Kabbalah is one of the most grossly misunderstood parts of Judaism. I have received several messages from non-Jews describing Kabbalah as "the dark side of Judaism," describing it as evil or black magic. On the other end of the spectrum, I receive many messages wanting to learn more about the trendy doctrine popularized by various Jewish and non-Jewish celebrities. These misunderstandings stem largely from the fact that the teachings of Kabbalah have been so badly distorted by mystics and occultists.
Kabbalah was popular among Christian intellectuals during the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, who reinterpreted its doctrines to fit into their Christian dogma. In more recent times, many have wrenched kabbalistic symbolism out of context for use in tarot card readings and other forms of divination and magic that were never a part of the original Jewish teachings. Today, many well-known celebrities have popularized a new age pop-psychology distortion of kabbalah I have heard it derisively referred to as "crap-balah".
Kabbalah - Wikipedia
It borrows the language of kabbalah and the forms of Jewish folk superstitions, but at its heart it has more in common with the writings of Deepak Chopra than with any authentic Jewish source. I do not mean to suggest that magic is not a part of Kabbalah. There are certainly many traditional Jewish stories that involve the use of hidden knowledge to affect the world in ways that could be described as magic.
The Talmud and other sources ascribe supernatural activities to many great rabbis. Some rabbis pronounced a name of G-d and ascended into heaven to consult with the G-d and the angels on issues of great public concern. One scholar is said to have created an artificial man by reciting various names of G-d. Much later stories tell of a rabbi who created a man out of clay a golem and brought it to life by putting in its mouth a piece of paper with a name of G-d on it. However, this area of Kabbalah if indeed it is more than mere legend is not something that is practiced by the average Jew, or even the average rabbi.
There are a number of stories that discourage the pursuit of such knowledge and power as dangerous and irresponsible. If you see any books on the subject of "practical kabbalah," you can safely dismiss them as not authentic Jewish tradition because, as these stories demonstrate, this kind of knowledge was traditionally thought to be far too dangerous to be distributed blindly to the masses.
It is important to note that all of these magical effects were achieved through the power of G-d, generally by calling upon the name of G-d. These practices are no more "evil" than the miracles of the prophets, or the miracles that Christians ascribe to Jesus.
Jewish mysticism
In fact, according to some of my mystically-inclined friends, Jesus performed his miracles using kabbalistic techniques learned from the Essenes , a Jewish sect of that time that was involved in mysticism. To give you an idea of the nature of Kabbalah, I will briefly discuss one of the better known, fundamental concepts of kabbalistic thought: This explanation is, at best, a gross oversimplification. I do not pretend to fully understand these ideas. According to Kabbalah, the true essence of G-d is so transcendent that it cannot be described, except with reference to what it is not.
This true essence of G-d is known as Ein Sof, which literally means "without end," which encompasses the idea of His lack of boundaries in both time and space.
Introduction to Judaism
In this truest form, the Ein Sof is so transcendent that It cannot have any direct interaction with the universe. The Ein Sof interacts with the universe through ten emanations from this essence, known as the Ten Sefirot. These Sefirot correspond to qualities of G-d. They consist of, in descending order, Keter the crown , Chokhmah wisdom , Binah intuition, understanding , Chesed mercy or Gedulah greatness , Gevurah strength , Tiferet glory , Netzach victory , Hod majesty , Yesod foundation and Malkut sovereignty.
Notes for Religious Studies 369:
The middle five qualities are mentioned explicitly and in order at I Chronicles Yours, O L-rd, is the greatness gedulah , the strength gevurah , the glory tiferet , the power netzach , and the splendor hod. I have seen this passage translated in widely varying ways, but the Hebrew corresponds to the names of the Sefirot in order. The Ten Sefirot include both masculine and feminine qualities. Kabbalah pays a great deal of attention to the feminine aspects of G-d. The Sefirot are commonly represented as in the diagram at left.
There is great significance to the position of these various attributes and their interconnectedness. The Sefirot are not separate deities, as some might think by taking this too literally. They are intimately a part of G-d, and yet they are in contact with the universe in a way that the Ein Sof is not. The Sefirot connect with everything in the universe, including humanity. The good and evil that we do resonates through the Sefirot and affects the entire universe, up to and including G-d Himself.
Academic study of Jewish mysticism , especially since Gershom Scholem 's Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism , distinguishes between different forms of mysticism across different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbalah , which emerged in 12th-century Europe, is the most well known, but not the only typologic form, or the earliest to emerge.
