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Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and

school of thought A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement. ...

in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The definition of Kabbalah varies according to the tradition and aims of those following it, from its origin in medieval Judaism to its later adaptations in Western esotericism (

Christian Kabbalah Christian Kabbalah arose during the Renaissance due to Christian scholars' interest in the mysticism of Jewish Kabbalah, which they interpreted according to Christian theology. It is often transliterated as Cabala (also ''Cabbala'') to disting ...

and

Hermetic Qabalah Hermetic Qabalah () is a Western esoteric tradition involving mysticism and the occult. It is the underlying philosophy and framework for magical societies such as the Golden Dawn, Thelemic orders, mystical-religious societies such as the Bu ...

). Jewish Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between the unchanging, eternal

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

—the mysterious '' Ein Sof'' (, ''"The Infinite"'')—and the mortal, finite

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. ...

(God's creation). It forms the foundation of

mystical Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

religious interpretations within Judaism. Jewish Kabbalists originally developed their own transmission of sacred texts within the realm of

Jewish tradition Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites"" ...

and often use classical Jewish scriptures to explain and demonstrate its mystical teachings. These teachings are held by Kabbalists to define the inner meaning of both the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' rabbinic literature and their formerly concealed transmitted dimension, as well as to explain the significance of Jewish religious observances. Traditional practitioners believe its earliest origins pre-date world religions, forming the primordial blueprint for Creation's philosophies, religions, sciences, arts, and political systems. Historically, Kabbalah emerged from earlier forms of Jewish mysticism, in 12th- to 13th-century Spain and Southern France, and was reinterpreted during the Jewish mystical renaissance in 16th-century Ottoman Palestine. The '' Zohar'', the foundational text of Kabbalah, was composed in the late 13th century. Isaac Luria (16th century) is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah; Lurianic Kabbalah was popularised in the form of

Hasidic Judaism Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Judaism, Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory ...

from the 18th century onwards. During the 20th century, academic interest in Kabbalistic texts led primarily by the Jewish historian

Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem () (5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982), was a German-born Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kaballah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish Myst ...

has inspired the development of historical research on Kabbalah in the field of

Judaic studies Jewish studies (or Judaic studies; he, מדעי היהדות, madey ha-yahadut, sciences of Judaism) is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history (espe ...

Traditions

According to the '' Zohar'', a foundational text for kabbalistic thought, Torah study can proceed along four levels of interpretation ( exegesis). These four levels are called '' pardes'' from their initial letters (PRDS he, פַּרדֵס, links=no, orchard). * ''

Peshat ''Peshat'' (also ''P'shat'', ) is one of the two classic methods of Jewish biblical exegesis, the other being Derash. While ''Peshat'' is commonly defined as referring to the surface or literal (direct) meaning of a text,Goldin, S. (2007). Unloc ...

'' ( he, פשט, links=no lit. "simple"): the direct interpretations of meaning. * ''Remez'' ( he, רֶמֶז, links=no lit. "hint ): the allegoric meanings (through allusion). * ''Derash'' ( he, דְרָשׁ, links=no from Heb. ''darash'': "inquire" or "seek"):

midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

ic (rabbinic) meanings, often with imaginative comparisons with similar words or verses. * ''Sod'' ( he, סוֹד, links=no lit. "secret" or "mystery"): the inner, esoteric (

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

) meanings, expressed in kabbalah. Kabbalah is considered by its followers as a necessary part of the study of

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...

– the study of Torah (the ''

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Merkabah mystical concepts and methods. According to this descriptive categorization, both versions of Kabbalistic theory, the medieval-Zoharic and the early-modern Lurianic Kabbalah together comprise the ''Theosophical'' tradition in Kabbalah, while the ''

Meditative Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

- Ecstatic Kabbalah'' incorporates a parallel inter-related Medieval tradition. A third tradition, related but more shunned, involves the magical aims of ''

Practical Kabbalah Practical Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה מַעֲשִׂית ''Kabbalah Ma'asit'') in historical Judaism, is a branch of the Jewish mystical tradition that concerns the use of magic. It was considered permitted white magic by its practitioners, ...

''. Moshe Idel, for example, writes that these 3 basic models can be discerned operating and competing throughout the whole history of Jewish mysticism, beyond the particular Kabbalistic background of the Middle Ages. They can be readily distinguished by their basic intent with respect to God: * The ''Theosophical'' or ''Theosophical- Theurgic'' tradition of ''Theoretical Kabbalah'' (the main focus of the Zohar and Luria) seeks to understand and describe the divine realm using the imaginative and mythic symbols of human psychological experience. As an intuitive conceptual alternative to rationalist Jewish philosophy, particularly

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Tora ...

