The Zohar is an unusual and enigmatic text, and perusing it leads the reader to a whole spectrum of reactions; from total disavowal of it after declaring it to be meaningless to a ritualistic reading and memorization of it which makes no effort to deal with the actual content of the text.  Researchers throughout the world invest great efforts to decipher the Zohar’s inner rational as well as its literary and poetical values.  To this end they employ a variety of literary, philological, codicological, historical and other methodologies.  Thus we shall examine several Zoharic texts in light of a variety of methods in order to gain the most fruitful understanding. We will ask such questions as – what methods should we use when we actually decipher the symbolic layer?  What are the modes of intertextuality in the Zohar? and so forth.

In light of such considerations we will delve in the first semester (course a) into the comparison of different homilies; we will compare, for example, the art of writing detected in the homily on the Rose (at the beginning of Hakdamat HaZohar) with that of the homily about the creation of the Sefirot (beginning of Genesis). On the second semester (course b) we will examine the inner relations of different homilies and stories in the Zohar. Here we will pay special attention to the marvelous story of "Rav Metivta"

Course requirements: regular attendance in classes and writing a paper.