Customer Reviews

The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Vol. 1

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I've also got the Soncino edition as well as the Kabbalah Centre translation of Zohar and I must say this one is certainly the best. Daniel Matt provides an excellent set of footnotes which elucidate why he made the translation decisions he did for particular words and phrases in addition to giving a lot of background material from other Jewish texts. The Zohar is a particularly difficult text to translate due to the idiosyncratic nature of the pseudo-Aramaic it is written in in addition to the very abstract nature of the material covered. Having alternate readings of various passages available at one's fingertips is indispensible for those of us not qualified to read the text in its original language. While reading other translations, especially the Kabbalah Centre one, it was pretty obvious that the text's meaning was oversimplified and there was no way to avoid the translator's personal biases short of going back to the Aramaic text. The Soncino edition is similarly limited because it is only a translation of a small portion of the text. The only drawback to this particular edition is that the Aramaic text is not included, so one cannot simply look up the original phrases without resorting to an outside resource. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend this book for academics, mystics, or anyone who cares deeply about the meaning the author(s) of the Zohar were trying to convey. I'm looking forward to purchasing the additional volumes as they are released!

Professor Matt has given the Sefer ha-Zohar the translation students have longed for for generations. It is scholarly but literarily skillful. Most importantly, Matt's version is not overly interpretive. He knows how to put interpretive notes in the footnotes, not in the translation itself -- there are over 2400 footnotes in volume one! This allows the text to retain more of its original character and meaning. Some "translations" are so thick with the interpreter's beliefs that they are nearly useless.

It's also important to note that this is the first translation of the Zohar based on a modern critical text. That means the Aramaic original used to translate from has been carefully compared and emended from old manuscript copies. While this Aramaic text is not reproduced in the book, it is available for free from the publisher, Stanford University Press. I printed it out, put it in a binder and shelve it next to the translation. The best of both worlds.

This tremendous work of scholarship will certainly be the standard translation of the Zohar for our generation.

The Zohar - Pritzker Edition (Vols. I and II so far) is a worthy addition to the ever expanding library of traditonal Jewish literature in English.

First, the translation. While I am disappointed that the Aramaic text in not integrated into the volumes (it's available online), this new translation is fresh, adventuresome and witty. It strives, and often succeeds, in capturing the playful language of the original text. Just as important, it is forthright in revealing the frankly erotic flavor of Moses Deleon's vision of the divine dynamis.

Then there is Daniel Matt's commentary, which is remarkable on several counts. First, it is an amazing compendium of the traditional sources that inspired the Zohar. Virtually the entire scope of Biblical, rabbinic, and mystical traditions that DeLeon drew upon in writing the Zohar is obsessively documented in the notes. It is a fantastic treasure trove of Jewish mythic and mystical teachings. These citations alone make the commentary worth reading through carefully. Second, while Matt does an outstanding job of clarifying the meaning of the extraordinarily cryptic language, it is nice to see that he is modest enough to acknowledge in some places that his interpretations are tentative and - in a few places - that he too cannot really get the sense of what DeLeon was trying to say.

My only criticism of the commentary is the frequent repetition of information already given earlier. In many places as one goes deeper into the volumes, the same entry is simply replicated. I realize this is the result of two things: First, the Zohar itself tends toward obsessive repetition of key ideas and images. Second, I assume Matt repeats some commentary entries on the assumption that readers will pick up and study discrete sections, rather than read the volume through, cover to cover. Still, given the amount of spece devoted to repeating the same information over and over again, the consistent use of simple references, like "see note 654 on page 245," would probably shave the number of volumes that eventually need to be published by 20%. Presumably, it would also mean Matt could return to a normal academic life a couple of year earlier, since I understand he has given himself over entirely to this publishing venture for the next decade.

That criticism aside, this is a fine piece of work, and I am looking forward to the future ten (10!)volumes.

Professor Daniel Matt's Zohar translation provides the best scholarly interpretation. This is because of his objectivity and scholarly approach. Not being a Kabbalist he approaches the translation without "loading" the Zohar with his own interpretation. He provides the optimal and most probable translation. The reader needs to understand that this is very different from the Kabbalah Centre's translation. Why? Well if you are looking for the best technical translation Professor Matt provides this. His footnotes, which explain the derivation of the English translation by providing the Aramaic word, the Bible source, and it's possible meanings gives the reader an indepth understanding of the difficulty of the language and its potential understandings. However, this is much more difficult for the beginner who is simply looking for a translator they can trust to give them the basics.

