A Journey into the Zohar

An Introduction to the Book of Radiance

By Nathan Wolski

Subjects: Jewish Religious Studies, Jewish Mysticism, Religion
Paperback : 9781438430546, 280 pages, April 2010
Hardcover : 9781438430539, 280 pages, April 2010

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An introduction to the Zohar, the crowning work of medieval Kabbalah. Includes original translations and analysis.

Description

The crowning work of medieval Kabbalah, the Zohar is unlike any other work in the Jewish canon. Written in Aramaic, the Zohar contains complex mystical exegesis as well as the story of the Companions—a group of sages who wander through second-century Israel discussing the Torah while meeting up with children, donkey drivers, and various types who have spiritual lessons for them. Nathan Wolski offers original translations of episodes involving this mystical fellowship and goes on to provide a sustained reading of each. With particular emphasis on the literary and performative dimensions of the composition, Wolski takes the reader on a journey through the central themes and motifs of the zoharic world: kabbalistic hermeneutics, the structure of divinity, the nature of the soul and above all, the experiential core of the Zohar—the desire to be saturated and intoxicated with the flowing fluids of divinity. A Journey into the Zohar opens the mysterious, wondrous and at times bewildering universe of one of the masterpieces of world mystical literature to a wider community of scholars, students, and general readers alike.

Nathan Wolski is Lecturer in the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University. He is the translator of Melila Hellner-Eshed's A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar.