JEWISH WISDOM, THE ZOHAR, AND Y’SHUA THE MESSIAH

In this post I referred to http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-zohar website for a concise description of the Zohar. The search for answers in the mystical are always based upon questions all of us ask. The mystical contains much wisdom passed down through the centuries.

The problem with the mystical is that it requires all of your time, study, and energy. It is wisdom unto itself. It turns away from the Holy Scriptures and becomes its own religion.

For me, mysticism confirms the truth in God’s word, the Bible. Mystics have the same questions we all ask. I have found all the answers in the written word of God. If we allow the Bible to interpret itself and study true history we can find the answers in due time.

Below is a simple description of the Jewish Mystical Zohar. Keep in mind I respect all Jewish wisdom. My comments are in blue:

The Zohar (Hebrew זֹהַר; Splendor, radiance) is widely considered the most important work of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism. It is a mystical commentary on the Torah (five books of Moses), written in medieval Aramaic and medieval Hebrew. It contains a mystical discussion of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, sin, redemption, good and evil, and related topics.

As you can see the Zohar is an attempt to understand God and His  creation. It is attempting to understand YHWH by adding to the Torah to explain it. All nations and peoples try to understand YHWH as there are countless religions and gods in all cultures.

The Bible, along with the 5 books of Moses, contains all the answers when we allow it to interpret itself and use both the Old and New Testaments. When reading the Zohar carefully we find that the writers are seeking answers to questions all mankind asks. The error is turning from the written word to mystical interpretation.

The Zohar is not one book, but a group of books. These books include scriptural interpretations as well as material on theosophic theology, mythical cosmogony, mystical psychology, and what some would call anthropology.

Origin

According to Gershom Scholem, most of the Zohar was written in an exalted style of Aramaic that was spoken in Palestine during the second century of the modern era. The Zohar first appeared in Spain in the thirteenth century, and was published by a Jewish writer named Moses ben Shem-Tov de Leon. He ascribed this work to a rabbi of the second century, Simeon ben Yohai. Jewish historiography holds that during a time of Roman persecution, Rabbi Simeon hid in a cave for 13 years, studying the Torah (five books of Moses) with his son Eliezar. During this time he is said to have been inspired by God to write the Zohar.

Suddenly this book appeared in the 13^th century supposedly found by rabbi Moses de Leon. The story of rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, credited with writing Zohar, hiding in the cave is highly questionable, but it was accepted as truth.

The fact that the Zohar was found by one lone individual, Moses de Leon, taken together with the circumstance that it refers to historical events of the post-Talmudical period, caused the authenticity of the work to be questioned from the outset. There is a story told about how after the death of Moses de Leon, a rich man of Avila, named Joseph, offered the widow, who had been left without means, a large sum of money for the original from which her husband had made the copy; and she then confessed that her husband himself was the author of the work. She had asked him several times, she said, why he had chosen to credit his own teachings to another, and he had always answered that doctrines put into the mouth of the miracle-working Simeon ben Yohai would be a rich source of profit. Incredible as this story seems, it at least proves that shortly after its appearance the work was believed by some to have been written entirely by Moses de Leon.

It is evident that the Zohar was very likely a work composed by Moses de Leon. Why would his wife admit this and turn down a large sum of money? For me, this is evidence enough that Moses de Leon wrote the Zohar in the 13^th Century. Crediting the book to a much earlier time would give it added credibility!

Pardes and Biblical Exegesis

The Zohar assumes four kinds of Biblical exegesis: "Peshat" (literal meaning), "Remez" (allusion), "Derash" (anagogical), and "Sod" (mystic). The initial letters of the words "Peshat", "Remez", "Derash", and "Sod" form together the word "PaRDeS" (Paradise), which became the designation for the fourfold meaning of which the mystical sense is the highest part.

When “PaRDeS” is used to interpret the Bible it is a very effective tool to help us understand the things of God. The most important thing we need to understand is that the Jewish people were given the Bible by YHWH. Even the New Testament was written by Jews. It is to our benefit as believers in Y’shua to understand the Jewish approach to YHWH. They have a true desire to know Him.

The mystic allegorism is based by the Zohar on the principle that all visible things, the phenomena of nature included, have besides their exoteric reality an esoteric reality destined to instruct man in that which is invisible. This principle is the necessary corollary of the fundamental doctrine of the Zohar. The universe being, according to that doctrine, a gradation of emanations, it follows that the human mind may recognize in each effect the supreme mark, and thus ascend to the cause of all causes.

The God of the Bible, YHWH, came in human form as Messiah. In Messiah all the mysteries of the Universe reside! In Y’shua resides the “life force” of the one true God, YHWH. Y’shua came to do the “will of the Father.”