' Aristotelianism, this speculation became the central stream of Kabbalah, and the usual reference of the term "kabbalah". Its theosophy also implies the innate, centrally important theurgic influence of human conduct on redeeming or damaging the spiritual realms, as man is a divine microcosm, and the spiritual realms the divine macrocosm. The purpose of traditional theosophical kabbalah was to give the whole of normative Jewish religious practice this mystical metaphysical meaning * The ''

'' tradition of '' Ecstatic Kabbalah'' (exemplified by

Abraham Abulafia Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia ( he, אברהם בן שמואל אבולעפיה) was the founder of the school of "Prophetic Kabbalah". He was born in Zaragoza, Spain in 1240 and is assumed to have died sometime after 1291, following a stay on the ...

and Isaac of Acre) strives to achieve a mystical union with God, or nullification of the meditator in God's Active intellect. Abraham Abulafia's "Prophetic Kabbalah" was the supreme example of this, though marginal in Kabbalistic development, and his alternative to the program of theosophical Kabbalah. Abulafian meditation built upon the philosophy of Maimonides, whose following remained the rationalist threat to theosophical kabbalists * The Magico-Talismanic tradition of ''

'' (in often unpublished manuscripts) endeavours to alter both the Divine realms and the World using practical methods. While theosophical interpretations of worship see its redemptive role as harmonising heavenly forces, Practical Kabbalah properly involved white-magical acts, and was censored by kabbalists for only those completely pure of intent, as it relates to lower realms where purity and impurity are mixed. Consequently, it formed a separate minor tradition shunned from Kabbalah. Practical Kabbalah was prohibited by the Arizal until the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jeru ...

is rebuilt and the required state of ritual purity is attainable. According to Kabbalistic belief, early kabbalistic knowledge was transmitted orally by the Patriarchs,

prophets In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

, and sages, eventually to be "interwoven" into Jewish religious writings and culture. According to this view, early kabbalah was, in around the 10th century BCE, an open knowledge practiced by over a million people in ancient Israel. 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. 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. 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 Hayyim ben Joseph Vital. However, even this qualification does little to limit the scope of understanding and expression, as included in those works are commentaries on Abulafian writings, ''Sefer Yetzirah'', Albotonian writings, and the ''Berit Menuhah'', which is known to the kabbalistic elect and which, as described more recently by

, combined ecstatic with theosophical mysticism. It is therefore important to bear in mind when discussing things such as the ''

sephirot Sefirot (; he, סְפִירוֹת, translit=Səfīrōt, Tiberian: '), meaning '' emanations'', are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah, through which Ein Sof (The Infinite) reveals itself and continuously creates both the physical realm an ...

'' and their interactions that one is dealing with highly abstract concepts that at best can only be understood intuitively.

Jewish and non-Jewish Kabbalah

From the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

onwards Jewish Kabbalah texts entered non-Jewish culture, where they were studied and translated by Christian Hebraists and

Hermetic Hermetic or related forms may refer to: * of or related to the ancient Greek Olympian god Hermes * of or related to Hermes Trismegistus, a legendary Hellenistic figure based on the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth ** , the ancient and m ...

occultists. The syncretic traditions of

Christian Cabala Christian Kabbalah arose during the Renaissance due to Christian scholars' interest in the mysticism of Jewish Kabbalah, which they interpreted according to Christian theology. It is often transliterated as Cabala (also ''Cabbala'') to distingu ...

and

developed independently of Judaic Kabbalah, reading the Jewish texts as universalist ancient wisdom preserved from the

Gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...

traditions of antiquity. Both adapted the Jewish concepts freely from their Jewish understanding, to merge with multiple other theologies, religious traditions and magical associations. With the decline of Christian Cabala in the Age of Reason, Hermetic Qabalah continued as a central underground tradition in Western esotericism. Through these non-Jewish associations with magic, alchemy and divination, Kabbalah acquired some popular occult connotations forbidden within Judaism, where Jewish theurgic Practical Kabbalah was a minor, permitted tradition restricted for a few elite. Today, many publications on Kabbalah belong to the non-Jewish

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

and occult traditions of Cabala, rather than giving an accurate picture of Judaic Kabbalah. Instead, academic and traditional Jewish publications now translate and study Judaic Kabbalah for wide readership.

History of Jewish mysticism

Origins

According to the traditional Kabbalistic understanding, Kabbalah dates from Eden. Sefer Raziel HaMalakh 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 secrets in the ''

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

'', Tractate '' Hagigah'', 11b-13a, "One should not teach . . . the work of Creation in pairs, nor the work of the Chariot to an individual, unless he is wise and can understand the implications himself etc." Contemporary scholarship suggests that various schools of Jewish esotericism arose at different periods of Jewish history, each reflecting not only prior forms of

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...

, 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 summarised.

Terms

Originally, Kabbalistic knowledge was believed to be an integral part of the

Oral Torah According to Rabbinic Judaism, the Oral Torah or Oral Law ( he, , Tōrā šebbəʿal-pe}) are those purported laws, statutes, and legal interpretations that were not recorded in the Five Books of Moses, the Written Torah ( he, , Tōrā šebbīḵ ...

