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Rating: 
Summary: Curb your Enthusiasm
Review: Stanford University Press and Professor Matt are certainly to be congratulated for attempting the Herculean task of translating into English, from 'scratch' (original Aramaic manuscripts), the entire Zohar, as well as adding running commentary based on Matt's so-called Kabbalistic expertise. Unfortunately, the latter's ego creeps in, taking too much poetic license in the translation itself, while his mystical interpretation of the difficult symbolism fails to compare with the luminous commentary of Isaiah Tishby in his multi-award winning masterpiece, "Wisdom of the Zohar". Isaiah Tishby was Emeritus Professor of Philosophical, Mythical and Ethical Hebrew at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem until his death in 1992. He was awarded the Bialik Prize 1972, the Israel Prize 1979, and the Rothschild Prize 1982, mainly for his work on "The Wisdom of the Zohar". David Goldstein, late Curator of Hebrew Books and Manuscripts at the British Library, was awarded the Webber Prize 1987 for his translation shortly before he died. Matt's arrogance is downright embarrassing as he unabashedly states his superior grasp of occulted Kabbalistic symbolism, trashing not only Rabbi Tishby but even the scholar/translator, Goldstein: "After wrestling with Zoharic neologisms for years, I no longer share Tishby's view ("Wisdom of the Zohar", 1:66) that 'only rarely is it possible to determine their meaning from the context, while for the most part it is difficult even to guess what the author had in mind.' Still, I can appreciate the confession of David Goldstein (translator of "Wisdom of the Zohar"), who, after rendering several obscure lines directly from the Aramaic, writes 'The English translations given are purely hypothetical.'" Because of the enormity of the undertaking, Matt's Zohar is already being hailed as unequaled and all the more impressive since his is a 'critical' edition, assembled directly from source manuscripts. Even though the Tishby/Goldstein Three-Volume set translates only about 25% of the Zohar, it is the meatier areas and, as stated above, the commentary is of such sublimity that at times it outshines the original channeled manuscript of Moses de Leon; and it certainly leaves Professor Matt's commentary wanting. Still, the prospect of a fresh translation of the entire legendary work is an exciting one, and we can hope that eventually Mr. Matt will be humbled, as the great Tishby was, by the exasperating, ultimately enigmatic essence of many peculiar passages. Stanford is planning on releasing two volumes per year, so we can look forward to the complete 12-Volume set around 2009.
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