Moses de León

Moses de León (c. 1240 – 1305), known in Hebrew as Moshe ben Shem-Tov (משה בן שם-טוב די-ליאון‎), was a Spanish rabbi and Kabbalist who first publicized the Zohar. Modern scholars believe the Zohar is his own work, despite his claim that he took traditions going back to Shimon bar Yochai and committed them to writing. 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.[1]

Statue of Moshe in Guadalajara, Spain.
Title page of first edition of the Zohar, Mantua, 1558. Library of Congress.
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Life

Moses de León was born in León, Kingdom of León in modern day Spain, then united with the Crown of Castile.[2] He might have been born in Guadalajara and his surname, then, comes from his father, Shem-Tov de León. He spent 30 years in Guadalajara and Valladolid before moving to Ávila, where he spent the rest of his life. Moses de León died at Arévalo in 1305 while returning to his home.

References
  1. See Elliot R. Wolfson, “Hai Gaon’s Letter and Commentary on Aleynu: Further Evidence of Moses de León’s Pseudepigraphic Activity,” JQR 81 (1991), pp. 365-409 and the sources he cites; also the sources cited by Shmuel Glick, Eshnav le-Sifrut ha-Teshuvot (New York, 2012), pp. 237-238.
  2. The Jewish Encyclopedia

Resources
  • Ahimaaz Chronicle, ed. London, pp. 95 et seq.;
  • Adolf Jellinek, Moses b. Schem-Tob de Leon und Seine Verhältniss zum Sohar, Leipsic, 1851;
  • Grätz, Gesch. vii. 231 et seq.;
  • Abraham Geiger, Das Judenthum und Seine Geschichte, iii. 75 et seq., Breslau, 1871;
  • Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi and C. H. Hamberger, Hist. Wörterb. p. 177;
  • Moritz Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 1852 et seq.;
  • idem, Hebr. Bibl. x. 156 et seq.
  • Avishai Bar Asher, R. Moses de León - Sefer Mishkan ha-Edut, Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2013
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