The rejection by the Jewish people of their Messiah Y’shua has left them desperately seeking answers which are found only in Messiah! In Messiah Y’shua we find the answers to all questions. Accepting His sacrifice for our sins is the beginning of wisdom. The entire Old Testament points to Y’shua as the Messiah.

Effects on Judaism

The Zohar was lauded by many rabbis because it opposed religious formalism, stimulated one's imagination and emotions, and for many people helped reinvigorate the experience of prayer. In many places prayer had become a mere external religious exercise, while prayer was supposed to be a means of transcending earthly affairs and placing oneself in union with God.

The Zohar was censured by many rabbis because it propagated many superstitious beliefs, and produced a host of mystical dreamers, whose over-heated imaginations peopled the world with spirits, demons, and all kinds of good and bad influences. Many classical rabbis, especially Maimonides, viewed all such beliefs as a violation of Judaism's principles of faith.

Its mystic mode of explaining some commandments was applied by its commentators to all religious observances, and produced a strong tendency to substitute a mystic Judaism in the place of traditional rabbinic Judaism.

The danger of too much mysticism is that it draws us away from truth. The WORD of YHWH is truth. Mysticism detours into areas that do not align with the word. Mysticism requires total attention and seeks answers through mystical experiences and often uses occult practices. Mysticism puffs one up with false knowledge that denies Y’shua Messiah.


Mysticism requires total focus and study. It cause segregation between the "educated elite" and the common man. The commands in the Torah are simple--anyone can understand them. It was the priestly elites that added to it and built "fences" around it that began to complicate it.


The Torah/Law/Bible was written by YHWH for all His people. Everyone who spends a reasonable amount of time reading it and meditating on it can draw closer to YHWH. Allowing it to interpret itself, without legends and fables, will help us understand our Creator.

Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, began to be looked upon as the embodiment of God in temporal life, and every ceremony performed on that day was considered to have an influence upon the superior world.

Kabbalah Tree of Life

There are many strands of teaching in the kabbalah. Medieval kabbalists, for example, were wont to speak of God as the En Sof (That Which Is Without Limit). The En Sof is inaccessible and unknowable to man. But God reveals Himself to mankind through a series of ten emanations, sefirot, a configuration of forces that issue from the En Sof . The first of these (see illustration left) sefirot is keter (crown) and refers to God's will to create. Another sefira, binah (understanding), represents the unfolding in God's mind of the details of creation, while hesed (loving­kindness) refers to the uncontrolled flow of divine goodness. Most of the sefirot are regarded as legitimate objects for human meditation; they represent a way in which human beings can make contact with God. Through contemplation and virtuous deeds, human beings can also bring down the divine grace to this world. It is not through works we receive salvation!

The simple description I can give of the Kabbalah Tree of Life is that it is supposed to be the “road map” to attaining knowledge of God. Beginning at the top with keter (crown) the seeker begins a journey through each sefirot until they reach Malkhut (the Kingdom). It is a life long journey.

A major problem with all this is that eventually the seeker spends all their time on this mystical journey and no time in the written word of YHWH. Deuteronomy 4.2 says: "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.”

Kabbalah has long been one of the important areas of Jewish thought. Ideas that many contemporary Jews might think of as un-Jewish sometimes are found in the kabbalah, most notably, the belief in reincarnation (gilgul neshamot). I was surprised at how many religious Jews believe in reincarnation! Rejection of Messiah leads to many errors!

Between 1500 and 1800, Scholem has written, "kabbalah was widely considered to be the true Jewish theology," and almost no one attacked it. With the Jewish entrance into the modern world, however-a world in which rational thinking was more highly esteemed than the mystical-kabbalah tended to be downgraded or ignored.

In recent years, there has been an upsurge of interest in kabbalah, and today it is commonly studied among Hasidic Jews, and among many non­-Orthodox Jews who are part of the counterculture.

In summary the religious Jewish people sincerely desire to know and understand YHWH. The books they have written such as the Talmud, Mishnah, and Zohar are full of “Jewish Wisdom” acquired throughout the millenniums past.

YHWH gave to them His Commands and Holy Scriptures. They are the people of the book. Christianity is based on the Jewish Bible which prophesied of the coming Messiah, Y’shua. Without an understanding of the Jewish culture and approach towards the “Eternal without end Elohim” we cheat ourselves of a clearer understanding of the Bible.

The simple fact is that the majority of Jewish people have rejected Messiah Y’shua. In rejecting Messiah they are left with many un-answered questions about all things eternal. This has led them to seek answers from other sources than the Torah and Tanakh.

When Messiah Y’shua ben Dawid returns at YHWH’s appointed time they will repent and accept Y’shua’s grace and forgiveness:

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.”

That will be a glorious day for all the world…it will be a “resurrection of the dead!”

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-zohar#Origin