That is no coincidence, but in honour of The Zohar, a humongous book of Jewish mysticism concocted in the thirteenth century. This is real; you can read about it on Wikipedia. The Zohar has a zillion sections. The version I know runs about 3000 pages over ten volumes, 1500 in the original Aramaic and, facing these, 1500 with an English translation. Each section sticks to the same format, with the text to be discussed at the top of the first page of the section. But it is always the same text, the first four words of the Bible,
In the beginning, God
this followed by what various pretend first century rabbis have to say about it. When Rabbi Nate (Age-of-Aquarius) Cohen put the book in our university library back in the sixties, I didn't understand why a commentary would get hung up on the same four words like that. Like we got a Big Book to process; let's get this show on the road! That was my feeling. I was just a troubled kid back then, ready to mock anything.
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