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in readingthe text is that of masteringthe symbolic language and the
dif®culty
with which it was employed.
subtlety
may also be that the Zohar's composition in Aramaic was not entirely a
It
of conscious choice. Perhaps it was somethingthat ``happened,'' either
matter
the author's psyche or in the community of mystics where Zoharic teachings
in
®rst shared orally. If there was a livingcommunity of kabbalists in
were
in the 1280s, meetingby night in courtyards and gardens to study the
Castile
of the Torah, in what language did they share those secrets with one
secrets
How did the transition take place from discussingthe Hebrew text of
another?
in CastilianÐtheir only spoken languageÐback into Hebrew or Ara-
Torah
for transcription onto the written page? Could it be that the richly
maic,
sound of AramaicÐwhere each noun ends in a vowelÐbetter re¯ected
vocalic
sounds of their own speech than did Hebrew? Were they themselves somehow
the
``seduced'' by the mysterious sound of Aramaic to follow it into the
realm represented by the Zohar?
fantasy
speculations may also be applied to the written text itself, especially if
These
assume that Rabbi Moses de LeoÂn is the author of large portions of the
we
Some twenty Hebrew treatises by De LeoÂn have survived, and several of
Zohar.
have now been published. Compared to the Zohar, they are relatively dull
these
uninspired. While the doctrinal content is very much the same, they pos-
and
little of the poetic muse and freedom of expression that so characterize the
sess
One has the impression that De LeoÂn stepped into another world when
Zohar.
Zohar, and the transition from Hebrew to Aramaic was one of the
writingthe
he marked that portal. Workingin this other, more dimly perceived lan-
ways
released his muse, as it were, giving him the freedom to soar to heights
guage
imagination and literary excess that he would not have dared attempt in
of
We might almost say that the use of Aramaic was some part of ``the
Hebrew.
Name'' by which it was said that De LeoÂn hadwrittentheZohar.
Holy
Aramaic of the Zohar is indeed a unique composite of dialects and features
The
drawn from ancient literary sources. Details of Scholem's analysis of the
language can be found in his writings and need not be repeated here.
Zohar's
also the Translator's Introduction to this volume for further discussion of
See
last two centuries of Jewish life in Spain, the Zohar continued to be
Duringthe
and studied amongsmall groups of devotees. It competed with two
copied
schools of kabbalistic thought, the Catalonian and the Abula®an, for the
other
of those few interested in mystical pursuits. Some kabbalists seem to
attention
combined these various approaches, or else to have ``migrated'' in the
have
of their own quests from one school of mystical thought to another.
course
Introduction
lxxi
linguistic questions that have direct bearing on the translation before you.
X
Jewish rationalism was also very much alive in Spain through the ®fteenth