How Palestinian Leaders’ Corruption and Israel’s Bureaucratic Inefficiency Have Helped Terror Flourish
Understanding the West Bank’s most solvable problems.
July 10, 2023
Understanding the Zohar, and the Debate about Its Origins
The key text of Jewish mysticism.
For very many Jews in the past half-millennium—and not only the Orthodox—the collection of mystical texts known as the Zohar (literally, “splendor”) has a near-canonical status, just behind the Bible, Talmud, and a handful of major rabbinic works. Since at least the 16th century, it was seen as the fundamental text of Kabbalah. The work’s origins have been a matter of dispute for almost as long. J.J. Kimche explains what the Zohar is and isn’t, its place in the broader history of Jewish thought, and the controversy over its authorship. (Interview by Benjamin Koren and Benzion Siouni. Video, 134 minutes. Audio is available in podcast form at the link below.)
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Login or SubscribeJuly 10, 2023
Although It Has Much to Gain, Tunisia Is Unlikely to Normalize Its Relations with the Jewish State
The government that strangled the sole Arab democracy shuns peace with Israel.
Germany’s Anti-Semitism Commissars Are Too Often Anti-Semitic Commissars
Wolves in sheep’s jobs.
Understanding the Zohar, and the Debate about Its Origins
The key text of Jewish mysticism.
The Disappearing Language of Curaçao’s Jews
Sephardim were the first non-African group to adopt the local creole.