Zohar: Annotated & Explained (Skylight Illuminations)

Rating:
Summary: The finest short anthology of the Zohar
Review: This work, a careful update of Matt's earlier edition of Zohar excerpts, provides an accurate and thoughtful translation of many of the most important sections of the Zohar, a primary text in the mystical tradition of the kabbalah. The Zohar itself is voluminous, and it has never been fully translated into English. This book, though, it short and just covers the basics (without being watered-down). It's a great place to start if you've recently heard about the Zohar and are wondering about it. There are a lot of unreliable and "fluffy" treatments filling the shelves these days -- this is the authentic article, prepared by one of the most highly regarded scholars in the field.

If you like this book, you might also be interested in the same translator's new, complete translation of the entire Zohar. It's being published volume-by-volume by Stanford University Press. But if you just want the highlights, if you just want to see what this text is about, then this Skylight edition is the way to go.