Zohar: Reception and Impact

Boaz Huss is Professor of Kabbalah in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His research interests include the Zohar and its reception, modern kabbalah, Western esotericism, and New Age culture. Professor Huss received his Ph.D. in the history of Jewish thought from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, after which he was a Fulbright post-doctoral fellow at Yale University. He has also been a Starr fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University and a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University. He is the author of two books on Jewish mysticism and kabbalah in Hebrew and editor of the English-language Kabbalah and Contemporary Spiritual Revival.

• Note on TransliterationIntroduction1 The Depiction of R. Simon bar Yohai and Moses in Zoharic Literature 2 The Formulation of the Idea of the Book of the Zohar3 The Formation of the Zoharic Canon4 The Authority of the Book of the Zohar5 On the History of the Interpretation of the Zohar6 Revelation and Concealment in the History of the Reception of the Zohar7 The History of the Criticism of The Book of the Zohar8 The Re-canonization of the Zohar in the Modern Era BibliographyIndex

Reviews‘Painstakingly tracks the history of attitudes towards the Zohar and the types of arguments used for and against its acceptance . . . very readable. Highly recommended.'Daniel Schiede, AJL Reviews'Insightfully argues that the different values posited on the Zohar . . . often reveal much about the theological agendas and the spirit of the age in which these commentators lived. Huss brilliantly addresses not only the text of the Zohar but also the different communities of its disseminators along with their politics and ideological agendas . . . a tour de force, representing some of today's best scholarship. It is recommended for all academic libraries without reservation, but lay readers will also enjoy the thoughtful content.'D.B. Levy, ChoiceFROM REVIEWS OF THE HEBREW EDITION‘Knowing the history of the Zohar and its reception, one can better understand the spiritual and political worlds of Judaism as they have evolved over the past 700 years . . . Huss’s detailed descriptions and his impressive expertise make this a comprehensive account of mysticism as a cultural and economic phenomenon.’Mor Altshuler, Haaretz