Rabbi Berel Wein giving a lecture on the ZOHAR (Book of Splendor, published in 1290 by Rabbi Moshe DeLeon in Spain). The lecture took place at Yeshivat AISH HATORAH.
I do agree with the statement of Rabbi Yaakov of Emden. Furthermore, the wife of Rabbi DeLeon said after her husband's death that he (her husband) wrote the book. When asked why, Mrs DeLeon said that a book written by an author such as Rabbi Shimon sells much better. Further, Mrs DeLeon justified her husband by saying that they desperately needed the income from the book in order to pay their rent and this is the reason why Rabbi Moshe DeLeon claimed that the true other was Rabbi Shimon. Let's call it one of the first public relation campaigns.:-)
Not one of the first I would say. This phenomenon of pseudepigrapha predates De Leon by quite some time....
ReplyDeleteB"H
ReplyDeleteDeLeon may have had some scriptures and was definitely a learned Rabbi. However, I doubt that he had anything original from Rabbi Shimon. But maybe he used Rabbi Shimon's teaching from the Talmud.
Have in mind R Yaakov Emden was against R Yonatan Eibshitz who he claimed to be a Sabbatean who were highly involved with kabbalah. R Yaakov Emden's statement goes against the words of most of the greatest Rabbis: The Arizal, The Vilna Gaon, The Ben Ish Chai, The Chida, The Alter Rebbe of Lubavitch, R Nachman of Breslov. All these Rabbis had serious ruach hakodesh. There is no way De Leon wrote the Zohar.
ReplyDeleteB"H
ReplyDeleteI think it was the Vilna Gaon who was standing up for Rabbi Eibeschuetz and said that he has nothing to do with Shabbatai Zvi's ideology.
Rabbi Moshe de Leon claimed that he had secret ancient texts and put them together in the Zohar. Afterwards the documents were never found and his widow denied having found any documents or texts.