, given by God to Moses on

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai ( he , הר סיני ''Har Sinai''; Aramaic: ܛܘܪܐ ܕܣܝܢܝ ''Ṭūrāʾ Dsyny''), traditionally known as Jabal Musa ( ar, جَبَل مُوسَىٰ, translation: Mount Moses), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is ...

around the 13th century BCE according to its followers; although some believe that Kabbalah began with Adam. For a few centuries the esoteric knowledge was referred to by its aspect practice—meditation

Hitbonenut Jewish meditation includes practices of settling the mind, introspection, visualization, emotional insight, contemplation of Names of God in Judaism, divine names, or concentration on philosophical, ethical or mystical ideas. Meditation may accom ...

( he, הִתְבּוֹנְנוּת), Rebbe

Nachman of Breslov Nachman of Breslov ( he, רַבִּי נַחְמָן מִבְּרֶסְלֶב ''Rabbī'' ''Naḥmān mīBreslev''), also known as Reb Nachman of Bratslav, Reb Nachman Breslover ( yi, רבי נחמן ברעסלאווער ''Rebe Nakhmen Breslover'' ...

Hitbodedut Hitbodedut or hisbodedus ( he, הִתְבּוֹדְדוּת, lit. "seclusion, solitariness, solitude"; Tiberian: ''hīṯbōḏăḏūṯ'' , Ashkenazi: ''hīsboydedēs/hīsboydedūs'' or ''hīsbōdedūs'', Sephardi: ''hitbōdedūt'') refers to ...

( he, הִתְבּוֹדְדוּת), translated as "being alone" or "isolating oneself", or by a different term describing the actual, desired goal of the practice—prophecy ("''NeVu'a''" he, נְבוּאָה). Kabbalistic scholar

Aryeh Kaplan Aryeh Moshe Eliyahu Kaplan ( he, אריה משה אליהו קפלן; October 23, 1934 – January 28, 1983) was an American Orthodox rabbi, author, and translator, best known for his Living Torah edition of the Torah. He became well known as ...

traces the origins of medieval Kabbalistic meditative methods to their inheritance from orally transmitted remnants of the Biblical Prophetic tradition, and reconstructs their terminology and speculated techniques. From the 5th century BCE, when the works of the Tanakh were edited and canonised and the secret knowledge encrypted within the various writings and scrolls ("Megilot"), esoteric knowledge became referred to as '' Ma'aseh Merkavah'' ( he, מַעֲשֶׂה מֶרְכָּבָה) and '' Ma'aseh B'reshit'' ( he, מַעֲשֶׂה בְּרֵאשִׁית), respectively "the act of the Chariot" and "the act of Creation".

Merkabah mysticism Merkabah ( he, מֶרְכָּבָה ''merkāvā'', "chariot") or Merkavah mysticism (lit. Chariot mysticism) is a school of early Jewish mysticism, c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE, centered on visions such as those found in the Book of Ezekiel chapter ...

alluded to the encrypted knowledge, and meditation methods within the book of the prophet Ezekiel describing his vision of the "Divine Chariot". B'reshit mysticism referred to the first chapter of Genesis ( he, בְּרֵאשִׁית) in the Torah that is believed to contain secrets of the creation of the universe and forces of nature. These terms received their later historical documentation and description in the second chapter of the Talmudic tractate ''Hagigah'' from the early centuries CE. Confidence in new Prophetic revelation closed after the Biblical return from Babylon in

Second Temple Judaism Second Temple Judaism refers to the Jewish religion as it developed during the Second Temple period, which began with the construction of the Second Temple around 516 BCE and ended with the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The Second Temple ...

, shifting to canonisation and exegesis of Scripture after Ezra the Scribe. Lesser level prophecy of

Ruach Hakodesh In Judaism, the Holy Spirit ( he, רוח הקודש, ''ruach ha-kodesh'') refers to the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the universe or over God's creatures, in given contexts.Maimonides, Moses. Part II, Ch. 45: "The various cla ...

remained, with angelic revelations, esoteric heavenly secrets, and eschatological deliverance from Greek and Roman oppression of Apocalyptic literature among early Jewish proto-mystical circles, such as the Book of Daniel and the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...

community of

Qumran Qumran ( he, קומראן; ar, خربة قمران ') is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli ...

. Early Jewish mystical literature inherited the developing concerns and remnants of Prophetic and Apocalyptic Judaisms.

Mystic elements of the Torah

When read by later generations of Kabbalists, the Torah's description of the creation in the Book of Genesis reveals mysteries about God himself, the true nature of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן עֵדֶן), the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil ( he, עֵץ הַדַּעַת שֶׁל טוֹב וְרַע), and the Tree of Life ( he, עֵץ חַיִּים), as well as the interaction of these supernatural entities with the Serpent ( he, נָחָשׁ), which leads to disaster when they eat the

forbidden fruit Forbidden fruit is a name given to the fruit growing in the Garden of Eden which God commands mankind not to eat. In the biblical story, Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and are exiled from Eden. As a ...

