Moses de León
Description
Moses de León, known in Hebrew as Moshe ben Shem-Tov, was a Spanish rabbi and Kabbalist who first publicized the Zohar. Modern scholars believe the Zohar is his own work, despite his claim to have copied it out of an ancient manuscript by Shimon ben Yochai. His other works include Sefer ha-Rimon, written in Hebrew, and hundreds of pseudepigraphic responsa, commentaries, and Kabbalistic tracts which he falsely attributed to earlier authorities.
Facts
| Born | c. 1240, León, Kingdom of León |
| Died | 1305, Arévalo, Kingdom of Castile |
| Known for | Kabbalah |
| Religion | Judaism |
Life & work in brief
Summarised by section — one row per topic, for fast reading.
| Work / contribution | Significance |
|---|---|
| Life | Moses de León was born in León, Kingdom of León in modern-day Spain, then united with the Crown of Castile. |
| Pardes | Moses de León was the first to advance the Kabbalistic theory of Biblical exegesis, as a Jewish adaptation of the fourfold method of Biblical exegesis from medieval Christianity. |
Contribution to the celestial-alphabet tradition
Castilian Kabbalist and redactor of the Zohar, the core text of Hebrew stellar-mystical symbolism. The Zohar's letter-mysticism (the 22 letters as cosmic building-blocks) is a primary source for the Hebrew-letter-as-stellar-symbol thesis this project tests.
Lineage — influence tree
Where Moses de León sits in the magi lineage: who shaped this figure, and who this figure shaped in turn. Mage names link to their own ficha.