Moses de Leon
1240 – 1305 Castilian (Sephardic Jewish) Kabbalist, writer
The figure most scholars credit with composing the Zohar, the central text of Kabbalah.
- Religion
- Judaism (Kabbalah)
- Affiliations
- Guadalajara and Avila, Castile
Moses de Leon circulated the Zohar in the late 13th century, presenting it as the ancient teaching of the 2nd-century sage Shimon bar Yochai. Modern scholarship, led by Gershom Scholem, argues that de Leon himself was the main author. Traditional Kabbalists still hold the work to be far older, so its authorship remains contested.
In the timeline
- 1275 Moses de Leon composes Midrash Ha-Neelam central figure
- 1280 The Zohar appears in Spain mentioned
- 1281 Moses de Leon composes the Zohar central figure
- 1286 The Zohar appears in Castile mentioned