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Article: The Book of Splendor.(The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, vol. 1)(Book review)
- Article from:
- First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life
- Article date:
- November 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Institute on Religion and Public Life. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE ZOHAR: PRITZKER EDITION, VOL. 1 translated by DANIEL C. MATT Stanford University Press, 584 pages, $49.95
DANIEL MATT'S LANDMARK translation of the Zohar from the original tongues into English is a tour de force of scholarship and linguistic imagination--in the service of heaven. It is also the necessary step to bring into plain view a text whose meanings have been hidden even from those equipped to sound out the words.
Sefer ha-Zohar--variously known as the Zohar, the Book of Radiance, or the Book of Splendor--is the central text of Jewish Kabbalah. Written by Moses de Leon (1250-1305), a Castilian Jew and member of a circle of Spanish kabbalists, ...