New-Ancient Words and New-Ancient Worlds: A Review of Daniel Matts Zohar Translation and Arthur Greens A Guide to the

Zohar

Qatpira, qesira, qirta, quspita, qustra --and those are just the qs. These strange words, neologisms actually, are sprinkled throughout the Zohar with an intention to perplex the reader, forcing her to read, and read again, to decipher the texts meaning. In undertaking to translate Sefer ha-Zohar--more an anthology of mystical writings than a book proper--Daniel Matt has assumed a heroic task, one that has met with well-deserved accolades. Matt has the necessary poetic and scholarly talents, using traditional and modern commentaries to render the Zohar into an English that reveres the texts mysteries while aiming to clarify them and render them transparent. Over the centuries, Sefer ha-Zohar, the Book of Splendor, has assumed many statuses: canonical, sacred, forgery, and heresy. Whatever its ultimate origins, origins that remain in dispute in both scholarly and traditional circles more than 700 years after Moshe de Leon began to circulate pamphlets of a mystical text, the book has had a transformative effect upon Judaism. 1 Mainstreaming kabbalah, by adopting the form of a mystical midrash and the structure of a bible commentary, its circle(s) of authors fashioned a text that opened up a genre that had been exclusively elitist -----------------------------------1

On the dating and origins of the Zohar see Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism

(New York: Schocken Books, 1946), 156204; Isaiah Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, trans. David Goldstein, reprint, 1949, The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 3096; Daniel Abrams, When Was the Introduction to the Zohar Written? Variations in the Different Copies of the Introduction in the Mantua Edition, Asufot 8 (1994): 21126; Ronit Meroz, Zoharic Narratives and Their Adaptations, Hispania Judaica Bulletin 3 (2000): 363; Boaz Huss, The Appearance of Sefer Ha-Zohar, Tarbiz . 70, no. 34 (2001): 50742; Daniel Abrams, The Zohar as a Book: On the Assumptions and Expectations of the Kabbalists and Modern Scholarship, Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 12 (2004): 20132.

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2 until the thirteenth century. Kabbalahs popularity, even celebrity, has exploded in the late 20th and early 21st centuries with the hucksterism and mass-marketing of Jewish mysticism by the Kabbalah Center, and the fame of some of its Hollywood luminaries, including Madonna, Demi Moore, Britney Spears, and others. In stark contrast, though part of the same cultural wave of interest in things spiritual, Stanford University Press began in 2004 to make available to the English-speaking world the finest translation of the Zohar into the English language. In addition to scholarly studies, Daniel Matt, a scholar of Jewish mysticism, had published a number of works designed to make kabbalah more accessible. Some of these latter works, served as forshpeis for the comprehensive translation now emerging from his workshop. In this review essay, I intend to evaluate this noteworthy project--Matts translation as well as the companion volume, A Guide to the Zohar by Arthur Green--and to raise the broader question of the possibility of translating a book such as the Zohar. Before proceeding to my analysis, some introductory words regarding the history and nature of the Zohar are needed. In the early 1280s, Rabbi Moshe de Leon, a prolific author of kabbalistic works began to disseminate pamphlets of an esoteric work to friends. Proclaiming them to be selections from a book authored by the enigmatic second-century rabbi Shimon bar Yoh . ai, the pamphlets aroused immediate attention and began to show an influence on the kabbalistic works of other contemporary kabbalists. These pamphlets continued to pour forth until de Leons death in 1305 and within a couple of decades a huge corpus of material began to be assembled under the rubric of Sefer ha-Zohar. A variety of authorship theories swirled around but, whatever controversy lingered, the book was of such spectacular quality, innovation, and seeming authority, that it quickly took on an aura of prestige making it almost unassailable for centuries as the key text of kabbalah study, lore, and myth. The root doctrines within the Zohar were not themselves innovative: a theosophy entailing ten sefirot-- gradations within the divinity; theurgic effects of normative ritual--the ability of rituals to have unitive and restorative effects upon the Godhead; devequt--the aim of the mystical initiate to attain mystical union with individual sefirot; attaining visions of the divinity; angelification, even apotheosis, of the mystical adept through devequt, mystical cleaving to

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3 God. It was the literary quality of the book, outshining all other previous kabbalistic texts that drew attention with its inventiveness over the course of well over a thousand pages, as perhaps the texts most striking feature.2 Through close readings and interweavings of the Bible, Talmud, and Midrash, as well as of historical, medical, halakhic, scientific allusions, the text elicits the deeper, mystical layer that waits to be uncovered. What emerges is a cascade of midrashic interpretations that reinforce the theosophical system of sefirot, and images, stories, and interpretations that aimed to fashion a psychospiritual style of ritual practice and of contemplative engagement with the Torah. The talent of the authorship is such that its writers seduce the biblical text into yielding its treasured and esoteric meanings. Indeed, it is this potent application of the erotics of reading that is most important to the zoharic project. Eroticism and its consort are not only features of the Zohars literary style, but prominent in the its narrative framework, as well. One of the Zohars most frequently cited texts depicts the Torahs lover, a knight of love pursuing a mysterious princess who abides in a tower, beyond view to all except for her most ardent courters. 3 As a reward for the lovers persistence she slowly allows him greater glimpses of her beauty, eventually inviting him to her innermost chambers for the most intimate knowledge of all. The parable is explained as a paradigm for Torah study that will divulge its secrets: through perseverance, even ardor, the Torah can be induced into revealing her inner truths. Indeed, the reader is encouraged to participate in the mystical and interpretive practices and experiences depicted in the Zohar.4 -----------------------------------2

854 folios (1708 pages) in the Margaliot edition. Sefer Ha-Zohar, ed. Reuven Margaliot

(Jerusalem: Mosad ha-Rav Kuk, 1970).

3

Zohar 2:99a-b. See translation in Daniel C. Matt, Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment (New

York: Paulist Press, 1983), 12325; cf. Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 19697.
4

See Melila Hellner-Eshed, A River Issues Forth from Eden: On the Language of Mystical

Experience in the Zohar (Tel Aviv: Am Oved Publishers, 2005). In an earlier study, Elliot Wolfson showed how the hermeneutical act was the mystical technique par excellence. Elliot R. Wolfson, Through a Speculum That Shines: Visionary Experience and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994), 32692; See also Yehuda Liebes, Zohar and

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4 The last point that deserves attention prior to the analysis of the translation is the question of the Zohars language. Gershom Scholems remarks from sixty years ago remain apposite: The Aramaic of the Zohar is a purely artificial affair, a literary language employed by a writer who obviously knew no other Aramaic than that of certain Jewish literary documents, and who fashioned his own style in accordance with finite subjective criteria. Throughout these writings, the spirit of medieval Hebrew, specifically the Hebrew of the thirteenth century, is transparent behind the Aramaic facade. . . . It is true that the style shows a great many variations; it runs all the way from serene beauty to labored tortuousness, from inflated rhetoric to the most paltry simplicity, and from excessive verbosity to laconic and enigmatic brevity, --all depending on the subject and the mood of the author. . . . It remains to be added that the author's vocabulary is extremely limited, so that one never escapes a feeling of surprise at his ability to express so much with the aid of so little. . . . As in the case of every artificial language, a characteristic note is introduced by misunderstandings and grammatical misconstructions. Thus the author in many cases confuses the verb-stems of Kal with those of Pael and Aphel and vice versa. He employs entirely wrong forms of Ethpael, and gives a transitive meaning to verbs in Ethpael. He mixes up finite verb-forms, chiefly in the many cases where the endings of the participle are tacked on the perfect (check); and his use of prepositions and conjunctions is often quite preposterous.5 The first problem that Daniel Matt encountered in laying the groundwork for the project was simply determining the text. As noted already, the zoharic text grew through accretions over the centuries such that the printed text used most commonly today, based on the Vilna edition which in turn is based on the Mantua printing in 1558-60, is hardly pristine. Moreover, Matt explains, he discerned signs within the manuscripts of an editorial process: revision, reformulation, and emendation (xvi), concluding that there was an earlier recension which undergoes reworking. His intent, then, has been to provide a newly

Eros, Alpayim--A Multidisciplinary Publication for Contemporary Thought and Literature 9 (1994): 67119.
5

Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, 16061.