( he, פְּרִי עֵץ הַדַּעַת), as recorded in Genesis 3.Artson, Bradley Shavit
''From the Periphery to the Centre: Kabbalah and the Conservative Movement'', United Synagogue Review, Spring 2005, Vol. 57 No. 2 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. Other mystical events include

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...

's vision of the ladder to heaven, and Moses' encounters with the

Burning bush The burning bush (or the unburnt bush) refers to an event recorded in the Jewish Torah (as also in the biblical Old Testament). It is described in the third chapter of the Book of Exodus as having occurred on Mount Horeb. According to the ...

and God on

. 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 In the Exodus narrative, Yam Suph ( he, יַם-סוּף, ''Yam-Sūp̄'', Reed Sea) or Reed Sea, sometimes translated as Sea of Reeds, is the body of water which the Israelites crossed following their exodus from Egypt. The same phrase appears in o ...

parted, allowing the Hebrews to escape their approaching attackers. The miracle of the Exodus, which led to Moses receiving the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...

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 Saul (; he, , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked the transition of Israel and Judah from a scattered tri ...

Talmudic era

In early

Rabbinic Judaism Rabbinic Judaism ( he, יהדות רבנית, Yahadut Rabanit), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, or Judaism espoused by the Rabbanites, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonia ...

(the early centuries of the 1st millennium CE), the terms '' Ma'aseh Bereshit'' ("Works of Creation") and '' Ma'aseh Merkabah'' ("Works of the Divine Throne/Chariot") clearly indicate the

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

ic nature of these speculations; they are really based upon Genesis 1 and 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. Talmudic doctrine forbade the public teaching of esoteric doctrines and warned of their dangers. In the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Tor ...

(Hagigah 2:1), rabbis were warned to teach the mystical creation doctrines only to one student at a time. To highlight the danger, in one Jewish

aggadic Aggadah ( he, ''ʾAggāḏā'' or ''Haggāḏā''; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אַגָּדְתָא ''ʾAggāḏəṯāʾ''; "tales, fairytale, lore") is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism ...

("legendary") anecdote, four prominent rabbis of the Mishnaic period (1st century CE) are said to have visited the Orchard (that is, Paradise, ''pardes'', Hebrew: lit., ''orchard''): In notable readings of this legend, only Rabbi Akiba was fit to handle the study of mystical doctrines. The ''

Tosafot The Tosafot, Tosafos or Tosfot ( he, תוספות) are medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes. The auth ...

'', 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". On the other hand, Louis Ginzberg, writes in the '' Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1901–1906) that the journey to paradise "is to be taken literally and not allegorically". In contrast to the Kabbalists, Maimonides interprets ''pardes'' as philosophy and not mysticism.

Pre-Kabbalistic schools

Early mystical literature

The mystical methods and doctrines of Hekhalot (Heavenly "Chambers") and

Merkabah Merkabah ( he, מֶרְכָּבָה ''merkāvā'', "chariot") or Merkavah mysticism (lit. Chariot mysticism) is a school of early Jewish mysticism, c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE, centered on visions such as those found in the Book of Ezekiel chapter ...

(Divine "Chariot") texts, named by modern scholars from these repeated motifs, lasted from the 1st century BCE through to the 10th century CE, before giving way to the documented manuscript emergence of Kabbalah. Initiates were said to "descend the chariot", possibly a reference to internal introspection on the Heavenly journey through the spiritual realms. The ultimate aim was to arrive before the transcendent awe, rather than nearness, of the Divine. The mystical protagonists of the texts are famous Talmudic Sages of Rabbinic Judaism, either pseudepigraphic or documenting remnants of a developed tradition. From the 8th to 11th centuries, the Hekhalot texts, and the proto-Kabbalistic early cosmogonic '' Sefer Yetzirah'' ("Book of Creation") made their way into European Jewish circles. A controversial esoteric work from associated literature describing a cosmic Anthropos, '' Shi'ur Qomah'', was interpreted allegorically by subsequent Kabbalists in their meditation on the

Sephirot Sefirot (; he, סְפִירוֹת, translit=Səfīrōt, Tiberian: '), meaning '' emanations'', are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah, through which Ein Sof (The Infinite) reveals itself and continuously creates both the physical realm an ...

Divine Persona.

Hasidei Ashkenaz

Another, separate influential mystical, theosophical, and pious movement, shortly before the arrival there of Kabbalistic theory, was the "

Hasidei Ashkenaz The Hasidim of Ashkenaz ( he, חסידי אשכנז, trans. ''Khasidei Ashkenaz''; "German Pietists") were a Jewish mystical, ascetic movement in the German Rhineland during the 12th and 13th centuries. Background The leaders of the community o ...

" (חסידי אשכנז) or Medieval German Pietists from 1150 to 1250. This ethical-ascetic movement with elite theoretical and

speculations arose mostly among a single scholarly family, the Kalonymus family of the French and German Rhineland. Its Jewish ethics of saintly self-sacrifice influenced Ashkenazi Jewry, Musar literature and later emphases of piety in Judaism.

