Despite its centrality to the Zoharic corpus, Tiqqunei ha-Zohar has never before been translated in full into English — or into any other Western language. Partial excerpts exist, but this is the first complete translation, the product of a decade of sustained work by David Solomon.
So what does this new edition offer, beyond simply being first?
It is a complete, first-of-its-kind translation
No prior translation of Tiqqunei ha-Zohar exists in English or in any Western language. This edition renders the complete text for the first time, making a foundational and notoriously difficult work of Jewish mysticism accessible to Western readers directly, rather than through summary or secondary discussion.
The translation is close and accessible, not interpretative
The translation stays close to the Aramaic — closer to word-for-word than to paraphrase or interpretation. This approach prioritises fidelity to the source text over smoothing it into looser, more idiomatic English, while still rendering it in language that is genuinely accessible to the reader. The result is a translation readers can trust as a direct encounter with the text itself, not a filtered or simplified version of it.
The layout breaks from tradition — and serves the text on two fronts
Zoharic texts are conventionally printed as dense, unbroken blocks of Aramaic. This edition instead presents the Aramaic in short, poetic lines, with the English translation mirroring that same line structure phrase by phrase on the facing page.
This rerendering does two things at once. First, it allows the inherent poetry of the source text — its rhythm, cadence, and internal structure — to be preserved and brought forward in a way that is difficult to perceive when Tiqqunei ha-Zohar is set as dense prose. Second, it makes the text far more accessible in practice: a reader can move between the Aramaic and the English line by line, checking one against the other, rather than searching across dense paragraphs to find a corresponding phrase.
It is a true bilingual edition, not a translation with reference notes
The Aramaic and English are presented as equal, facing-page texts, not as a translation with the original relegated to an appendix. Achieving this required extensive work: developing a layout that could hold both languages in precise correspondence, typesetting Aramaic and English to align across the page, and repeated cross-checking to ensure the two texts track each other exactly.
The translation pages support the reader directly
To aid understanding at the point of reading, the translation pages source direct quotations embedded in the text — Biblical, Zoharic, Talmudic, and Midrashic — so readers can identify a citation without having to leave the page. Wordplays, gematria, and sephirotic references are also noted where they occur, along with transliterations where necessary for comprehension. These additions are there to support the reader's understanding in the moment, without requiring recourse to a separate volume.
It is grounded in a specific historical text
The translation is based on the 1740 Constantinople edition of Tiqqunei ha-Zohar, tying this edition to a particular and significant point in the text's transmission history, rather than to a composite or modernised version.
The deeper scholarship is there — kept separate, by design
A seventh volume, containing David's extensive endnotes and translator's commentary, is in production and will follow the six-volume translation separately. This is a deliberate choice: keeping this material out of the translation volumes ensures the translation pages themselves remain clear and uncluttered, preserving a reading and study experience that stays focused on the text. Readers who want to go further — into the interpretive and textual questions behind specific passages, translation decisions, textual variants, and the full range of sources — will find that material in the seventh volume.
It is a limited, collectible print run
Only 500 sets of the six-volume translation are being produced in this first printing. As of now, 350 remain available for pre-order.
Together, these choices reflect a single aim: a translation that is faithful and direct, presented in a form that reveals rather than obscures the character of the source text — rigorous enough for serious study, and accessible enough to actually be read.