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5 constructed, precise text of the Zohar based on original manuscripts (xv). Conceding that he is not restoring the original text of the Zohar, he is trying to remove . . . accumulated layers of revision, thereby restoring a more original text . . . to recover the Zohars primal texture and cryptic flavor (xviii). By original he means in both senses: older and [more] creative (xviii). As a further service, Stanford University Press has made available online the Aramaic text upon which the author bases his translation at www.sup.org/zohar. Given that the text that Matt is translating has never existed before some might feel queasy at his claim that this is closer to a more original text with some of its primal texture and cryptic flavor recovered (xviii).6 Declaring his aims regarding translation style, Matt says: Though I wish to make the Zohar accessible, I also want to convey its strangeness, potency, and rich ambiguity. . . . My style of translation is literal yet poetic. I am convinced that a literal rendering of the Zohar is not only the most accurate but also the most colorful and zestful--the best way to transmit the lyrical energy of the Aramaic (xix-xx). At times, he notes, that the Zohar invites creative expression in translation. Thus, when Rabbi Shimon bar Yoh . ai, the central figure of the zoharic narrative and its putative author, describes the nighttime journey of the soul he says, !"# $%& '()(*+ '()%", (-*# !.).! 0 (Zohar 1:83a), Matt translates it as (*" ! +/

Flying, she encounters those hooded, hunchbacked, dazzling demons of defilement (30). He has rendered '()(*+ '()%", as hooded, hunchbacked, dazzling demons.7 In the translators introduction he draws attention to this example, noting that previous translations have not been quite as colorful; the English translation of Tishbys Wisdom of the Zohar translates the phrase as the deceiving lights of uncleanness,8 the Hebrew version of Tishbys work translates the words into Hebrew: !"*"1- ()"%(, which -----------------------------------6

Daniel Abrams has pointed to the difficulty in determining the parameters of the zoharic text.

Abrams, The Zohar as a Book.

7

Cf. Zohar 2:109a where he translates the same phrase as cloaked dazzlers. Here the reference

is more ambi-valent, heavenly powers, angelic or demonic. Matt refers to the previous usage on 83a where its malevolent.
8

Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 818.

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6 Matt suggests means vaulted splendors, and lastly, the Sperling-Simon translation offers certain bright but unclean essences.9 Echoing his notes to the text, Matt explains his derivations: Qumrin derives via rabbinic usage from the Greek qamara, arched cover, while tehirin is a cognate of the Aramaic tihara, meaning brightness, noon. One class of demons is named tiharei, noonday demons (x). Forced by the strangeness of the original text Matt embarks adventurously; for the most part, however, while the translation itself is often dazzling, it rarely leaps into the unknown unless provoked. This particular instance of colorful translation is one to which Matt himself draws attention and is exemplary of Matts creative expression. More will be said about this approach below. In his After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation , George Steiner delineates four stages of the enterprise of translation, Initiative trust, Aggression, Incorporation, and Compensation, this last stage being the crux of the metir and morals of translation.10 Recognizing that there is aggression and appropriation in the act of translating he argues that a good translation will compensate the text for this assault. This compensation is not to be regarded as an improvement upon the text--that would be hubris. Rather it is an attempt to be generous to the text and supply nuance, information, or acuity in the target language. While the second century sage R. Yehudah cautions, One who translates a verse literally is a liar; one who adds to it is a blasphemer, compensation seeks fidelity and ironic awareness of its distance from the original.11 Matt offers compensation through two main vehicles: first, through the scintillating translation and second, in his notes. Some examples will elucidate the ways in which the translators artistry sidesteps a word-for-word translation in favor of an evocation of what the text might actually be saying. When the Zohar adapts the Alpha-Beta de-R. Akiva, which refers to the way in which qof and resh conspire to implicate shin to -----------------------------------9

Matt discusses these variations in his preface, p. xx. George Steiner, After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation , reprint, 1975 (London:

10

Oxford University Press, 1998), 316.

11

b. Qidushin 49a.

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7 0 (falsehood), the Zohar writes, "*((""1# '/ 0 ! (2+-; the Soncino (Sperling-Simon) offers construct ),/ Kof and Resh draw thee into their midst which is fairly precise.12 Evocatively, Matt has they entangle 0 (shin) (Zohar 1:2b; I, 12), thus offering an image that animates the original term with a the letter / semantically coherent precision. By using the word entangle, Matt has used the context, a discussion of the formation of falsehood, to brighten the word took into something more vivid. This amplified volume and heightened shading convey the texts literal meaning even as the translation does not operate on a wordfor-word basis. Sometimes the choice of words can affect not only the meaning of a line in a passage but even the entire focus; in one instance, translating a mundane term can transform the metaphysics of space into something more resonant for spiritual seekers. Thus, a common term in the Zohar, '()+$, typically rendered as sides in the English translation of Tishby, Matt translates as dimensions in some instances, as sides in others,sometimes as directions, and other times as aspects. In one instance where Matt offers dimensions David Goldstein, the English translator of the Tishby, offers extremities.13 The 0 )# (Be-reshit)? With Wisdom passage in Matts version reads as follows Rabbi Yudai said, What is !(/ [referring to the second of the ten sefirot]. This is the Wisdom on which the world stands--through which one enters hidden, high mysteries. Here were engraved six vast, supernal dimensions (sitrin), from which everything emerges, from which issued six springs and streams, flowing into the immense ocean. . . (17) In Sefer Yez . irah, often called the first kabbalistic text, extremities is a term referring to cosmological measurement; here, though, dimensions is suggests possibilities of awareness or frameworks of being. The imagery of sides is spatial, that of dimensions, psycho-spiritual and/or ontological. Both are plausible renditions but convey quite different emphases. Matts particular gift is for finding formulations that are surprising, not for diverging from what the meaning might have been, but for capturing it so perfectly. Thus, when the Zohar has -----------------------------------12 13

"** 3(21 "4(21

Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon, trans., The Zohar (London: The Soncino Press, 1933), 9. Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 328.

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8 0 (&, * %(!$ Matt renders it as The holy hidden one engraved an 5(.-& *&",-# &(,-& ")(%+ &6& (".% "1 / engraving in the innards of a recess, punctuated by a thrust point (Zohar 1:3b, DM 17). What may not be apparent to the casual reader is the polyvalence that he has captured in terms of literal punctuation and sexuality. Language and eros are intimately intertwined in zoharic kabbalah and Matt has delivered that association to the unsuspecting reader. Even the translation of a commonplace term, usually rendered as cornerstone, is given striking new meaning in Matts reading as he refers to the even shetiyah as a Rock of Weaving. The hyperliteralism here provides a fully graphic picture of the metaphor (II, 8, n.51). Another color in Matts palette is his delivery of alliteration to follow that of the Zohar. One example is his transmuting le-qashra qishrin into to cluster clusters. Whereas qishrin is conventionally translated as knots, cluster far surpasses it because of the spiritually pejorative connotation of knots as opposed to the unifying closeness of the cluster (1:88a). Consider the following passage in as translated in Tishby/Goldstein: Come and see. In the middle of the firmament a resplendent path weaves its way. It is the snake of the firmament with which all the lesser stars are associated, mounds upon mounds of them being supported by it. And they are put in charge of recompensing the deeds of mankind. Similarly, there are many companies of noonday [destroyers]14 ready for him, and they all accompany him, surrounding him, and defiling him, and he is called unclean.15 This is Matts rendition: Come and see: In the middle of the sky, a lustrous path is woven--Celestial Serpent--all gossamer ('(,(,&) stars clustered within, mounds upon mounds, encharged with requiting the deeds of inhabitants of the world. Similarly, numerous bands of dazzling demons ('()(*+) issue from this supernal, primordial serpent--by whom Adam was seduced--and they are all encharged with requiting deeds of the world. (Zohar 1:125a-b; II, 215) -----------------------------------14 15

Addition in Tishby/Goldstein. Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 6667.

