Tzemach, glad you are back.
By many historical accounts of De Leon's contemporaries (see Yeshaya Tishbi's scholarly introduction to his edition of Zohar), Moses De Leon was encouraged by his wife and others to write in his own name. He refused to do so for financial reasons, because, as he claimed, apocryphal literary works had more circulation, and he was paid per brochure of the writings that he was "recovering."
Many scholars, including Ramban, denied Zohar its alleged ancient sources, and attributed the writings to De Leon. But no other than De Leon was the one to adamantly insisted that Zohar was written by Rashbi. Therefore, if there is a forgotten poet, it is a poet who did all he could to be forgotten.
BTW, scholars agree that there are core concepts and expressions in Zohar that were taken from ancient tradition, possibly of late Mishnaic period.
Ephraim | 05.26.08 - 8:20 pm | #

I write as Tzemach Atlas although he was a character in Chaim Grade's novel. I don't mind if you think that the Rosh Yeshiva and Musornik was a great blogger...
Tzemach | Homepage | 05.26.08 - 8:27 pm | #