The Zohar’s Bereishit: A Commentary

Few texts in the history of Jewish thought are as complex, perplexing, and extraordinarily beautiful as Sefer Ha’Zohar — the Book of Radiance. Composed, or perhaps revealed, in the Kingdom of Castile sometime in the late thirteenth century, the Zohar is as confounding as it is inspiring, as impenetrable as it revealing, and has by virtue of these contradictions remained a persistent object of interpretation in both religious and secular spheres of inquiry for the past eight centuries, with only a superficial dip in interest following the pseudo-messianic crises of the seventeenth century. Amongst the most fascinating sections of this text is its exegetical treatment of Parashat Bereishit (Zohar 1:15a), the opening verse of Genesis. Here, the author(s) of the Zohar work to subtly integrate centuries of Jewish mystical symbolism and myth into the opening words of Torah by looking deep within this passage, far beyond its literal or even halakhic meanings, to find the Sod (“secret”): the hidden, mystical essence of the text. In reading this portion we as contemporary readers bear witness to an exemplary case of kabbalistic hermeneutics in action–the fruits of which, as we will see, are astonishing. <a href="https://einsofist.medium.com/the-zohars-bereishit-a-commentary-1ccef631a31">Read More</a>