Who wrote "The Book of Spendor" according to Jacob Emden?

lanfranco

I can't find any evidence that Emden (also known as Ya'akov Ben Zevi and YaBeTz) claimed that any one person wrote the "Zohar." He does seem to have claimed, in his "Mitpachet Sefarim" (don't hold me responsible for the transliterations from Hebrew) that it was at least partly a forgery on the basis of anachronistic materials contained in it, so that it could not be dated to the 2nd century and the time of Simeon ben Yohai. There are several sites on this subject. Here's one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zohar May 28 06, 5:04 PM

zbeckabee

The following echoes what lanfranco has said...and I, am NOT finding anything either...that points directly to Jacob Emden having named an author. "A work devoted to the criticism of the Zohar was written, "Mishpat Sefarim," by Jacob Emden, who, waging war against the remaining adherents of the Sabbatai Zevi movement, endeavored to show that the book on which Zevi based his doctrines was a forgery. Emden demonstrates that the Zohar misquotes passages of Scripture; misunderstands the Talmud; contains some ritual observances which were ordained by later rabbinical authorities; mentions the crusades against the Muslims (who did not exist in the second century); uses the expression "esnoga", which is a Portuguese corruption of "synagogue," and gives a mystical explanation of the Hebrew vowel-points, which were not introduced until long after the Talmudic period." http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Zohar.html May 28 06, 8:54 PM