What is kabalism?

Answer 1

Kaballah is the name of a Jewish mystical tradition. Kabalism, then, would be the belief in that tradition. Jewish mysticism is ancient. The Book of Ezekiel describes a vision of the divine throne, and Jews have been contemplating that vision for many years. In the middle ages, a Spanish rabbi, Moses de Leon, published a work, the Zohar, that he attributed to Shimon bar Yochai, a second-century rabbi. The Zohar is the founding text of Kaballah, elaborating on the creation story, providing both a reason and a mystical explanation of how God created the universe, and explaining the purpose of humanity in this creation. Isaac Luria, a rabbi in 16th century Safed, in Ottoman Palestine, created a mystical tradition we now call the Lurianic Kaballah. This was so compelling that it led to something of a religious revolution among late 16th century European Jews. Today's Hassidic Jews (sometime described as ultra-Orthodox Jews) are in a real sense, the heirs of this mystical tradition. Meanwhile, some Christian mystics during the Renaissance discovered Kaballah and infused ideas from it into Christian mysticism, creating a stream of Christian mystical thinking called Chritian Kaballah.