The Zohar

By Daniel C. Matt,

Book cover of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition

Book description

The first two volumes of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, translated with commentary by Daniel C. Matt, cover more than half of the Zohar's commentary on the Book of Genesis (through Genesis 32:3). This is the first translation ever made from a critical Aramaic text of the Zohar, which has been…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Zohar as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The Zohar is the masterpiece of Kabbalah, a vast mystical commentary on the Bible, composed in 13th-century Spain.

Over the course of 18 years, I translated this dense, cryptic Aramaic text into English, adding an extensive commentary to explain the mystical symbolism. For the Zohar, God is equally male and female, and it is up to us humans to unite the divine couple by living ethically and spiritually. God needs us, in order to be actualized in the world.

This is the first English edition of the Zohar to be based on the original manuscripts. It has been hailed as…

From Daniel's list on Jewish spirituality.

This is the most recent rendering of the Zohar into English. Translated by Daniel Matt who is a professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. This decade-long effort has produced an authoritative rendition of the Zohar. However, this is an academic venture that does not conform to the ancient tradition. Nonetheless, the literal translation of each word will help the new student break into the original text.

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