Book Review Examines Rabbi Ashlag Introduction to the Zohar

Introduction to the Zohar: The Wisdom of Truth, translated by Yoel Finkelman, presents Rabbi Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag's introduction to the foundational text of Jewish mysticism. The 134-page volume was published by Maggid Books and Share and is priced at $25.

Near the end of the book, Rabbi Ashlag writes that the glory of the Jewish communities in Poland and Lithuania has been reduced to a handful of refugees in the Holy Land. He states that those who remain must repair the situation. The review notes that he wrote these words during the Holocaust.

The book opens with six questions about the purpose of creation and the existence of suffering. Rabbi Ashlag argues that God intended to bestow infinite good, which requires infinite desire to receive. He describes the material world as the desire to receive.

He uses the image of a stone quarried from a mountain to illustrate spiritual separation. The difference in form between giver and receiver separates the soul from its source. Closing that gap, he writes, is the purpose of human life.

The desire to receive is presented not as the disease but as the element that can be redirected through Torah and commandments. Every act performed with genuine intention advances the transformation. Suffering is described as an alternative route for those who do not choose the path of study.

Rabbi Ashlag states that when Jews perform tradition without genuine intention, destructive forces are strengthened. He calls on each remaining person to commit to increasing the study of the internal aspect of Torah.

The Zohar is attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the second century. Rabbi Ashlag writes that anyone who understands its content would not doubt the author's spiritual level. The volume closes with the Zohar's statement that it will bring the people out of exile in mercy.

The translator's additions are described as precise without being reductive. The review states that the book expresses a central idea about Jewish texts more clearly than other sources the reviewer has encountered.