Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press

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xxvi *********A diagram of the Ten Se®rot*********
Zohar is the great medieval Jewish compendium of mysticism, myth, and The teaching. It may be considered the highest expression of Jewish literary esoteric in the Middle Ages. Surely it is one of the most important bodies imagination religious text of all times and places. It is also a lush garden of sacred eros, of to over¯owingwith luxurious plantings of love between master and ®lled amongthe mystical companions themselves, between the souls of disciples, and ShekhinahÐGod's lovely brideÐbut most of all between the male Israel female elements that together make up the Godhead. Revered and cano- and by generations of faithful devotees, the Zohar's secret universe serves as nized basis of kabbalistic faith, both within the boundaries of Judaism and be- the it, down to our own day, which has seen a signi®cant revival of interest yond Kabbalah and its teachings. in Zohar is a work of sacred fantasy. To say this about it is by no means The impugn the truth of its insights or the religious profundity of its teachings. to Middle Ages are ®lled with fantasy. Angels and demons, heavenly principalities, The chambers of heaven and rungs within the soul, secret treasures of the that could be seen only by the elect, esoteric domains without endÐall spirit these were to be found in the writings of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic of throughout medieval times. All of them partake of fantasy. It may be authors that all theological elaborations, insofar as they are allowed to become pic- said are fantasy. They depict realities that have not been seen except by the torial, eye of those who describe them, or by their sacred sources. inner the case of Judaism, prohibitions derived from the second of the Ten In forbade the depiction of such sacred realms in any medium Commandments than that of words. Perhaps because of this, the literary imagination other extraordinarily rich. All those creative energies that might in other became have sought to reify sacred myth in painting, sculpture, manuscript contexts or stained glass here had to focus on the wordÐespecially on the illumination, Introduction arthur green I xxvii timeless Jewish project of commentary and exegesis. In this sense the Zohar
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Page 23 and 24: yearlongprogram ended in June 1999,
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Page 29 and 30: of the nuances of Hebrew and Aramai
Page 31 and 32: in the settingof the rabbinic world
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Page 35 and 36: is to discover the mysterious. The
Page 37 and 38: The Franco-Rhenish tradition also h
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Page 51 and 52: of the Zohar's teachings was indeed
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Page 65 and 66: is this exile that the kabbalists a
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Page 71 and 72: in readingthe text is that of maste
Page 73 and 74: who probably immigrated to Safed fr
Page 75 and 76: of rebellingagainst Talmudic author
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of Near Eastern JudaismÐas a sourc
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