Found In Translation

Enter Matt. By 1995 he had taught Jewish mysticism at the university level, written a book comparing Cabala and scientific cosmology, and translated some Zohar excerpts. Nevertheless he was stunned when Margot Pritzker, wife of the chairman of the Hyatt Corp., who was studying the book, offered to bankroll a full translation. "I told her, optimistically, that it might take 18 years," Matt says. "And she said, 'You're not scaring me.'"

The result is not for everybody. From its opening, an extended discourse on the image of a rose in the Song of Songs ("Just as a rose has 13 petals, so Assembly of Israel has 13 qualities of compassion on every side"), the first volume only plunges further into esoterica. Matt's commentary, which offers tidbits about ancient water clocks and the silkworm's arrival in Spain, along with his exegesis of mystical concepts, is often twice as long as his translation. Yet there are those eager to use it. Says Samuel Cohon, a Tucson, Ariz., rabbi who has ordered 40 copies at his congregants' request: "I thought, It'll be too hard. But there's a great desire to get at the source. If this is a profound text, then let's see why."

Matt still has the slightly dazed look of an Ahab whose white whale has arrived unhunted. He hopes to finish his task by age 70. It's not time that he will regret. "When I wake up, it's all I want to do," he says. "I feel like I'm inside De Leon's mind now. I know the tricks he's up to. And he's a genius. This is the most astounding book in Judaism." It is a judgment his own work makes even clearer.