For NPR News, I'm Judy Silber in Berkeley. SILBER: For the English-speaking world, "The Zohar's" gates are now opening even wider thanks to the translation and devotion of Daniel Matt. And it's actually an image of the gate opening "The Zohar" making it available to the world printing it for the first time. MATT: It's called in Hebrew the Sha'ar or the Gateway. SILBER: He points to a drawing on the title page of this first printed edition. This is really one of the rarest Jewish books in the world. ![]() This is a first edition of "The Zohar." It was published in Italy in 1558. With reverence, translator Daniel Matt runs his fingers over the dark, black ink. Inside a well-kept cardboard box carefully wrapped in tissue paper is a thick book bound in royal red. But with this new translation, that's starting to change. However, most American Jews don't know much about it. SILBER: "The Zohar's" teachings are integral to Hasidic Judaism and also to the Kabbalah Center made famous by Madonna. GLAZER: What was it like at that moment just before the millisecond before creation and the world came into being? That's part of what "The Zohar" in its own unique way is trying to capture. SILBER: Glazer says "The Zohar" is meant to be less literal than provocative. GLAZER: From the head of infinity, a cluster of vapor forming in formlessness thrusts in a ring, not white, not black, not red, not green, no color at all. Here's Glazer reading "The Zohar's" imagining of how God created the universe. SILBER: He says the new translation is meticulous and poetic. He uses it in weekly Shabbat study sessions.ĪUBREY GLAZER: So "The Zohar" is probably one of the most magical and intricate books on the Jewish bookshelf, but also on the bookshelf of spiritual-seekers at large. Rabbi Aubrey Glazer is an early adopter of the new translation. SILBER: Matt would eventually translate and annotate nine of "The Zohar's" 12 volumes. And at that moment, I turned a corner, and I basically said, OK, I'll do it. And Margot said to me, you're not scaring me. Matt wasn't interested, but agreed to meet with Pritzker and her rabbi. A woman named Margot Pritzker was interested in paying for the full translation. He also worried that intensive study of the mystical writings would exhaust him spiritually. SILBER: So Matt knew the translation wouldn't be easy. MATT: So he was composing it in Aramaic and trying to make the Aramaic look ancient, but also inventing words sometimes turning a Hebrew word into a new-fangled Aramaic word. SILBER: "The Zohar's" origins date back to 13th-century Spain when a man named Moses de Leon claimed to have found a collection of ancient manuscripts, but scholars believe he was actually the author. MATT: And ever since then, people said to me, well, when are you going to do the other 98 percent? And I would say, well, I don't want to spend the rest of my life translating "The Zohar." As a young professor, he translated what he says were about 2 percent of the full writings. The Aramaic here is being read by Berkeley scholar Daniel Matt. ![]() SILBER: The writings form the bedrock of a Jewish mystical tradition called Kabbalah. JUDY SILBER, BYLINE: This is "The Zohar."
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