Medieval emergence of the Kabbalah

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. The first documented historical emergence of Theosophical Kabbalistic doctrine occurred among Jewish Sages of Provence and Languedoc in southern France in the latter 1100s, with the appearance or consolidation of the mysterious work the ''

Bahir ''Bahir'' or ''Sefer HaBahir'' ( he, סֵפֶר הַבָּהִיר, ; "Book of Clarity" or "Book of Illumination") is an anonymous mystical work, attributed to a 1st-century rabbinic sage Nehunya ben HaKanah (a contemporary of Yochanan ben Zaka ...

'' (Book of "Brightness"), a

midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

describing God's

attributes as a dynamic interacting hypostatic drama in the Divine realm, and the school of Isaac the Blind (1160–1235) among critics of the rationalist influence of

. From there Kabbalah spread to

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

in north-east Spain around the central Rabbinic figure of

Nahmanides Moses ben Nachman ( he, מֹשֶׁה בֶּן־נָחְמָן ''Mōše ben-Nāḥmān'', "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (; el, Ναχμανίδης ''Nakhmanídēs''), and also referred to by the acronym Ra ...

(the ''Ramban'') (1194–1270) in the early 1200s, with a

Neoplatonic Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some id ...

orientation focused on the upper sephirot. Subsequently, Kabbalistic doctrine reached its fullest classic expression among Castilian Kabbalists from the latter 1200s, with the '' Zohar'' (Book of "Splendor") literature, concerned with cosmic healing of

gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...

dualities between the lower, revealed male and female attributes of God.

Rishonim ''Rishonim'' (; he, ; sing. he, , ''Rishon'', "the first ones") were the leading rabbis and '' poskim'' who lived approximately during the 11th to 15th centuries, in the era before the writing of the ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, , "Set Table", a ...

("Elder Sages") of exoteric Judaism who were deeply involved in Kabbalistic activity, gave the Kabbalah wide scholarly acceptance, including Nahmanides and Bahya ben Asher (''Rabbeinu Behaye'') (died 1340), whose classic commentaries on the Torah reference Kabbalistic esotericism. Many 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 (the 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 Lurianic teachings. The majority of

Haredi Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...

Jews accept the Zohar as the representative of the ''Ma'aseh Merkavah'' and ''Ma'aseh B'reshit'' that are referred to in Talmudic texts.

Ecstatic Kabbalah

Contemporary with the Zoharic efflorescence of Spanish Theosophical-Theurgic Kabbalah, Spanish exilarch

developed his own alternative, Maimonidean system of Ecstatic-Prophetic Kabbalah

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

, each consolidating aspects of a claimed inherited mystical tradition from Biblical times. This was the classic time when various different interpretations of an esoteric meaning to Torah were articulated among Jewish thinkers. Abulafia interpreted Theosophical Kabbalah's

Divine attributes, not as supernal hypostases which he opposed, but in psychological terms. Instead of influencing harmony in the divine real by

theurgy Theurgy (; ) describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action or evoking the presence of one or more deities, especially with the goal of achieving henosis (uniting w ...

, his meditative scheme aimed for mystical union with God, drawing down prophetic influx on the individual. He saw this meditation using Divine Names as a superior form of Kabbalistic ancient tradition. His version of Kabbalah, followed in the medieval eastern Mediterranean, remained a marginal stream to mainstream Theosophical Kabbalah development. Abulafian elements were later incorporated into the 16th century theosophical Kabbalistic systemisations of

Moses Cordovero Moses Cordovero was a physician who lived at Leghorn (Livorno), Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship ...

and Hayim Vital. Through them, later

incorporated elements of

unio mystica Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

and psychological focus from Abulafia.

Early modern era

Lurianic Kabbalah

Following the upheavals and dislocations in the Jewish world as a result of anti-Judaism during the Middle Ages, and the national trauma of the expulsion from Spain in 1492, closing the Spanish Jewish flowering, Jews began to search for signs of when the long-awaited

Jewish Messiah The Messiah in Judaism () is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology, who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jewish people. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is a king or ...

would come to comfort them in their painful exiles. In the 16th century, the community of Safed in the Galilee became the centre of Jewish mystical, exegetical, legal and liturgical developments. The Safed mystics responded to the Spanish expulsion by turning Kabbalistic doctrine and practice towards a messianic focus.

(The ''RAMAK'' 1522–1570) and his school popularized the teachings of the Zohar which had until then been only a restricted work. Cordovero's comprehensive works achieved the first (quasi-rationalistic) of Theosophical Kabbalah's two systemisations, harmonising preceding interpretations of the Zohar on its own apparent terms. The author of the '' Shulkhan Arukh'' (the normative Jewish "Code of Law"),

Yosef Karo Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro ( he, יוסף קארו; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 Nisan 5335 A.M.), was the author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the '' Beit Yosef'', and its popular analogue, the ''Shu ...

(1488–1575), was also a scholar of Kabbalah who kept a personal mystical diary.

