Jewish religious teachings originally transmitted orally, predominantly mystic in nature, and ostensibly consisting of secret doctrines. It developed along two lines - the practical, centring on prayer, meditation, and acts of piety; and the speculative or theoretical, centring on the discovery of mysteries hidden in the Jewish Scriptures by special methods of interpretation.
|
Part of a series on |
|
Judaism |
| Portal | Category |
| Jews · Judaism · Denominations |
|---|
| Orthodox · Conservative · Reform |
| Haredi · Hasidic · Modern Orthodoxy |
| Reconstructionist · Karaite · Rabbinic |
| Jewish history |
| Timeline · Early history · Schisms |
| Israel, Judah · Temples · Babylonian exile |
| Hasmoneans and Greece · Sanhedrin |
| Jewish-Roman wars · Era of Pharisees |
| Diaspora · Middle Ages · Muslim Lands |
| Enlightenment/Haskalah · Hasidism · Aliyah |
| Jewish philosophy |
| Principles of faith · Chosenness · Halakha |
| God · Eschatology · Kabbalah · Holocaust |
| Messiah · Ethics · Mussar · Hassidus |
| Kashrut · Modesty · Minyan · Tzedakah |
| Religious texts |
| Torah · Tanakh · Talmud · Zohar · Kuzari |
| Chumash · Siddur · Mishneh Torah · Tur |
| Shulkhan Arukh · Tosefta · Mishna Brura |
| Rabbinic works · Tanya · Midrash · Piyutim |
| Holy cities |
| Jerusalem · Tzfat · Chevron · Tiberias |
| Jewish holidays |
| Shabbat · Rosh HaShana · Yom Kippur |
| Sukkot · Simchat Torah · Hanukkah · 9 Av |
| 10 Tevet · 15 Shvat · Purim · Pesach |
| Rosh Chodesh · Shavuot · 3 Pilgrimages |
| Important figures |
| Abraham · Isaac · Jacob/Israel |
| The 12 Tribes of Israel · Lost Ten Tribes |
| Sarah · Rebekah · Rachel · Leah |
| Moses · Dvora · Ruth · David |
| Shlomo · Eliyahu · Hillel · Shammai · Rashi |
| Ibn Ezra · Rif · Rambam · Ramban |
| Gersonides · Saadia Gaon · Alter Rebbe |
| Besht · Tosafists · Rashi |
| Albo · Karo · Ovadia Yosef · Rosh |
| Lubavitcher Rebbe · Moshe Feinstein |
| Jewish life cycle |
| Brit · Bar mitzvah · Shiduch · Marriage |
| Niddah · Naming · Pidyon · Burial |
| Religious roles |
| Rabbi · Rebbe · Chazzan |
| Kohen/Priest · Mashgiach · Gabbai |
| Mohel · Dayan · Rosh yeshiva |
| Religious buildings |
| Three Temples · Synagogue |
| Mikvah · Sukkah · Mishkan |
| Liturgy and services |
| Shacharit · Mincha · Ma'ariv |
| Musaf · Neilah · Havdalah |
| Religious articles |
| Tallit · Tefillin · Kipa · Sefer Torah |
| Tzitzit · Mezuzah · Menorah · Shofar |
| 4 Species · Kittel · Gartel · Yad |
| Jewish prayers |
| Shema · Amidah · Aleinu · Kol Nidre |
| Kaddish · Hallel · Ma Tovu |
| Judaism & other religions |
| Christianity · "Judeo-Christian" · Islam |
| Catholicism · Reconciliation · Pluralism |
| "Judeo-Islamic" · Abrahamic faiths |
| Mormonism · Noahide laws · Others |
| This box: view • talk • edit |
Kabbalah (Hebrew: קַבָּלָה, Tiberian: qabːɔˈlɔh, Qabbālāh, Israeli: Kabala) literally means "receiving", in the sense of a "received tradition", and is sometimes transliterated as Cabala, Kabbala, Qabalah, or other permutation. Kabbalah esoterically interprets the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and classical Jewish texts (halakha and aggadah) and practices (mitzvot), as expressing a mystical doctrine concerning God's simultaneous imminence and transcendence, an attempted resolution to the ancient paradox of how the ultimate Being—"that which is not conceivable by thinking" (Isaac the Blind)—nevertheless comes to be known and experienced by the created world. Because of the interpretive liberties taken by kabbalistic thinkers, and the possible heresies to which they may easily lead, study of Kabbalah was traditionally restricted to a select few Rabbis and Torah scholars.
