Raza רזא

Raza (רזא, “secret,” “mystery”) is the Aramaic Zoharic term-of-art for the esoteric secret, the counterpart of the Hebrew sod (the fourth and deepest level of the PaRDeS hermeneutic). It is ubiquitous in the Zohar in the construction raza de-… (the secret of such-and-such), and in the intensified raza de-razin (the secret of secrets). The plural is razin. In the Idra the disclosure of the razin of the divine configurations is the work of the assembly, undertaken under oath and licensed by the verse “it is a time to act for the Lord” (Psalms 119:126).

Etymology

From raz (secret, mystery), a Persian loanword that entered Aramaic already in the biblical period (it is the word for the “mystery” of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2). The Zohar inherits it as its standard term for the esoteric.

Why not “riddle” or “puzzle”

Hekhal renders “secret,” reserving “mystery” for contexts where the revealed-mystery register is unambiguous (it can otherwise drift toward the Christian liturgical sense, as with sod). “Riddle,” “puzzle,” and “enigma” reduce the esoteric secret to a problem to be solved, losing the sense of a guarded, transmitted depth of meaning.

Primary sources

• Zohar (throughout): the raza de-… constructions.
• Zohar, Idra Rabba and Idra Zuta: the disclosure of the razin of the configurations.

Scholarly literature

• Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism.
• Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar.
• Matt, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition.

Hekhal Editorial. "Raza." Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition. Last modified May 2, 2026. https://hekhal.org/lexicon/raza.

Hekhal Editorial. 2026. "Raza." Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition. https://hekhal.org/lexicon/raza.

Hekhal Editorial. "Raza." Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition, May 2, 2026, hekhal.org/lexicon/raza.

Hekhal Editorial. (2026). Raza. Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition. https://hekhal.org/lexicon/raza

@misc{hekhal-lexicon-raza-2026,
  author       = {{Hekhal Editorial}},
  title        = {{Raza}},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {{Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition}},
  url          = {https://hekhal.org/lexicon/raza},
  urldate      = {[date accessed]}
}