Moshe Alshich Moshe Alshich he, משה אלשיך, also spelled Alshech, (1508–1593), known as the ''Alshich Hakadosh (the Holy)'', was a prominent rabbi, preacher, and biblical commentator in the latter part of the sixteenth century. The Alshich was born ...

wrote a mystical commentary on the Torah, and

Shlomo Alkabetz Shlomo ha-Levi Alkabetz, also spelt Alqabitz, Alqabes; ( he, שלמה אלקבץ) ( 1500 – 1576) was a rabbi, kabbalist and poet perhaps best known for his composition of the song ''Lecha Dodi''. Biography Alkabetz studied Torah under Rabb ...

wrote Kabbalistic commentaries and poems. The messianism of the Safed mystics culminated in Kabbalah receiving its biggest transformation in the Jewish world with the explication of its new interpretation from Isaac Luria (The ''ARI'' 1534–1572), by his disciples Hayim Vital and Israel Sarug. Both transcribed Luria's teachings (in variant forms) gaining them widespread popularity, Sarug taking Lurianic Kabbalah to Europe, Vital authoring the latterly canonical version. 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. Lurianic Kabbalah gave Theosophical Kabbalah its second, complete (supra-rational) of two systemisations, reading the Zohar in light of its most esoteric sections (the ''Idrot''), replacing the broken Sephirot attributes of God with rectified

Partzufim Partzufim/Partsufim ( he, פרצופים, singular partzuf, he, פרצוף), meaning "Divine Personas", are particular reconfigured arrangements of the ten sefirot, divine attributes/emanations of Kabbalah. Each partzuf is thus a configuration ...

(Divine Personas), embracing reincarnation,

repair The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure, and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installa ...

, and the urgency of cosmic

Jewish messianism The Messiah in Judaism () is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology, who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jews, Jewish people. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is a king ...

dependent on each person's soul tasks.

Influence on non-Jewish society

From the European

on, Judaic Kabbalah became a significant influence in non-Jewish culture, fully divorced from the separately evolving Judaic tradition. Kabbalah received the interest of

Christian Hebraist A Christian Hebraist is a scholar of Hebrew who comes from a Christian family background/belief, or is a Jewish adherent of Christianity. The main area of study is that commonly known as the Old Testament to Christians (and Tanakh to Jews), but C ...

scholars and occultists, who freely syncretised and adapted it to diverse non-Jewish spiritual traditions and belief systems of Western esotericism. Christian Cabalists from the 15th-18th centuries adapted what they saw as ancient Biblical wisdom to Christian theology, while

Hermeticism Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...

lead to Kabbalah's incorporation into Western magic through

. Presentations of Kabbalah in occult and

books on Kabbalah bear little resemblance to Judaic Kabbalah.

Ban on studying Kabbalah

The Rabbinic ban on studying Kabbalah in Jewish society was lifted by the efforts of the 16th-century kabbalist

Avraham Azulai Abraham ben Mordecai Azulai (c. 1570–1643) ( he, אברהם בן מרדכי אזולאי) was a Kabbalistic author and commentator born in Fez, Morocco. In 1599 he moved to Ottoman Palestine and settled in Hebron. Biography In Hebron, Azulai w ...

(1570–1643). 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 The lines concerning the year 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 Haim Vital's publication of the teaching of Isaac Luria. Moshe Isserles understood there to be only a minor restriction, in his words, "One's belly must be full of meat and wine, discerning between the prohibited and the permitted." 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 Kabbalah, has never seen PaRDeS, and speaks as an ignoramus."

Sefardi and Mizrahi

The Kabbalah of the Sefardi (Iberian Peninsula) and Mizrahi (Middle East, North Africa, and the Caucasus) 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), even before the arrival of Isaac Luria. Yosef Karo, author of the ''Shulchan Arukh'' was part of the Tzfat school of Kabbalah. Shlomo Alkabetz, author of the hymn '' Lekhah Dodi'', taught there. His disciple

Moses ben Jacob Cordovero Moses ben Jacob Cordovero ( he, משה קורדובירו ''Moshe Kordovero'' ‎; 1522–1570) was a central figure in the historical development of Kabbalah, leader of a mystical school in 16th-century Safed, Ottoman Syria. He is known by th ...

(or Cordoeiro) authored ''

Pardes Rimonim Pardes Rimonim (meaning " Pardes-Orchard of Pomegranates", sometimes known as the Pardes) is a primary text of Kabbalah, composed in 1548 by the Jewish mystic Moses ben Jacob Cordovero in Safed, Galilee. 16th century Safed saw the theoretical syst ...

'', an organised, exhaustive compilation of kabbalistic teachings on a variety of subjects up to that point. Cordovero headed the academy of Tzfat until his death, when Isaac Luria rose to prominence. Rabbi Moshe's disciple Eliyahu De Vidas authored the classic work, ''Reishit Chochma'', combining kabbalistic and ''mussar'' (moral) teachings.

