Yehuda Liebes

Yehuda Liebes was born in 1947 in Jerusalem

Yehuda Liebes was born in Jerusalem in 1947 to Joseph Gerhard and Mira Liebes. His father translated classic literature into Hebrew. His parents were friends of Gershom Scholem, who gave him a book on the Zohar for his Bar Mitzvah.

He attended the Hebrew University Secondary School from 1960 to 1965. He served in the Paratroopers Brigade, fought in the Six-Day War, and was wounded during reserve duty in 1969.

In 1967 he began studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He wrote his doctorate under Scholem on chapters in a dictionary of the Zohar, completed in 1976.

He joined the Department of Jewish Thought in 1971 and became a full professor in 1993. His research covers the Zohar, Jewish myth, Sabbateanism and links between Judaism and Greek religion, Christianity and Islam. He argues that the Zohar was written by a group of 13th-century Spanish Kabbalists.

He has been professor emeritus since 2008 and also translates religious poetry from Greek, Latin and Arabic. He married Esther in 1970, and they have 3 children and live in Jerusalem.