The Zohar reads the Torah as a mystical document encoding the inner life of God. Its central teaching elaborates the Sefirot — the ten attributes or emanations through which Ein Sof becomes manifest — and the dynamics among them.
The text’s style is narrative and imaginative; its characters wander the Galilee exchanging interpretations of verse. Modern scholarship attributes most of the Zohar to Moses de León in 13th-century Spain; traditional Kabbalists hold it to be vastly older. Either way it has been the beating heart of the tradition since it appeared.