Menachem Kellner on the Zohar

Freddie over here has a post quoting Menachem Kellner's assesment of the "Zohar Question:"

So, putting the question rather tendentiously, is Judaism the sort of religion found in the Bible, Mishna, Talmud, and Maimonides, or is Judaism the sort of religion found in the Bible, Mishna, Talmud, and Zohar? These are very different sorts of religions and the answer to the question depends on the answers to the question, who wrote the Zohar and when?

Since it has to do with the theme of my last couple of posts, I thought I'd remark on this take. First of all, I find it hard to believe that there are only two options. My sources tell me that Shmuel David Luria (more on him later) was opposed to both. The Moreh Nevuchim, as we all know, was summarily banned before the Zohar was ever heard of. The Vilna Gaon, while he was a kabbalist, did not practice Zoharic Judaism (usually), but he did strongly criticize the Rambam for his philosophy. There obviously is some middle ground, and it depends not on who wrote the Zohar, but what your attitude is about the Zohar's place in Judaism (and incidentally, the Rambam's place in Judaism.)
For the record, Rabbi Daniel Frisch's שערי זוהר provides a list of kabbalists and their opinions of who wrote the Zohar. This list is very instructive:

• The Mikdash Melech writes that while Rashby did, in fact, write the Zohar, he wrote some of it posthumously from Gan Eden. (The חבורא קדמאה mentioned in the Zohar is Rashby & Co. during their lives.)
  
• The Kamarna Rebbe writes that it was edited and explained during the times of the Geonim. There is some more giluy Eliyahu etc. involved, but the point remains that according to this opinion, it was not entirely written by Rashby.
  
• Rabbi Eliyahu Galanti goes further than the Kamarna Rebbe by saying that the posttannaic material was added by a certain (shall we get Halivnian?) stamma, who incorporated other teachings and sources while he was compiling the Zohar.
  
• The Ramak writes that the Amoraic quotes in the Gemara which are found in the Zohar are really Tannaic, but the Gemara didn't record their source because אבדה ההשתלשלות, the transmission was forgotton. The source really seems to be the Zohar (or Har Sinai), but some bucherzetzer thought he was doing everyone a favor by putting the Amoraic source in the Zohar.
  
• Rabbi Chaim Vital is the one who says the Zohar was written as it is by Rashby, period full-stop.
  

I personally find Rabbi Galanti's assesment to be the most convincing, if you are (dogmatically, of course) of the opinion that the Zohar is not a forgery.

Rabbi Menachem Kasher addresses many of Gershom Scholem's arguments here. Remember that Scholem was the one who attributed the Zohar to Rabbi de Leon.