Customer Reviews

The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volume Four

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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'..")

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!

I rated this book only because Amazon doesn't allow a reviewer to pass on this part of the process. In fact, I have nothing to say about its merits or shortcomings -- except that there are a couple of options that some readers may not know about.

For those who can read Hebrew: Rabbi Yechiel Bar-Lev authored Yedid Nefesh al Ha-Zohar, a fourteen volume Aramaic / Hebrew translation with two levels of commentary and some interesting scholarly digresions in the margins. This series does for the Zohar what Rav Adin Steinsaltz and Artscroll have done for the Talmud.

Another equally fine Aramaic / Hebrew translation with a clear digest of commentaries that "takes you by the hand" through the text is the encyclopedic Matok Me-Dvash authored by the late Rabbi Daniel Frisch of Jerusalem. He also published Matok Me-Dvash on the Tikkunei Zohar (which relies heavily of Chassidic master Rabbi Zvi Hirsch of Munkatch's Be'er Lechai Ro'i).

Both are written by superlative scholars who are bonafide kabbalists rather than academics.