Use of term
The term Kabbalah was originally used in Talmudic texts, among the Geonim (early medieval rabbis) and by Rishonim (later medieval rabbis) as a reference to the full body of the oral tradition of Jewish teaching, which was publicly available. Even the works of the Tanakh's prophets were referred to as Kabbalah, before they were canonized as part of the written tradition. In this sense Kabbalah was used in referring to all of Judaism's oral law. Now, even though the esoteric teachings of the Torah are recorded, it is still known as Kabbalah.
Thus, this term became connected with doctrines of esoteric knowledge concerning God, the human being and the relationship between them. The reasons for the commandments in the Torah and the ways by which God administers the existence of the universe are also a part of the Kabbalah.
Origins
According to most segements of Orthodox Jewry, this esoteric Kabbalah dates from Adam and is an integral part of the Jewish tradition.
Protocol and influence
The proper protocol for teaching this wisdom, as well as many of its concepts, are recorded in the Talmud (second chapter of tractate Haggiga). 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.
Dispute
There is more dispute among Haredim as to the status of 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 of the esoteric side of Torah referred to in the Talmud as Ma'aseh Merquva and Ma'aseh B'resheyth. Their disagreement is only over whether the Kabbalistic teachings promulgated today are accurate representations of those esoteric teachings to which the Talmud refers.
Origin of Jewish mysticism
According to adherents of Kabbalah, the origin of Kabbalah begins with secrets that God revealed to Adam. According to a rabbinic midrash God created the universe through the ten sefirot.
The Bible provides ample additional material for mythic and mystical speculation. Moses' experience with the Burning bush and his encounters with God on Mount Sinai, are all evidence of mystical events in the Tanakh, and form the origin of Jewish mystical beliefs.
The 72 names of God which are used in Jewish mysticism are derived from the Hebrew verses Moses spoke to part the Red Sea, allowing the Hebrews to escape their approaching enemies with the assistance of an angel.
Some scholars have even proposed an Indian origin for this mystic system.
Claims for authority
Historians have noted that most claims for the authority of Kabbalah are based on an argument of authority based on antiquity.
This appeal to antiquity has also shaped modern theories of influence in reconstructing the history of Jewish mysticism.
Parpola re-interpreted various Assyrian tablets in terms of these primitive Sefirot, such as the Epic Of Gilgamesh. He proposed that the scribes had been writing philosophical-mystical tracts, rather than mere adventure stories, and concluded that traces of this Assyrian mode of thought and philosophy eventually reappeared in Greek Philosophy and the Kabbalah.
Skeptical scholars find attempts to read Kabbalah back into the pre-Israelite Ancient Near East, as Parpola does, to be implausible. A plausible alternative, based in the research of Gershom Scholem, the pre-eminent scholar of Kabbalah in the 20th Century, is to see the sefirot as a theosophical doctrine that emerged out of Jewish word-mythology of late antiquity (as exemplified in Sefer Yetzirah) and the angelic-palace mysticism found in Hekalot literature being fused to the Neo-Platonic notion of creation through progressive divine emanations.
Textual antiquity of esoteric mysticism
Jewish forms of esotericism did, however, exist over 2,000 years ago.
Apocalyptic literature belonging to the second and first pre-Christian centuries contained elements that carry over to later Kabbalah.
That books containing secret lore were kept hidden away by (or for) the "enlightened" is stated in IV Esdras xiv.
Instructive for the study of the development of Jewish mysticism is the Book of Jubilees written around the time of King John Hyrcanus.
Early elements of Jewish mysticism can be found in the non-Biblical texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as the Song of the Sabbath Sacrifice. This book, and especially its embryonic concept of the "sefirot," became the object of systematic study of several mystical brotherhoods which eventually came to be called baale ha-kabbalah (בעלי הקבלה "possessors or masters of the Kabbalah").
Mystic doctrines in Talmudic times
In Talmudic times 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; In contrast to the explicit statement of the Hebrew Bible that God created not only the world, but also the matter out of which it was made , the opinion is expressed in very early times that God created the world from matter He found ready at hand — (according to some, this is an opinion probably due to the influence of the Platonic-Stoic cosmogony).
