The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume Four [Hardcover]

Daniel Matt (Translator)

Book Description

Series: The Zohar: Pritzker Edition | Publication Date: September 28, 2007

Sefer ha-Zohar (The Book of Radiance) has amazed and overwhelmed readers ever since it emerged mysteriously in medieval Spain toward the end of the thirteenth century. Written in a unique, lyrical Aramaic, this masterpiece of Kabbalah exceeds the dimensions of a normal book; it is virtually a body of literature, comprising over twenty discrete sections. The bulk of the Zohar consists of a running commentary on the Torah, from Genesis through Deuteronomy.

This fourth volume of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition covers the first half of Exodus. Here we find mystical explorations of Pharaoh’s enslavement of the Israelites, the birth of Moses, the deliverance from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the Revelation at Mount Sinai. Throughout, the Zohar probes the biblical text and seeks deeper meaning—for example, the nature of evil and its relation to the divine realm, the romance of Moses and Shekhinah, and the inner meaning of the Ten Commandments. In the context of the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea, Rabbi Shim’on reveals the mysterious Name of 72, a complex divine name consisting of 216 letters (72 triads), formed out of three verses in Exodus 14.

These mystical interpretations are interwoven with tales of the Companions—rabbis wandering through the hills of Galilee, sharing their insights, coming upon wisdom in the most astonishing ways from a colorful cast of characters they meet on the road.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A monumental contribution to the history of Jewish thought."
—Koret Jewish Book Award, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volumes I and II

"Daniel C. Matt is giving us what I hardly thought possible: a superbly fashioned translation and commentary that opens up the Zohar to the English-speaking world The lucidity and overwhelming relevance of Matt's Zohar will provide both common and uncommon readers with access to a work capable of changing the consciousness of those who enter it."—Harold Bloom, Max Sterling Professor of Humanities, Yale University

"Daniel Matt's work is superior to any other available translation of the Zohar because of its superb poetic language, the exegetical contribution of its copious notes, and its superior underlying Aramaic text, which was specially prepared by Dr. Matt from numerous original Zohar manuscripts and serves as the basis for his translation. Both the general English reader and scholars in the field of religious studies will benefit tremendously from this new series of volumes." —Moshe Idel, Max Cooper Professor of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

About the Author

Daniel C. Matt is a leading authority on Jewish mysticism. For over twenty years, he served as Professor of Jewish Spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He has also taught at Stanford University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published ten books, including The Essential Kabbalah; Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment; Zohar: Annotated and Explained; and God and the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony between Science and Spirituality. Matt is also the translator of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume One, winner of the National Jewish Book Award, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume Two, winner, along with Volume One, of the Koret Jewish Book Award, and The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume Three.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press; Pritzker ed edition (September 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804757127
• ISBN-13: 978-0804757126
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.9 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #164,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Bible & Other Sacred Texts > Jewish Texts > Zohar
  • #71 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Bible & Other Sacred Texts > Jewish Texts > Kabbalah

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reply to 2 cents Plain, February 7, 2008

By 

Miha Ahronovitz "myinnervoice" (Rocklin, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume Four (Hardcover)

I have every single volume of the Pritzkin edition of the Zohar. It is the most extraordinary book, the product of the total dedication of Daniel Matt. It is clear, superbly researched and documented and commented. It is in English, published by the top scholars in Judaism and Kabbalah worldwide. The original Aramaic text is on line at Stanford University Press

2 Cents Plain moans: this is a Zohar text? He recommends the original Hebrew or Aramaic books I can not read. I can not argue, as I don't speak Hebrew well enough and I hardly understands two words of Aramaic.

Also he does not make any comment of the volume 4 itself. The Zohar, Pritzkin edition is destined to become a classical jewel in the history of book publishing. A landmark that opened up the gates of understanding and appreciation to millions of educated people worldwide.

And as I am Jewish, this monumental book made my faith stronger through humility and pride, at the same time.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I continue to marvel, May 14, 2008

By 

Manuel C. Hernandez "fromthewoods" (Deer River, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume Four (Hardcover)

With this fourth volume, we come into the book of Exodus. I continue to marvel at the way Daniel Matt has opened this text. The extensive footnotes, and exegesis is something that opens the text in a way I have not seen in other 'classic' translations. I am not a Jew, as I have stated before, however I am a student of these writings. The words take on a new life and I get to stand in the company of the travelling companions and 'hear' them as they discourse and unravel thought and logic and their 'understandings'. Of course it is all allegory and a mythical journey, but the words are real. The heart of the text is beating and it beats loudly of a life of learning and interplay in a language we who do not speak it, can only rely upon the translator(s) to bring to our understanding and mind,.. Daniel Matt has done this for me. I remember as a student of classical Greek (which as a course I failed miserably!!!) reading the Loeb Classical edition of the text and translation of Xenophon's Anabasis... As I hunted and pecked through the Greek text, the translation brought to me a world beyond the keen of my mind's realization of the world the 3rd century BCE... a history according to the memoirs of a Greek commander some many years after the fact... So Daniel Matt has brought to light the world of medieval Spain and the Jewish literature of that time. However there are added nuances of the thought and reason that had otherwise escaped me, and now became suddenly so clear! As do the teachings
that lay in between the images and multi-entendre. I hope to be able to continue to marvel and to be able to continue gathering these tomes, and some day pass them on to someone who loves this study as much as I do. (And I must say, "Thank you Daniel, for 'listening'..")

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mammoth task, February 27, 2008

By 

P. Fraylich - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume Four (Hardcover)

As Daniel Matt is taking on this mammoth task - one can only commend him on his commitment to translate the whole of this major work. I shall be looking forward to reading volumes 5 -11!