Customer Reviews

Studies in the Zohar (Suny Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy)

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The author utilizes several views to analyze the Zohar. This book is probably as good as Scholem's short work on the Zohar. The English translation of the Zohar (or Sepher ha Zohar or Book of Splendor) is 2000 pages long in 5 volumes (by Simon, Sperling, et al). It is only a partial translation as much of it was untranslatable due to symbolism, plays on words, etc. Thus, most modern "commentaries" on the Zohar are less than adequate--most are quite short and simply don't even come close to doing it justice--even when limiting themselves to a few topics of interest. This book is no exception. Furthermore, many modern works are academic exercises without benefit of actual Kabbalistic experiences--meditations, visualizations, etc. Still, the author seems to be respectful of the root text and perhaps I expect too much from modern works. He shows his sensitivity in my favorite quote in his book on page 56: "The inner world of man's imagination took precedence over the external world. The latter owed its very existence to the external projection of thought by means of words."