Eminent rabbinic teachers in the Land of Israel held the doctrine of the preexistence of matter (Midrash Genesis Rabbah i.
In dwelling upon the nature of God and the universe, the mystics of the Talmudic period asserted, in contrast to the transcendentalism evident in some parts of the Bible, that "God is the dwelling-place of the universe; Possibly the designation ("place") for God, so frequently found in Talmudic-Midrashic literature, is due to this conception, just as Philo, in commenting on Genesis 28:11 says, "God is called ha makom (המקום "the place") because God encloses the universe, but is Himself not enclosed by anything" (De Somniis, i. mainstream Judaism generally rejects pantheistic interpretations of Kabbalah, and instead accepts panentheistic interpretations.
Even in very early times of the Land of Israel as well as Alexandrian theology recognized the two attributes of God, middat hadin (the "attribute of justice"), and middat ha-rahamim (the "attribute of mercy") (Midrash Sifre, Deuteronomy 27); and so is the contrast between justice and mercy a fundamental doctrine of the Kabbalah. Other hypostasizations are represented by the ten "agencies" (the Sefirot) through which God created the world;
While the Sefirot are based on these ten creative "potentialities", it is especially the personification of wisdom which, in Philo, represents the totality of these primal ideas;
So, also, the figure of the Sar Metatron passed into mystical texts from the Talmud. Although the origin of this doctrine must be sought probably in certain mythological ideas, the Platonic doctrine of preexistence has modified the older, simpler conception, and the preexistence of the seven must therefore be understood as an "ideal" preexistence, a conception that was later more fully developed in the Kabbalah.
The attempts of the mystics to bridge the gulf between God and the world are evident in the doctrine of the preexistence of the soul, and of its close relation to God before it enters the human body — a doctrine taught by the Hellenistic sages (Wisdom viii.
In the 17th century, Baruch Spinoza may have had this passage in mind when he said that the ancient Jews did not separate God from the world. both these ideas were further developed in the later Kabbalah.
Kabbalah of the Middle Ages
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.
The 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. 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 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.
Spread of Kabbalah during the 1700s
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 (1698-1760) in the area of Ukraine spread teachings based on Rabbi Isaac Luria's foundations, simplifying the Kabbalah for the common man. In a unique amalgam of Hasidic and Mitnagid approaches, Rebbe Nachman emphasized study of both Kabbalah and serious Torah scholarship to his disciples. Although the Vilna Gaon was not in favor of the Hasidic movement, he did not prohibit the study and engagement in the Kabbalah. "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, in addition, wrote copious manuscripts in an appealing clear Hebrew style, all of which gained the attention of both admirers as well of rabbinical critics who feared another "Zevi (false messiah) in the making".The modern world
Two of the most influential sources spreading Kabbalistic teachings have come from the growth and spread of Hasidic Judaism, as can be seen by the growth of the Lubavitch movement, and from the influence of the writings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1864-1935) who inspired the followers of Religious Zionism with mystical writings and hopes that interpreted the rise of modern day Zionism as the onset of the atchalta dege'ula - the "beginning of the redemption" of the Jewish people from their exile, in expectation of the arrival of the "final redemption" of the Jewish Messiah. (Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook Orot 2 )
Another influential and important Kabbalah character is Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ashlag 1884-1954 (also known as the Baal HaSulam — a title that he was given after the completion of one of his masterworks, The Sulam). Some today consider this work as the core of the entire teaching of Kabbalah.
Renewed interest in Kabbalah has appeared among non-traditional Jews, and even among non-Jews.
Primary texts
Like the rest of the Rabbinic texts, much of the texts of Kabbalah are an ongoing oral tradition (similar to taking notes in a class discussion).
Heichalot
Hekhalot ("Heavenly Palaces") are not a single text.
Sefer Yetzirah
Yetzira (יצירה) (" Book [of] Formation/Creation"), also known as Hilkhot Yetzira "Customs of Formation" The first commentaries on this small book were written in the 10th century, perhaps the text itself is quoted as early as the 6th century, and perhaps its linguistic organization of the Hebrew alphabet could be from as early as the 2nd century.
Bahir
Bahir (בהיר) ("Illumination"), also known as "Midrash of Rabbi Nehunia Ben Ha-Kana" - a book of special interest to students of Kabbalah because it serves as a kind of epitome that surveys the essential concepts of the subsequent literature of Kabbalah.
