Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press

generally viewed through the Lurianic prism. Only as Enlightenment ideas
was
to spread in the early twentieth century, partly through the arrival of
began
Jews in the Colonial era, did the authority of the Zohar come into
European
question.
writings of Scholem, Tishby, and the scholars following in their wake
The
done much to make the Zohar intelligible to moderns and to renew
have
in its study. Tishby's Wisdom of the Zohar, translatingselected passages
interest
Aramaic into Hebrew, was a highly successful attempt to make the Zohar
from
accessible to an educated Israeli readership. The interest aroused among
more
of religion by Scholem's highly readable and insightful essays, espe-
scholars
those ®rst presented at the Eranos conferences, served to kindle great
cially
in Kabbalah within the broader scholarly community. This interest is
interest
today thanks to the profound and sometimes provocative studies of
maintained
Liebes and Elliot Wolfson. The important writings of Moshe Idel
Yehuda
to bringKabbalah to the attention of the scholarly and intellectual
continue
The availability of English and other translations, including the selec-
world.
in Tishby and anthologies by both Scholem and Matt, have also served
tions
Zohar well in creatingreaderships outside of Israel. In more recent dec-
the
this intellectual interest in Kabbalah has spread to wider circles, including
ades,
who are concerned with questions of symbolism, philosophy of lan-
many
and related issues.
guage,
the same time, two other seemingly unrelated phenomena have come
At
to greatly increase the interest in Zohar studies at the turn of the
together
century. One is the broad interest throughout the Western world
twenty-®rst
works of mysticism and ``spirituality.'' Our age has seen a great turn toward
in
of wisdom neglected by two centuries of modernity, partly in hope of
sources
them a truth that will serve as a source of guidance for the dif®cult
®ndingin
complex times in which we live. Recently, an interest in the Zohar and
and
has emerged as part of this trend. As is true of all the other wisdoms
Kabbalah
in the course of this broad cultural phenomenon, the interest in
examined
includes both serious and trivial or ``faddist'' elements. This revival of
Kabbalah
is a complicated phenomenon within itself, containingexpressions of
Kabbalah
hunger for religious experience and personal growth, alongside the
great
quest for wisdom.
broader
interest has come to be combined with a very different renewal of
This
primarily in Israel, after the 1967 and 1973 wars. It is manifest in the
Kabbalah,
of kabbalistic yeshivot or academies, the publication of many new
growth
of kabbalistic works, and a campaign of public outreach intended to
editions
the teachings of Kabbalah more broadly. This new emphasis on Kabbalah
spread
is partly due to the reassertion of pride in the Sephardic and Mizraḥi
where Kabbalah has an important place. It is also in part related to
heritage,
dif®cult and tryingtimes through which Israel has lived, resultingin both a
the
Introduction
lxxvi
resurgence of messianism and a turn to ``practical Kabbalah''Ða long-standing