Free Zohar | About the Zohar

According to the kabbalists, the sacred Zohar Is the greatest gift possible to give or receive in this world.

The teachings of the Zohar were once considered secrets to which only a few were granted access. But now, what was once meant for those few deemed “worthy” of receiving it is now being made available to all who have a desire to study and learn from it. This new era was ushered in by the work of Rav Yehuda Ashlag, who founded the organization now known as The Kabbalah Centre. Rav Ashlag is responsible for the first unabridged translation of the Zohar from the original Aramaic into Hebrew including his historic commentary.

According to the ancient kabbalists, the Light of the Zohar has existed forever, albeit not in its present form as a book. Adam possessed the Zohar, as did the Patriarchs of the Bible. At Mount Sinai, Moses received the Bible as well as the secrets of the Bible—the Zohar, which is the “decoder” of the Bible. The Zohar was originally passed on as oral wisdom from one generation to the next, and it was not written down until the 2nd century C.E. when Rav Shimon Bar Yochai was granted divine permission to share its ancient secrets in written form. The Zohar was originally composed in a language once widely spoken in the ancient world but now largely forgotten. It was first written down approximately 2000 years ago, although the exact date is uncertain. But more than being written, the Zohar was revealed.

In the centuries that followed—and as the Zohar itself had predicted—this sacred text was largely hidden from the world. The Zohar reemerged in 13th century Spain through the efforts of Moses de Leon. But it was not until 1540 that a prominent kabbalist of the era, Abraham Azulai, declared that the time had come for the Zohar to be given to all of humanity. “From now on,” he wrote, “the basic levels of Kabbalah can be taught to everyone, young and old. Through Kabbalah, we can forever eliminate war, destruction, and man’s inhumanity to his fellow man.”