The People and the Books by Adam Kirsch

Author:Adam Kirsch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

THE MAIN BODY of the Zohar takes the form of a verse-by-verse commentary on the Torah, with the bulk of the text dealing with the books of Genesis and Exodus. This is interrupted by a number of separate sections with their own titles, which present dramatic episodes such as the death of Rabbi Simeon, or document visionary journeys among the heavens, or explicate the meaning of the letters in the name of God. What the Zohar does not even attempt to do is systematically expound a set of doctrines or ideas in a way that might be useful for the novice reader. Instead, it rests on a highly developed system of mystical concepts that are not so much explained as taken for granted and expanded on, often in what seems like random order. To open the Zohar and begin reading, then, is to be plunged instantly into a murky ocean of symbols and allusions that is just about impossible to penetrate unaided.

In addition to being a commentary, however, the Zohar is also a dramatic work—Gershom Scholem, the great twentieth-century scholar of Jewish mysticism, described it as a “mystical novel”—whose “plot” is the ongoing discussions of Rabbi Simeon ben Yochai and his disciples. Often their sayings are given with no preface at all, or merely a curt “Rabbi Eleazar commenced his discourse thus,” or “Said Rabbi Yudai.” But in other passages their discourses are set into a narrative framework that emphasizes the intimacy of the mystic companions and their passionate love of Torah. Sometimes, a pair of rabbis will meet a mysterious stranger or a precocious child on their journeys who reveals unexpected secrets to them. Often a speech is concluded by the listeners weeping for joy or prostrating themselves in gratitude: “If we had come into the world only to hear this we should have been content,” the rabbis are wont to exclaim after learning a new Torah secret.

In one section, known as “The Greater Assembly,” three of Rabbi Simeon’s listeners die in ecstasy after hearing him teach, then are carried up to heaven by angels: “Blessed is their portion, for they have ascended in complete perfection,” he pronounces. In another, “The Lesser Assembly,” Simeon himself dies, like Socrates, after a night of teaching his disciples; unlike Socrates, his bier flies into the air and shoots fire. Throughout, Simeon is portrayed as the miracle-worker he is in the Talmud, a unique human being who knows more about God and Torah than anyone else who has ever lived.

The effect of this scene-setting is to heighten the emotional stakes for the reader. Unlike the Talmud, where the discussion of Torah matters is lucid and focused on logical concepts, the Zohar never forgets that it is revealing mystic secrets to a select audience. It offers an almost conspiratorial allure: “Whatever the companions have revealed among themselves is good and proper, but not to the rest of mankind,” Rabbi Simeon says at one point. In another passage, the Zohar uses an erotic image to

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