[Avodah] Dating the Zohar

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 08:54:08PM -0400, Jonathan Baker wrote:
: I suppose this would also support a middle ground, such as that espoused
: by R Yaakov Emden - that certain passages post-date Rashbi.  Yaari's 
: quote also comes from a Raya Mehemna section - also later than the main
: text.  So none of this disproves R' Y Emden's approach.  But some, I guess,
: believe the whole thing to be from Rashbi.

I think something akin to the misnamed "Kuzari Proof" would argue
for something like this. There was no time for a gradual increase of
credibility between R Moshe de Leon's document and accepted mequbalim
believing its authenticity. Enough of it most have already been familiar
or matched what they heard of indirectly.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha