kabbalah

Dictionary: kab·ba·lah or kab·ba·la or ka·ba·la also ca·ba·la or qa·ba·la or qa·ba·lah (kăb'ə-lə, kə-bä'lə) pronunciation

often Kabbalah A body of mystical teachings of rabbinical origin, often based on an esoteric interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
A secret doctrine resembling these teachings.

[Medieval Latin cabala, from Hebrew qabbālâ, received doctrine, tradition, from qibbēl, to receive.]

kabbalism kab'ba·lism n.
kabbalist kab'ba·list n.

USAGE NOTE There are no less than two dozen variant spellings of kabbalah, the most common of which include kabbalah, kabala, kabalah, qabalah, qabala, cabala, cabbala, kaballah, kabbala, kaballah, and qabbalah. This sort of confusion is frequently seen with Hebrew and Arabic words borrowed into English because there exist several different systems of transliterating the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets into Roman letters. Often a more exact or scholarly transliteration, such as Qur'an, will coexist alongside a spelling that has been heavily Anglicized (Koran). The fact that the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets do not as a rule indicate short vowels or the doubling of consonants compounds the difficulties. Spellings of kabbalah with one or two b's are equally "correct," insofar as the single b accurately reproduces the spelling of the Hebrew, while the double b represents the fact that it was once pronounced with a double b.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Kabbala

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Jewish mysticism as it developed in the 12th century and after. Essentially an oral tradition, it laid claim to secret wisdom of the unwritten Torah communicated by God to Adam and Moses. It provided Jews with a direct approach to God, a notion regarded as heretical and pantheistic by Orthodox Judaism. A major text was the 12th-century Book of Brightness, which introduced the doctrine of transmigration of souls to Judaism and provided Kabbala with extensive mythical symbolism. In 13th-century Spain the tradition included the Book of the Image, which asserted that each cycle of history had its own Torah, and the Book of Splendour, which dealt with the mystery of creation. In the 16th century the centre of Kabbala was Safed, Galilee, where it was based on the esoteric teachings of the greatest of all Kabbalists, Isaac ben Solomon Luria. The doctrines of Lurianic Kabbala, which called for Jews to achieve a cosmic restoration (Hebrew: tiqqun) through an intense mystical life and an unceasing struggle against evil, were influential in the development of modern Hasidism.

For more information on Kabbala, visit Britannica.com.

The Religion Book: Kabbalah

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Kabbalah comes from the Hebrew letters qof-bet-lamed. When translated, it literally means "to accept" or "to receive." But it is usually translated as "tradition."

Kabbalah refers to a mystical branch of Judaism that traces its roots to the very beginnings of creation, but it was committed to writing in books such as the Zohar during the Middle Ages. This work was published in early-fourteenth-century Spain by Moses de Leon, but he attributed it to Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, who lived in the second century ce. Many believe it to be a compilation of various streams of thought and teaching, and not the work of one man. The Zohar is a mystical commentary on the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, and it is thought by Kabbalists to be equal in holiness to the Bible and the Talmud.

Kabbalah deals with five theological issues:

The Nature of God

Yahveh, God, is described as the Eternal-in Hebrew, Ein Sof (the Endless). (Kabbalists and other religious Jews believe the name of the deity to be so holy that it is not voiced. To refrain from speaking that name, vowels are not used. Hence the Hebrew name YHVH for Yahveh, and, in English, the rendering of God's name as G-d.) Because God is above all existence, he (in Kabbalah, the masculine pronoun is most often used) did not actually create the world. Instead, all forms of life, both above and below the plane we experience, are emanations from Ein Sof.

Ein Sof is not a name. It is rather a description of the absolute transcendence that is so far above us we can only depict it by describing what it is not (similar to the Hindu concept of Brahman; see Brahman/Atman). But even though Ein Sof is absolutely transcendent, he interacts with the universe through what Tracey Rich in her article "Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism" refers to as "ten emanations from this essence." These are called Ten Sefirot, or the Ten Spheres. In English these spheres are translated as: crown, wisdom, intelligence (intuition, understanding), greatness, strength (power), beauty (glory), firmness (majesty), splendor, foundation, and kingdom (sovereignty).

1 Chronicles 10:11 quotes King David as he refers to the middle five of these emanations in order: "Yours, O Yahveh, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours." Perhaps this passage points to Kabbalah's ancient roots.

The names of these spheres, in Hebrew, allow for both masculine and feminine qualities, a characteristic that continues through much of Kabbalah theology. It is important to remember that the Ten Sefirot are not separate deities, but rather ways in which Ein Sof connects with the universe while at the same time remaining separate from it. Through these spheres God rules the world, and through them God's activities are explained.

The Creation of the Universe

If all that exists emanates from God and holds the universe together, then humans can interact with God by obeying the commandments and participating righteously within the framework of the intention of the Creator. The Hebrew people were given the law for that very reason. It was not just a law for them, it was the law for everyone. They were simply the ones chosen to demonstrate and preserve the universal law, which illustrates the very nature of the Creator.

The Destiny of Humanity

All souls were created at the same time and are the most important part of each person. Souls that remain pure after contact with human bodies become, at death, part of the divine, the ten spheres of God. Those souls that are impure, that do not obey the divine law, must continue to migrate from body to body until they have been completely purified (note the similarity to Hinduism-see Hinduism; Karma).

The Nature of Evil

Evil is not a separate entity. Instead, it is understood to be a cessation of the good. It can be overcome through prayer, repentance, self-affliction, and, most important, by strict observance of the law. In this sense, evil, even a great evil such as the Holocaust, is seen as a purging and reminder, a call to repentance, not just a punishment.

The Meaning of the Bible

The very text of the Bible is a code from God to humanity. It is filled with layers upon layers of messages only now beginning to be understood. Indeed, new computer studies seem to reveal hidden meanings never before discovered. Like a multi-dimension crossword puzzle, those who study Bible codes find predictions of historical events described by some as uncanny and by others as completely coincidental.

Michael Drosnin is not a Kabbalist, but his book The Bible Code documents many of the early messages computer analysis seems to reveal. On September 1, 1994, he flew to Israel and met with a close friend of Yitzhak Rabin, warning him that he had found the prime minister's name encoded in the Bible. Crossing that name were the words, "Assassin that will assassinate." The code even seemed to indicate the assassination would take place in the Hebrew year that began in September of 1995 of the common calendar. Its warning was ignored. Two months later, on November 4th, Rabin was murdered.

There are many other such warnings. The assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. are said to be there, as are the Holocaust, the World Wars, and the birth and rise to world power of America. As computers make the search easier, there seems to be mounting evidence of something the Kabbalists have been saying for centuries. Indeed, Drosnin now claims the World Trade Center tragedy of September 11, 2001, was prophesied. The latest edition of his book even goes so far as to predict the date of the end of the world (2004), assuming human beings don't wise up. Drosnin is not religious. He doesn't even claim a belief in God, let alone Kabbalah. He is interested only in what he deduces from his computer readouts, and he presents a compelling case for hidden meanings in scripture.

But not all Jews accept Kabbalah teachings, and some are extremely skeptical. Tracey Rich quotes an Orthodox Jewish scholar on the subject of Jewish mysticism: "It's nonsense, but it's Jewish nonsense, and the study of anything Jewish, even nonsense, is worthwhile."

Sources: Bridger, David, ed. The New Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Behrman House, 1962. Drosnin, Michael. The Bible Code. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997. Rich, Tracey R. “Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism.” Judaism 101. http://www.jewfaq.org/kabbalah.htm. September 15, 2003.

Columbia Encyclopedia: kabbalah

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kabbalah or cabala (both: kăb'ələ) [Heb.,=reception], esoteric system of interpretation of the Scriptures based upon a tradition claimed to have been handed down orally from Abraham. Despite that claimed antiquity, the system appears to have been given its earliest formulation in the 11th cent. in France, and from there spread most notably to Spain. There were undoubtedly precedents, however; kabbalistic elements are discernible in the literature of earlier Merkavah mysticism (fl. after c.A.D. 100) inspired by the vision of the chariot-throne ("merkavah") in the Book of Ezekiel. Beyond the specifically Jewish notions contained within the kabbalah, some scholars believe that it reflects a strong Neoplatonic influence, especially in its doctrines of emanation and the transmigration of souls (see Neoplatonism). In the late 15th and 16th cent., Christian thinkers found support in the kabbalah for their own doctrines, out of which they developed a Christian version. Kabbalistic interpretation of Scripture was based on the belief that every word, letter, number, and even accent contained mysteries interpretable by those who knew the secret. The names for God were believed to contain miraculous power and each letter of the divine name was considered potent; kabbalistic signs and writings were used as amulets and in magical practices.

The two principal sources of the kabbalists are the Sefer Yezirah (tr. Book of Creation, 1894) and the Zohar (tr. 1949; The Book of Enlightenment, 1985; The Book of Splendor, 1995). The first develops, in a series of monologues supposedly delivered by Abraham, the doctrine of the Sefirot (the powers emanating from God, through which the world is created and its order sustained), using the primordial numbers of the later Pythagoreans in a system of numerical interpretation. It was probably written in the 3d cent. The Zohar consists of mystical commentaries and homilies on the Pentateuch. It was written by Moses de León (13th cent.) but attributed by him to Simon ben Yohai, the great scholar of the 2d cent. A.D. Following the expulsion (1492) of the Jews from Spain, kabbalah became more messianic in its emphasis, as developed by the Lurianic school of mystics at Safed, Palestine. Kabbalah in this form was widely adopted and created fertile gound for the movement of the pseudo-Messiah Sabbatai Zevi. It was also a major influence in the development of Hasidism. Kabbalah still has adherents, especially among Hasidic Jews.

Bibliography

See G. Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism (1965) and Kabbalah (1974); H. Weiner, Nine and One Half Mystics: The Kabbalah Today (1969); J. Dan and F. Talmage, ed., Studies in Jewish Mysticism (1982); D. Rosenberg, Dreams of Being Eaten Alive: The Literary Core of the Kabbalah (2000).

History 1450-1789: Cabala

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The commonly used term for the mystical, magical, and theosophic teachings of Judaism from the twelfth century onward, the cabala (also cabbala, kabbala, or kabbalah) was considered the esoteric and unwritten portion of the revelation granted to Adam and again to Moses, while the Bible represented the exoteric revelation. (Although the term is often spelled with a 'k' when referring to the Jewish tradition and with a 'c' in the Christian version, it is spelled here with a 'c' for simplicity's sake.) The word means "that which is received" or "tradition," implying that the cabala was a body of knowledge that passed orally from generation to generation. A distinction is generally made between theoretical and practical cabala, the first dealing with theosophical issues, and the second with producing specific practical and eschatological effects (healing the sick, hastening the advent of the Messiah, attaining an ecstatic state) through the use of divine names and Hebrew letters.

The cabala proper developed from diverse esoteric and theosophical currents among Jews in Palestine and Egypt during the first Christian centuries. Early strands of Jewish apocalypticism and Merkabah (throne) and Hekhalot (palaces) mysticism were influenced by Hellenistic, Iranian, and gnostic thought, although scholars disagree about the extent and importance of these external influences. Merkabah and Hekhalot mysticism was devoted to descriptions of the dangerous ascent through various worlds and palaces that culminated in the vision of the divine throne described in Ezekiel. The Sefer Yezirah (Book of formation), a major source of later cabalistic speculation, belongs to the same period (second to sixth century). It describes the creative power of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the ten sefirot (numbers or manifestations of God) through whom the world came into being.

During the Middle Ages these traditions of early Jewish mysticism were fused with Christian and Islamic (Sufism) mysticism and Islamic and Christian Neoplatonism to produce the German Hasidic movement (Ashkenazi Hasidism), which peaked between the eleventh and the thirteenth centuries. Its leading figures were Judah he-Hasid (d. 1217) and his pupil Eleazar of Worms (d. 1238), who produced popular works combining elements of Merkabah mysticism and theurgy with mystical speculations about letters and numbers.

The cabala originated simultaneously from these same sources in southern France in the twelfth century. Among its most important proponents were Rabbi Abraham ben David and his son Rabbi Isaac the Blind (d. c. 1235). The Sefer ha-Bahir, composed in the late twelfth century, circulated among these cabalists. It elaborated on the idea of the ten sefirot, describing them as divine powers emanating from the hidden God (En Soph). This became a dominant motif in later cabala. Cabalist centers developed in Burgos, Toledo, and Gerona. Azriel of Gerona applied Neoplatonic philosophy to cabalist concepts. For Gerona cabalists the highest human goal was to attain Devekut (communion with God) through prayer and meditation on the sefirot. Nachmanides (c. 1194–1270) was the most famous member of this group. Many of the ideas of Ashkenazi Hasidism were absorbed by cabalists in Spain and southern France, who established new schools of cabala in Europe, Italy, and the East. Although there were considerable differences between the teachings of the various mystical and cabalistic groups in the medieval period, a common theme was the idea of the Godhead as a unity of dynamic forces.

