ABSTRACT
Through the pages of the Book of the Splendour stalks the heroic figure of the Master, Simeon ben Jochai. Preaching love; exhorting man to forsake evil; bringing the mysterious other worlds within the ken of those on earth; leading man to God and God to man; giving man a sense of responsibility, of power; proving man’s kinship with all the forces of the universe; raising the level of life and deepening the sources of faith; healing the sick; fighting the forces of evil; performing miracles; revealing to a small group of the elect, things that have never been revealed either in heaven or on earth; seeking the union of man with the Source of his Origin—such is the figure of the hero of the Zohar, a figure with whom the masses of the people have established a closer and more human contact than with any other of the great figures of Jewish religious history.