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9 Two terms deserve attention here: Matts use of gossamer rather than lesser and dazzling demons rather than noonday destroyers both emphasize the quality of light inherent in the original images and the alliteration of the latter echoes the Zohars own alliteration, even when there is none present in the original text. He indicates in his note to dazzling demons that '()(*+ (Tehirin), from [comes from] the Aramaic root meaning brightness, noon. One class of demons is named ()*+ (tiharei), noonday demons.16 As he has done elsewhere, Matt has used a poetic device, alliteration in this instance, to help capture the multivocality of the text.17 In addition to the poetic translations, the volumes offer other forms of compensation in terms of the layout and physical appearance of the books. The traditional zoharic text as in the Margaliot edition published by the Mossad ha-Rav Kook, appears as a block on the page, undisturbed by the modern niceties of paragraphing and punctuation. Making the text comprehensible by adding such elements is to be expected in a translation, but one of Matts signal contributions is the use of the exclamation mark. The dialogue of the Zohars fictional kabbalists is frequently punctuated with expressions of astonishment, delight, and dismay. The addition of this simple device of punctuation accentuates the literary experience of even a fluid reader of the Zohars dense text. Thus we read, Rabbi Elazar said, A king for a cultivated field . How many nuances of supernal mystery are embedded here! (Zohar 1:122a; II, 206) In another instance we read, Do not say these are words of a child! These are supernal words, all inscribed in the mystery of wisdom! (Zohar 1:150b; II,339). In his Guide to the Zohar, Green writes that It is primarily the frequent expressions of enthusiasm and ecstasy with which the text is dotted that serve to indicate how deeply and personally the sefirotic teachings were felt (78). Another feature of Matts compensation is the beautifully executed orthographics in the competition of the letters as they jockey for privileged position. In the best example, the letters yod at the top of the 7 undergo various contortions as
18 the z . adi struggles to embody the union of masculine and feminine potencies (13). ------------------------------------

16 17 18

II, 215, n.99. See also II, 216, 222. See also II , p.125.

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10 Sometimes Matts compensations aim for a softening of the texts androcentricity; thus, qudsha brikh hu is rendered as blessed Holy One instead of the conventional Holy One, blessed be He, unless there is a specifically male valence in the text. This is no small change in a text suffused with the masculine viewpoint, transforming theological assumptions by dropping a pronoun. What one gains is a God that is dynamic, ethereal, and impersonal over and against a personal, masculine being. This usage is employed as a rule in the translation. Another compensation can be seen in the treatment of the redundancy of the Aramaic text, a repetitiveness that would be jarring to English ears if rendered faithfully. Thus, in one instance, where the word parh . ei ((6)4) is used twice in two lines, Matt translates it first as fly and then as soar with no apparent reason other than for poetic benefit (45). This is the kind of change that alters the experience of reading: the reader loses ambiguity and identity, but picks up lush precision. Elsewhere, Matt translates le-istaqla u-le-minda (.&-%2" 28!$ 2 ascontemplate and discover rather than to gaze and to know which would be a more literal translation. One loses the visionary aspect and picks up the dynamism of discovery when it is, perhaps, a more placid scene (46). In one beautiful passage we read Who is the sky? The sky embracing sun, moon, stars, and constellations--the Book of Memory (58). A more literal translation would have been Who is the sky? Within it are the sun, moon, stars, and constellations--the Book of Memory. Here Matt has opened up the metaphor of the sky, considering what it means to have celestial bodies within it, and then expresses it with the term embrace, bringing in love, the subject of the sun/moon relationship, as explained in note 416. Sometimes he will yoke two verb phrases together as verb and adverb thus tightening their interaction. For example, when Abraham returns to Canaan after his brief sojourn in Egypt, the Zohar 0 & 1)& "** *(2 *21! says, *(# 9((,! " *(# 2 ." .) 2. +2/ 8*. What might have been translated as . .

. here was revealed to him that rung ruling over the land, and he entered into it and became established there, Matt offers . . . here was revealed to him that rung ruling over the land, and he entered enduringly (Zohar 1:80a; II, 18). Similarly, when the zoharic text reads 2(6 "** *& 9*)# %6& '"(8

0 (&, 2(6" 4,"! #(*( 2 .) 2. -%%&, Matt gives us, As soon as Abraham saw that the (:6 ,&8 / power appointed over the land had not vitalized it fittingly with holy energy, (II, 19) where a word-for-

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11 word translation would have yielded As soon as Abraham saw that the power appointed over the land had not given it strength and holy energy as appropriate. Each of these examples is a complex verb phrase in which the syntax has been tightened, thus increasing the dynamic tension among the words. At the same time it makes one verb a modifier of the other, sacrificing the literal translation in favor of a more vigorous rendition. Other subtle syntactical shifts, similarly, enhance the dynamism of the text. One technique is adjective doubling, for instance, redheaded regal jesters as a translation for $"-(4") (6(&# (Zohar 1;148b; II, 326). The note explains, Rufinus is a Roman name derived from the Latin rufus, red-haired. The name is shared by various early Christian saints, a fourth-century Roman minister, and Tineus Rufus, the second-century governor of Palestine ordered by Emperor Hadrian to crush the Jewish rebellion . . . In the Zohar, rufinus refers to a royal official . . . For the medieval Castilian usage, see Corominas, Diccionario, s.v. rufian. Cf. Aramaic, 2(4") (rufila), high official (op. cit. n.45). In another example, when the 0 )2 * 2. !"/ 0 )% ,4 2: Matt writes, abandoning supernal dominion for the other, Zohar has )6 "/ switching from the infinitive to the participle. Another homily opens as follows: Rabbi H . iyya opened, The wicked are like the banished sea that cannot be still . . . (Isaiah 57:20). Now is there such a thing as a banished sea? Yes, for when the sea escapes its normal array, surging out of control ( 2#6 2# 2(: "), then it is banished, expelled from its site (Zohar 1:74b; I, 441). In the Derekh Emet commentary, H . ayyim Vital explains 2#6 2# to mean [without] a ship captain while Yeh . iel Bar-Lev translates it as 2# ;2"*"

2"#1 .19 While the most common translation for 2#6 might be rope, Jastrow also cites the Targum to II Samuel 8:2and y. Sotah 8 (end), 23a where the meaning is rope measure. What Matts translation generates is a sea that resembles a cosmic force, depersonalized, in contrast to the more personalized lack of control conveyed by the sea captain. -----------------------------------19

Yehiel Bar-Lev, trans. and, commentator, Sefer Ha-Zohar Im Beiur Yedid Nefesh, in Sefer Ha-

Zohar Im Beiur Yedid Nefesh (Petah Tiqvah, Israel: Hevrat Yesod Olam, 199297), 2:106.

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12 Beyond these syntactical shifts, Matts translation delights with the sparkling quality of his English renditions. These gems abound and a few examples will suffice. When the Zohar writes, 0 # 28" %2/

0 , Matt offers all bask in peace (I, 264); a pedestrian translation would be all reside in peace or "68!/ all abide in peace, but basking imagines the vision as these alternatives do not. In another instance, the biblical baal qeri is translated as nocturnal mishap which preserves the biblical texts euphemistic rendition rather than the more common and more revelatory nocturnal emission (II, 127). Where the Zohar has !".) &(#." '(-((. '(8((6" '(4- )(*-" (&6%& '((, one might have been satisfied with Wine that delights and illuminates the face, causes the eyes to smile and engenders desire, Matt writes from the wine that delights and brightens the face, sparkling the eyes, arousing passion (Zohar 1:70a; I, 413). another instance, Matt writes, referring to Edens serpent: [that] serpent bites the world, besmirching 0 6 " %2.2 ;(/ 0 - ("6 "**" which might otherwise have creatures faces as a translation for '(()# (4- ;(/ been translated as [that] serpent bites the world, darkening peoples faces (Zohar 1:124a; II, 211). Sometimes, Matt paints a picture in his translating a preposition with a verb. Thus when the Zohar offers !(()" # ,'((21! 2" '((21! & '( 2. '(2% 28 '"-( !(()" # , ,#&! 2 '(28( 2& '(%(!$ '( 2. '(:) 28 '"-( !(()" # In

