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The Zohar as an Imagined Book
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This chapter discusses the initial reception of the zoharic literature, the nascence of the term Sefer hazohar (Book of the Zohar), and the idea that it refers to a unified, sacred, and authoritative literary corpus. The idea of the existence of a book written by R. Shimon bar Yohai and known as the Zohar only crystallized after a significant number of zoharic texts had been written and circulated. That is to say, the Zohar as a book is an imagined text, an idea of a unified literary work, the scope and nature of which were perceived and described in a variety of ways. Its emergence as such, influenced the formation of zoharic collections, which differed significantly from one another, yet came to be collectively referred to by that name. Ultimately, the concept of the Zohar as an ancient and authoritative book was used by its distributors to subvert the dominance of the most prominent kabbalistic school of the period, that headed by Nahmanides and his disciples.
Title: The Zohar as an Imagined Book
Description:
This chapter discusses the initial reception of the zoharic literature, the nascence of the term Sefer hazohar (Book of the Zohar), and the idea that it refers to a unified, sacred, and authoritative literary corpus.
The idea of the existence of a book written by R.
Shimon bar Yohai and known as the Zohar only crystallized after a significant number of zoharic texts had been written and circulated.
That is to say, the Zohar as a book is an imagined text, an idea of a unified literary work, the scope and nature of which were perceived and described in a variety of ways.
Its emergence as such, influenced the formation of zoharic collections, which differed significantly from one another, yet came to be collectively referred to by that name.
Ultimately, the concept of the Zohar as an ancient and authoritative book was used by its distributors to subvert the dominance of the most prominent kabbalistic school of the period, that headed by Nahmanides and his disciples.
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