Chaim Vital Hayyim ben Joseph Vital ( he, רָבִּי חַיִּים בֶּן יוֹסֵף וִיטָאל; Safed, October 23, 1542 (Julian calendar) and October 11, 1542 (Gregorian Calendar) – Damascus, 23 April 1620) was a rabbi in Safed and the foremo ...

also studied under Cordovero, but with the arrival of Luria became his main disciple. Vital claimed to be the only one authorised to transmit the Ari's teachings, though other disciples also published books presenting Luria's teachings. The Oriental Kabbalist tradition continues until today among Sephardi and Mizrachi Hakham sages and study circles. Among leading figures were the Yemenite Shalom Sharabi (1720–1777) of the Beit El Synagogue, the Jerusalemite Hida (1724–1806), the Baghdad leader Ben Ish Chai (1832–1909), and the Abuhatzeira dynasty.

''Maharal''

One of the most innovative theologians in early-modern Judaism was

Judah Loew ben Bezalel Judah Loew ben Bezalel (; between 1512 and 1526 – 17 September 1609), also known as Rabbi Loew ( Löw, Loewe, Löwe or Levai), the Maharal of Prague (), or simply the Maharal (the Hebrew acronym of "''Moreinu ha-Rav Loew''", 'Our Teacher, Rabbi ...

(1525–1609) known as the "Maharal of Prague". Many of his written works survive and are studied for their unusual combination of the mystical and philosophical approaches in Judaism. While conversant in Kabbalistic learning, he expresses Jewish mystical thought in his own individual approach without reference to Kabbalistic terms. The Maharal is most well known in popular culture for the legend of the

golem A golem ( ; he, , gōlem) is an animated, Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is entirely created from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud). The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the l ...

of Prague, associated with him in folklore. However, his thought influenced Hasidism, for example being studied in the introspective Przysucha school. During the 20th century, Isaac Hutner (1906–1980) continued to spread the Maharal's works indirectly through his own teachings and publications within the non-Hasidic yeshiva world.

Sabbatian antinomian movements

The spiritual and mystical yearnings of many Jews remained frustrated after the death of Isaac Luria and his disciples and colleagues. No hope was in sight for many following the devastation and mass killings of the

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

s that followed in the wake of the

Chmielnicki Uprising The Khmelnytsky Uprising,; in Ukraine known as Khmelʹnychchyna or uk, повстання Богдана Хмельницького; lt, Chmelnickio sukilimas; Belarusian: Паўстанне Багдана Хмяльніцкага; russian: � ...

(1648–1654), the largest single massacre of Jews until the Holocaust, and it was at this time that a controversial scholar by the name of

Sabbatai Zevi Sabbatai Zevi (; August 1, 1626 – c. September 17, 1676), also spelled Shabbetai Ẓevi, Shabbeṯāy Ṣeḇī, Shabsai Tzvi, Sabbatai Zvi, and ''Sabetay Sevi'' in Turkish, was a Jewish mystic and ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turk ...

(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 The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', '' he'', '' waw'', and ...

in public, tied to an unstable personality, and with the help of his greatest enthusiast,

Nathan of Gaza Nathan of Gaza ( he, נתן העזתי; 1643–1680) or Nathan Benjamin ben Elisha Hayyim haLevi Ashkenazi or Ghazzati) was a theologian and author born in Jerusalem. After his marriage in 1663 he moved to Gaza, where he became famous as a prophe ...

, 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

. Unwilling to give up their messianic expectations, a minority of Zevi's Jewish followers converted to Islam along with him. Many of his followers, known as Sabbatians, 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

Dönmeh The Dönme ( he, דוֹנְמֶה, Dōnme, ota, دونمه, tr, Dönme) were a group of Sabbatean crypto-Jews in the Ottoman Empire who converted outwardly to Islam, but retained their Jewish faith and Kabbalistic beliefs in secret. The mo ...

movement in modern Turkey is a surviving remnant of the Sabbatian schism. Theologies developed by leaders of Sabbatian movements dealt with

antinomian Antinomianism (Ancient Greek: ἀντί 'anti''"against" and νόμος 'nomos''"law") is any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms (Latin: mores), or is at least considered to do so. The term ha ...

redemption of the realm of impurity through sin, based on Lurianic theory. Moderate views reserved this dangerous task for the divine messiah Sabbatai Zevi alone, while his followers remained observant Jews. Radical forms spoke of the messianic transcendence of Torah, and required Sabbatean followers to emulate him, either in private or publicly. Due to the chaos caused in the Jewish world, the rabbinic prohibition against studying Kabbalah 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 at least forty years old. 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,

Yehuda Ashlag Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (1885–1954) or Yehuda Leib Ha-Levi Ashlag ( he, רַבִּי יְהוּדָה לֵיבּ הַלֵּוִי אַשְׁלַג), also known as the Baal Ha-Sulam (Hebrew: , "Author of The Ladder") in reference to his magnum ...