!!2" 2(.2& '(2% 28 '"-( , Matt renders this as Within Torah abide all supernal, sealed mysteries, ungraspable. Within Torah abide all supernal matters, revealed and unrevealed. Within Torah abide all things above and below. (Zohar 1:134b; II, 258). The preposition # in is translated as abides by Matt; in Simon/Sperling it is given as contained and only once. Tishby/Goldstein offer In the Torah are . . . three times. While the latter is the most literal, it gives no real sense of the relationship between the two: the Simon/Sperling translation imagines the Torah as a storehouse for supernal secrets; Matt, in turn, treats those mysteries as living entities dwelling within the Torah. In this way the author has animated the Zohar, representing the mythical world of the Zohar rather than resting content with translating its words. Lastly, even study, the term for the most frequent occupation of the zoharic kabbalists is not left untouched as Matt opts to translate !(()" # (.2%2 as to ply Torah. The richness of meaning of to ply--To use diligently; wield: To engage in diligently; practice; To traverse or sail over regularly; To continue offering something to; ensure that (another) is abundantly served; To assail vigorously--reflects a constellation of meanings that zoharic study undoubtedly intends.

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13 The reader can delight in the various translating modalities that Matt adopts, sometimes more formal, sometimes downright folksy. On the very first page he gives us For there is a rose, and then there is a rose! rather than the more word-for-word translation: there is a rose and there is a rose ( Zohar 1:1a; I, 1). Make no mistake: Matt does not shy away from conveying the obscurity of the text. Commenting on Genesis 6:3, Let his days be a hundred and twenty years, the Zohar explains, )+(,& )(4:",& "8()" , duration of banded diadem, signifying a blurring of time and space. In one instance, the translator preserves the Zohars tortured syntax: Throughout, Jacob dealt cunningly with Esau because of Esaus cunning rung, so that he could not prevail, would be overturned--so that his house would not be defiled, defended by him (Zohar 1:139b; II, 274). Instances such as this are a sign of Matts dedicated fidelity to the text, with an unwillingness to paraphrase, rewrite, or otherwise rationalize what remains, ultimately, a difficult text.

Information in the Notes Yet another form of compensation that Matt provides is rich historical, scientific, linguistic, and even botanical information that populates the notes. Naturally, one expects references to rabbinic texts, New Testament, Philo, Gnostic literature, medieval biblical commentary, contemporaneous kabbalistic literature, and modern scholarship.

Textual Problems As mentioned above, part of the challenge the translator confronted is the difficulty of determining the correct text among the proliferation of textual witnesses. In one passage, the forty-nine gates that are said to be contained within the sefirah Binah are read by some manuscripts as forty, possibly based on a

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14 scribal error. The difference hinges on whether the zoharic text reads '% or (% whose gematriyah is fifty, thus referring to the forty-nine revealed gates and the one concealed gate as mentioned in the text (I, 18 n.120). In this way Matt invites the reader into recognizing the difficulty of knowing how to read the Zohar. Elsewhere, Matt accounts for the bumpiness with speculation about a more original form of the Zohar: The abrupt beginning of this passage [about Abrahams acquisition of the Cave of Machpelah] suggests that it was originally preceded by a related passage that has been lost. (II, 219 n.128); this kind of detail gives the non-specialized reader an explanation of the bumps in the texture of the book. At the same time, however, methodologically, this kind of comment runs the risk of assuming that there was a text that provided the link, rather than assuming that the Zohars gapping is a product of the way in which it was cobbled together from various sources. Standing in relation to the traditional printing of the Zohar, one that blends the so-called main body of the Zohar with various other components (Raya Mehemna, Sitre Torah, Midrash ha-Neelam, etc.), Matt indicates his exclusion of seven folios of the traditional printing which are part of the Heikhalot section of the Zohar that is conventionally printed in Zohar 1:38a-45b.20 While his stated intent is to translate only the main body of the Zohar, in one instance he includes a section from the so-called Tosefta because it is present in most manuscripts (I, 358-363).21 At times, Matt intentionally misquotes verses in order to follow certain manuscript traditions and to accord with the conclusion in the Zohars homily.22 Scientific Information On the very first page of the Zohars introduction a rose is compared to the Assembly of Israel, a rose that is colored red and white. The read and white have particular symbolic qualities in the kabbalistic schema but Matt expands upon that layer of meaning with botanical and premodern medical information. Note 3 describes the Rosa gallica versicolor (also known as Rosa mundi), one of the oldest of the striped -----------------------------------20 21 22

See I, 241 n. 1062. See I, 358-59, n. 123. See, e.g., II, 212 n.70.

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15 roses, whose flowers are crimson splashed on a white background. The striping varies and occasionally flowers revert to the solid pink of their parent, Rosa gallica. The parent was introduced to Europe in the twelfth or thirteenth century by Crusaders returning from Palestine. Both parent and sport were famous for their aromatic and medicinal qualities. Elsewhere (2:20a-b) the Zohar alludes to the process of distilling oil from the petals of the flower to produce rose water, a popular remedy. During this process the color gradually changes from red to white.23 Sometimes, Matt indicates that the Zohars science is faulty. In Matts translation of Zohar 1:157b we read While they were walking they saw two Damascene plums, one male and one female. The author notes that these plums are native to Syria and are referred to in rabbinic literature, but also that they are not technically dioecious (distinguished as male or female), [but that] certain varieties require pollen from a different variety.24 When the Zohar discusses the contemplative foci of gazing at a candle, Matt cites the remark of 19th century physicist Michael Faraday in Chemical History of a Candle: There is not a law under which any part of this universe is governed which does not come into play and is touched upon in these phenomena. There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy, than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle. (I, 284 n.1352). In a related matter, Matt draws attention to the distinction between lamp and candle with a note about the discussion of wax candles in a treatise commissioned by Alfonso X of Castile (1252-84) (II, 32 n.236)

Linguistic Information Matt traces the influences of Latin, Greek, Castilian, and Arabic on the Zohars language, often found in the neologisms that the Zohar is fond of constructing. Thus, in one instance he suggests that the neologism (4:", (quzpei) derives from Arabic root qdph to throw, related to the neologism !(4$", -----------------------------------23

Matt I, 1, n.3. Matt even uses a Ladino translation of a Song of Songs 2:2 to help illuminate the

type of flower being referred to. I, 1 n.1; II, 265 n.56.

24

vol. II, 376 n.456.

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16 (quspita) meaning hollow of a sling (I, 299 n.1442). Another time he explains the word +$(, contending that it is derived from the Greek xestes, a measure about the size of a pint.25 Some of the most inventive work comes from creative sleuthing. One passage yields, Speak, my son! May dazzling topaz [ ,)#+ ] from your mouth resound like a spark! (Zohar 1:92b, II, 84). In note 648 Matt writes: ,)#+ (Tavreqa), a neologism apparently combining 1 #+ (tavag), a precious stone, perhaps topaz, and ,)# (baraq), flash of lightning. . . . Rabbi Abba is eager to hear the gem of wisdom from the childs mouth. Matt finds the word tavag in the Targum on Song of Songs 5:14. Interestingly, the word Tavreqa does not appear in the standard edition of the Zohar, nor that of Cordovero or in the Cremona edition of the Zohar. Matts text of the Zohar diverges from the standard Zohar which reads, Recount something good, my son, because a word from your mouth is like the voice of the lamp (Rabbi Shimon bar Yoh . ai) (.("*2 -(7"#& 2, ;%"4& *2% *& ,#+ ()# %( ). Where the manuscript that Matt has chosen has 0 (chip), offering an alternate of )#/ 0 ,)#+, the Mantua edition has #+ and the Cremona edition has )()#/ (fragment). The scope of his project is already so enormous that one can hardly fault the author for not providing the methodological reasons for choosing one reading over another in every instance. However, when one comes upon discrepancies such as this, this reader often wondered whether it was the most dazzling option that was preferred. The Zohar, including this translation, is not intended to be read fluently from one end to the other but rather is a text that was meant to be studied. As such, Matt has repeated footnotes through the text, often because the zoharic text itself returns to the same issues over and over again but also, it appears, because they reflect ideas that the author particularly desires to impart to the reader. Matt has uniquely translated (! & %2. ( #* 92". in Hebrew) as the world that is coming to indicate that it is ever-present rather than a stage of existence subsequent to this one. He draws attention to this novel reading in several places, explaining that to the medieval mindset the reference is to a dimension of existence that is always -----------------------------------25

II, 205, n.15.

