Editing Zohar (section)

===Judaism===
On the one hand, the ''Zohar'' was lauded by many rabbis because it opposed religious formalism, stimulated one's imagination and emotions, and for many people helped reinvigorate the experience of prayer.<ref name="jewcyclo" /> In many places [[Jewish prayer|prayer]] had become a mere external religious exercise, while prayer was supposed to be a means of transcending earthly affairs and placing oneself in union with God.<ref name="jewcyclo"/>

According to the ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', "On the other hand, the Zohar was censured by many rabbis because it propagated many [[Superstition|superstitious]] beliefs, and produced a host of mystical dreamers, whose overexcited imaginations peopled the world with spirits, demons, and all kinds of good and bad influences."<ref name="jewcyclo"/> Many classical rabbis, especially Maimonides, viewed all such beliefs as a violation of [[Jewish principles of faith]]. Its mystic mode of explaining some commandments was applied by its commentators to all religious observances, and produced a strong tendency to substitute mystic Judaism in the place of traditional [[Rabbinic Judaism]].<ref name="jewcyclo"/> For example, [[Shabbat]], the Jewish [[Sabbath]], began to be looked upon as the embodiment of God in temporal life, and every ceremony performed on that day was considered to have an influence upon the superior world.<ref name="jewcyclo"/>

Elements of the ''Zohar'' crept into the liturgy of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the religious poets not only used the allegorism and symbolism of the ''Zohar'' in their compositions, but even adopted its style, e.g. the use of erotic terminology to illustrate the relations between man and God.<ref name="jewcyclo" /> Thus, in the language of some Jewish poets, the beloved one's curls indicate the mysteries of the Deity; sensuous pleasures, and especially intoxication, typify the highest degree of divine love as ecstatic contemplation; while the wine-room represents merely the state through which the human qualities merge or are exalted into those of God.<ref name="jewcyclo"/>

The ''Zohar'' is also credited with popularizing de Leon's [[Pardes (exegesis)|PaRDeS]] codification of biblical exegesis.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}