levels of understanding.  Of the four, Ben Azzai died, Ben Zoma went insane (“nifga`”) and Elisha ben Avuyah (“AHer”) became an apostate.  The only Tanna who entered and left in peace was rabi `Aqivah, who entered through the path of ”Sod.”  Considering what we know about the mystical genius of Rabi `Aqivah (who derived halakhah from the crowns of the letters), this interpretation is solid. 

 

Now here’s the point:  If the high and pristine Torah knowledge the first three had mastered could not have prepared them for what they would perceive through the eyes of the naked soul in the supernal realms, who is anyone today to assume the ability to judge the authenticity of highly esoteric verses that are only intended for the most mature scholars, who had already mastered the entire Written and Oral Torah–on the basis of halakhic codes that were written for everyone,  including women and children?  For this reason, it is written in the introduction of “`ES haHayyim”, the teachings of the Ar”i z”l, that the Zohar can only be studied after mastering Shas (Talmud) and Posqim (halakhah).  Ashkenazi schools put up further fences: only a married man with children, and after the age of forty.

 

I am not claiming to know for a fact whether or not the Zohar is an authentic tradition directly from Rabi Shim’on ben YoHai.  There is a middle position taken by Moshe Idel.  I hear that he recognizes the multi-layered nature of the text before us today, but demonstrates that it is based around a core from the era of the Tannaim.  After all, the tradition is that Zohar is an oral tradition that was written down much later, based on an oral tradition—and oral traditions are organic.  I continue to learn and question honestly, to the degree I am able. 

 

One thing has become clear to me: mocking the Zohar based on shallow arguments is an ignorant thing to do.  Consider another example of illogic used to “prove” the forgery of the Zohar:  The Jewish encyclopedia (see the web source above) claims:

 

“To determine the country in which the work originated and the time at which its teachings began to develop, it is necessary to ascertain where and when the Jews became intimately acquainted with the Hindu philosophy, which more than any other exercised an influence on the Zohar. As an instance of Hindu teachings in the Zohar may be quoted the following passage:  (Zohar, iii. 9b).

 

“In the book of Hamnuna the Elder we learn through some extended explanations that the earth turns upon itself in the form of a circle; that some are on top, the others below; that all creatures change in aspect, following the manner of each place, but keeping in the same position. But there are some countries on the earth which are lighted while others are in darkness; and there are countries in which there is constantly day or in which at least the night continues only some instants. . . . These secrets were made known to the men of the secret science, but not to the geographers”

 

In other words, if Jews had knowledge that only Hindus are known to have had at the time, then the Jews—who never really knew much anyway—must have got it from the Hindus…!  Clearly the “expert” here who wrote this did not consider that the earth as a sphere on which its tiny inhabitants dwell is mentioned in Yisha`yahu 40:

 

 

The first recognized references to a spherical earth are the works of Pythagoras (who was familiar with Jewish wisdom) and Aryabhata (India), both of whom lived two centuries after Isaiah.  Does that make the Book of Isaiah a forgery from later times because the Greeks and Indians are supposed to have known this fact first?  In fact the scientific wisdom of the peoples of the East likely originated in none other than our own ancestor, Avraham (see Rashi on Genesis 25:4-5). 

 

I wonder where the above-mentioned “expert” from the Jewish Encyclopedia would assume the author of the Zohar learned the date the Jewish People would be returning to EreS Yisra’el—(5)708  (1948).  In parashath Behar (Wayiqra 25:10), the word “tashuvu” appears “Haser wow” (lacking a letter “vav”).  The Zohar derives from this, that “tashuvu” (tow–400, shin–300, veth–2, wow–6… = 708) will be the year that the Jewish People would be returned to their ancestral heritage.  Perhaps scholars 700 years from now might suggest the book was written in the last century!

 

 

ZOHAR IN THE PROPER PERSPECTIVE

 

What cannot be emphasized enough is that belief in the Zohar’s authenticity has no practical halakhic implications whatsoever.  The legal traditions that hail from the last Great Courts of the Sanhedrin in Tiberius and the Amoraim in Babylon, codified succinctly in the Mishneh Torah of Maimonidies are the law, regardless of whatever divergent opinions the historical Ribbi Shim`on ben YoHai may have had.     Consider the humility of the great Tanna in an incredible source, found in the Talmud Yerushalmi (Berakhoth 6b):  (1)

 

ר’ שמעון בן יוחי עבד עובדא בשמיטתא חמא חד מלקט ספיחי שביעית אמר ליה ולית אסור ולאו ספיחין אינון אמרו ליה ולא את הוא שאת מתיר אמר ליה ואין חבירי חולקין עלי וקרי עלוי (קוהלת י) ופורץ גדר ישכנו נחש וכן הות ליה. 

  

Rabbi Shimon ben YoHai proved a point about Shemittah. One came to pick sephiHin [produce that grows of its own during the Shemittah year--not planted. He had previously ruled it to be permitted to pick these during Shemittah, but the Sanhedrin overruled his opinion].