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17 present for those who have transcended their earthly existence, usually after death. 26 This reader found the new translation of this ubiquitous phrase consistently jarring but the aim to distinguish this eschatological vision from that of a rabbinic perspective is laudable. Another example, this time reflecting recent scholarly boldness, Matt refers to Abraham as selected by God and confirmed as the incarnation of
27 H . esed(II 29 n.206; II 36 n.277). Quite often it is the Zohars interaction with other cultures or its

parallels to other religions that draws the repeated emphasis. Thus when the Zohar speaks of a soul in a radiant garment Matt alerts the reader to Islamic, Iranian, and Buddhist parallels. 28 The ritual of nocturnal waking and study, a practice well attested in medieval Christian circles, draws repeated stress as well. 29 This is the kind of detail that marks the authors sensitivity to his desired audience.

An American Spiritual Epic Who is the intended audience for this work? What are the benefits and limitations that stem from this target group? Perhaps the seminal line in the translators introduction is the comment that the frequent dilemmas of interpretation suggest that in exploring the Zohar, linguistic search and spiritual search go hand in hand (xxi). Matts own spiritual proclivities are in evidence both in the style of translation and in the issues that are emphasized in the notes. The task of the translator involves several spheres of mediation: text, translator, and projected audience. Indeed, the question arises of what it can possibly mean to translate a mystical text such as the Zohar for readers living in such different circumstances and with such different cultural assumptions from its authors of centuries ago. This is, of course, a perennial problem in translation but it is particularly acute in a text such as the Zohar, and especially when the translator considers the task to entail a spiritual search. Indeed, the Zohar courts the -----------------------------------26 27 28 29

See, e.g., I, 336 n. 1657; 339 n.1; II, 31 n.222; II, 81 n.629. See also below in my discussion of Greens use of this term. E.g., II, 25-6 n.183; II, 71 n.549. II, 2-3, n.13; 26, n.184; 80 n.624; 263 n.44.

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18 personal involvement of its readers such an extent that it is extraordinarily difficult to discern where the boundaries between original intent and creative interpretation lie. Who is the intended audience? Matts interests, as evidenced by the translation style, the kinds of information supplied in the footnotes, as well as by Stanford University Presss investment in this decadelong project, reveal that it is a broad readership that is hoped for. The kabbalah of the Zohar is to be revealed at a pitch-perfect scholarly level but with an intonation that will attract modern spiritual seekers. Matt says, indeed, that he wants the reader to wrestle with the text (xxii). Ultimately this question raises the core theoretical issue that confronts every translator: what precisely is one aiming to achieve as one converts words from a source-language to a target-language? Another question: What kind of reading experience, even mystical experience, does Daniel Matt envision for his readers? The translation and notes emphasize the unitive and transformative aspects of the Zohar. Central themes of zoharic kabbalah receive less attention, especially in the notes, presumably because of their lesser attractiveness to a spiritually-seeking American readership in the early 21st century. Downplayed in this version of the Zohar are elements such as theurgy and the androcentrism that pervades the text. Because theurgy depends on some form of dualism in which the initiate works upon the Godhead or upon cosmic powers, it mitigates the tone of seamlessness preferred in contemporary American spirituality. Consider the following small example: the Zohar explains that kabbalistic teachings must remain esoteric because every word concealed from the eyes attains supernal value ( !2."!), as is written: I have covered you with the shadow of My hand. Why was it covered and hidden from view? For the sake of supernal value ( !2."!), as is written: to plant heavens and establish earth , . . . (Zohar 1:5a, I, 27). The word that Matt has translated as value can be more accurately translated as benefit, that is, the domain of the esoteric is preserved so as to benefit the supernal and terrestrial worlds. Actions in this world help, support, and reconstitute divinity. In other words, the value of esotericism is that it affords assistance to the Godhead, rather than affiliating with an abstract merit. Speaking of Abrahams vision of the light emanating from the Cave of Machpelah, the Matts translation says, Therefore he asked for it [the cave], since his desire focused constantly on that site

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19 [)(&! )! "**# *"* !#" !&). Sperling and Simon render the sentence as Abraham now asked for it,

having always longed for it since then.30 Matts phrase his desire focused constantly offers a more contemplative version of the event whereas Sperling and Simons more literal translation of the phrase portrays longing, plain and simple (Zohar 1:128a; II, 221). The author emphasizes contemplation and meditation, again, indicating a spiritualizing bent. In another sample, more pronounced than the last, Matts translation has Lekh lekha, Go to yourself, to know yourself, to refine yourself (II, 9). In n. 62, Matt offers the comment of the 16th century Italian Moshe Zacuto to explain the Zohars modern-sounding words: Every person must search and discover the root of his soul, so he can fulfill it and restore it to its source, its essence. The more one fulfills himself, the closer he approaches his authentic self. These remarks, sounding so very contemporary, are somewhat misleading. The medieval and early modern notion of a soul-root bears little, if any, similarity to the know yourself spirituality that is common today. It refers to the highly technical doctrines of the soul that are developed in sixteenth-century kabbalah. According to these teachings, all souls are derived from the body of Primordial Adam, a term referring to the first concentration of divine light in the process of emanation. According to this doctrine it is the ultimate task of each person to discern his soul- root and to restore his soul to that place. As such, the notions of knowing oneself and approaching ones authentic self refer to the knowledge of a metaphysical entity entirely stripped of the personal markers that construct our personality; in other words, it is a far cry from the therapeuticallystyled pop kabbalah of our time which the reader might infer from the note. In instances such as this, Matt veers dangerously close to the line separating accessible scholarship from self-help spirituality. My aim here is not to quibble over a particular choice of words but rather to bring to attention the spiritualizing slant that Matt brings to the act of translating from one cultural idiom to another, and from one spiritual style to another. This translation is written for an American audience that is interested in spirituality and it is very clear that the author values mystical experience. Moreover, he is interested in -----------------------------------30

II, 15.

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20 demonstrating the value of this text for that purpose. In another example: Come and see: There is a supernal expanse, concealed, above them--an expanse guiding them, illumining them all. This is unknowable, susceptible to questioning yet unknown, for it is concealed and deep; all are bewildered by it (Zohar 1:85b; II, 48). Matts note 369 emphasizes ineffability and mystical negativity: A spiritual seeker may inquire about Binah, but such questions do not yield ordinary answers. The identity of the divine is discovered only in a realm beyond words. The mystical name Who becomes a focus of meditation, as question turns into quest. See Shimon Lavi, KP [Ketem Paz], 1:91a: Concerning everything that cannot be grasped, its question constitutes its answer.31 The translation is certainly faithful but the note raises the spiritual opportunities that the text treats descriptively. It is in moments like these in which we see the authors hopes for the personal impact the translation might have upon the reader. Moreover, there are features of Matts emphases that obscure important aspects of the kabbalist discourse and his penchant for the drama of zoharic rhetoric passes over the function of the Zohars language. One example of this is his translations of mamash as precisely and vadai as really! or sometimes as actual, actually or literally.32 These are, indeed, precise translations of these terms. However, these words are also technical terms that signal the transparency of the mundane world to the supernal world and, from a hermeneutical perspective an overlapping of exoteric and esoteric signification.33 These passages continue and often make plain that there is a transmuting from the mundane to the sacred (or demonic) realms, but this particular lacuna is a missed opportunity to teach about the literary functioning of the zoharic text. -----------------------------------31 32

Shimon Lavi, Ketem Paz (Jerusalem: Ahavat Shalom, 1981). See, e.g., vol. I p. 2, 6, 270; II, 70, 83, 96, 232. See, however, p. 203 n.772. On this issue, see

Elliot R. Wolfson, Beautiful Maiden Without Eyes: Peshat and Sod in Zoharic Hermeneutics, in The Midrashic Imagination: Jewish Exegesis, Thought, and History, ed. Michael Fishbane (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 17582.
33

Wolfson, Beautiful Maiden Without Eyes: Peshat and Sod in Zoharic Hermeneutics, 180.