A school of prophetic Cabala arose in connection with the teachings of Abraham Abulafia (c. 1240–1292), who devised "the science of combination," a mystical technique of meditating on the divine names and the Hebrew letters in order to draw down the divine spirit and attain ecstatic experiences. The main product of Spanish Cabala, however, was the Sefer ha-Zohar (The book of splendor), written largely between 1280 and 1286. More of a library than a book, the Zohar consists of some twenty independent works. While it was attributed to the second-century Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, a renowned sage of the school of Rabbi Akiva, the actual author was the contemporary Spanish cabalist Moses de Leon. The whole thrust of the Zohar, and the Cabala in general, is to understand the nature of God and man's relation to him, but the picture that emerges is different from that found elsewhere in Judaism. Instead of the lawgiver and ruler of halakhah (Jewish law), the merciful father of aggadah (allegorical rabbinic literature), the awesome king of Merkabah and Hekhalot mysticism, or the necessary being of the philosophers, the Zohar envisions God as ten sefirot joined in a dynamic, organic unity. Each represents a distinct attribute of God, such as "wisdom," "understanding," "power," "beauty," "endurance," and "majesty."

Humanity is accorded tremendous power in the Zohar. Because people are made in the image of God and originate from the Godhead, they have the power to influence and act in the divine realm for good and ill. Through devotion in prayer and by fulfilling the commandments, people become active participants in the "mystery of unification" (sod hayihud), the process through which the divine forces are united, perfected, and return to their source. The notion that man can participate in the restoration, repair, and amendment of this world is stressed throughout the Zohar in the notion of Tikkun, which literally means 'restoration'.

In the sixteenth century a new form of Cabala appeared, derived from the teachings of Isaac Luria (1534–1572). Where the Zohar and earlier cabalistic works concentrated on cosmology, the Lurianic Cabala focused on exile, redemption, and the millennium. Luria reasoned that in order for there to be a place for the world, God had to withdraw from a part of himself. This doctrine of Tsimsum (withdrawal) was both profound and ambiguous. It provided a symbol of exile in the deepest sense, within the divinity itself, but it also implied that evil was intrinsic to the creation process and not attributable to man alone. Two other doctrines are crucial to Luria's radical theology, the Shevirat-ha-Kelim (breaking of the vessels) and Tikkun (restoration). Both explain how the evil that emerged with creation represented a temporary state that would eventually end with the perfection of all things.

According to the complex mythology of the Lurianic cabala, after God withdrew from himself, traces of light were left in the void. These were formed into the image of the primordial man, Adam Kadmon, who was the first manifested configuration of the divine. However, at this point a catastrophe occurred. Further divine lights burst forth from Adam Kadmon, but the "vessels" meant to contain them shattered. With "the breaking of the vessels" evil came into the world as sparks of light (souls) became sunk in matter.

In the Lurianic cabala man is given an even more central role than in the Zohar, for it is only through human actions (observing the commandments, studying the Torah, and mystical meditation) that the souls, trapped among the shards of the broken vessels, can be reunited with the divine light. Luria viewed history as an ongoing struggle between the forces of good and evil played out by the same cast of characters, who experience repeated reincarnations (Gilgul ) until they become perfect. Although the process of Tikkun will be long and arduous, restoration will eventually occur as each exiled being moves up the ladder of creation, becoming better and increasingly spiritual until finally freed from the cycle of rebirth. The Lurianic cabala transformed mysticism into an activist historical force, involving individuals in a cosmic millennial drama in which their every action counted. The Lurianic cabala was the first Jewish theology to envision perfection in terms of a future state, not in terms of some forfeited ideal past.

Gershom Scholem believed that the Lurianic cabala became "something like the true theologia mystica of Judaism" from 1630 onward (Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 284). He attributed the emergence of the heretical movement connected with Shabbetai Tzevi (also Sabbatai Sevi; 1626–1676) to the messianic ideas inherent in Lurianic cabala. In Scholem's view, Shabbetai Tzevi's eventual apostasy and conversion to Islam led to a crisis in Judaism that precipitated the Haskalah, or secular Enlightenment. The cabala thus played a key role in transforming Jewish history and culture. Not all scholars agree. Idel and others deny that Messianism was a significant element of Lurianic cabala. In their view the Sabbatean movement was an outgrowth of popular apocalyptic Messianism and secularization that was largely the result of increased social and intellectual contact with Christians.

The last stage in the development of Jewish cabala occurred with the emergence of the modern Hasidic movement, founded by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, in the mid-eighteenth century. This movement created a serious rift within Judaism between Hasids and their rationalist opponents (the Mitnagedim), who claimed that Hasidism ignored important aspects of the Jewish law, especially Torah study and prayer, and placed too much emphasis on the redeeming role of the Hasidic rabbi, or Tsaddik (holy one).

Christian Cabala

Christian interest in the cabala emerged at the end of the fifteenth century in the Platonic Academy at the Medici court in Florence. The cabala was seen as a source for retrieving the prisca theologia, or ancient wisdom, but being Jewish and not pagan in origin, cabalistic writings were regarded as the purest source of this divine knowledge. This was the view of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), who studied the cabala with the assistance of several Jewish teachers, Samuel ben Nissim Abulfaraj, Yoseph Alemano (1435–1504) and the converted Jew Raymond Moncada, also known as Flavius Mithradites (fl. 1470–1483). Pico's cabalistic studies were aimed at converting the Jews by showing them that their own ancient wisdom supported the truth of Christianity. Forty-seven of his famous nine hundred theses were taken directly from the cabala, while another seventy-two were based on his speculations about the cabala. As a result of his study, he concluded that "no science can better convince us of the divinity of Jesus Christ than magic and the cabala," an opinion the Catholic Church condemned. Pico's work influenced the German Christian Hebraist Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522), who wrote De Verbo Mirifico (1494; On the miracle-working name) and De Arte Cabalistica (1517; On the science of the cabala). Reuchlin claimed that God revealed himself in three stages: first, to the Patriarchs through the three-letter name Shaddai (shin, dalet, yod); then in the Torah as the four-letter Tetragrammaton (yod, he, vav, he); and finally as the five-letter name Yehoshua (yod, he, shin, vav, he) or Jesus. Pico's and Reuchlin's work encouraged other Christians to explore the cabala. Cornelius Agrippa included discussions of the practical cabala in De Occulta Philosophia (1531), which led to the association of the cabala with magic and witchcraft. Cardinal Egidio da Viterbo (1465–1532) wrote a treatise on the Hebrew letters. The Franciscan Francesco di Giorgio (1460/66–1540) incorporated material from the Zohar in his De Harmonia Mundi (1525) and Problemata (1536). Guillaume Postel (1570–1581) translated the Sefer Yetzirah and parts of the Zohar into Latin with annotations. A fusion between the cabala and alchemy emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, appearing in Heinrich Khunrath's Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae (1609) and the writings of Robert Fludd (1574–1637) and Thomas Vaughan (1622–1666).

During the seventeenth century Jakob Boehme's (1575–1624) work was noted for its affinity to the cabala, and the German Jesuit Athansius Kircher drew a parallel between Adam Kadmon and Jesus. The most influential Christian cabalist, however, was Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636–1689), whose Kabbala Deundata (1677, 1684) offered the Latin-reading public the largest collection of cabalistic texts available before the nineteenth century. This collection was especially important because it included selections from the Zohar (with annotations and commentaries) and translations and synopses of treatises written by Luria's disciples Hayyim Vital and Israel Sarug. Scholars have recently begun to investigate the way in which this work and the cabala in general influenced such thinkers as Henry More, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, John Locke, and Isaac Newton, contributing to the modern idea of scientific progress and the concept of toleration. The German Pietists led by Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (1702–1782) were also influenced by von Rosenroth's translations, and he in turn influenced Franz von Baader, Martines de Pasqually, Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Friedrich von Schelling. Georg von Welling published his popular Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum et Theosophicum in 1735. The last great work of Christian cabala was Franz Josef Molitor's (1779–1861) Philosophie der Geschichte oder Ueber die Tradition, which in spite of its Christological approach received high praise from Scholem, influencing his own view of the cabala. The theosophical systems of eighteenth-century Freemasons, Illuminati, and Rosicrucians also reflect cabalistic concepts and symbolism. This connection unfortunately played into the hands of anti-Semites, who claimed that a Jewish "cabale" of revolutionary Freemasons and cabalists were infiltrating European institutions and destroying them from within. The legacy of the cabala in Europe is thus Janus-faced: on the one hand it contributed to ideas at the heart of the Enlightenment: scientific progress, the ability of man to shape his own destiny, and religious toleration; on the other hand, it fed into the anti-Semitic rhetoric that laid the foundation for genocide.

Bibliography

Altmann, Alexander. "Lurianic Kabbala in a Platonic Key: Abraham Cohen Herrera's Puerta del Cielo." Hebrew Union College Annual 53 (1982): 317–355.

Blau, Joshua. The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance. New York, 1944.

Cohn, Norman. Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Chico, Calif., 1981.

Coudert, Allison P. The Impact of the Kabbalah in the Seventeenth Century: The Life and Thought of Francis Mercury van Helmont, 1614–1698. Leiden, 1999.

——. Leibniz and the Kabbalah. Dordrecht, 1995.

Fine, Lawrence, ed. Essential Papers on Kabbalah. New York, 1995.

Goldish, Matt. "Newton on Kabbalah." In The Books of Nature and Scripture: Recent Essays on Natural Philosophy, Theology, and Biblical Criticism in the Netherlands of Spinoza's Time and the British Isles of Newton's Time, edited by James E. Force and Richard H. Popkin. Dordrecht, 1994.

Idel, Moshe. Kabbalah: New Perspectives. New Haven, 1988.

——. "The Magical and Neoplatonic Interpretations of the Kabbalah in the Renaissance." In Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth Century, edited by Bernard Dov Cooperman, pp. 186–242. Cambridge, Mass., 1983.

Journal des Études de la Cabale. Available at http://www.chez.com/jec2/

Katz, Jacob. Jews and Freemasons in Europe, 1723–1939. Translated by Leonard Oschry. Cambridge, Mass., 1970.

Krabbenhoft, Kenneth. "Kabbalah and Expulsion: The Case of Abraham Cohen de Herrera." In The Expulsion of the Jews 1492 and After, edited by Raymond B. Waddington and Arthur H. Williamson, pp. 127–146. New York, 1994.

Liebes, Yehuda. Studies in the Zohar. Translated by Arnold Schwartz, Stephanie Nakache, and Penina Peli. Albany, N.Y., 1993.

Ruderman, David. Kabbalah, Magic and Science: The Cultural Universe of a Sixteenth Century Jewish Physician. Cambridge, Mass., 1988.

——. "Science, Medicine, and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe." The Spiegel Lecture in European Jewish History. Tel Aviv University, 1987.

Scholem, Gershom. Kabbalah. New York, 1974.

——. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. New York, 1954.

——. On the Kabbala and Its Symbolism. Translated by Ralph Manheim. New York, 1965.

——. "Zur Geschichte der Anfänge der christlichen Kabbala." In Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, pp. 158–193. London, 1954.

Secret, François. Le Zohar chez les Kabbalistes chrétiens de la Renaissance. Paris, 1958.

Tishby, Isaiah. The Wisdom of the Zohar: An Anthology of Texts. Arranged and rendered into Hebrew by Fischel Lachower and Isaiah Tishby; with introductions and explanations by Isaiah Tishby. Translated by David Goldstein. 3 vols. The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. Oxford and New York, 1991.

Wirszubski, Chaim. Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism. Cambridge, Mass., 1989.

—ALLISON P. COUDERT

Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia: Kabala

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A Hebrew and Jewish system of Gnosticism or Theosophy. The word means "doctrines received from tradition." In ancient Hebrew literature the name was used to denote the entire body of religious writings, the Pentateuch excepted. It was only in the early Middle Ages that the mystical system known as Kabalism was designated by that name.

The Kabala deals with the nature of God and with the sephiroth, or divine emanations of angels and man. God, the En Soph, fills and contains the universe. As in Gnosticism, God is boundless, inconceivable, and distantly transcendent. In a certain mystical sense, God can be thought of as nonexistent or preexistent. To justify existence the deity had to become active and creative, and this was achieved through the medium of the ten sephiroth, intelligences that emanated from God like rays proceeding from a luminary.

The first sephiroth was the wish to become manifest, and this contained nine other intelligences or sephiroth, which again emanated one from the other—the second from the first, the third from the second, and so forth. These ten sephiroth were known as the "Crown," "Wisdom," "Intelligence," "Love," "Justice," "Beauty," "Firmness," "Splendor," "Foundation," and "Kingdom." From the junction of pairs of sephiroth other emanations were formed; thus from Wisdom and Intelligence proceeded Love or Justice and from Love and Justice, Beauty.

The sephiroth were also symbolic of primordial man and heavenly man, of which earthly man was the shadow. They formed three triads, representing intellectual, moral, and physical qualities: the first was Wisdom, Intelligence, and Crown; the second, Love, Justice, and Beauty; the third, Firmness, Splendor, and Foundation.

The whole was encircled or bound by Kingdom, the ninth sephiroth. Each of these triads symbolized a portion of the human frame: the first, the head; the second, the arms; the third, the legs. Although those sephiroth were emanations from God, they remained a portion of God, simply representing different aspects of the One Being.

Kabalistic cosmology posits the existence of four different worlds, each forming a sephirotic system of a decade of emanations generated thusly: from the world of emanations, or the heavenly man, came a direct emanation from the En Soph. From the emanation was produced the world of creation, or the Briatic world of pure nature, less spiritual than the world of the heavenly man. The angel Metatron inhabited the Briatic world and constituted a world of pure spirit. He governed the visible world and guided the revolutions of the planets. From the world of pure nature was created the world of formation or the Yetziratic world, the abode of angels.

Finally, from these three worlds emanate the world of action or matter, the dwelling of evil spirits. It is said to contain ten hells, each becoming lower until the depths of diabolical degradation are reached. The prince of this region is the evil spirit Samuel, the serpent spoken of in the book of Genesis, otherwise known as "the Beast."

The universe was incomplete, however, without the creation of man. The heavenly Adam (the tenth sephiroth) created the earthly Adam, each member of whose body corresponds to a part of the visible universe. The human form is said to be shaped according to the four letters that constitute the Jewish tetragrammaton: YHWH.

Souls preexist in the world of emanations, and are all destined to inhabit human bodies, according to the Kabala. Like the sephiroth from which it emanates, every soul has ten potencies, consisting of a trinity of triads—spirit, soul, and elemental soul, or neptesh. Each soul, before its entrance into the world, consists of male and female united into one being, but when it descends to earth, the two parts are separated and animate different bodies.

The destiny of the soul upon earth is to develop from the perfect germ implanted in it, which must ultimately return to En Soph. If the soul does not succeed in acquiring the experience for which it has been sent to earth, it must reinhabit the body three times so that it becomes duly purified. When all the souls in the world of the sephiroth have passed through this period of probation and returned to the bosom of En Soph, the Jubilee will begin. Even Satan will be restored to his angelic nature, and existence will be a Sabbath without end. The Kabala states that these esoteric doctrines are contained in the Hebrew Scriptures but cannot be perceived by the uninitiated; they are, however, plainly revealed to persons of spiritual mind.

The Kabala is sometimes regarded as occult literature, and it has been stated that the philosophical doctrines developed in its pages have been perpetuated by a secret of oral tradition from the first ages of humanity. As British Hebrew and biblical scholar Christian D. Ginsburg notes (1863): "The Kabala was first taught by God Himself to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophic school in Paradise. After the Fall the angels most graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient child of earth, to furnish the protoplasts with the means of returning to their pristine nobility and felicity. From Adam it passed over to Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians obtained some knowledge of it, and the other Eastern nations could introduce it into their philosophical systems. Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, [as] first initiated into the Kabala in the land of his birth, but became most proficient in it during his wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of the angels. By the aid of this mysterious science the lawgiver was enabled to solve the difficulties which arose during his management of the Israelites, in spite of the pilgrimages, wars, and frequent miseries of the nation. He covertly laid down the principles of this secret doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld them from Deuteronomy…. Moses also initiated the seventy Elders into the secrets of this doctrine, and they again transmitted them from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition, David and Solomon were most deeply initiated into the Kabala. No one, however, dared to write it down till Simon Ben Jochai, who lived at the time of the destruction of the second Temple…. After his death, his son, Rabbi Eliezer, and his secretary, Rabbi Abba, as well as his disciples, collated Rabbi Simon Ben Jochai's treatises, and out of these composed the celebrated work called Sohar, i.e., Splendor which is the grand storehouse of Kabalism."

This legendary account of kabalistic origins, however, has found little support from historians. The mysticism of the Mishna and the Talmud, the older Hebrew literature, must be carefully distinguished from that of the kabalistic writings.

At the time of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, the Kabala found an audience among Protestant biblical scholars who turned to the Hebrew text for their biblical translations. From writers such as Johannes Reuchlin, Old Testament professor at Wittenburg, a Christian Kabala (usually spelled Cabala or Qabala) developed and was passed into non-Jewish occult circles.

Non-Jewish occultism and magic became deeply indebted to kabalistic combinations of the divine names for the terms of its rituals, deriving from the Kabala the belief in a resident virtue in sacred names and numbers. Certain rules were employed to discover the sublime source of power resident in the Jewish scriptures. Thus the words of several verses in the Scriptures that were regarded as containing an occult meaning were placed over each other and the letters were formed into new words by reading them vertically. Often the words of the text were arranged in squares so they could be read vertically or otherwise.

Words were joined together and redivided, and the initial and final letters of certain words were formed into separate words. Every letter of the word was reduced to its numerical value, and the word was explained by another of the same value. Every letter of a word was also taken to be an initial of an abbreviation of that word. The 22 letters of the alphabet were divided into two halves, one half placed above the other, and the two letters that thus became associated were interchanged. Thus a became l, b became m, and so on. This cipher alphabet was called albm, from the first interchanged pairs. The commutation of the 22 letters was effected by the last letter of the alphabet taking the place of the first, the next-to-last the place of the second, and so forth. This cipher was called atbah. These permutations and combinations are much older than the Kabala and were recognized by Jewish mystics from time immemorial.

During the nineteenth century a revival of magic—based in large part upon the Kabala and the identification of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet with the tarot—occurred in France, primarily around Éliphas Lévi. From Lévi a new appreciation of the Kabala passed to the magicians of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and through it to Aleister Crowley, a dominant practitioner of magic in the twentieth century. It would be difficult to think of modern magic without the Kabala and its related practices of gematria and path workings.

Within the Jewish community study of the Kabala revived in the eighteenth century with the development of the Hassidic movement under the leadership of the Baal Shem Tov (1700-1760). This form of Judaism was seen as a competitor by the orthodox Jews, who organized efforts to suppress it during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Hasidim (Jewish mysticism) in Europe was largely wiped out during the Holocaust, but has survived in the United States and Israel. Some Jewish Kabalists have resented the Kabala being appropriated by non-Jewish occultists. Most, however, have participated in what has become an active dialogue with contemporary occultists. Jews and non-Jews alike, for example, appreciate the scholarship of Gershom Scholem, the greatest Kabala scholar of this century.

Sources:

Abelson, Joshua. Jewish Mysticism: An Introduction to Kabbalah. New York: Sepher-Hermon Press, 1981.

Achad, Frater [Charles S. Jones]. The Anatomy of the Body of God: Being the Supreme Revelation of Cosmic Consciousness. Chicago: Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, 1925. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1969.

Bension, Ariel. The Zohar in Moslem and Christian Spain. New York: Sepher-Hermon Press, 1932.

Berg, Phillip S. Kabbalah for the Laymen. New York: Research Center of Kabbalah, n.d.

Franck, Adolphe. The Kabbalah. New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1967. Reprint, New York: Citadel, 1979.

Gaster, Moses. The Origin of the Kabbalah. New York: Gordon Press, 1976.

Halevi, Z'ev Ben Shimon. An Introduction to the Cabala—Tree of Life. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1972.

Kalisch, Isidor, trans. Sepher Yezirah. New York, 1877. Reprint, San Jose, Calif.: Rosicrucian Press, 1950. Reprint, North Hollywood, Calif.: Symbols and Signs, n.d.

Lévi, Éliphas. The Book of Splendors. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973.

Luzzatto, Moses. General Principles of the Kabbalah. New York: Research Center of Kabbalah, 1970.

Meltzer, David, ed. The Secret Garden: An Anthology of the Kabbalah. New York: Seabury Press, 1976.

Pick, Bernhard. The Cabala. LaSalle, Ill.: Open Court Publishing, 1903.

Rauchlen, Johannes. On the Art of the Kabbalah. Translated by Martin Goodman and Sarah Goodman. New York: Abaris Books, 1983.

Scholem, Gershom. Kabbalah. New York: Quadrangle, 1974. ——. On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism. New York: Schocken, 1960.

——, ed. Zohar—The Book of Splendor: Basic Readings from the Kabbalah. New York: Schocken, 1963.

Sperling, Harry, and Maurice Simon, trans. The Zohar. 5 vols. New York: Rebecca Bennet Publishing, n.d.

Waite, Arthur E. The Holy Kabbalah. New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1960. New York: Citadel, 1976.

Obscure Words: cabala

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or cabbala or cabbalah or kabala or kabbala or kabbalah, also qabbala or qabbalah
/keh BAH leh/ or /KAH beh leh/
1) a medieval and modern system of Jewish theosophy, mysticism, and thaumaturgy marked by belief in creation through emanation and a cipher method of interpreting Scripture
2a) a traditional, esoteric, occult or secret matter b) esoteric doctrine or mysterious art

Word Tutor: Kabala

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IN BRIEF: n. - An esoteric or occult matter resembling the Kabbalah that is traditionally secret.

Quotes By: Kabbalah

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Quotes:

"Misdirected life force is the activity in disease process. Disease has no energy save what it borrows from the life of the organism. It is by adjusting the life force that healing must be brought about, and it is the sun as transformer and distributor of primal spiritual energy that must be utilized in this process, for life and the sun are so intimately connected."

"Every phase of evolution commences by being in a state of unstable force and proceeds through organization to equilibrium. Equilibrium having been achieved, no further development is possible without once more oversetting the A journey of a thousand miles starts in front of your feet. Whosoever acts spoils it. Whosoever keeps loses it."

"The atom, being for all practical purposes the stable unit of the physical plane, is a constantly changing vortex of reactions."

"Force never moves in a straight line, but always in a curve vast as the universe, and therefore eventually returns whence it issued forth, but upon a higher arc, for the universe has progressed since it started."

"The Father is the Giver of Life; but the Mother is the Giver of Death, because her womb is the gate of ingress to matter, and through her life is ensouled to form, and no form can be either infinite or eternal. Death is implicit in birth."

Wikipedia: Kabbalah

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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

This article is about traditional Jewish Kabbalah. For other Kabbalistic traditions see Christian Kabbalah, Hermetic Qabalah, and Practical Kabbalah.

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Kabbalah (Hebrew: קַבָּלָה‎, lit. "receiving") is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the mystical aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that is meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator with the finite and mortal universe of His creation. In solving this paradox, Kabbalah seeks to define the nature of the universe and the human being, the nature and purpose of existence, and various other ontological questions. It also presents methods to aid understanding of these concepts and to thereby attain spiritual realization. Kabbalah originally developed entirely within the realm of Jewish thought and constantly uses classical Jewish sources to explain and demonstrate its esoteric teachings. These teachings are thus held by kabbalists to define the inner meaning of both the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and traditional rabbinic literature, as well as to explain the significance of Jewish religious observances.^[1]

1 Overview
2 Concepts
3 Primary texts
4 Scholarship
- 4.1 Claims for authority
5 Criticism
6 History
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links

Overview

According to the Zohar, considered the main foundational text for kabbalistic thought ("Kabbalah Iyunit"-Contemplative Kabbalah, as opposed to "Kabbalah Maasit"-Practical Kabbalah^[2]), Torah study uses four levels of interpretation (exegesis) of its text.^[3] ^[4] Their initial letters spell "PaRDeS" ("Orchard"):

Peshat (lit. "simple"): the direct interpretations of meaning.
Remez (lit. "hint[s]"): the allegoric meanings (through allusion).
Derash (from Heb. darash: "inquire" or "seek"): midrashic (Rabbinic) meanings, often with imaginative comparisons with similar words or verses.
Sod (lit. "secret" or "mystery"): the inner, esoteric (metaphysical) meanings, expressed in kabbalah.

Kabbalah is considered, by its followers, as a necessary part of the study of Torah – the study of Torah (the "Teachings" of God, in the Tanach and Rabbinic literature) being an inherent duty of observant Jews.^[5] Kabbalah teaches doctrines that are accepted by some Jews as the true meaning of Judaism while other Jews have rejected these doctrines as heretical and antithetical to Judaism. After the Medieval Kabbalah, and especially after its 16th Century development and synthesis, Kabbalah replaced "Hakira" (Jewish philosophy) as the mainstream traditional Jewish theology, both in scholarly circles and in the popular imagination. With the arrival of modernity, through the influence of Haskalah, this has changed among non-Orthodox Jewish denominations, though its 20th Century academic study and cross-denominational spiritual applications (especially through Neo-Hasidism), has reawakened a following beyond Orthodoxy.

The origins of the actual term Kabbalah are unknown and disputed to belong either to Jewish philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021–1058) or else to the 13th century CE Spanish Kabbalist Bahya ben Asher. While other terms have been used in many religious documents from the 2nd century CE up to the present day, the term "Kabbalah" has become the main descriptive of Jewish esoteric knowledge and practices. The Kabbalistic literature, which served as the basis for the development of Kabbalistic thought, developed through a theological tradition from Antiquity, as part of wider Rabbinic literature. Its theoretical development can be characterised in alternative schools and successive stages. These especially include the early works of the 1st-2nd centuries CE (such as the Heichalot texts and the earliest existant book on Jewish esotericism Sefer Yetzirah); the Medieval flowering of the 12th-13th century CE (of which the main book is the Zohar); and early-modern developments, including the mystical revivals of 16th century Safed (especially of Isaac Luria), and 18th century Eastern Europe (new Hasidic popularisations of Kabbalah).

According to Kabbalistic tradition, knowledge was transmitted orally by the Patriarchs, prophets, and sages (Hakhamim in Hebrew), eventually to be "interwoven" into Jewish religious writings and culture. According to this tradition, Kabbalah was, in around the 10th century B.C., an open knowledge practiced by over a million people in ancient Israel,^[6] although there is little objective historical evidence to support this thesis.

Foreign conquests drove the Jewish spiritual leadership of the time (the Sanhedrin) to hide the knowledge and make it secret, fearing that it might be misused if it fell into the wrong hands.^[7] The Sanhedrin leaders were also concerned that the practice of Kabbalah by Jews deported on conquest to other countries (the Diaspora), unsupervised and unguided by the masters, might lead them into wrong practice and forbidden ways. As a result, the Kabbalah became secretive, forbidden and esoteric to Judaism (“Torat Ha’Sod” Hebrew: תורת הסוד‎) for two and a half millennia.

It is hard to clarify with any degree of certainty the exact concepts within Kabbalah. There are several different schools of thought with very different outlooks; however, all are accepted as correct.^[8] Modern Halakhic authorities have tried to narrow the scope and diversity within Kabbalah, by restricting study to certain texts, notably Zohar and the teachings of Isaac Luria as passed down through Chaim (Hayyim) Vital.^[9] However even this qualification does little to limit the scope of understanding and expression, as included in those works are commentaries on Abulafian writings, Sepher Yetzirah, Albotonian writings, and the Berit Menuhah,^[10] which is known to the kabbalisic elect and which, as described more recently by Scholem, , combined ecstatic with theosophical myticism. It is therefore important to bear in mind when discussing things such as the Sephirot and their interactions that one is dealing with highly abstract concepts that at best can only be understood intuitively.^[11]

Concepts

Kabbalistic understanding of God

Main articles: Ein Sof, Ohr, Seder hishtalshelus, and Merkabah

In Kabbalah all Creation unfolds from Divine reality. This view is found also in Rationalist Medieval Jewish philosophy (Hakira-"Investigation"), which offered a preceeding, different approach to Jewish theology. However, the descriptions of Divinity in the two schools of thought differ, with Kabbalah elaborating a metaphysical structure of emanations from God, while Hakira investigates the ability to describe God beyond only negative descriptions. The Kabbalistic path, therefore, offers manifestations of Divinity that can be perceived in metaphorical anthropomorphic language, giving mystical dveikus (fervour) to the student. The two alternative approaches become united in intellectual articulations of Hasidic thought, from an inner perspective in Jewish mysticism.^[12] The most important Medieval Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, famously summarised the Divine relation to Creation:

“

The foundation of all foundations, and the pillar of all wisdom is to know that there is God who brought into being all existence. All the beings of the heavens, and the earth, and what is between them came into existence only from the truth of God's being.^[13]

”

There has been traditional debate about whether Maimonides studied Kabbalah. Historical Kabbalistic commentaries were written on his Guide for the Perplexed, revealing deeper mystical layers beyond the regular Rationalist school.^[14] Jewish philosophy questioned the limits and meaning of Divine understanding from man's thought, in harmony with exoteric Scriptural exegesis. In Kabbalah ("Received") understanding derives from Oral Torah traditions of esoteric Scriptural exegesis. As an metaphysical alternative to Halachic exegesis in Talmudical hermeneutics, Kabbalah similarly demonstrates its concepts from interpretation of Biblical and Rabbinic texts. These then become systemised and investigated philosophically. With the end of the scholarly culture of Muslim Spain, and the later Jewish expulsion, Kabbalah replaced Hakirah as Judaism's mainstream theology.

In the Kabbalistic scheme, God is neither matter nor spirit, but is the creator of both. The question of the Divine nature prompted Kabbalists to envision two aspects of God: (a) God Himself, who is ultimately unknowable, and (b) the revealed aspect of God that created the universe, preserves the universe, and interacts with mankind. Kabbalists speak of the first aspect of God as Ein Sof (אין סוף); this is translated as "the infinite", "endless", or "that which has no limits". In this view, nothing can be said about the essence of God. This aspect of God is impersonal. The second aspect of Divine emanations, however, is at least partially accessible to human thought. Kabbalists believe that these two aspects are not contradictory but, through the mechanism of progressive emanation, complement one another (See Divine simplicity). The structure of these emanations have been characterized in various ways: Sefirot (Divine attributes) and Partzufim (Divine "faces"); Four Worlds of Creation in a Seder hishtalshelus (Descending Chain of realms), Azilut, Beriyah, Yitzirah, and Asiyah; the Biblical vision by Ezekiel of the Merkabah (Divine angelic "Chariot"). These alternatives are harmonized in subsequent Kabbalistic systemisation. The central metaphor of Ohr ("Light") is used to describe Divine emanations.

Medieval Kabbalists believed that all things are linked to God through these emanations, making all levels in Creation part of one great, gradually descending chain of being. Through this any lower creation reflects its particular characteristics in Supernal Divinity. These descriptions reached their synthesis in 16th century Cordoveran Kabbalah. This metaphysical explanation gave cosmic significance to the deeds of man, as the downward flow of the Divine "Light" that creates our reality, is opened or restricted according to the merits of each individual. Divine substenance in Creation is dependent on the traditional mitzvah observances of Judaism. Subsequent Kabbalah of Isaac Luria describes a radical origin to this depiction, where Creation unfolds from transcendent inbalance in Godliness, and the purpose of life is the Messianic rectification of Divinity by man. Once each person has completed their part of the rectification, the Messianic Era begins. In this, the mitzvot redeem the supernal Divine sparks in existence. Later interpretations in Hasidism, such as by Schneur Zalman of Liadi, extend this radicalism by holding that God is all that really exists, all else is completely undifferentiated from God's perspective. This view can be defined as monistic panentheism. According to this philosophy, God's existence is higher than anything that this world can express, yet He includes all things of this world within His Divine reality in perfect unity, so that the Creation effected no change in Him at all. This paradox is dealt with at length in Habad texts.^[15]

Sefirot and the Divine Feminine

Main articles: Sephirot and Shekhinah

Schematic tree of descending Sefirot in 3 columns

The Sefirot (סְפִירוֹת — singular Sefirah סְפִירָה) are the ten emanations and attributes of God with which He continually substains the universe in existence. The word "sefirah" literally means "counting", but early Kabbalists presented a number of other etymological possibilities including: sefer (book), sippur (story), sappir (sapphire, brilliance, luminary), separ (boundary), and safra (scribe). The term sefirah thus has complex connotations within Kabbalah.^[16] The central metaphor of Man's soul is used to describe the Sephirot. This incorporates maculine and feminine aspects, after Genesis 1:27 ("God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them"). Corresponding to the last Sephirah in Creation is the indwelling Shechina (Feminine Divine Presence). In the Sephirot, performance of Mitzvot (traditional Jewish observances) unites the masculine and feminine aspects of supernal Divinity, and brings harmony to Creation. The description of Divine manifestation through the 10 Sephirot is a defining feature of Medieval Kabbalah, alongside their male and female aspects, and the concept of downward flow of Divine Light through the chain of Creation. The Sephirot correspond to the Four Worlds of this spiritual descent, Atziluth, Beri'ah, Yetzirah and Assiah.

Ten Sephirot as process of Creation

According to Lurianic cosmology, the Sephirot correspond to various levels of creation (ten sephirot in each of the Four Worlds, and four worlds within each of the larger four worlds, each containing ten sephirot, which themselves contain ten sephirot, to an infinite number of possibilities,^[17]) and are emanated from the Creator for the purpose of creating the universe. The Sephirot are considered revelations of the Creator's will (ratzon),^[18] and they should not be understood as ten different "gods" but as ten different ways the one God reveals his will through the Emanations. It is not God who changes but the ability to perceive God that changes.

Altogether 11 sephirot are named. However Keter and Daat are unconscious and conscious dimensions of one principle, conserving 10 forces. The names of the Sephirot in descending order are:

Keter (supernal crown, representing above-conscious will)
Chochmah (intellect of wisdom)
Binah (intellect of understanding)
Daat (intellect of knowledge)
Chesed (sometimes referred to as Gedolah-greatness) (emotion of lovingkindness)
Gevurah (sometimes referred to as Din-justice or Pachad-fear) (emotion of severity/strength)
Tiferet (emotional balance of harmony/beauty-Representing compassion)
Netzach (emotion of victory/eternity)
Hod (emotion of glory/splendour)
Yesod (emotion of foundation)
Malkuth (emotion of kingship)

Ten Sephirot as process of ethics

Divine creation by means of the Ten Sefirot is an ethical process. Each side of the graph is associated with a different aspect of divine emanation; the right column being positive, masculine, the left being negative, feminine, and the central being a mediator between the two. Examples: The Sefirah of "Compassion" or "Mercy" (Chesed) being part of the Right Column corresponds to how God reveals more blessings when humans use previous blessings compassionately, whereas the Sephirah of "Judgement" or "Restriction"(Geburah) being part of the Left Column corresponds to how God hides these blessings when humans abuse them selfishly without compassion. Thus human behavior determines if God seems present or absent.

"Righteous" humans (Tzadikim) ascend these ethical qualities of the Ten Sefirot by doing righteous actions. If there were no "Righteous" humans, the blessings of God would become completely hidden, and creation would cease to exist. While real human actions are the "Foundation" (Yesod) of this universe (Malchut), these actions must accompany the conscious intention of compassion. Compassionate actions are often impossible without "Faith" (Emunah), meaning to trust that God always supports compassionate actions even when God seems hidden. Ultimately, it is necessary to show compassion toward oneself too in order to share compassion toward others. This "selfish" enjoyment of God's blessings but only if in order to empower oneself to assist others, is an important aspect of "Restriction", and is considered a kind of golden mean in Kabbalah, corresponding to the Sefirah of "Adornment" (Tiferet) being part of the "Middle Column".

Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, wrote a book, Tomer Devorah (Palm Tree of Deborah), in which he presents an ethical teaching of Judaism in the kabbalistic context of the Ten Sefirot. Tomer Devorah, as a consequence, has become also a foundational text of Mussar.^[19]

Human soul in Kabbalah

Tzimtzum

Metaphorical representation of Divine emanation of successively constricted Olamot (spiritual Worlds) within the surrounding Ein Sof (Divine Infinity)

Main articles: Tzimtzum and Lurianic Kabbalah

Tzimtzum is the primordial cosmic act whereby God "contracted" his infinite light, leaving a "void" into which the light of existence was poured. This new doctrine of Isaac Luria in the 16th century gave a new organisation of the previous Second-Temple and Medieval Kabbalistic concepts of Angelic hierachies and descending Worlds. The primal emanation after the Tzimtzum in Lurianic Kabbalah led to an initial catastrophy called "Tohu" (Chaos). This was reformed into "Tikkun" (Rectification) of our spiritual realms, described in previous Kabbalah, becoming Atzilut (the World of Emanation), from which the three lower Worlds, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, descended. This corresponds to the reorganisation of the Sephirot into the Partsufim described in previous Kabbalah. The Tzimtzum reconciles the infinite simplicity of the Ein Sof with the finite plurality of Creation. From the subsequent catastrophe stems the possibility of self-aware Creation, and also the Kelipot (impure "shells" in Medieval Kabbalah).

Mystical forms of Scriptural and Rabbinic exegesis

Main articles: Pardes (Jewish exegesis), Jewish commentaries on the Bible, and Rabbinic literature

See also: Gematria, Notaricon, and Temurah (Kabbalah)

Kabbalah teaches that every Hebrew letter, word, number, even the accent on words of the Hebrew Bible contains a hidden sense; and it teaches the methods of interpretation for ascertaining these meanings. One such method is as follows:

As early as the 1st Century B.C. Jews believed that the Torah (first five books of the Hebrew Bible) and wider canonical texts contained encoded messages and hidden meanings. Gematria is one method for discovering its hidden meanings. Each letter in Hebrew also represents a number; Hebrew, unlike many other languages, never developed a separate numerical alphabet. By converting letters to numbers, Kabbalists were able to find a hidden meaning in each word. This method of interpretation was used extensively by various schools.

There is no one fixed way to "do" gematria. Some say there are up to 70 different methods. One simple procedure is as follows: each syllable and/or letter forming a word has a characteristic numeric value. The sum of these numeric tags is the word's "key", and that word may be replaced in the text by any other word having the same key. Through the application of many such procedures, alternative or hidden meanings of scripture may be derived. Similar procedures are used by Islamic mystics, as described by Idries Shah in his book, "The Sufi".

Primary texts

Title page of first printed edition of the Zohar, main sourcebook of Kabbalah, from Mantua Italy in 1558

Main article: Kabbalah: Primary Texts

Scholarship

Because it is by definition esoteric, no popular account (including an encyclopedia) can provide a complete, precise, and accurate explanation of the Kabbalah. However, a number of scholars from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, including Gershom Scholem, Joseph Dan, Yehuda Liebes, Rachel Elior, and Moshe Idel,^[23] as well as some from other locations, such as Arthur Green and Daniel Matt,^[24] have made Kabbalist texts objects of modern scholarly scrutiny. Some scholars, notably Gershom Scholem and Martin Buber, have argued that modern Hassidic Judaism represents a popularization of the Kabbalah.^[25] According to its adherents, intimate understanding and mastery of the Kabbalah brings one spiritually closer to God and enriches one's experience of Jewish sacred texts and law.

Claims for authority

Historians have noted that most claims for the authority of Kabbalah involve an argument of the antiquity of authority (see, e.g., Joseph Dan's discussion in his Circle of the Unique Cherub). As a result, virtually all works pseudepigraphically claim, or are ascribed, ancient authorship. For example, Sefer Raziel HaMalach, an astro-magical text partly based on a magical manual of late antiquity, Sefer ha-Razim, was, according to the kabbalists, transmitted to Adam by the angel Raziel after he was evicted from Eden.

Another famous work, the Sefer Yetzirah, supposedly dates back to the patriarch Abraham. This tendency toward pseudepigraphy has its roots in Apocalyptic literature, which claims that esoteric knowledge such as magic, divination and astrology was transmitted to humans in the mythic past by the two angels, Aza and Azaz'el (in other places, Azaz'el and Uzaz'el) who 'fell' from heaven (see Genesis 6:4).

Criticism

Dualism

Although Kabbalah propounds the Unity of God, one of the most serious and sustained criticisms is that it may lead away from monotheism, and instead promote dualism, the belief that there is a supernatural counterpart to God. The dualistic system holds that there is a good power versus an evil power. There are two primary models of Gnostic-dualistic cosmology: the first, which goes back to Zoroastrianism, believes creation is ontologically divided between good and evil forces; the second, found largely in Greco-Roman ideologies like Neo-Platonism, believes the universe knew a primordial harmony, but that a cosmic disruption yielded a second, evil, dimension to reality. This second model influenced the cosmology of the Kabbalah.

According to Kabbalistic cosmology, the Ten Sefirot correspond to ten levels of creation. These levels of creation must not be understood as ten different "gods" but as ten different ways of revealing God, one per level. It is not God who changes but the ability to perceive God that changes.

While God may seem to exhibit dual natures (masculine-feminine, compassionate-judgmental, creator-creation), all adherents of Kabbalah have consistently stressed the ultimate unity of God. For example, in all discussions of Male and Female, the hidden nature of God exists above it all without limit, being called the Infinite or the "No End" (Ein Sof)—neither one nor the other, transcending any definition. The ability of God to become hidden from perception is called "Restriction" (Tzimtzum). Hiddenness makes creation possible because God can become "revealed" in a diversity of limited ways, which then form the building blocks of creation.

Later Kabbalistic works, including the Zohar, appear to more strongly affirm dualism, as they ascribe all evil to a supernatural force known as the Sitra Achra^[26] ("the other side") that emanates from God. The "left side" of divine emanation is a negative mirror image of the "side of holiness" with which it was locked in combat. [Encyclopaedia Judaica, Volume 6, "Dualism", p.244]. While this evil aspect exists within the divine structure of the Sefirot, the Zohar indicates that the Sitra Ahra has no power over Ein Sof, and only exists as a necessary aspect of the creation of God to give man free choice, and that evil is the consequence of this choice. It is not a supernatural force opposed to God, but a reflection of the inner moral combat within mankind between the dictates of morality and the surrender to one's basic instincts.

Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb notes that many Kabbalists hold that the concepts of, e.g., a Heavenly Court or the Sitra Ahra are only given to humanity by God as a working model to understand His ways within our own epistemological limits. They reject the notion that a Satan or angels actually exist. Others hold that non-divine spiritual entities were indeed created by God as a means for exacting his will.

According to Kabbalists, humans cannot yet understand the infinity of God. Rather, there is God as revealed to humans (corresponding to Zeir Anpin), and the rest of the infinity of God as remaining hidden from human experience (corresponding to Arich Anpin^[27]). One reading of this theology is monotheistic, similar to panentheism; another a reading of the same theology is that it is dualistic. Gershom Scholem writes:

“

It is clear that with this postulate of an impersonal basic reality in God, which becomes a person—or appears as a person—only in the process of Creation and Revelation, Kabbalism abandons the personalistic basis of the Biblical conception of God....It will not surprise us to find that speculation has run the whole gamut—from attempts to re-transform the impersonal En-Sof into the personal God of the Bible to the downright heretical doctrine of a genuine dualism between the hidden Ein Sof and the personal Demiurge of Scripture.
— Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism Shocken Books (p.11–12)

”

Perception of non-Jews

Theologically framed hostility may be a response to the demonization of Jews which developed in Western and Christian society and thought, starting with the Patristic writings.^[28] According to Isaac Luria and other commentators on the Zohar, righteous Gentiles don't have this demonic aspect and are in many ways similar to Jewish souls. A number of prominent Kabbalists, e.g. Rabbi Pinchas Eliyahu of Vilna, the author of Sefer ha-Brit, held that only some marginal elements in the humanity represent these demonic forces. On the other hand, the souls of Jewish heretics have much more satanic energy, than the worst of idol worshippers; this view is popular in some Hasidic circles, especially Satmar Hasidim.

Later Kabbalistic works build and elaborate on these ideas. The Hasidic work Tanya stresses the uniqueness of the Jewish soul,^{[citation needed]} in order to argue that Jews have an additional level of soul that other humans do not possess. While a non-Jew, according to Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, can achieve a high level of spiritually, similar to an angel, his soul is still fundamentally different from a Jewish one.^[29] A similar view is found in Yehuda Halevi's medieval philosophical book Kuzari.

However, many prominent Kabbalists rejected this idea and believed in essential equality of all human souls. Menahem Azariah da Fano, in his book Reincarnations of souls, provides many examples of non-Jewish Biblical figures being reincarnated into Jews, and visa versa; the contemporary Habad Rabbi and mystic Dov Ber Pinson teaches that seemingly discriminatory statements in the Tanya and other Kabbalistic works are not to be understood literally.^[30]

Another prominent Habad Rabbi, Abraham Yehudah Khein, believed that spiritually elevated Gentiles have essentially Jewish souls, "who just lack the formal conversion to Judaism", and that unspiritual Jews are "Jewish merely by their birth documents".^[31] The great 20th century Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag viewed the terms "Jews" and "Gentile" as different levels of perception, available to every human soul.

David Halperin^[32] theorizes that the collapse of Kabbalah's influence among Western European Jews over the course of the 17th and 18th Century was a result of the cognitive dissonance they experienced between Kabbalah's very negative perception of gentiles and their own dealings with non-Jews, which were rapidly expanding and improving during this period due to the influence of the Enlightenment.

For a different perspective, see Wolfson.^[33] He provides extensive documentation to illustrate the prevalence of the distinction between the souls of Jews and non-Jews in kabbalistic literature. He provides numerous examples from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, which would challenge the view of Halperin cited above as well as the notion that "modern Judaism" has rejected or dismissed this "outdated aspect" of the kabbalah. There are still kabbalists today, and many influenced by them, who harbor this view. It is accurate to say that many Jews do and would find this distinction offensive, but it is inaccurate to say that the idea has been totally rejected. As Wolfson has argued, it is an ethical demand on the part of scholars to be vigilant with regard to this matter and in this way the tradition can be refined from within.

However, as explained above, many well known Kabbalists rejected the literal interpretation of these seemingly discriminatory views, added a chain of intermediary states between Jews and idolworshipers, or spiritualized the very definition of "Jews" and "non-Jews", thus solving the gap between traditional Kabbalistic literature and modern egalitarian worldview.

Orthodox Judaism

The idea that there are ten divine sefirot could evolve over time into the idea that "God is One being, yet in that One being there are Ten" which opens up a debate about what the "correct beliefs" in God should be, according to Judaism.

Rabbi Saadia Gaon teaches in his book Emunot v'Deot that Jews who believe in reincarnation have adopted a non-Jewish belief.

Nachmanides (12th Century) provides background to many Kabbalistic ideas. His works, especially those in the Five books of Moses (Pentateuch) offer in-depth of various concepts.

Maimonides (12th Century) rejected many of the texts of the Hekalot, particularly Shi'ur Qomah whose starkly anthropomorphic vision of God he considered heretical.

Rabbi Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, in the spirit of his father Maimonides, Rabbi Saadiah Gaon, and other predecessors, explains at length in his book Milhhamot HaShem that the Almighty is in no way literally within time or space nor physically outside time or space, since time and space simply do not apply to His Being whatsoever. This is in contrast to certain popular understandings of modern Kabbalah which teach a form of panentheism, that His 'essence' is within everything.

Around the 1230s, Rabbi Meir ben Simon of Narbonne wrote an epistle (included in his Milhhemet Mitzvah) against his contemporaries, the early Kabbalists, characterizing them as blasphemers who even approach heresy. He particularly singled out the Sefer Bahir, rejecting the attribution of its authorship to the tanna R. Nehhunya ben ha-Kanah and describing some of its content as truly heretical.

Rabbi Yitzchak ben Sheshet Perfet, (The Rivash), 1326–1408. Although as is evident from his responsa on the topic (157) the Rivash was skeptical of certain interpretations of Kabbalah popular in his time, it is equally evident that overall he did accept Kabbalah as received Jewish wisdom, and attempted to defend it from attackers. To this end he cited and rejected a certain philosopher who claimed that Kabbalah was "worse than Christianity", as it made God into 10, not just into three. Most followers of Kabbalah have never followed this interpretation of Kabbalah, on the grounds that the concept of the Christian Trinity posits that there are three persons existing within the Godhead, one of whom became a human being.^{[citation needed]} In contrast, the mainstream understanding of the Kabbalistic Sefirot holds that they have no mind or intelligence; further, they are not addressed in prayer and they cannot become a human being. They are conduits for interaction, not persons or beings. Nonetheless, many important poskim, such as Maimonidies in his work Mishneh Torah, prohibit any use of mediators between oneself and the Creator as a form of idolatry.

Rabbi Leone di Modena, a 17th century Venetian critic of Kabbalah, wrote that if we were to accept the Kabbalah, then the Christian trinity would indeed be compatible with Judaism, as the Trinity closely resembles the Kabbalistic doctrine of the Sefirot. This critique was in response to the knowledge that some European Jews of the period addressed individual Sefirot in some of their prayers, although the practise was apparently uncommon. Apologists explain that Jews may have been praying for and not necessarily to the aspects of Godliness represented by the Sefirot.

Rabbi Yaakov Emden, 1697–1776, wrote the book Mitpahhath Sfarim (Veil of the Books), a detailed critique of the Zohar in which he concludes that certain parts of the Zohar contain heretical teaching and therefore could not have been written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Opponents of his work claim^{[citation needed]} that he wrote the book in a drunken stupor. Emden's rationalistic approach to this work, however, makes neither intoxication nor stupor seem plausible.

Rabbi Yihhyah Qafahh, an early 20th century Yemenite Jewish leader and grandfather of Rabbi Yosef Qafih, also wrote a book entitled Milhhamoth HaShem, (Wars of the L-RD) against what he perceived as the false teachings of the Zohar and the false Kabbalah of Isaac Luria. He is credited with spearheading the Dor Daim who continue in R. Yihhyah Qafahh's view of Kabbalah into modern times.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz 1903–1994, brother of Nechama Leibowitz, though Modern Orthodox in his world view, publicly shared the views expressed in R. Yihhyah Qafahh's book Milhhamoth HaShem and elaborated upon these views in his many writings.

There is dispute among modern Haredim as to the status of Isaac Luria's, the Arizal's kabbalistic teachings. While a portion of Modern Orthodox Rabbis, Dor Daim and many students of the Rambam, completely reject Arizal's Kabbalistic teachings, as well as deny that the Zohar is authoritative, or from Shimon bar Yohai, all three of these groups completely accept the existence and validity of Ma'aseh Merkavah and Ma'aseh B'resheet mysticism. Their only disagreement concerns whether the Kabbalistic teachings promulgated today are accurate representations of those esoteric teachings to which the Talmud refers. Within the Haredi Jewish community one can find both rabbis who sympathize with such a view,^{[citation needed]} while not necessarily agreeing with it, as well as rabbis who consider such a view absolute heresy.

Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism

Since all forms of reform or liberal Judaism are rooted in the Enlightenment and tied to the assumptions of European modernity, Kabbalah tended to be rejected by most Jews in the Conservative and Reform movements, though its influences were not completely eliminated. While it was generally not studied as a discipline, the Kabbalistic Kabbalat Shabbat service remained part of liberal liturgy, as did the Yedid Nefesh prayer. Nevertheless, in the 1960s, Rabbi Saul Lieberman of the Jewish Theological Seminary, is reputed to have introduced a lecture by Scholem on Kabbalah with a statement that Kabbalah itself was "nonsense", but the academic study of Kabbalah was "scholarship". This view became popular among many Jews, who viewed the subject as worthy of study, but who did not accept Kabbalah as teaching literal truths.

According to Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson (Dean of the Conservative Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in the American Jewish University)

“

Many western Jews insisted that their future and their freedom required shedding what they perceived as parochial orientalism. They fashioned a Judaism that was decorous and strictly rational (according to 19th-century European standards), denigrating Kabbalah as backward, superstitious, and marginal.^[34]

”

However, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries there has been a revival in interest in Kabbalah in all branches of liberal Judaism. The Kabbalistic 12th century prayer Anim Zemirot was restored to the new Conservative Sim Shalom siddur, as was the B'rikh Shmeh passage from the Zohar, and the mystical Ushpizin service welcoming to the Sukkah the spirits of Jewish forbearers. Anim Zemirot and the 16th Century mystical poem Lekhah Dodi reappeared in the Reform Siddur Gates of Prayer in 1975. All Rabbinical seminaries now teach several courses in Kabbalah—in Conservative Judaism, both the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles have fulltime instructors in Kabbalah and Hasidut, Eitan Fishbane and Pinchas Geller, respectively. In the Reform movement Sharon Koren teaches at the Hebrew Union College. Reform Rabbis like Herbert Weiner and Lawrence Kushner have renewed interest in Kabbalah among Reform Jews. At the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the only accredited seminary that has curricular requirements in kabbalah, Joel Hecker is the fulltime instructor teaching courses in kabbalah and hasidut.

According to Artson:

“

Ours is an age hungry for meaning, for a sense of belonging, for holiness. In that search, we have returned to the very Kabbalah our predecessors scorned. The stone that the builders rejected has become the head cornerstone (Psalm 118:22)... Kabbalah was the last universal theology adopted by the entire Jewish people, hence faithfulness to our commitment to positive-historical Judaism mandates a reverent receptivity to Kabbalah.^[35]

”

The Reconstructionist movement, under the leadership of Arthur Green in the 1980s and 1990's, and with the influence of Zalman Schachter Shalomi brought a strong openness to kabbalah and hasidic elements that then came to play prominent roles in the Kol ha-Neshamah siddur series.

History

Origins of Judaic mysticism

According to the traditional understanding, Kabbalah dates from Eden.^[36] It came down from a remote past as a revelation to elect Tzadikim (righteous people), and, for the most part, was preserved only by a privileged few. Talmudic Judaism records its view of the proper protocol for teaching this wisdom, as well as many of its concepts, in the Talmud, Tractate Hagigah, Ch.2.

Contemporary scholarship suggests that various schools of Jewish esotericism arose at different periods of Jewish history, each reflecting not only prior forms of mysticism, but also the intellectual and cultural milieu of that historical period. Answers to questions of transmission, lineage, influence, and innovation vary greatly and cannot be easily summarized.

Origins of terms

Originally, Kabbalistic knowledge was believed to be an integral part of the Judaism's oral law (see also, Aggadah), given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai around 13th century BCE, though there is a view that Kabbalah began with Adam.

When the Israelites arrived at their destination and settled in Canaan, for a few centuries the esoteric knowledge was referred to by its aspect practice—meditation Hitbonenut (Hebrew: התבוננות‎),^[37] Rebbe Nachman of Breslov's Hitbodedut (Hebrew: התבודדות‎), translated as “being alone” or “isolating oneself”, or by a different term describing the actual, desired goal of the practice—prophecy (“NeVu’a” Hebrew: נבואה‎).

During the 5th century BCE, when the works of the Tanakh were edited and canonized and the secret knowledge encrypted within the various writings and scrolls (“Megilot”), the knowledge was referred to as Ma'aseh Merkavah (Hebrew: מעשה מרכבה‎)^[38] and Ma'aseh B'reshit (Hebrew: מעשה בראשית‎),^[39] respectively "the act of the Chariot" and "the act of Creation". Merkavah mysticism alluded to the encrypted knowledge within the book of the prophet Ezekiel describing his vision of the "Divine Chariot". B'reshit mysticism referred to the first chapter of Genesis (Hebrew: בראשית‎) in the Torah that is believed to contain secrets of the creation of the universe and forces of nature. These terms are also mentioned in the second chapter of the Talmudic tractate Haggigah.

Mystic elements of the Torah

Ezekiel and Isaiah had prophetic visions of the angelic Chariot and Divine Throne. Later Kabbalah relates their narratives to the Four Worlds. In Judaism the only permitted images of angels was on the Ark of the Covenant

According to adherents of Kabbalah, its origin begins with secrets that God revealed to Adam. According to a rabbinic midrash^{[citation needed]} God created the universe through the ten sefirot. When read by later generations of Kabbalists, the Torah's description of the creation in the Book of Genesis reveals mysteries about the godhead itself, the true nature of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life, as well as the interaction of these supernal entities with the Serpent which leads to disaster when they eat the forbidden fruit, as recorded in Genesis 2.^[35]

The Bible provides ample additional material for mythic and mystical speculation. The prophet Ezekiel's visions in particular attracted much mystical speculation, as did Isaiah's Temple vision—Isaiah, Ch.6. Jacob's vision of the ladder to heaven provided another example of esoteric experience. Moses' encounters with the Burning bush and God on Mount Sinai are evidence of mystical events in the Tanakh that form the origin of Jewish mystical beliefs.

The 72 letter name of God which is used in Jewish mysticism for meditation purposes is derived from the Hebrew verbal utterance Moses spoke in the presence of an angel, while the Sea of Reeds parted, allowing the Hebrews to escape their approaching attackers. The miracle of the Exodus, which led to Moses receiving the Ten Commandments and the Jewish Orthodox view of the acceptance of the Torah at Mount Sinai, preceded the creation of the first Jewish nation approximately three hundred years before King Saul.

Mystical doctrines in the Talmudic era

Grave of Rabbi Akiva in Tiberias. He features in Hekhalot mystical literature, and as one of the four who entered the Pardes

The grave of Shimon bar Yochai in Meron before 1899. A Talmudic Tanna, he is the mystical teacher in the central Kabbalistic work, the Zohar

In early rabbinic Judaism (the early centuries of the first millennium CE), the terms Ma'aseh Bereshit ("Works of Creation") and Ma'aseh Merkabah ("Works of the Divine Throne/Chariot") clearly indicate the Midrashic nature of these speculations; they are really based upon Genesis 1 and Book of Ezekiel 1:4–28; while the names Sitrei Torah (Hidden aspects of the Torah) (Talmud Hag. 13a) and Razei Torah (Torah secrets) (Ab. vi. 1) indicate their character as secret lore. An additional term also expanded Jewish esoteric knowledge, namely Chochmah Nistara (Hidden wisdom).

Talmudic doctrine forbade the public teaching of esoteric doctrines and warned of their dangers. In the Mishnah (Hagigah 2:1), rabbis were warned to teach the mystical creation doctrines only to one student at a time.^[40] To highlight the danger, in one Jewish aggadic ("legendary") anecdote, four prominent rabbis of the Mishnaic period (first century CE) are said to have visited the Orchard (that is, Paradise, pardes, Hebrew: פרדס lit., orchard):

“

Four men entered pardes—Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher (Elisha ben Abuyah),^[41] and Akiba. Ben Azzai looked and died; Ben Zoma looked and went mad; Acher destroyed the plants; Akiba entered in peace and departed in peace.^[42]

”

In notable readings of this legend, only Rabbi Akiba was fit to handle the study of mystical doctrines. The Tosafot, medieval commentaries on the Talmud, say that the four sages "did not go up literally, but it appeared to them as if they went up."^[43] On the other hand, Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, writes in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906) that the journey to paradise "is to be taken literally and not allegorically".^[44] For further analysis, see The Four Who Entered Paradise.

Middle Ages

The Medieval era began esoteric circles of Kabbalistic dissemination in French Provence, Andalusian Spain and Germany-Ashkenaz

The 13th century Nachmanides, a classic figure in Rabbinic theology, was an early exponent of Kabbalah

From the 8th–11th Century Sefer Yetzirah and Hekalot texts made their way into European Jewish circles. Modern scholars have identified several mystical brotherhoods that functioned in Europe starting in the 12th Century. Some, such as the "Iyyun Circle" and the "Unique Cherub Circle", were truly esoteric, remaining largely anonymous.

One well-known group was the "Hasidei Ashkenaz", (חסידי אשכנז) or German Pietists. This 13th Century movement arose mostly among a single scholarly family, the Kalonymus family of the French and German Rhineland.

There were certain rishonim ("Elder Sages") of exoteric Judaism who are known to have been experts in Kabbalah. One of the best known is Nahmanides (the Ramban) (1194–1270) whose commentary on the Torah is considered to be based on Kabbalistic knowledge. Bahya ben Asher (the Rabbeinu Behaye) (d. 1340) also combined Torah commentary and Kabbalah. Another was Isaac the Blind (1160–1235), the teacher of Nahmanides, who is widely argued to have written the first work of classic Kabbalah, the Bahir.

Sefer Bahir and another work, the "Treatise of the Left Emanation", probably composed in Spain by Isaac ben Isaac ha-Kohen, laid the groundwork for the composition of Sefer Zohar, written by Moses de Leon and his mystical circle at the end of the 13th Century, but credited to the Talmudic sage Shimon bar Yochai, cf. Zohar. The Zohar proved to be the first truly "popular" work of Kabbalah, and the most influential. From the thirteenth century onward, Kabbalah began to be widely disseminated and it branched out into an extensive literature. Historians in the nineteenth century, for example, Heinrich Graetz, argued that the emergence into public view of Jewish esotericism at this time coincides with, and represents a response to, the rising influence of the rationalist philosophy of Maimonides and his followers. Gershom Scholem sought to undermine this view as part of his resistance to seeing kabbalah as merely a response to medieval Jewish rationalism. Arguing for a gnostic influence has to be seen as part of this strategy. More recently, Moshe Idel and Elliot Wolfson have independently argued that the impact of Maimonides can be seen in the change from orality to writing in the thirteenth century. That is, kabbalists committed to writing many of their oral traditions in part as a response to the attempt of Maimonides to explain the older esoteric subjects philosophically.

Most Orthodox Jews reject the idea that Kabbalah underwent significant historical development or change such as has been proposed above. After the composition known as the Zohar was presented to the public in the 13th century, the term "Kabbalah" began to refer more specifically to teachings derived from, or related, to the Zohar. At an even later time, the term began to generally be applied to Zoharic teachings as elaborated upon by Isaac Luria Arizal. Historians generally date the start of Kabbalah as a major influence in Jewish thought and practice with the publication of the Zohar and climaxing with the spread of the Arizal's teachings. The majority of Haredi Jews accept the Zohar as the representative of the Ma'aseh Merkavah and Ma'aseh B'reshit that are referred to in Talmudic texts.^[45]

Early Modern era: Lurianic Kabbalah

The mystical community in 16th century Safed invigorated wider Judaism with its Cordoveran synthesis and Lurianic reorganisation

Main article: Isaac Luria

Following the upheavals and dislocations in the Jewish world as a result of the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, and the trauma of Anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages, Jews began to search for signs of when the long-awaited Jewish Messiah would come to comfort them in their painful exiles. Moses Cordovero and his immediate circle popularized the teachings of the Zohar which had until then been only a modestly influential work. The author of the Shulkhan Arukh (the Jewish "Code of Law"), Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488–1575), was also a great scholar of Kabbalah and spread its teachings during this era.

As part of that "search for meaning" in their lives, Kabbalah received its biggest boost in the Jewish world with the explication of the Kabbalistic teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534–1572) by his disciples Rabbi Hayim Vital and Rabbi Israel Sarug, both of whom published Luria's teachings (in variant forms) gaining them widespread popularity. Luria's teachings came to rival the influence of the Zohar and Luria stands, alongside Moses de Leon, as the most influential mystic in Jewish history.

Ban against studying Kabbalah

The ban against studying Kabbalah was lifted by the efforts of the sixteenth century Kabbalist Rabbi Avraham Azulai (1570–1643).

“

I have found it written that all that has been decreed Above forbidding open involvement in the Wisdom of Truth [Kabbalah] was [only meant for] the limited time period until the year 5,250 (1490 C.E.). From then on after is called the "Last Generation", and what was forbidden is [now] allowed. And permission is granted to occupy ourselves in the [study of] Zohar. And from the year 5,300 (1540 C.E.) it is most desirable that the masses both those great and small [in Torah], should occupy themselves [in the study of Kabbalah], as it says in the Raya M'hemna [a section of the Zohar]. And because in this merit King Mashiach will come in the future—and not in any other merit—it is not proper to be discouraged [from the study of Kabbalah]. (Rabbi Avraham Azulai)^[46]

”

The question however is whether the ban ever existed in the first place. Concerning the above quote by Avraham Azulai, it has found many versions in English, another is this

“

From the year 1540 and onward, the basic levels of Kabbalah must be taught publicly to everyone, young and old. Only through Kabbalah will we forever eliminate war, destruction, and man's inhumanity to his fellow man.^[47]

”

The lines concerning 1490 are also missing from the Hebrew edition of Hesed L'Avraham, the source work that both of these quote from. Furthermore by Azulai's view the ban was lifted thirty years before his birth. A time that would have corresponded with Rabbi Haim Vital's publication of the teaching of Isaac Luria. Furthermore Rabbi Moshe Isserles only understood there to be a minor restriction, in his words "One's belly must be full of meat and wine, discerning between the prohibited and the permitted."^[48] He is supported by the Bier Hetiv, the Pithei Teshuva as well as the Vilna Gaon. The Vilna Gaon says,

“

There was never any ban or enactment restricting the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Any who says there is has never studied Kabblah, has never seen PaRDeS, and speaks as an ignoramous.^[49]

”

Thus leaving the existence of a ban to be highly debated.

Sefardi and Mizrahi

The Kabbalah of the Sefardi (Portuguese or Spanish) and Mizrahi (African/Asian) Torah scholars has a long history. Kabbalah in various forms was widely studied, commented upon, and expanded by North African, Turkish, Yemenite, and Asian scholars from the 16th Century onward. It flourished among Sefardic Jews in Tzfat (Safed), Israel even before the arrival of Isaac Luria, its most famous resident. The great Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Arukh was part of the Tzfat school of Kabbalah. Shlomo Alkabetz, author of the famous hymn Lekhah Dodi, taught there.

His disciple Moses ben Jacob Cordovero authored Sefer Pardes Rimonim, an organized, exhaustive compilation of kabbalistic teachings on a variety of subjects up to that point. Rabbi Cordovero headed the Academy of Tzfat until his death, when Isaac Luria, also known as the Ari, rose to prominence. Rabbi Moshe's disciple Eliyahu De Vidas authored the classic work, Reishit Chochma, combining kabbalistic and mussar (moral) teachings. Chaim Vital also studied under Rabbi Cordovero, but with the arrival of Rabbi Luria became his main disciple. Vital claimed to be the only one authorized to transmit the Ari's teachings, though other disciples also published books presenting Luria's teachings.

Maharal

The 16th century Maharal of Prague articulated a mystical exegesis in philosophical language

One of the most important teachers of Kabbalah recognized as an authority by all serious scholars up until the present time, was Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (1525–1609) known as the Maharal of Prague. Many of his written works survive and are studied for their deep Kabbalistic insights. The Maharal is, perhaps, most famous outside of Jewish mysticism for the legends of the golem of Prague, which he reportedly created. During the twentieth century, Rabbi Isaac Hutner (1906–1980) continued to spread the Maharal's teachings indirectly through his own teachings and scholarly publications within the modern yeshiva world.

Failure of Sabbatian Mysticism

The spiritual and mystical yearnings of many Jews remained frustrated after the death of Rabbi Isaac Luria and his disciples and colleagues. No hope was in sight for many following the devastation and mass killings of the pogroms that followed in the wake the Chmielnicki Uprising (1648–1654), and it was at this time that a controversial scholar of the Kabbalah by the name of Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) captured the hearts and minds of the Jewish masses of that time with the promise of a newly-minted "Messianic" Millennialism in the form of his own personage.

His charisma, mystical teachings that included repeated pronunciations of the holy Tetragrammaton in public, tied to an unstable personality, and with the help of his own "prophet" Nathan of Gaza, convinced the Jewish masses that the "Jewish Messiah" had finally come. It seemed that the esoteric teachings of Kabbalah had found their "champion" and had triumphed, but this era of Jewish history unravelled when Zevi became an apostate to Judaism by converting to Islam after he was arrested by the Ottoman Sultan and threatened with execution for attempting a plan to conquer the world and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

Many of his followers, known as Sabbateans, continued to worship him in secret, explaining his conversion not as an effort to save his life but to recover the sparks of the holy in each religion, and most leading rabbis were always on guard to root them out. The Donmeh movement in modern Turkey is a surviving remnant of the Sabbatian schism.

Due to the chaos caused in the Jewish world, the Rabbinic prohibition against studying Kabbalah was well intact again, and established itself firmly within the Jewish religion. One of the conditions allowing a man to study and engage himself in the Kabbalah, was to be of age forty. This age requirement came about during this period and is not Talmudic in origin but Rabbinic. Many Jews are familiar with this ruling, but are not aware of its origins. Moreover, the prohibition is not halakhic in nature. According to Moses Cordovero, halakhically, one must be of age twenty to engage in the Kabbalah. Many famous Kabbalists, including the ARI, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, were younger than twenty when they began.

Frankists

Main article: Jacob Frank

The Sabbatian movement was followed by that of the "Frankists" who were disciples of another pseudo-mystic Jacob Frank (1726–1791) who eventually became an apostate to Judaism by apparently converting to Catholicism. This era of disappointment did not stem the Jewish masses' yearnings for "mystical" leadership.

1700s

Image of the Vilna Gaon. Both Hasidic and Mitnagdic Judaism followed Kabbalistic theology

Synagogue of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, in Medzhybizh Ukraine

The eighteenth century saw an explosion of new efforts in the writing and spread of Kabbalah by four well known rabbis working in different areas of Europe:

Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760) in the area of Ukraine spread teachings based on Rabbi Isaac Luria's foundations, simplifying the Kabbalah for the common man. From him sprang the vast ongoing schools of Hasidic Judaism, with each successive rebbe viewed by his "Hasidim" as continuing the role of dispenser of mystical divine blessings and guidance.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810), the great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, revitalized and further expanded the latter's teachings, amassing a following of thousands in Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Poland. In a unique amalgam of Hasidic and Mitnagid approaches, Rebbe Nachman emphasized study of both Kabbalah and serious Torah scholarship to his disciples. His teachings also differed from the way other Hasidic groups were developing, as he rejected the idea of hereditary Hasidic dynasties and taught that each Hasid must "search for the tzaddik ('saintly/righteous person')" for himself—and within himself.
Rabbi Elijah of Vilna (Vilna Gaon) (1720–1797), based in Lithuania, had his teachings encoded and publicized by his disciples such as by Rabbi Chaim Volozhin who published the mystical-ethical work Nefesh HaChaim. However, he was staunchly opposed to the new Hasidic movement and warned against their public displays of religious fervour inspired by the mystical teachings of their rabbis. Although the Vilna Gaon was not in favor of the Hasidic movement, he did not prohibit the study and engagement in the Kabbalah. This is evident from his writings in the Even Shlema. "He that is able to understand secrets of the Torah and does not try to understand them will be judged harshly, may God have mercy". (The Vilna Gaon, Even Shlema, 8:24). "The Redemption will only come about through learning Torah, and the essence of the Redemption depends upon learning Kabbalah" (The Vilna Gaon, Even Shlema, 11:3).
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (1707–1746), based in Italy, was a precocious Talmudic scholar who arrived at the startling conclusion that there was a need for the public teaching and study of Kabbalah. He established a yeshiva for Kabbalah study and actively recruited outstanding students and, in addition, wrote copious manuscripts in an appealing clear Hebrew style, all of which gained the attention of both admirers and rabbinical critics who feared another "Zevi (false messiah) in the making".He was forced to close his school by his rabbinical opponents, hand over and destroy many of his most precious unpublished kabbalistic writings, and go into exile in the Netherlands. He eventually moved to the Land of Israel. Some of his most important works such as Derekh Hashem survive and are used as a gateway to the world of Jewish mysticism.

Modern era

Orthodox

Beit El Synagogue in Jerusalem. Oriental Judaism has a traditional chain of Kabbalah

One of the most influential sources spreading Kabbalistic teachings have come from the massive growth and spread of Hasidic Judaism, a movement begun by Yisroel ben Eliezer (The Baal Shem Tov), but continued in many branches and streams until today. These groups differ greatly in size, but all emphasize the study of mystical Hasidic texts, which now consists of a vast literature devoted to elaborating upon the long chain of Kabbalistic thought and methodology. No group emphasizes in-depth kabbalistic study, though, to the extent of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, whose Rebbes delivered tens of thousands of discourses, and whose students study these texts for three hours daily.

Rabbi Shmuel Schneersohn of Lubavitch urged the study of kabbala as prerequisite for one's humanity:

“

A person who is capable of comprehending the Seder hishtalshelus (kabbalistic secrets concerning the higher spiritual spheres)—and fails to do so—cannot be considered a human being. At every moment and time one must know where his soul stands. It is a mitzvah (commandment) and an obligation to know the seder hishtalshelus.^[50]

”

The writings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1864–1935) also stress Kabbalistic themes:

“

Due to the alienation from the "secret of God" [i.e. Kabbalah], the higher qualities of the depths of Godly life are reduced to trivia that do not penetrate the depth of the soul. When this happens, the most mighty force is missing from the soul of nation and individual, and Exile finds favor essentially... We should not negate any conception based on rectitude and awe of Heaven of any form—only the aspect of such an approach that desires to negate the mysteries and their great influence on the spirit of the nation. This is a tragedy that we must combat with counsel and understanding, with holiness and courage.
— Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook (Orot 2)

”

Bnei Baruch

Bnei Baruch is a group of Kabbalists, based in Israel. Study materials are available in over 25 languages. Michael Laitman, established Bnei Baruch in 1991, following the passing of his teacher, Baruch Ashlag. Laitman named his group Bnei Baruch (sons of Baruch) to commemorate the memory of his mentor. Baruch Ashlag was the oldest son and successor of the famous Kabbalist, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, who was author of a comprehensive commentary on The Book of Zohar called The Sulam Commentary (The Ladder Commentary).

