Sin death and beyond

SIN, DEATH AND BEYOND: M.M.NINAN
The Zohar is mostly written in what has been described as an exalted, eccentric style of
Aramaic. Aramaic was the day-to-day language of Israel in the Second Temple period (539
BCE – 70 CE), was the original language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and
Ezra, and is the main language of the Talmud.
The Zohar first appeared in Spain in the 13th century, and was published by a Jewish writer
named Moses de Leon. De Leon ascribed the work to Shimon bar Yochai ("Rashbi"), a rabbi of
the 2nd century during the Roman persecution who, according to Jewish legend, hid in a cave
for thirteen years studying the Torah and was inspired by the Prophet Elijah to write the Zohar.
This accords with the traditional claim by adherents that Kabbalah is the concealed part of the
Oral Torah
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..
The teachings of the Zohar contains some aspects of Christian dogmas, such as the fall and
redemption of man, and the dogma of the Trinity.
They are then further expanded upon by the Ari HaKadosh, Rabbi Yitzhak Luria, in a book
dedicated to this subject, Shaar HaGilgulim, The Gate of Reincarnations. 16th-century Lurianic
doctrine was the first time that Kabbalah focused on gilgul,
Isaac (ben Solomon) Luria Ashkenazi (1534 – 1572), commonly known as "Ha'ARI"
(meaning "The Lion"), "Ha'ARI Hakadosh" [the holy ARI] or "ARIZaL" [the ARI, Of Blessed
Memory (Zikhrono Livrakha)], was a foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of
Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Palestine. He is considered the father of contemporary
Kabbalah, his teachings being referred to as Lurianic Kabbalah. While his direct literary
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