South Park

The other day, when we were learning about the story of Moses de Leon possibly writing the Zohar, we heard a story about how after his death, his wife told visitors to his home that he made it all up...

I mentioned to one of the Adams in our class that it sounded exactly like an episode of South Park. After class the Rabbi and myself and a couple of other students realized that it's the Mormon episode. Only, as the Rabbi points out, the "Book of Mormon" is their core text, while the Zohar is not.

But I found the episode on YouTube (here's a short cliffs notes of the South Park story of Mormon):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MIg8itgfi6w

watch it. it's hilarious. and the parallels are interesting....
p.s. it's a musical :D

Why was Jewish Mysticism popularized in the late 13th Century?

Regardless of whether one views the Zohar as being written or revealed in the 13th century by R.Moses de Leon, the fact remains, something changed at this time. Knowledge that was believed to be concealed and hidden, esoteric, and elite, became revealed and publicized to a much larger audience. Why did this change take place? What forces both internal and external could possibly explain this revolutionary change.

I hope people read and respond to this Post

RES

Creation

Think about the story of creation in Genisis. How does the account differ from the description of the mystics? How is it similar?