Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press

the past, lackingin true faith. This message was delivered regularly in
to
writings, in sermons that Jews were forced to hear, and in casual
polemical
between Jews and Christians. We should remember that Jews in
encounters
spoke the same language as their neighbors and lived with them in the
Spain
towns and cities. Their degree of isolation from their surroundings was
same
less than that of later Jews in eastern Europe, the lens through
signi®cantly
all Jewish diaspora experience is often mistakenly viewed in our time.
which
this context, the Zohar may be viewed as a grand defense of Judaism, a
In
demonstration of the truth and superiority of Jewish faith. Its authors
poetic
a great deal about Christianity, mostly from observing it at close hand
knew
also from readingcertain Christian works, includingthe New Testament,
but
Dominicans and other eager seekers of converts were only too happy to
which
in the hands of literate and inquisitive Jews. The kabbalists' attitude
place
the religion of their Christian neighbors is a complex one, and it also
toward
come down to us through a veil of self-censorship. Jews writing in medieval
has
Europe, especially those promulgating innovative religious teachings that
controversial even within the Jewish community, must have been well
were
that their works would be read by Christian censors (often themselves
aware
apostates) who would make them pay dearly for outright insults to the
Jewish
faith.
Christian
Zohar is ®lled with disdain and sometimes even outright hatred for the
The
world. Continuingin the old midrashic tradition of repaintingthe
gentile
shadings of biblical narrative in moralistic black and white, the Zohar
subtle
endless heaps of wrath and malediction on Israel's enemies. In the
pours
of biblical commentary these are always such ancient ®gures as Esau,
context
Amalek, Balaam, and the mixed multitude of runaway slaves who left
Pharaoh,
with Israel, a group treated by the Zohar with special venom. All of
Egypt
were rather safe objects for attack, but it does not take much imagination
these
realize that the true address of this resentment was the oppressor in whose
to
the authors lived. This becomes signi®cantly clearer when we consider
midst
Zohar's comments on the religion of these ancient enemies. They are
the
repeatedly as worshipers of the demonic and practitioners of black
castigated
enemies of divine unity and therefore dangerous disturbers of the
magic,
balance by which the world survives. Israel, and especially the kabba-
cosmic
``companions'' who understand this situation, must do all they can to right
listic
balance and save the Shekhinah from those dark forces and their vast
the
of accursed supporters on earth. As Moses had fought off the evil
network
of BalaamÐdarkest of all magiciansÐin his day, so must the disciples of
spells
Shim'on ®ght those evil forces that stand opposed to the dawning of the
Rabbi
light that is soon to come.
messianic
of this is said, of course, without a single negative word about Christianity.
All
But Rabbi Shim'on and his second-century companions lived in a time
Introduction
lv
when the enemies of biblical Israel had longdisappeared from the earth.