Kabbalah Centre

Main article: Kabbalah Centre

The Kabbalah Centre was founded in the United States in 1965 as The National Research Institute of Kabbalah by Philip Berg (born Feivel Gruberger) and Rav Yehuda Tzvi Brandwein. After Brandwein's death, and after several years in Israel, Philip Berg and his wife Karen Berg, re-established the U.S. Kabbalah Centre in New York.

Personalities in Kabbalah

Notes

^ Imbued with Holiness The vast majority of scholars confirm that the Historical Solomon was likely not the founder of this belief and practice.
^ [1] Definition of the two types of Kabbalah
^ Shnei Luchot HaBrit, R. Isaiah Horowitz, Toldot Adam, Beit haChokhma, 14
^ JewishEncyclopedia.com - ZOHAR
^ The Written Law (The Torah)
^ Megillah 14a, Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4:22, Ruth Rabbah 1:2, Aryeh Kaplan “Jewish Meditation: A Practical Guide” p.44–p.48
^ Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ha-Levi Ashlag; Preface to the Wisdom of Truth p.12 section 30 and p.105 bottom section of the left column as preface to the "Talmud Eser HaSfirot"
^ See Shem Mashmaon by Rabbi Shimon Agasi. It is a commentary on Otzrot Haim by Haim Vital. In the introduction he list five major schools of thought as to how to understand the AriZ"L/Haim Vital's understanding of the concept of Tzitzum.
^ See Yechveh Daat Vol 3, section 47 by Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef
^ See Ktavim Hadashim published by Rabbi Yaakov Hillel of Ahavat Shalom for a sampling of works by Haim Vital attributed to Isaac Luria that deal with other works.
^ Kabbala goes to yeshiva | Jerusalem Post
^ This applies in Habad intellectual Hasidic philosophy, that incorporates Hakirah into its inner mystical philosophy. Some other Hasidic schools were opposed to Hakirah. In the synthesis, both Hakirah and Kabbalah are seen to unite within a higher Divine source of intellect.
^ Maimonides, beginning of the Mishneh Torah
^ "Maimonides: Philosopher and Mystic" from www.Chabad.org Maimonides' Kabbalistic scholarship has been explained especially in Chabad mystical works. Additionally, the source of some laws in his Mishneh Torah are only found in Kabbalah
^ Wineberg, chs. 20–21
^ (Scholem, Kabbalah, p. 100)
^ See Otzrot Haim: Sha'ar TNT"A for a short explanation. The vast majority of the Lurianic system deals only with the complexities found in the world of Atzilut as is explained in the introductions to both Otzrot Haim and Eitz Haim.
^ The Song of the Soul, Yechiel Bar-Lev, p.73
^ J.H.Laenen, Jewish Mysticism, p.164
^ Sirach iii. 22; compare Talmud, Hagigah, 13a; Midrash Genesis Rabbah, viii.
^ Overview of Hasidut from www.inner.org
^ The Founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, cautioned against the layman learning Kabbalah without its Hasidic explanation. He saw this as the cause of the contemporary mystical heresies of Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank. Cited in The Great Maggid by Jacob Immanuel Schochet, quoting Derech Mitzvosecha by Menachem Mendel Schneersohn
^ Moshe Idel
^ Daniel C. Matt
^ Gerschom Scholem, "Hasidism: The Latest Phase" in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism and Martin Bubuer, Hasidism and Modern Man and The Origin and Meaning of Hasidism
^ Sitra Achra
^ Arich Anpin
^ Fundamentals of Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah By Ron H. Feldman. Pg. 59
^ סידור הרב, שער אכילת מצה
^ Dov Ber Pinson, Reincarnation and Judaism
^ ר' אברהם חן, ביהדות התורה
^ article, The Seductiveness of Jewish Myth
^ Wolfson, E.R. Venturing Beyond: Law and Morality in Kabbalistic Mysticism, Oxford University Press, 2006, ch.1.
^ Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, From the Periphery to the Center: Kabbalah & Conservative Judaism
^ ^a ^b Artson, Bradley Shavit. From the Periphery to the Centre: Kabbalah and the Conservative Movement, United Synagogue Review, Spring 2005, Vol. 57 No. 2
^ Introduction to Raziel Hamalach
^ Stern, Schneur Zalman. Active vs. Passive Meditation
^ SparkNotes: The Kabbalah: Ma’aseh merkavah
^ SparkNotes: The Kabbalah: Ma’aseh bereshit
^ Urbach, The Sages, pp.184ff.
^ Later, Elisha came to be considered heretical by his fellow Tannaim and the rabbis of the Talmud referred to him as Acher (אחר"The Other One").
^ Babylonian Talmud Hagigah 14b, Jerusalem Talmud Hagigah 2:1. Both available online in Aramaic: Babylonian Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud. This translation based on Braude, Ginzberg, Rodkinson, and Streane.
^ A. W. Streane, A Translation of the Treatise Chagigah from the Babylonian Talmud Cambridge University Press, 1891. p. 83.
^ Louis Ginzberg, Elisha ben Abuyah", Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901–1906.
^ The Zohar
^ Rabbi Avraham Azulai quoted in Erdstein, Baruch Emanuel. The Need to Learn Kabbala
^ The Kabbalah Centre
^ Shulhan Arukh YD 246:4
^ Shulhan Arukh 246:4 S"K 19
^ Sefer HaToldos Admur Maharash: From The Sichos Of The Rebbe Maharash Nshmoso Eden

References

Bodoff, Lippman; Jewish Mysticism: Medieval Roots, Contemporary Dangers and Prospective Challenges; The Edah Journal 2003 3.1
Dan, Joseph; The Early Jewish Mysticism, Tel Aviv: MOD Books, 1993.
Dan, Joseph; The Heart and the Fountain: An Anthology of Jewish Mystical Experiences, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Dan, Joseph; Samael, Lilith, and the Concept of Evil in Early Kabbalah, AJS Review, vol. 5, 1980.
Dan, Joseph; The ‘Unique Cherub’ Circle, Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1999.
Dan, J. and Kiener, R.; The Early Kabbalah, Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1986.
Dennis, G.; The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism, St. Paul: Llewellyn Wordwide, 2007.
Fine, Lawrence, ed. Essential Papers in Kabbalah, New York: NYU Press, 1995.
Fine, Lawrence; Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and his Kabbalistic Fellowship, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.
Fine, Lawrence; Safed Spirituality, Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1989.
Fine, Lawrence, ed., Judaism in Practice, Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Green, Arthur; EHYEH: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow. Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2003.

Grözinger, Karl E., Jüdisches Denken Band 2: Von der mittelalterlichen Kabbala zum Hasidismus,(Campus) Frankfurt /New York, 2005

Hecker, Joel; Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005.
Idel, Moshe; Kabbalah: New Perspectives. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988.
Idel, Moshe; The Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid, New York: SUNY Press, 1990.
Idel, Moshe; Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic, New York: SUNY Press, 1995.
Idel, Moshe; Kabbalistic Prayer and Color, Approaches to Judaism in Medieval Times, D. Blumenthal, ed., Chicago: Scholar’s Press, 1985.
Idel, Moshe; The Mystica Experience in Abraham Abulafia, New York, SUNY Press, 1988.
Idel, Moshe; Kabbalah: New Perspectives, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1988.
Idel, Moshe; Magic and Kabbalah in the ‘Book of the Responding Entity’; The Solomon Goldman Lectures VI, Chicago: Spertus College of Judaica Press, 1993.
Idel, Moshe; The Story of Rabbi Joseph della Reina; Behayahu, M. Studies and Texts on the History of the Jewish Community in Safed.
This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
Kaplan, Aryeh; Inner Space: Introduction to Kabbalah, Meditation and Prophecy. Moznaim Publishing Corp 1990.
John W. McGinley; 'The Written' as the Vocation of Conceiving Jewishly; ISBN 0-595-40488-X
Scholem, Gershom; Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, 1941.
Scholem, Gershom; Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and the Talmudic Tradition, 1960.
Scholem, Gershom; Sabbatai Zevi, the Mystical Messiah, 1973.
Scholem, Gershom; Kabbalah, Jewish Publication Society, 1974.
Wineberg, Yosef; Lessons in Tanya: The Tanya of R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi (5 volume set). Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, 1998. ISBN 0-8266-0546-X
Wirszubski, Chaim; Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism, Harvard University Press, 1989.
Wolfson, Elliot; Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Wolfson, Elliot; Language, Eros Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination, New York: Fordham University Press, 2005.
Wolfson, Elliot; Venturing Beyond: Law and Morality in Kabbalistic Mysticism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Wolfson, Elliot; Alef, Mem, Tau: Kabbalistic Musings on Time, Truth, and Death, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
Wolfson, Elliot; Luminal Darkness: Imaginal Gleanings From Zoharic Literature, London: Onworld Publications, 2007.
The Wisdom of The Zohar: An Anthology of Texts, 3 volume set, Ed. Isaiah Tishby, translated from the Hebrew by David Goldstein, The Littman Library.

External links

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The Zohar and Later Mysticism

General information sites

Kabbalah Learning Center Online course associated with Bnei Baruch
Resources > Medieval Jewish History > Jewish Mysticism Jewish History Resource Center
FAQ about Kabbalah JewFaq.org
Cabala JewishEncyclopedia.com
Overview of Kabbalah
Chassidic Kabbalah
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[http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/biblio.htm Rabbinic Kabbalah texts in English
Kabbalah4All.com | Connecting Those Who Study Kabbalah Around The Globe™ Kabbalah4All.com
KabTV Online Kabbalah station from Israel
Kabbalah-Dictionary with more than 5000 Terms
Kabbalistic Tree of Life (interactive)

Lists of Kabbalah terms

Alphabetical list of specialized Kabbala expressions Kabbalah Online.org
Glossary of kabbalistic terms, Bnei Baruch

Jewish Kabbalah organizations

Bnei Baruch Education and Research Institute Kabbalah.info
The Kabbalah Centre Kabbalah.com
Ascent-of-Sefad
Authentic Kabbalah
Kabbalah4All.com | Connecting Those Who Study Kabbalah Around The Globe™ Kabbalah4All.com
Kabbalah HealingKabbalah Healing
Iyyun—Dov Ber Pinson

Online rabbinic Kabbalah texts

Who Should Learn the Hidden Torah? Rambam (Maimonides), Guide for the Perplexed.
English and Aramaic Zohar Online (searchable) Kabbalah Centre
Kabbalah Library Bnei Baruch
Important Kabbalah texts in English KabbalahOnline.org

Orthodox sites

Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism Talmudist perspective of Kabbalah
What is Kabbalah? Chabad
Kabbalah 101 Aish
A-Z Kabbalah Institute
Bircat Shalom
kabbalah books

Online Hasidic Kabbalah texts

letter of the Baal Shem Tov
Lessons in Tanya Chabad
The Gate Of Unity Translation & Commentary of The Gate Of Unity

Jewish criticisms of Kabbalah

Anti-Maimonidean Demons Article by José Faur
Maimonides Agonist: Disenchantment and Reenchantment in Modern Judaism Article by Menachem Kellner
Milhamot Hashem Attack on the Zohar by Yihhyah Qafahh. Hebrew
Emunat Hashem Reply to Milhamot Hashem by Jerusalem rabbis. Hebrew
Idol worship is still within us Interview: Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz

Folk and pop Kabbalah sites

Intro to Kabbalah and Self Discovery (12-part audio download online)

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Translations: Kabbala

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kabbala, jødisk religiøs filosofi

Français (French)
n. - Kabbale, cabale

Deutsch (German)
n. - Kabbala (jüd. Geheimlehre)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ.) καβάλα, (κατ' επέκτ.) μυστικιστική διδασκαλία

Italiano (Italian)
cabala

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cabala (f) (Filos.) (Rel.), ensinamentos místicos baseados nas escrituras hebraicas

Русский (Russian)
кабала, кабалистика

Español (Spanish)
n. - cábala

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kabbala, hemlig kunskap, ockultism

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
犹太神秘哲学

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 猶太神秘哲學

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 헤브라이 신비설, 밀교

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - カバラ, 秘法, 秘教

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮קבלה (מיסטיקה יהודית)‬

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