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21 Thematically, there is a relative lack of attention paid to questions of gender and this, too, may reflect the target audience, one that is accustomed to and expects full egalitarianism in its spiritual life. Sexuality is a central (perhaps even the central) trope in zoharic kabbalah and it is clearly defined by heterosexual norms; gender, however, is a much dicier situation.34 While Matt has largely adhered to the consensus viewpoint which acknowledges the knotty aspects of the Zohars approach to gender, he has not articulated it nor developed it in the notes when the topic arises. Perhaps most strikingly is his annotation to a passage that links circumcision to verbal articulation: The phrase *2% ):1 (gezar milah) means cutting (or articulating) a word, but also suggests cutting milah, circumcision. A similar play on words appears in Sefer Yetsirah 1:3: . . . . the single covenant precisely in the middle: in !2(% (millat), the word, of the tongue; and in !2(% (milat), circumcision, of genitals.35 What is the meaning of this relationship between the phallus and the mouth, a covenant symbolically shared by both? What of the ejaculations (and their restrictions) from each of these organs of creativity? The reader is left on his/her own.36 Building on -----------------------------------34

See, e.g., Elliot R. Wolfson, Woman--the Feminine as Other in Theosophic Kabbalah: Some

Philosophical Observations on the Divine Androgyne, in The Other in Jewish Thought and History, ed. L. Silberstein and R. Cohn (New York: New York University Press, 1994), 166204; Daniel Abrams, The Female Body of God in Kabbalistic Literature: Embodied Forms of Love Ad Sexuality in the Divine Feminine (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2004); Wolfson, Woman--the Feminine as Other in Theosophic Kabbalah: Some Philosophical Observations on the Divine AndrogyneDaniel Abrams, The Female Body of God in Kabbalistic Literature: Embodied Forms of Love Ad Sexuality in the Divine Feminine (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2004); Charles Mopsik, Sex of the Soul: The Vicissitudes of Sexual Difference in Kabbalah (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2005); Moshe Idel, Kabbalah and Eros (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 53103.
35 36

II, 118, n.16. Arthur Green, however, in his A Guide to the Zohar, helpfully expands upon the point: verbal

and physical creativity, or what we would call the creative and the procreative processes, are inseparable from one another. The ancient analogy made in Sefer Yetsirah between berit ha-lashon and berit ha-

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22 Mopsiks discussion of the body of procreation and Wolfsons scholarly attention to the centrality of the male sexual organ, one can easily see how the embodiment of the kabbalist establishes him as a fount of (virile) creativity and (virile) potency. The impact this has on the construction of masculinity, and by implication femininity, the way in which this complements the racial views of strict avoidance of miscegenation, anxieties about masturbation, and nocturnal mishaps (to use Matts felicitous translation of baal qeri) are important questions for a generation so interested in questions of gender, Jewish assimilation, queer theory, and sexual pleasure. In a similar vein, we read about Abraham: Because he loved tsedeq, righteousness, he was drawn near (tsedaqah), righteousness. and in n.7: Because Abraham approached Shekhinah, known as tsedeq, he was drawn near Tiferet, the blessed Holy One, known as tsedaqah (Zohar 1:77a; II,2). Neglected here is the explanation that through approaching the Shekhinah Abraham becomes assimilated to Tiferet and this is part of how Abraham is constructed as male. Matt notes that *2% ):1, which he translates as sculpting a . . . word, generically means cutting (or articulating) a word, but also suggests cutting milah, circumcision (Zohar 1:98a; II, 118, n.16). What is lost is the opportunity to connect the upper and lower sites of ejaculation, the link of literary creativity and procreativity, completion of the male as both speaker of Torah and as guardian of the covenant.37 It is not, of course, crucial that gender sensitivities be attended to at every turn but Matt seems to shy away from the messiness of the Zohars androcentrism and phallocentrism that and this reticence sanitizes, universalizes, and spiritualizes this

maor, the verbal and the sexual covenants inspires the Kabbalist to an understanding that the creative expression coming forth from these two unique and parallel organs, mouth and genitalia, both located in the middle of the human body, represents a single and sublime mystery (81).
37

Elliot R. Wolfson, Circumcision, Vision of God, and Textual Interpretation: From Midrashic

Trope to Mystical Symbol, in Circle in the Square: Studies in the Use of Gender in Kabbalistic Symbolism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 198687), 4146.

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23 beautiful, if not always ethically admirable, text. Greater attention to these matters in future volumes would be an admirable corrective. And yet, accessibility is not the lone criterion guiding Matts hand. Indeed, the question may we asked whether an educated reader with no background in kabbalah can pick up the book and start reading? In the translations of Charles Mopsik and the Kabbalah Center, the text is broken down into units defined by narrative or thematic breaks, each one opening with brief editorial introductions to orient the reader. 38 That approach certainly places the text in closer reach, going far beyond paragraphing and punctuating as a physical intervention in the text. Given that we do not know yet how the Zohars homilies developed over time, avoiding the sectioning adopted by these other translation is probably prudent. Lastly, and on a lighter note, there is the inevitable strangeness that comes from translating from one language to another. In one instance unintentional comedy is engendered in translating a section of the Zohar that opens with interpretation of a verse from Lamentations What can I take as a witness to you? What can I compare to you? (2:13) and from Isaiah Lift your eyes on high and see: Who created these? (40:26). The translation reads: Who is End of Heaven above; What is End of Heaven below. Jacob inherited this, running from end to end (Exodus 26:28), from first end, Who, to last end, What, for he stands in the middle. So, Who created these. (Zohar 1:2a, I, 7). Who, indeed, can read this section without inexorably hearing the echoes of Abbott and Costellos famous Whos on first routine? These critiques certainly have merit and yet, to paraphrase Mordekhais comments to Esther, Who knows, perhaps Daniel Matt has attained to royal position for just such a task. Rather than wait another generation for a text to be established that would note all the historical developments of the zoharic text, perhaps it is appropriate for someone of Matts talents to translate it. 39 -----------------------------------38

Charles Mopsik, Le Corpus Zoharique: Ses Titres et Ses Amplifications, in La Formation Des

Canons Scripturaires , ed. Michel Tardieu (Paris: Les ditions du Cerf, 1993), 75105; Michael Berg, trans. and ed., The Zohar (Tel Aviv: Press of the Yeshivat Kol Yehudah, 19992001).
39

Ronit Meroz will soon publish an electronic critical edition and an electronic synoptic edition of

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24

Arthur Green, A Guide to the Zohar Written as a companion piece to Matts Zohar translation, Arthur Greens A Guide to the Zohar performs its task with erudition, clarity, and elegance. Green is a scholar of Jewish mystical texts, teacher of Jewish spirituality, and a stylist, all of which combine to make this book eminently readable and useful. His stated aim is to provide a digest of what the writer considers to be the finest scholarship and deepest insights regarding the Zohar that have been written since Scholem began the era of modern kabbalah scholarship (xiii). The book is an expanded version of the introduction that one finds in the first volume of the translation. In arresting first remarks his preface sounds a cautionary tone, expressing reservations about the project of translation: No reading through the veil of translation could do justice to the Zohars rich and creative appropriation of the nuances of Hebrew and Aramaic speech, its startling transformation of countless biblical verses, and its frequent subtle rereadings of the older rabbinic legacy that together constitute much of the Zohars charm and genius (xi). Aware of the limitations of the propaedeutic format of his book, Green emphasizes the incomplete nature of his treatment: The emergence of kabbalistic teaching is more complex and obscure than has been described in the preceding paragraphs. The relationship between Kabbalah and certain late forms of midrashic writing is still not entirely clear. The nature and degree of contact between the early Kabbalists and the German hasidic circles, . . . continues to puzzle scholars. . . . (26-7).40 These apologetic refrains serve, perhaps, to remind the reader that making kabbalistic texts and lore accessible through translation and summary, even scholarly versions that adhere to academic norms as contrasted with the mass popularization and cultural translations that the kabbalah is currently enjoying, still yields limited access. Ultimately, they cannot substitute for study of the original and its accompanying scholarly analysis in depth.

the Zohar on parashat Shemot.