Sefer Chasidim
Sefer Chasidim ("Book [of] Pious Ones") arose in the late 12th century as a central ethical text of the German Pietists.
Sefer Raziel HaMalakh
Raziel Ha-Malakh (רזיאל המלאך ) ("Raziel the Angel") - an astral-magical text published in the 13th century in Germany and probably written by Eliezer of Worms. It cites the text of the Yetzira, explains the concept of mazal "fortune, destinity" associated with Kabbalah astrology, and records an encrypted alphabet for use in mystical formulas.
Zohar
Zohar ( זהר ) ("Splendor") - the most important text of Kabbalah, at times achieving even canonical status as part of Oral Torah. To some degree, the Zohar simply is Kabbalah.
Pardes Rimonim
Pardes Rimonim ( פרדס רימונים ) ("Garden [of] Pomegranates") - the magnum opus of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, published in Spain in the 16th century and the main source of Cordoverian Kabbalah, a comprehensive interpretation of the Zohar and a friendly rival of the Lurianic interpretation.
Etz Hayim
Etz Hayim ( עץ חיים ) ("Tree [of] Life") - useful text of the teachings of Rabbi Yitzhak Luria (also known as the Ari), collected by his disciples, principally Chaim Vital (the Ari published nothing himself). It is a popular interpretation and synthesis of Lurianic Kabbalah.
Sulam
Sulam ( סולם ) ("Ladder"), also known as Zohar im perush Ha-Sulam ("Zohar with the Explication of the Ladder") - a translation of the Zohar into Hebrew that includes parenthetical comments.
Talmud Eser HaSfirot
Talmud Eser HaSfirot (תלמוד עשר הספירות) ("The Study [of the] Ten Sefirot"), a commentary on all the writings of the ARI written by Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ashlag
Theodicy: explanation for the existence of evil
Kabbalistic works offer a theodicy, a philosophical reconciliation of how the existence of a good and powerful God is compatible with the existence of evil in the world. There are mainly two different ways to describe why there is evil in the world, according to the Kabbalah. Both make use of the kabbalistic Tree of Life:
The kabbalistic tree, which consists of ten Sephiroth, the ten "enumerations" or "emanations" of God, consists of three "pillars": The left side of the tree, the "female side", is considered to be more destructive than the right side, the "male side". Moses Cordovero (16th century) and Menassseh ben Israel (17th century) are two examples of Kabbalists who claimed "No evil emanates from God."Kabbalistic understanding of God
Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) teaches that God is neither matter nor spirit. This question prompted Kabbalists to envision two aspects of God, (a) God himself, who in the end is unknowable, and (b) the revealed aspect of God that created the universe, preserves the universe, and interacts with mankind.
Some Kabbalistic scholars, such as Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, believe that all things are linked to God through these emanations, making us all part of one great chain of being. In truth, according to this philosophy, God's existence is higher than anything that this world can express, yet He includes all things of this world down to the finest detail in such a perfect unity that His creation of the world effected no change in Him whatsoever.
| The Sefirot in Kabbalah | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
| Category:Sephiroth | v • d • e | ||||||||||||||||
Sefirot
The Hebrew word Sefirah (סְפִירָה) literally means "Numbering" or "Numeration".
Ten Sefirot as process of Creation
According to Kabbalistic cosmology, Ten Sefirot (literally, Ten Numerations) 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. Hiddenness makes creation possible because God can then become "revealed" in a diversity of limited ways, which then form the building blocks of creation.
Ten Sefirot and physical sciences
Notable is the similarity between the concept in Kabbalah that the physical universe is made of Divine Light, and the modern concept in Physics that it is made of energy.
Moreover in Kabbalah, Divine Light is the carrier of consciousness. (Yhuda Ashlag, Introduction in Ha-Sulam.)
Thus, a human's consciousness is a part of the Divine Consciousness, where the rest of the infinite Divine has been hidden from the human.
The Ten Sefirot mediate the interaction of the ultimate unknowable God with the physical and spiritual world. Some students of Kabbalah suggest that the Sefirot may be thought of as analogous to fundamental laws of physics. Just as the resulting gravity, electromagnetism, strong force, and weak force allow for interactions between energy and matter, the Ten Sefirot allow for interactions between God and creation. (Compare Theory of Everything.)
