In the second century CE, a single man was granted the spiritual knowledge that Kabbalists had accumulated for 3,000 years before his time. Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai (Rashbi) put it all on paper and then hid it, as humanity was not ready for it. Today, we are ready for the revelation of The Book of Zohar.
Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai (Rashbi),
author of The Book of Zohar (The Book of
Radiance) was a Tana-a great sage in the early Common Era centuries. Rashbi's name is tied to numerous legends, and he is mentioned constantly in the Talmud and in the Midrash, the sacred Hebrew texts of his time. He lived in Sidon and in Meron, and established a seminary in the Western Galilee.
Rashbi was born and raised in the Galilee (a mountainous region in today's Northern Israel). Even as a child, he was not like other children his age. Questions such as, "What is the purpose of my life?" "Who am I?" and "How is the world built?" plagued him and demanded answers.
In those days, life in Galilee was very harsh: the Romans persecuted Jews and continually invented new laws to make their lives more difficult. Among these laws was a decree that prohibited Jews from studying the Torah (then synonymous with Kabbalah).
1 The articles, "About Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai" and "About The Book of Zohar" are presented here courtesy of the paper Kabbalah Today.
All copyright to the original english zohar. And ibooks
