Introduction to the Zohar

The Wisdom of Truth

An English translation of Rav Yehuda Ashlag’s הקדמה לחכמת האמת -ספר הזוהר.

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ashlag set as his life’s mission to make understanding the Zohar and Kabbala easier and make them more accessible. In this introduction, Rabbi Ashlag presents the basic elements of Kabbala in clear language and a readable format. Seventy-one short chapters explain how the Kabbala understands the nature of creation, the structure and function of the soul, the purpose of human life, and the arrangement of the upper and lower worlds that constitute the cosmos. For Rabbi Ashlag, the universe was created in order to enable souls to undergo a process of purification, in which an inborn desire to receive becomes a desire to give. A life of Torah and mitzvot enables that process.