The Ten Sefirot are sometimes mentioned in the context of the Ten Dimensions that some physicists suspect the Superstring Theory may require.
Ten Sefirot as process of ethics
Divine creation by means of the Ten Sefirot is an ethical process. Examples: The Sefirah of "Compassion" (Chesed) being part of the Right Column corresponds to how God reveals more blessings when humans use previous blessings compassionately, whereas the Sefirah of "Overpowering" (Gevurah) being part of the Left Column corresponds to how God hides these blessings when humans abuse them selfishly without compassion. If there were no "Righteous" humans, the blessings of God would become completely hidden, and creation would cease to exist. Compassionate actions are often impossible without "Faith" (Emunah), meaning to trust that God always supports compassionate actions even when God seems hidden. 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".
The human soul in Kabbalah
The Zohar posits that the human soul has three elements, the nefesh, ru'ach, and neshamah.
The Raaya Meheimna, a section of related teachings spread throughout the Zohar, discusses the two other parts of the human soul, the chayyah and yehidah (first mentioned in the Midrash Rabbah). Yehidah (יחידה) - the highest plane of the soul, in which one can achieve as full a union with God as is possible.
Both rabbinic and kabbalistic works posit that there are also a few additional, non-permanent states to the soul that people can develop on certain occasions.
Among its many pre-occupations, Kabbalah teaches that every Hebrew letter, word, number, even the accent on words of the Hebrew Bible contains a hidden sense; One such method is as follows:
Number-Word mysticism
Gematria:As early as the 1st Century BCE Jews believed Torah (first five books of the Bible) contains encoded message and hidden meanings.
There is no one fixed way to "do" gematria.
Divination and clairvoyance
Some Kabbalists have attempted to foretell events or know occult events by the Kabbalah. The term Kabbalah Maasit ("Practical Kabbalah") is used to refer to secret science in general, mystic art, or mystery. Within Judaism proper, the foretelling of the future through magical means is not permissible, not even with the Kabbalah. However, there is no prohibition against understanding the past nor coming to a greater understanding of present and future situations through inspiration gained by the Kabbalah (a subtle distinction and one often hard to delineate).
Practical applications
The Midrash and Talmud are replete with the use of Divine names and incantations that are claimed to effect supernatural or theurgic results. Most post-Talmudic rabbinical literature seeks to curb the use of any or most of these formulae, termed Kabbalah Ma'asit ("practical Kabbalah").
Other dramatic examples of such "practical" power include: the knowledge required to produce a Golem, a homunculus or artificial lifeform. Some adherents of Kabbalah developed the idea of invoking a curse against a sinner termed a Pulsa diNura (lit.
Many kabbalistic rituals require the participation of more than one individual, i.e. Rather the Maharal of Prague made his this way.) Still, Kabbalah itself could only be taught to a very small group of select individuals who had mastered the other branches of Torah - for these reasons, the English word "cabal" came to refer to any small, secretive and possibly conspiratorial group.
Gnosticism and Kabbalah
Gnosticism frequently appears as an element of Kabbalah. Gnosticism - systems of secret spiritual knowledge, or some sources say - — that is, the concept Hokhmah (חכמה "wisdom") - seems to have been the first attempt on the part of Jewish sages to give the empirical mystic lore, with the help of Platonic and Pythagorean or Stoic ideas, a speculative turn.
Original teachings of gnosticism have much in common with Kabbalah:
Core terminology of classical gnostics include using Jewish names of God.However there are also aspects of Gnosticism at odds with Kabbalah. Most glaring is the fact that within most of the Christian Gnostic groups the Jewish creator God was looked down on. This ranged from somewhat sympathetic pity for what the Gnostics felt was a deranged abortion, to outright identification of the Jewish God with evil incarnate.
Criticisms
Dualism
One of the most serious and sustained criticisms of Kabbalah is that it may lead away from monotheism, and instead promote dualism, the belief that there is a supernatural counterpart to God. 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. 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 Ahra ("the other side") that emantes from God. 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 - 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, for example, a Heavenly Court or the Sitra Ahra are only given to humanity by God to give humanity a working model to understand His ways within our own epistemological limits. 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 Arikh Anpin). Professor 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
Another aspect of Kabbalah that Jewish critics object to is its metaphysics of the human soul. While all human souls emanate from God, the Zohar posits that at least part of Gentile souls emanate from the "left side" of the Sefrotic structure and that non-Jews therefore have a dark or demonic aspect to them that is absent in Jews.