The Kabbalah Centre's is much easier to understand, however, not as accurate in that it has more interpretive opinions and might in parts be slanted towards a creed rather than allow the student to arise to the position. Furthermore, many students from other than Jewish backgrounds wish to "scan" or "meditate" on the Aramaic in the ecstatic Kabbalah tradition. Matt's version does not provide this as it provides only the English. I found this disappointing. On the other hand, the Kabbalah Centre's provides little on the Bible source as it has few footnotes to help the reader.

Conclusion? If you want the easier verson in English then the Kabbalah Centre's is the version to begin your study. If you want a more indepth, scholarly understanding go to this version. If you want to meditate on the Aramaic-- skip the English go to the source document or use the Kabbalah Centre's for that purpose. You will eventually end up at Professor Matt's version for depth is where Kabbalah will take you if you let it. You can skim along the river (the Kabbalah Centre's) or you can ride upon the river (meditate on the Aramaic) but finally, you'll want to jump in and swim.

Though Daniel Matt did not include an interlinear text or page-facing translation and commentary text in this translation, it is most worthy of being in any scholars library. Now I am not a Jew, but I can tell the hens from the roosters, and this translation and commentary is most extensive,.. it opens for those who are studying Jewish Mysticism 'from the outside' a jewel box of profound magnitude. In my mind if you seek G-d and wish to understand those that have gone before and may provide keys to that most vast mindset and who can expound the wonders of the Torah text and insights that require deeper seeking than face value reading, by all means start gathering these volumes! The Aramaic text is downloadable in PDF from the Stanford University (provided in the text notes).
There are always detractors who criticize and scowl that 'the secrets are being given to the unworthy'... but we are talking the ways of G-d here, and He has his own ways of bringing those that seek higher learning into His fold... if you have that calling... gather these books to you, they will not disappoint.
Dr. Matt has done his best work to date in these volumes.

The first of three volumes of a projected 12-volume comprehensively annotated English translation by noted world-class scholar Daniel C. Matt and the Stanford University Press. The first cloth volume is 536 pages and covers just the first 16 chapters of Genesis. Matt based in Berkley and Jerusalem has unearthed many of the major surviving manuscripts of the original language. The extensive commentary, appearing at the bottom of each page, clarifies the Kabbalistic symbolism and terminology, and cites sources and parallels from biblical, rabbinic, and Kabbalistic texts. The translator's introduction is accompanied by a second introduction written by Arthur Green, discussing the origin and significance of the Zohar.
This work has justifiably won the Koret Jewish Book Award for Philosophy and Thought, 2003-2004 for both The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, Volumes I and II.

The Zohar ('Splendor, radiance') is accepted as the most important work of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism and is one of the greatest hidden works of Judaism and Western culture. Revered next to the Torah and Talmud, the Zohar is not one book, but a span of awesome, esoteric literature, a Midrash, homily on the Torah written in the form of a mystical novel. In it a group of rabbis (the "Hevrah") wander through the hills of Galilee, discovering and sharing secrets of Torah,(the five books of Moses) whose linguistic character is medieval Aramaic and medieval Hebrew. A dazzling mystical dialectic of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, sin, redemption, good and evil, suffering and related topics

The Zohar assumes four kinds of Biblical exegesis: Peshat ("simple/literal meaning"), Remez ("hint/allusion"), Derash ("interpretative/anagogical), and Sod ("secret/mystic"). The initial letters of these letters (P, R, D, S) form together the word PaRDeS ("Paradise/orchard"), which became the designation for the fourfold meaning of which the mystical sense is the highest part.

The mystic allegory in the Zohar is based on the principle that all visible things, including natural phenomena, have both an exoteric, visible(Niglah) reality and an esoteric, hidden (Nistar) reality, the latter of which instructs Man in that which is invisible.

This principle is the necessary the fundamental doctrine of the Zohar. According to that doctrine, as the universe is a gradation of emanations, it follows that the human mind may recognize in each effect the supreme mark, and thus ascend to the cause of all causes. The Ein Sof, the Endless one.

The Zohar first appeared in Spain in the 13th century, by a Jewish writer named Moses de Leon. De Leon himself ascribed the Zohar to a rabbi of the second century Tannah, Shimon bar Yochai. The Talmud records Rabbi Shimon's true and rash words caused him to hide in a cave for 13 years studying the Torah with his son, Elazar. During this time he was inspired by Elijah the Prophet to write the Zohar. Scarcely fifty years had passed since its appearance in Spain before it was quoted by many Kabbalists, including the Italian mystical writer Menahem Recanati. Its authority was so well established in 15th century Sepharad that Joseph ibn Shem-Tov drew from it arguments in his attacks against Maimonidean rationalism. It is worth noting that most of the major Traditional Halachic authorities accept the Zohar as authentic and/or have written works on the Kabalah. This includes R' Yosef Karo, R' Moses Isserles, R' Solomon Luria, R' Yechiel Michel Epstein, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, The Vilna Gaon and R' Yisrael Meir Kagan.

