The Man who Translated Judaism’s Most Enigmatic Text

What does it mean to translate a mystical text said to contain the very secrets of creation? In this in-depth conversation, Daniel Matt - renowned scholar, author, and translator of the Pritzker Edition Zohar - reflects on his decades-long journey with Kabbalah’s most enigmatic work. From the spiritual discipline of translation and the challenges of reconstructing the original text, to the Zohar’s bold vision of divinity, human transformation, and the feminine presence of God—this dialogue opens a window into the living heart of Jewish mysticism. Find more of Daniel’s work here: https://www.danielcmatt.com/books-and-writings.html And click here if you’d like to study Zohar with Daniel: https://www.danielcmatt.com/zohar-courses.html 00:00 Opening Excerpt 01:44 How Daniel came to the Zohar 06:33 Getting to Translate the Zohar 12:35 The Spiritual work of Translating the Zohar 18:35 Challenges Translating the Text 21:01 Getting Help translating the Zohar 22:20 Reconstructing the Original Text 27:13 The Collective energy of the Text 30:30 What makes Zohar so unique? 41:10 How did the Authors get away with it? 44:57 The Three Great Contributions of the Zohar 56:32 what this all mea