[Avodah] Baruch She'amar

[Prof. Levine]

At 10:46 AM 6/24/2011, R. Micha wrote:
>Beiurei Tefila, in this case
><http://www.beureihatefila.com/files/Origin_of_Baruch_Sh_Amar.pdf>,
>is a great resource!

>And the Birkei Yoseif (OC 51 s"q 1) answers that since it was mentioned
>in the Zohar it obviously (to him) predates the ge'onim. He also notes
>that the Tur quotes seifer Heichalos that BsH contains 87 words (gematria
>"rosho kesem PAZ") -- and seifer Heikhalos is attributed to R' Yishmael.

You wrote "the Zohar ... obviously (to him) predates the Ge'onim."
I see you chose your words very carefully! >:-}

As I have posted in the past,   R. Avraham Yari in his sefer Toldos 
Chag Simchas Torah comes to some interesting conclusions about when 
the Zohar was actually written.  His conclusions are based on when 
the name Simchas Torah was first used to designate the second day of 
Shemini Atzeres. See

http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/zohar_yaari.pdf

and, in particular, see what he writes on page 30.

YL