הופעתו של 'ספר הזוהר'

This article looks at the earliest stages of the reception of the Zoharic texts and examines the emergence of the notion that they belong to one literary unit, an authoritative and sacred book, written by Rabbi Shimʿon bar Yochai and called the Zohar. Zoharic literature was created in the late 13th century. This literature was perceived and presented as ancient midrashic citations in the writings of several Kabbalists in the last two decades of the 13th century. There is no indication that these kabbalists regarded Zoharic literature as one literary unit of a unique authoritative and sacred status, nor that they designated this literature by the term 'Zohar'. Only in the first decades of the 14th century the new notion of a literary unit called the Zohar emerged amongst several kabbalists who may have belonged to one circle. This imagined book was attributed by some to Rabbi Shimʿon bar Yochai, and considered to be an authoritative and sacred text. The emergence of the Zohar as an imagined text is related to the tension between the Catalan kabbalists of the School of Rashba, and kabbalists, mostly Castilian, who did not belong to this elitist group. The creation of the Zoharic texts in the late 13th century and the emergence of the notion of the Zohar as an ancient authoritative and sacred text in the early 14th century served to undermine the authority of Nahmanides and to create a new kabbalistic canonical text.