Later Kabbalistic works build and elaborate on this idea.
All this theologically framed hostility may be a response to the demonization of Jews which developed in Western and Christian thought starting with the Patristic Fathers.
In an article that appears in The Seductiveness of Jewish Myth, David Halperin 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.
Modern Judaism has rejected, or at least dismissed this outdated aspect of Kabbalah as non-relevant , as it possibly persists in only the most recondite and anti-modernist corners of the Jewish world.
Debate about Kabbalah in Judaism
Although it has been criticized by a number of rabbis, Kabbalah has nevertheless remained an influential ideology in Jewish theology since the 13th Century, and is particularly influential in Hasidic and Sephardic thought. Gershom Scholem has written that between 1500 and 1800 "Kabbalah was widely considered to be the true Jewish theology". Though the medieval rationalists, Dor Daim, and many in Liberal Judaism and Modern Orthodoxy do not subscribe to Kabbalah, other Liberal and Orthodox Jews still consider it a fundamental part of Jewish thought and belief, though different individuals and groups subscribe to different schools of Kabbalistic thought.
Early critiques
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.
Maimonides (12th Century) belittled many of the texts of the Hekalot, particularly the work Shiur Komah with its starkly anthropomorphic vision of God.
Rabbi Leon 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 sefirot. This interpretation of Kabbalah in fact did occur among some European Jews in the 17th century. To respond, others say that the sefiros (To clarify for the reader not accustomed to the jargon, Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum says "The names of God are the Ten Sefiros of which the kabbalists spoke. The Ten Sefiros are ten kinds of revelation of God's powers that are accessible to us: these are His Ten Names, as explained in the Zohar and Sefer Yetzirah") represent different aspects of God.
Kabbalah had many other opponents, notably Rabbi Yitzchak ben Sheshet Perfet (The Rivash); he stated that Kabbalah was "worse than Christianity", as it made God into 10, not just into three. Most followers of Kabbalah never believed this interpretation of Kabbalah.
Within Conservative and Reform Judaism
Since all forms of reform or liberal Judaism are rooted in the Enlightenment and tied to the assumptions of modernity, Kabbalah tended to be rejected by most Jews in the Conservative and Reform movements, though its influences were not completely eliminated. 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 Rabbinical Studies in the University of Judaism), "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".
However, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries there has been a revival in interest in Kabbalah in all branches of liberal Judaism. All Rabbinical seminaries now teach several courses in Kabbalah, and the Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies in Los Angeles has a fulltime instructor in Kabbalah and Hasidut. Reform Rabbis like Herbert Weiner and Lawrence Kushner have renewed interest in Kabbalah among Reform Jews.
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. 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".
Also see Neo-Hasidism
Kabbalah Centre
A recent modern revival has been initiated by the controversial Kabbalah Centre founded by Philip Berg in Los Angeles in 1984, and run by him and his sons Yehuda and Michael. The Centre is frowned upon by most people involved in the serious study of Kabbalah, including those that are in favour of broadening the knowledge of the tradition: the Centre's teachings are viewed as a mixture of Kabbalistic terminology, Christianity, and various new age teachings, having little to do with Jewish Kabbalistic belief. The Kabbalah Centre points out that many new age teachings are taken from traditional Kabbalah in the first place. Kabbalah Center teaches its students to question everything and to never be forced to make decisions. One of the most important teachings of Kabbalah is, that there is no coercion in spirituality.
Kabbalah in non-Jewish society
Kabbalah eventually gained an audience outside of the Jewish community. Nominal-Christian versions of Kabbalah began to develop; by the early 18th century some kabbalah came to be used by many hermetic philosophers, neo-pagans and other new religious groups.
The Eastern Orthodox Christian theological view
The Kabbalah's idea of emanations can be compared to the distinction made by fourteenth-century Eastern Orthodox theologian Gregory Palamas. Palamas drew a distinction between God's essence and energies, affirming that God was unknowable in His essence, but knowable in His energies. Palamas never enumerated God's energies, but described them as ways that God could act in the universe, and particularly on people, from the light shining from the face of Moses after Moses descended Mt. For Palamas, God's energies were not some other thing separate from God, but were God;
Hermetic Qabalah
The study of Kabbalah is widespread within non-Jewish Western Esoteric (or Hermetic) Tradition.