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Among previous forms were Merkabah mysticism c. Kabbalah means "received tradition", a term previously used in other Judaic contexts, but which the Medieval Kabbalists adopted for their own doctrine to express the belief that they were not innovating, but merely revealing the ancient hidden esoteric tradition of the Torah.
This issue is crystallised until today by alternative views on the origin of the Zohar , the main text of Kabbalah. Traditional Kabbalists regard it as originating in Tannaic times, redacting the Oral Torah , so do not make a sharp distinction between Kabbalah and early Rabbinic Jewish mysticism. Academic scholars regard it as a synthesis from Medieval times, but assimilating and incorporating into itself earlier forms of Jewish mystical tradition, as well as other philosophical elements. The theosophical aspect of Kabbalah itself developed through two historical forms: After Luria, two new mystical forms popularised Kabbalah in Judaism: In contemporary Judaism, the only main forms of Jewish mysticism followed are esoteric Lurianic Kabbalah and its later commentaries, the variety of schools in Hasidic Judaism, and Neo-Hasidism incorporating Neo-Kabbalah in non-Orthodox Jewish denominations.
Two non-Jewish syncretic traditions also popularised Judaic Kabbalah through its incorporation as part of general Western esoteric culture from the Renaissance onwards: As separate traditions of development outside Judaism, drawing from, syncretically adapting, and different in nature and aims from Judaic mysticism, they are not listed on this page. The Kabbalistic form of Jewish mysticism itself divides into three general streams: These three different, but inter-relating, methods or aims of mystical involvement are also found throughout the other pre-Kabbalistic and post-Kabbalistic stages in Jewish mystical development, as three general typologies.
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As in Kabbalah, the same text can contain aspects of all three approaches, though the three streams often distill into three separate literatures under the influence of particular exponents or eras. Within Kabbalah, the theosophical tradition is distinguished from many forms of mysticism in other religions by its doctrinal form as a mystical "philosophy" of Gnosis esoteric knowledge.
Instead, the tradition of Meditative Kabbalah has similarity of aim, if not form, with usual traditions of general mysticism; to unite the individual intuitively with God. The tradition of theurgic Practical Kabbalah in Judaism, censored and restricted by mainstream Jewish Kabbalists, has similarities with non-Jewish Hermetic Qabalah magical Western Esotericism. However, as understood by Jewish Kabbalists, it is censored and forgotten in contemporary times because without the requisite purity and holy motive, it would degenerate into impure and forbidden magic.
Consequently, it has formed a minor tradition in Jewish mystical history. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This page lists the main trends and events in Jewish mysticism. Further explanation is given at Kabbalah History of Jewish mysticism in the context of traditional vs. For a fuller list of Kabbalistic mystics and texts, see List of Jewish Kabbalists.
This timeline shows general developments:.
While the prophets differed from many not Hasidic Jewish mystics in their social role, there are mystical passages in the prophetic books; eg. Ezekiel 1 became the basis of Merkabah mysticism. The Talmud says that there were hundreds of thousands of prophets among Israel: Scripture identifies only 55 prophets of Israel.
In Meditation and the Bible , Aryeh Kaplan reconstructs meditative-mystical methods of the Jewish prophetic schools. Blumenthal Philosophic Mysticism and anthologies reads Maimonides as a rationalist mystic: The religious experience of "philosophic mysticism" was the result of this intellectualist and post-intellectualist effort. Some medieval Meditative Kabbalists also followed the Theosophical Kabbalah , though not its greatest exponent Abulafia in his esoteric system. In turn, the 16th century Safed culmination of theosophy by Cordovero, Luria and Vital dominated and subsumed the previous divergent Kabbalistic streams into their meditative methods, drawing from the earlier schools.
After Luria, Meditative Kabbalah followed his new system of Yichudim. New Perspectives , Yale University Press , chapter 5 Mystical Techniques, Moshe Idel reinstates the meditative and experiential dimensions of Kabbalah as an inherent companion to the theosophical in academic historiography. Kabbalists often attributed their theosophical doctrines to new meditative revelations. Identifies Chaim of Volozhin as the main kabbalistic-theological theorist of Mitnagdism , and Schneur Zalman of Liadi as the main theorist of Hasidism , based on interpretation of Lurianic Tzimtzum.
For Chaim Volozhin, Divine immanence is monistic the acosmic way God looks at the world, reserved for man only in elite kabbalistic prayer and Divine transcendence is pluralistic man relates to God through pluralistic Jewish law , leading to Mitnagdic transcendent Theism and popular ideological Talmudic study focus.
Thus, postmodern Jewish thinking is thinking about God, Jews, and the world—with the texts of the Torah—in the company of fellow seekers and believers. It utilizes the tools of philosophy, but without their modern premises.
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