But their eyes are blocked from seeing as is their intellect from understanding. In the end, all of their words are like chaff before the wind and they sought chaotic words that have no substance, destruction of the Torah and contradicting it, words of heresy and denial. How could any wise person consider that the truth is as their words, that it is not proper to bless or pray to the First G-d who has no beginning or end, the cause of all causes - who they call, in their language, "Ein Sof". That whoever does so is, in their eyes "Meqases bineti'oth" and does not merit to see the wonders of redemption that awaits those who know G-d and fear Him... - How could this not be explained in the Pure Torah, that G-d gave us to live by forever? In which it says, "You have been shown to know that the Lord is G-d. There is no other". If so, how would we know the thing that G-d did not speak? Where, then, did He tell us these things? How then could Rabenu haQqadosh, who compiled the Mishna, have neglected to explain them to us? And Rabina and Rav Ashe, who compiled the Talmud which is set before us, that they are the main body of the oral Torah? How could they leave all of Yisrael in error and losing out on the world to come - as "Meqasese bineti'oth"? Oy to the eyes that thus see! Oy to the ears that thus hear! Oy to the generation that had this happen in its days!... Do we have in our days, in the midst of all the false beliefs of the nations, those who deny the unity of G-d as these? And if they say that he who blesses and prays to G-d, blessed be He, the cause of all causes, creator of all, will be cut off from the world. (But that) he merits the world to come, and is not called "meqases beneti'oth" - but they think, in their foolishness, that this is the belief of the masses, but they are privy to secrets of G-d and are among those who fear Him. And they wait to rise to higher level than others, in this faith of theirs. These idiots are abandoning, even according to their own words, that which is certain and grasping that which is only a possibility. Certainly they are destroyed with this, and their souls are destroyed and they are descending to the lowest level - opposite of their hopes and intentions, which are not correct.
In the end, every man who has knowledge is required to distance himself from their foolishness. And behold we have written everything before you, our rabbis who are in every city, to reveal to everybody all these things - for we feared because of the signatures that were upon them. Also that it was told us that they forged many signatures of the Hakhamim of this land, who did not actually sign them, that many might be led astray after this, and they will pride themselves in false things and say "in the land of the people of Torah and wisdom did we find strength and might". Lest they say "our hands are raised high."
Heaven forbid that they err after this evil, after these heretical words - let it not be so in Yisrael.
And I have heard that they have already composed a book, they called its name "Bahir", which I have mentioned earlier, and it will not see light. That book has already arrived in our possession and we found that they attributed it to R. Nehuniya ben haQqaneh. G-d forbid! Such things never were and never were created and that righteous man would never have sinned so, nor would he be counted amongst criminals. And the language of this book, and all of its concepts, prove that it came from a man who was not very literate nor educated. It contains words of heresy and minuth in many places.
We have also heard that they have also authored a commentary on the Song of Songs and the Book of Yesirah and Heikhaloth, and that within are written heretical things, and a commentary on Ecclesiastes and other books. Inquire and search well and if they are in your midst, burn them from the Earth so that they will not be a stumbling block. Search for them well, for we have burned those that were found amongst us. And the Lord, in His mercy, will send us a redeemer and will gather the dispersed of Yehudha and Yisrael, and will remove doubts and confusion from amid His people and will return the hearts of fathers to their sons and the hearts of sons to their fathers.
We have written all this with the approval of our master, the great rav, candle of Yisrael, our teacher R. Meshulam ben harav haGgadol Moshe (?) and the other Hakhamim of the land, some of whom privately know the matter that caused us to write. And the wise will be careful "KaZzohar haRaqia' umasdiqe harabim kaKkokhavim la'olam wa'edh". Amen amen selah.
That is all. There is little doubt that his words, toward the end refer to the Zohar. I do not believe that his choice of verse, at the end of this letter, is a coincidence. The original is longer than what I have translated - because the author was quite long-winded in his descriptions of the pure faith of the Torah. My translation is accurate if not professional. If anybody wishes to see the original Hebrew, just let me know and I'll be happy to scan it in and post it. When I wrote this book, all I had was one of the earliest home computers (very primitive by today's standards) and an early dot matrix printer and so it remains.