40

See also p.99.

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25 For the purposes of this review I intend to highlight some of Greens emphases in his short book. One of the primary foci of Greens treatment is his emphasis on experience. Near the outset he offers a helpful caveat, distinguishing between the way in which the term mysticism is used primarily to refer to a certain category of religious experience whereas in the Zohar or other similar works we have a tradition of esotericism that does not explicitly privilege experience (5). One of the primary thrusts of Greens reading of the zoharic tradition is his assertion that the Zohar reflects the experience (emphasis in original) of a kabbalistic circle (72). This has become a methodological assumption in recent studies of the Zohar, but it remains difficult if not impossible to ascribe a point-to-point correspondence between literary and historical worlds. 41 There is an experiential dimension that Green aims to open up for the reader in her encounter with the text. He puts forth that To open ones inner eye to the new reality created by that pattern of thinking is to live within the realm of the sefirot themselves. The transformations of language and inner experience go hand in hand with one another; the breakthrough in consciousness to a higher realm of contemplative existence is conveyed through the vehicle of self-expression in sefirotic terms (77-8). Following Melila Hellner-Eshed, he explains that a main purpose of the Zohar is to arouse within the reader a constant longing for such enlightenment or inspiration (83). This stance is enabled by a worldview in which the kabbalist inhabits a cosmos of interlocking and interpenetrating realms (109). This translation between realms becomes so pronounced that Green pushes the envelope of the old Jewish taboo of incarnationalism, suggesting that the human individual is an earthly embodiment of the divine structure (113).42 This incarnational approach finds expression here and in a number of places in Matts translation.43 By appearing in the semi-popular format of this Guide and the Zohar translation it has the -----------------------------------41

Hellner-Eshed, A River Issues Forth from Eden; Joel Hecker, Mystical Bodies, Mystical

Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005), 5 7.
42

Elsewhere he states, less controversially, that the human tsaddiq is an earthly embodiment of the

ninth sefirah or the tsaddiq figure within God (92).

43

E.g., Matt vol. 1, 341.

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26 possibility of bringing this understanding to a much broader audience and shifting a broad understanding of what kinds of theological lines can and cannot be crossed by considering how they have been crossed in the past.44 A second emphasis is the special role of language in mysticism in general, and in Jewish mysticism in particular. In order to communicate a translinguistic or ineffable level of insight, the mystic needs to struggle against the barriers of language, perhaps by stretching the ordinary discursive vehicle to new poetic heights, perhaps by discovering within language a previously untapped symbolic stratum, perhaps by speaking in a holier tongue, by recourse to some code, or else by bearing witness to the utter breakdown of language through such phenomena as glossolalia, sacred stammer, or the glorification of silence. . . . The nature of Gods primordial speech, the question of its relationship to Hebrew as we know it, and the interplay between the language of creation and the languages of revelation and interpretation are all the stuff of kabbalistic discourse, treated frequently within the pages of the Zohar (7-8). He suggests that the Zohars best readers, both traditional and modern, are those who share its endless fascination with the mystery of words and letters, including both their aural and their graphic (or spoken and written) manifestations (65). Green uses two structuring devices in his representation of the history of Jewish mysticisms. He refers to five elements from the Judaism of the talmudic age--aggadah, halakhah, liturgical tradition, merkavah mysticism, and the speculative-magical tradition that serve as the repositories from which the zoharic authors draw in composing their text (10-14). Secondly, he draws attention to the theme of brotherhoods or mystical circles in the development of the varying approaches to Jewish mysticism, the German pietists (H . asidei Ashkenaz) of the 12th and early 13th centuries, followed by those in 13th century Provence, Catalonia and, finally, Castile. In Castile, it is the Kohen brothers with Moshe of Burgos, and the Circle of Contemplation (h . ug ha-iyyun) that had powerful impacts upon the Zohar. -----------------------------------44

Polemics against the incarnationalism found in the most extreme expressions of contemporary

Lubavitch messianism should take heed.

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27 For several decades kabbalah scholarship, particularly in the hands of Moshe Idel, Yehuda Liebes, and Elliot Wolfson, has been tracing the indigenous streams of mythical and mystical thinking that led to the development of the kabbalistic motifs that gain popularity and expression in zoharic kabbalah. 45 This represented a shift from some of the outward-directed attention that is exemplified in Yiz .h . ak Baers treatment of the Raya Mehemna, a late stratum of zoharic literature as drawing on contemporary Christian spirituality. In the last few years, however, some scholars, most notably Arthur Green and Peter Scha fer, have again raised the question of the influence of the surrounding societies upon the nascent kabbalah of the 12th and 13th centuries. These two in particular have turned their attention to the rise of the cult of the Virgin Mary in medieval Christian Europe as a possible source for the development of the motif of the Shekhinah, the feminine consort within the kabbalistic Godhead. In this text, then, Green notes that for the Castilian kabbalists, the degree of linguistic and cultural alienation from their surroundings was -----------------------------------45

For a representative sample, see Moshe Idel, The Concept of the Torah in Heikhalot Literature

and Its Metamorphoses in Kabbalah, Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 1 (1981): 2384; Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), 11272; Moshe Idel, Infinities of Torah in Kabbalah, in Midrash and Literature, ed. Geoffrey H. Hartman and Sanford Budick (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), 14157; Yehuda Liebes, De Natura Dei; on the Development of the Jewish Myth, in Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism , trans. Batya Stein (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 164, 15169; Elliot R. Wolfson, The Image of Jacob Engraved Upon the Throne of Glory--Further Considerations in the Esoteric Theology of Hasidei Ashkenaz (Hebrew), in Massuot: Studies in Kabbalistic Literature and Jewish Philosophy , eds Michal and Goldreich Oron, Amos (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1994); Elliot R. Wolfson, Female Imaging of the Torah: From Literary Metaphor to Religious Symbol, in From Ancient Israel to Modern Judaism: Intellect in Quest of Understanding: Essays in Honor of Marvin Fox, vol. II, eds J. Neusner, Frerichs (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989), 271307; Elliot R. Wolfson, Circumcision, Vision of God, and Textual Interpretation: From Midrashic Trope to Mystical Symbol, History of Religions 27 (198687): 189215.

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28 significantly less than that of later Jews in Eastern Europe, the lens through which all Jewish diaspora experience is often mistakenly viewed in our time (88).46 He explains the rising mythical orientation as partly due to the romantic troubador (sic) ethos of the surrounding culture (26). Green seeks to encourage a broader discussion of, not just the socio-cultural influences of the surroundings, but also of the literary context into which the Zohar might best fit; he suggests that It might be interesting to place the Zohar into the setting of such works as medieval troubador (sic) romances, Chaucers fourteenth-century Canterbury Tales, or the Thousand and One Nights. All of these are narrative cycles, frameworks of story into which smaller units (in these cases narrative, in the Zohars case homiletical) can be fitted. All of them, too, may be seen as precursors of the novel. (74) In this vein, Green expends greater energy discussing the ways in which the authors of the Zohar interact with Christianity. In a chapter dedicated to the historical context of the Zohar, he suggests that . . . the Zohar may be viewed as a grand defense of Judaism, a poetic demonstration of the truth and superiority of Jewish faith. Its authors knew a great deal about Christianity, mostly from observing it at close hand but also from reading certain Christian works, including the New Testament, which Dominicans and other eager seekers of converts were only too happy to place in the hands of literate and inquisitive Jews (88). He contends that the Kabbalists could appreciate why Jews were impressed by, and perhaps even attracted to, certain aspects of the Christian story and the religious lives of the large and powerful monastic communities that were so prominent in Christian Spain. The tale of Jesus and his faithful apostles, the passion narrative, and the struggles of the early Church were all powerful and attractive stories of the trinitarian God and the passionate and ever-present devotion to a quasi-divine female figure, made their mark on the kabbalistic imagination. The monastic orders, and especially their commitment to celibacy and poverty, must have been impressive to mystics whose own tradition did not make such -----------------------------------46

This kind of commentary makes plain that Green is not only providing a window onto the Zohar

but is standing in the position of religious leader, placing the Zohar within the larger framework of Jewish history as a whole.

