Rabbi Moses de Leon רבי משה בן שם טוב די ליאון
the man through whom the Zohar came into the world
Under his own name he brought out several books, and they are dated: Sefer ha-Rimmon in 1287, Ha-Nefesh ha-Hakhamah in 1290, Shekel ha-Kodesh in 1292, Mishkan ha-Edut in 1293. Shekel ha-Kodesh is dedicated to Todros ha-Levi Abulafia, head of the Jews of Castile.
The account given by Rabbi Isaac of Acre runs thus: after Moses's death a rich man, Joseph of Ávila, offered the widow a large sum for the original, and she answered that there was no original, that her husband had written it, explaining that a teaching set in the mouth of the wonder-worker Shimon bar Yochai would bring in more. The Jewish Encyclopedia, which reports the story, holds a different view itself: for it the Zohar is the work of many hands and many centuries.
We do not settle this dispute. It is not settled within the tradition either: kabbalists hold the Zohar to be Rabbi Shimon's book, scholars see in it a Castilian composition of the thirteenth century, and both sides bring arguments that cannot be waved away.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Shekel ha-Kodesh, 1292 — the book with its dedication to Todros Abulafia
Scholarship
- The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) — the years, the dated books under his own name, and the account of Isaac of Acre
Basis: documents and evidence.