Zohar  – (Hebr., ‘Radiation’), properly Sepher ha Zohar, the fundamental work of Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah); attributed by Kabbalists to Shimon bar Yohai, a learned Tannaim from the 2nd century; the major part of the Z. was probably written by Moses de León (1240–1305), a Kabbalist from Spain, whilst the latest, anonymous texts date back to the early 14th century; it was first published in print in Italy in 1558. Sepher ha Zohar is a collection of 5 works: the first 3 are The Book of Zohar to the Torah, the fourth contains Supplements to the Zohar, the fifth — New Zohar; together with the supplementary literature, it comprises 24 parts; most of the texts were written in the Aramaic language; the most extensive text (Aramaic-Hebrew) is a mystic commentary to the Hebrew Bible (Midrash ha-Neelam ‘Mystic Midrash’) in a form of discussion of Shimon bar Yohai and his fellow sages. The main subject of the work are Sephiros (Hebrew: sephirot), that is, mystic attributes of God, all presented as the Tree of Life with 10 branches, which is like a “living organism” rooted in Ein Sof (The Infinite — transcendent God of the mystics). The work had a great impact on the Jewish philosophy and science; Polish selection: Opowieści Zoharu [The Stories of Zohar] (1994).

The content of this entry has been prepared on the basis of the source materials provided by the Polish Scientific Publishers (PWN)