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29 demands on them but who shared the medieval otherworldliness that would have highly esteemed such devotion (90).47 Greens own contribution to the issue emerges in his emphasis on the Shekhinah as an adaptation of the cult of the Virgin Mary, which reached its high point in France and Spain during this period (95). As explanation he avers that it was in part because they were themselves so affected by the attractiveness of Christianity that the authors of the Zohar set out to create a Judaism of renewed mythic power and old-new symbolic forms (97).48 He contends that The great drama of religious life, according to the Kabbalists, is that of protecting Shekhinah from the forces of evil and joining Her to the holy Bridegroom, who ever awaits Her. Here one can see how medieval Jews adapted the values of chivalry--the rescue of the maiden from the clutches of evil--to fit their own spiritual context. . . . [The kabbalist sees himself as] a spiritual knight of the Matronita (51-52) As one last instance, Green suggests that the Zohars fascination with Temple rites and the close linkage of sacrifice and prayer offers a Jewish alternative, albeit a fantastic one, to the pomp and ceremony of the medieval Catholic Church (140). Similarly, he proffers that the Zohars authors perceive the power ascribed to acts of Christian priesthood and in turn ascribe great mystery and power to birkat kohanim (141). This reader remains unconvinced by a linear connection between the rise of Mary and the rise of the Shekhinah, though the broader matrix of gender construction that lends itself to the idealization of a divine feminine, may well undergird these phenomena and the courtly romances as well. If Daniel Matts translation strays at times towards spiritual effervescence, Greens representation of kabbalah often features a neo-Hasidic inflection in his emphasis on experience in zoharic kabbalah. Thus, -----------------------------------47

On the possible attractiveness of Christian asceticism to the kabbalists see J.F. Baer, The

Historical Background of the Raya Mehemna, Z . ion N.S. 5, no. 1 (1939): 144.
48

See Arthur Green, Shekhinah, the Virgin Mary, and the Song of Songs, AJS Review 26, no. 1

(April 2002): 152; Peter Schfer, Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the Bible to the Early Kabbalah (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002).

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30 in one passage, Green writes that To perform a mitsvah with the proper kabbalistic intent (kavvanah)was actually to abide in the designated sefirotic realm and to experience the flow of divine energy (shefa) that flowed through those sefirot (129). In a description of the sefirot he relates, H . esed represents the God of love, calling forth the response of love in the human soul as well. H . esed in the mystics soul is the love of God and of all of Gods creatures, the ability to continue this divine flow, passing on to others the gift of divine love. Gevurah represents the God we humans fear, the One before whose power we stand in trembling . . . Gevurah is the divine face Isaac sees when bound to that altar confronting the God he believes is about to demand his life (43-4). In this powerful, lyrical treatment, Green emphasizes the dynamic within the soul of the mystic. On the one hand, the dyadic relationship between the qualities of God and the qualities of the mystic are indeed present in the highly compacted symbolism of the Zohar-the human being symbolically stands for the divine referent and yet does not lose its concrete meaning. On the other hand, the kind of experience that Green expounds upon here is rarely made explicit in the Zohar and the emphasis on the relationship between these two different spheres is not overt until the time of the Hasidim. In a similar fashion Green opines, In balancing their own lives, Israel imitates the God who stands at the center between right and left, balancing all the cosmic forces. That God knows them and sees Himself in them, meaning that the struggle to integrate love and judgment is not only the great human task but a reflection of the cosmic struggle. The inner structure of psychic life is the hidden structure of the universe; it is because of this that humans can come to know God by the path of inward contemplation and true self-knowledge (47). To this reader, this kind of formulation is already stepping into the realm of Hasidically-inspired theology rather than a straight reading of Zohar, bearing strong echoes of the authors book on Abraham and the commandments.49 This emphasis dovetails with a privileging of inner truth over practice or, in other words, of gnosis over nomos. While it is true that the Zohars kabbalists are most often engaged in the study and discussion of canonical texts, practice is foremost in their mind and at the -----------------------------------49

Arthur Green, Devotion and Commandment: The Faith of Abraham in the Hasidic Imagination

(Cincinnati, Ohio: Hebrew Union College Press, 1989).

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31 very core of their Jewish orientation. While Green acknowledges that the performance of rituals has cosmic effectiveness (21), his treatment of ritual in the Zohar is secondary.50 One blemish on this fine introduction to zoharic kabbalah is the proliferation of typos in the text. Thus we find inchaote (13); kabbalalistic (68); troubador (26,74); heirophants (92); correspondeds (125); societes (141); domininant (143); and, homilectical (161). Even a syntactical error such as each element of the God (81) passed the eyes of a proofreader unremarked. At the beginning of the work, Green declares that the Zohar is a work of sacred fantasy (3) and in so doing puts both himself and the reader in a position that is not that of detached reader, but rather engaged traveler on a journey to places fantastic and holy. If at times he strays towards a neo-Hasidic reading of the text, it is in service of a larger goal of opening up a text that has received much fanfare but a fairly narrow readership. Moreover, the pleasure in the prose and the distillation of decades of scholarship is impressive.

Conclusion If the Zohars language is effective through its evocativeness, Matts language is effective through its poetic precision. The charm of the Zohars language is that it floats allusive balloons skyward, challenging the reader to follow their elusive path. In contrast, the beauty of Matts language is that he paints highly detailed word-images of those evanescent balloons. To use the Zohars own hermeneutical metaphysics, it is as if the original Zohar communes with Tiferet, the sefirah in which symbols remain ethereal whereas Matts Zohar plays the role of Shekhinah, refracting the original light and offering a dazzling, if now pinned-down, meaning. If the Matt translation is one instance of the Shekhinahs -----------------------------------50

See pp. 129-33, 137-44. Moshe Idel has recently argued for the centrality of praxis in the

mystical tradition. See Moshe Idel, Enchanted Chains: Techniques and Rituals in Jewish Mysticism (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2005), 1926, 3141.

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32 concretization of the ethereal divinity, I found myself wishing that he would translate the text again, and again, so that the flashing sword which prevents entry to the garden, could yet yield more reflections of the light within. The following quotation addresses the troubling task of the translator: The translation of poetry may perhaps be compared to the alchemists attempt to transmute elements. Both are involved in an art form trying to create a new substance in defiance of an hermetic and unique logic holding together the original; the translator, however, is faced with an additional hurdle for not only must the translated piece appear as autonomous in its own right, it must, at the same time, remain faithful to its origins. Naturally, his task is impossible, and it is being aware of this impossibility which drives the translator forward in his mission.51 Matts Zohar is not merely a translation; rather it is a collection of translations of varying kinds: geographical, temporal, epistemological, and spiritual. He is opening up for a broad readership one of the greatest texts of the Jewish canon with a poetic touch and scholarly acumen. Having now completed the entirety of the Zohar on Bereshit, Matt appears to be on schedule to finish early in the next decade. 52 Ultimately, perhaps the most important contribution of this translation of the Zohar is that it facilitates the study of Zohar in Classics of Western Literature courses; as the crown jewel of Jewish mysticism and an outstanding instance of medieval mystical literature, this would mark the creation of a new world indeed.

Joel Hecker, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College -----------------------------------51

Howard Tzvi Cohen; translators note to a poem by Haviva Pedaya.

http://www.archipelago.org/vol7-2/pedaya.htm.
52

The third volume of the translation came to press too late to be treated adequately for this review.

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