| This is a polemic by the Bet Din Tzedek of Kehilat HaMaaravim(which was formed in 1860) against those from Yemen who go by the name of Irgun Avi Dovid who defame the Holy Book of the Zohar and the wisdom of the kabbalah.
It continues by saying that many great Rabbis busied themselves with the study of the Zohar and if you lined them up one after the other the line would reach from the rising of the sun in the east to the great sea in the west. Proceeding, it gives examples of famous Rabbis who studied the kabbalah in the past, such as the Ramban (Nahmanides) who studied with R Azriel and with RHayyim Ibn Attar, author of Or Ha Hayyim on the Torah. Rabbenu Bachya is also mentioned as he gives proofs in his works where he says "see The Zohar" and uses language from it to prove a point.
A story is told of someone who about 50 years earlier had come to Yemen posing as a wise man from Safed and called himself Aharon HaLevi (it turned out he was an uncircumcised non-Jew) and he began to speak disparagingly about the Zohar. His words were compared to bad water. Now we find it imperative to follow the Ashkenazic congregations and the Sephardic congregations to warn those who drink the evil water that they will not capture in their evil.. .and we may merit the redemption to come. Amen.
This is signed by R. Shmuel Ezran, R. Y osef Y. Shalosh,and R Shalom M. Azulai.
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