 

He [the sage] said, “isn’t it forbidden [what you are doing]?  And aren’t those sephiHin?”

 

“Yes, but aren’t you [the one] who permits it?!”

 

“Yes, [the rabbi answered] but didn’t my colleagues disagree with me [and overrule my opinion]?!“  And he recited over him [the verse from Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes 10], ‘he who breaks a fence [of the rabbis], a snake will bite him.’ And so it happened. [HaShem fulfilled the word of the Sadiq, and a snake bit the man.]”

 

This source is so precious because it proves that Ribbi Shim’on ben YoHai, no matter what he taught and wrote, subjugated himself to the majority opinion of the Sanhedrin.  He may have privately held opinions that veered far from the view his colleagues. But he NEVER would have agreed to future generations relying on his words against the accepted halakhah as it was codified.   Were he alive today, I have little doubt he would have us following the Mishneh Torah of RaMBaM as practical halakhah.  And that requires that we master “the small thing”—the entire halakhah in order to fulfill it—before moving on to “the great thing”—the mysteries of the Creation and the Divine Chariot.

 

That being the case, I sincerely doubt he would have written those mysteries down, contrary to Sanhedrin legislation.  The Sages instituted great limitations on who could be taught the mysteries of the Creation and the Divine Chariot and how much.  These teachings were and remain utterly forbidden to be written down until today.  Fittingly, what is written in Zohar bothers some Godfearing scholars much less that the fact it was written down in a book for the masses to study and understand however they will… 

 

This issue is hinted at in one particular teaching from the Torah of Moshe Rabbenu that has been a guiding light in my own relationship with HaShem: 

 

In the book of Devarim (29), Moshe teaches prophetically of what will be the reaction of non-Jews when they visit the Land—which have will long been left desolate after the people would be exiled from the Land due to their sins.  The non-Jews will be astonished at its desolation, and will be moved to ask:

 

 

It will be understood by the straight horse-sense of a non-Jew that the Israelites had abandoned the covenant (the actual laws and statutes of HaShem) for foreign gods, which we know to mean a foreign style of worship, and foreign values and teachings.  Now what is the final, bottom-line moral lesson that Moshe drives home at the end of this—which must be learned from the future failure of the nation (which, from our vantage point today is our past)?

 

HaShem demands that, after all is said and done, that his laws be fulfilled with goodness of heart.  That is the eternal, authentic Torah message of the prophets which repeats itself continually in Tana”kh (Bible).  Over-emphasis on serving the Divine through the study of holy, esoteric secrets – while minimizing the role of law, legislated ethics and pure goodness of heart – is the very opposite of that approach.  Today it is kabbalistic secrets, while in yesteryear it was beliefs such as in fasting as a magical ritual that automatically catalyzes HaShem’s forgiveness and blessing.  Or the belief in the Temple Service as a magical-ritual that guaranteed HaShem’s protection and blessing.  No matter how great their sins, they were—after all—tending the one and only Temple to HaShem: surely HaShem would not destroy His own Temple!  Both prophets railed against such thinking.   To those who fasted as an end in and of itself, Isaiah railed:

 

 

Now we can understand how concentrating on the revealed Will of HaShem—the Commandments of the Written Law according to their authentic codification in Oral Law—is the rectification of our serving our foreign worship.

 

In other words, it is not an issue of how authentic the Zohar is, versus another ancient aggadic work; but an issue of priority.  Is encouraging the masses of Jewish People to delve into these secrets the answer to our nation’s woes… masses who have no solid grounding in the law? 

 

Today mystically-minded Jews search for the ultimate “tiqun” (reparation) for their souls.  What they too often fail to discover is that, in the broadest sense, the “tiqun” of our nation after our being exiled from our land, is to leave the secret things to HaShem, and concentrate on the revealed matters—the Written and Oral Torah teachings that have belonged to us forever—that we may actually fulfill all the words of HaShem’s Law.

 

When this will finally be understood by the masses who yearn for spiritual, mystical teachings, I believe the Name of HaShem will cease to be profaned, and—as Isaiah promised–our light as a nation of priests will shine (“Zoher”) brilliantly.  Moreover, the Temple will be rebuilt, the Shekhinah (the palpable, awesome Presence of HaShem) will return to the Land, and the world will enjoy a spiritual ecstasy it has never known.

 

 

Shabboth Shalom and a Hagh PesaH kasher wa-sameyaH,

 

Michael Shelomo Bar-Ron, Beith Midrash Ohel Moshe

 

________________________

 

(Based on O’M 23: “Searching for the Truth about Zohar” from the original Ohel Moshe series, 5767)

 

(1)  Quotes from Bible and the quote from Talmud Yerushalmi were copied from the manuscript editions found at the ‘Mechon Mamre’ website, www.mechon-mamre.org.  The English translation is original, but close to the electronic text (c) by Larry Nelson.

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 2:39 am and is filed under Authentic Halakhah (law) & Minhagh (custom), Mussar (Ethical Life Teachings), Torath haNistar (Hidden Torah Secrets). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.