Kabbalah was absorbed into the Hermetic tradition at least as early as the 15th century when Giovanni Pico della Mirandola promoted a syncretic world-view combining Platonism, Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism, Hermeticism and Kabbalah. Modern Hermetic Qabalah retains this syncretism, but continues to share much with Jewish Kabbalah.
Hermetic Qabalah probably reached its peak in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a 19th century organization that was arguably the pinnacle of ceremonial magic.
Crowley's own writings on the Qabalah were ideosynchratic, and in some cases purposely blasphemous. These associations are not shared with the Jewish Kabbalah.
Fictional representations
The anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion utilised Kabbalah imagery heavily and posits the existence of a secret portion of the Kabbalah contained within the Dead Sea scrolls which has been maintained through time by various individuals and a group currently known as SEELE (which, in production materials for the series, are identified with the Essenes).
The manga series 666 Satan is also heavily influenced by the Kabbalah. While this manga series draws heavily on various concepts present in Kabbalah, it is not a retelling of it.
The Science Fiction world-building project Orion's Arm calls the greatest AI ruled empires sephirotics.
The comic series Promethea by Alan Moore draws heavily on Kabbalah, and is in large part a framework for an overview and explanation of many Kabbalistic concepts.
Umberto Eco's 1989 novel Foucault's Pendulum weaves Kabbalistic concepts into an imagined global conspiracy involving Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, druidism, and the Knights Templar.
In "The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon" Richard Zimler is plotting a murder mystery which takes place in 16th century Portugal
Another novel that deals with Jewish mysticism and mythology is The Righteous Men by Sam Bourne.
Recent role playing games produced by Squaresoft contains references to Kabbalah. Xenosaga contains strong links and elements to Kabbalah, including the Zohar being a light creating alien object that was uncovered in the latter 25th century. Not only is Sephiroth used here as a name reference to Kabbalah, but in Kabbalah it is the Holy Ten, the Sefirot, that make up the tree of life, and in Final Fantasy VII there are ten forms of the Sephiroth, between clones, ghosts and true forms.
In Darren Aronofsky's Pi, number theorist Max Cohen is pursued by a group of Kabbalah mysticists who are trying to unlock the secrets of the Torah through numbers.
See also
Abracadabra Arikh Anpin Donmeh Freemasonry Gnosis Gnosticism Golem Greek Philosophy Hermeticism Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Jewish meditation Kabalistic Laws Merkabah Mysticism Partzuf Pythagoreanism Rosicrucian Seder hishtalshelus Tzimtzum Tree of Life The Seven Worlds Zeir Anpin Zohar Sephirot in popular cultureClassical Kabbalah personalities
Baba Sali Baruch Ashlag Chaim Vital Samuel Ben-Or Avital Elijah ben Solomon Isaac Luria Israel ben Eliezer Moses ben Jacob Cordovero Moses de Leon Shimon bar Yochai Yehuda Ashlag Yitzchak Kaduri Yosef KaroContemporary Kabbalah personalities
Philip Berg Aryeh Kaplan Warren Kenton Michael Laitman- RAMLAN Zalman Schachter-ShalomiSources
Aivanhov, Omraam Mikhael THE FRUITS OF THE TREE OF LIFE (The kabbalistic Tradition), ISBN 2-85566-467-5 Kaplan, Aryeh Inner Space: Introduction to Kabbalah, Meditation and Prophecy. __________, The Heart and the Fountain: An Anthology of Jewish Mystical Experiences,New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. and Kiener, R., The Early Kabbalah, Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1986.
Fine, L., ed., Essential Papers in Kabbalah, New York: NYU Press, 1995. ____________, Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and hisKabbalistic Fellowship, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.
Idel, M., The Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the ArtificialAnthropoid, New York: SUNY Press, 1990.
_________, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, New Haven: Yale Press, 1988. _________, “Magic and Kabbalah in the ‘Book of the Responding Entity,’” in TheSolomon Goldman Lectures VI, Chicago: Spertus College of Judaica Press, 1993.
_________, “The Story of Rabbi Joseph della Reina,” in Behayahu, M., Studies andTexts on the History of the Jewish Community in Safed.
User Comments Add a comment…