Yet the arguments of Elijah Delmedigo, in his Bechinat ha-Dat endeavored to show that it could not be attributed to Shimon bar Yochai. His objections were;

1. If the Zohar was the work of Shimon bar Yochai, it would have been mentioned by the Talmud, as has been the case with other works of the Talmudic period and the Zohar contains names of rabbis who lived at a later period than that of Simeon;
2. Were Shimon ben Yochai the father of the Kabbalah, knowing by divine revelation the hidden meaning of the precepts, his decisions on Jewish law would have been adopted by the Talmud earlier but this has not been done;
3.. Were the Kabbalah a revealed doctrine, there would have been no divergence of opinion among the Kabbalists concerning the mystic interpretation of the precepts (Bechinat ha-Dat ed. Vienna, 1833, p. 43).

These arguments and others of the same kind were used by Leon of Modena in his Ari Nohem. A work devoted to the criticism of the Zohar was written, Mi'pa'at Sefarim, by Jacob Emden, who, waging a polemical war against the remaining adherents of the Sabbatai Zevi movement, endeavored to show that the book on which Zevi based his doctrines was a forgery. Emden persausively demonstrates that the Zohar misquotes passages of Scripture; misunderstands the Talmud; contains some ritual observances which were already ordained by later rabbinical authorities; mentions the crusades against the Muslims (who did not exist in the second century); uses the expression esnoga, which is a Portuguese term for "synagogue,"; and gives a mystical explanation of the Hebrew vowel-points, which were not introduced until long after the Talmudic period by the Masoretic Scribes.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz, zl' the noted controversial professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, claimed that "It is clear that the Zohar was written by de Leon as it is clear that Theodore Herzl wrote Medinat HaYehudim ("A State for the Jews")."

Bottom Line. Scholars can argue but Get it. The Zohar is Canonically amazing and you can't buy a better translation and while a legitimate teacher is ideal for serious study, this is an excellent, valid, legitimate start.

I read the other reviews posted here and I agree that Matt's translation of the Zohar is THE translation. I also must say that I missed the Aramaic but heard it is available on Stanford University's website (I have not checked it out). I also heard that Matt won the Koret Jewish Book Award for his work. Well-deserved, I'd say.

I read selections of the Zohar 12 years ago as an undergraduate theology student and was entranced. Since then, I have sought out selections and different translations and not been satisfied with many of them. For the most part, they were aimed at a less scholarly audience and didn't explore the text in as much depth as I would have liked. The Pritzker edition is what I have been searching for. I ordered the first 3 volumes and anticipate it'll take me a few years to really get through them. Even though I am a voracious reader, I have forced myself to take a great deal of care and time reading these books. I'm a month and 86 pages into the first volume and am still finding more and more to contemplate. I highly recommend these books to anyone who is in search of a deeper understanding of the text and a more profound treatment than is widely available.

The 'Zohar'is one of the major Jewish mystical works. I have not really delved much in 'Jewish Mysticism' and am no expert on the subject. But from looking at the Translation and especially the Notes I have that sense that this is a first- class scholarly rendition of the work. The notes enable the reader to better understand what is by its very nature, a problematic, difficult, multiple-meaning text.
This volume is the first in a long enterprise undertaken by Matt in which he hopes to translate and annotate the whole of the 'Zohar'.

My Maggid was not so crazy about recommending reading this one. But having steadfastly worked my way through the Bahir and Sefer Yetzirah, how could I not read the Zohar? Well, I ordered volume I as soon as it became available. The obsessive part of me intends to have all five volumes on a shelf. However, I have still not finished reading it.

The introduction by Arthur Green was outstanding and I loved it. However, when I got to the Zohar itself, things did not go so easily. I have read other books with Zohar excerpts and commentary which were very enjoyable and insightful. But the Zohar did not work for me. I read most of the book but never did finish, even after putting it down for long periods of time. I tried reading the text carefully with the commentary, reading the text and skipping the commentary, reading the text and only reading some of the commentary, all to no avail. I also tried reading the text as commentary to the weekly parsha. Nothing clicked.

I'm going to have to have a teacher before purchasing the other four volumes.