Rav Shimon Bar Yochai lived in Israel in the 2nd century, during the Roman occupation. It was a time of holocaust and bloodshed. When Rav Shimon’s teacher, the great Rav Akiva, was executed for refusing to forsake his spiritual teaching, Rav Shimon took refuge in a secluded cave together with his son, Rav Eleazar. For 13 years, they were forced to hide from the Roman army.
Seeking to attain the same control over the material realm as his great teacher, Rav Shimon buried himself in the ground, neck deep, each day of his seclusion. During these long years of painful isolation, he received instruction in the metaphysical arts of Kabbalah. His teachers were the souls of Moses and Elijah the prophet.
When the leadership of the Roman Empire changed, Rav Shimon and his son were free to return to Jerusalem. The years of deprivation and suffering had scarred the Rav Shimon’s body, but the spiritual Light that radiated from his soul made it hard for ordinary men even to stand in his presence.
To protect the secrets of the universe that had been revealed to him, Rav Shimon called upon one student — Rav Abba — to commit the teachings to writing. Abba had an extraordinary gift for expressing ideas through metaphor and parable. Hence, the secrets would be safe, concealed inside abstruse stories, making it difficult for the wicked and unworthy to grasp and misuse this ancient power. In this way, The Zohar — the ultimate spiritual work of Kabbalah — came into being. To this day, The Zohar (the “Book of Splendor”) is acknowledged as the definitive and authoritative work on kabbalistic wisdom.