, were younger than twenty when they began. The Sabbatian movement was followed by that of the Frankists, disciples of Jacob Frank (1726–1791), who eventually became an apostate to Judaism by apparently converting to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Frank took the Sabbatean impulse to its nihilistic end, declaring himself part of a messianic trinity along with his daughter, and that breaking all of Torah was its fulfilment. This era of disappointment did not stem the Jewish masses' yearnings for "mystical" leadership.

Modern era

Traditional Kabbalah

Headstone of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto in Tiberias

Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (1707–1746), based in Italy, was a precocious Talmudic scholar who deduced a need for the public teaching and study of Kabbalah. He established a yeshiva for Kabbalah study and actively recruited students. He wrote copious manuscripts in an appealing clear Hebrew style, all of which gained the attention of both admirers and rabbinical critics, who feared another "

" (false messiah) in the making. His rabbinical opponents forced him to close his school, 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 serve as a gateway to the world of Jewish mysticism. Elijah of Vilna (Vilna Gaon) (1720–1797), based in Lithuania, had his teachings encoded and publicised by his disciples, such as

Chaim Volozhin Chaim of Volozhin (also known as Chaim ben Yitzchok of Volozhin or Chaim Ickovits; January 21, 1749 – June 14, 1821)Jewish Encyclopedia Bibliography: Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, pp. 347–349; idem, Kiryah Ne'emanah, pp. 156–158; Le ...

's posthumously published the mystical-ethical work '' Nefesh HaChaim''. He staunchly opposed 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 did not look with favor on 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). In the Oriental tradition of Kabbalah, Shalom Sharabi (1720–1777) from Yemen was a major esoteric clarifier of the works of the Ari. The Beit El Synagogue, "yeshivah of the kabbalists", which he came to head, was one of the few communities to bring Lurianic meditation into communal prayer. In the 20th century, Yehuda Ashlag (1885—1954) in Mandate Palestine became a leading esoteric kabbalist in the traditional mode, who translated the Zohar into Hebrew with a new approach in Lurianic Kabbalah.

Hasidic Judaism

Yisrael ben Eliezer Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760), founder of Hasidism in the area of the Ukraine, spread teachings based on Lurianic Kabbalah, but adapted to a different aim of immediate psychological perception of Divine Omnipresence amidst the mundane. The emotional, ecstatic fervour of early Hasidism developed from previous Nistarim circles of mystical activity, but instead sought communal revival of the common folk by reframing Judaism around the central principle of

devekut Devekut, debekuth, deveikuth or deveikus ( Heb. דבקות; Mod. Heb. "dedication", traditionally "clinging on" to God) is a Jewish concept referring to closeness to God. It may refer to a deep, trance-like meditative state attained during Jew ...

(mystical cleaving to God) for all. This new approach turned formerly esoteric elite kabbalistic theory into a popular social mysticism movement for the first time, with its own doctrines, classic texts, teachings and customs. From the Baal Shem Tov sprang the wide ongoing schools of Hasidic Judaism, each with different approaches and thought. Hasidism instituted a new concept of Tzadik leadership in Jewish mysticism, where the elite scholars of mystical texts now took on a social role as embodiments and intercessors of Divinity for the masses. With the 19th-century consolidation of the movement,

leadership Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...

became dynastic. Among later Hasidic schools Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810), the great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, revitalised 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 '' Mitnaged'' approaches, Rebbe Nachman emphasised 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 A Hasidic dynasty is a dynasty led by Hasidic Jewish spiritual leaders known as rebbes, and usually has some or all of the following characteristics: * Each leader of the dynasty is often known as an ''ADMOR'' (abbreviation for '' ADoneinu MOr ...

and taught that each Hasid must "search for the '' tzaddik'' ('saintly/righteous person')" for himself and within himself. The Habad-Lubavitch intellectual school of Hasidism broke away from General-Hasidism's emotional faith orientation, by making the mind central as the route to the internal heart. Its texts combine what they view as rational investigation with explanation of Kabbalah through articulating unity in a common Divine essence. In recent times, the messianic element latent in Hasidism has come to the fore in Habad.

Haskalah opposition to mysticism

The Jewish Haskalah () enlightenment movement from the late 1700s renewed an ideology of rationalism in Judaism, giving birth to critical Judaic scholarship. It presented Judaism in apologetic terms, stripped of mysticism and myth, in line with Jewish emancipation. Many foundational historians of Judaism such as

Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (now Książ Wielko ...

, criticised Kabbalah as a foreign import that compromised historical Judaism. In the 20th century

overturned Jewish historiography, presenting the centrality of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah to historical Judaism, and their subterranean life as the true creative renewing spirit of Jewish thought and culture. His influence contributed to the flourishing of Jewish mysticism academia today, its impact on wider intellectual currents, and the contribution of mystical spirituality in modernist Jewish denominations today. Traditionalist Kabbalah and Hasidism, meanwhile, continued outside the academic interest in it.

20th-century influence

Jewish mysticism has influenced the thought of some major Jewish theologians, philosophers, writers and thinkers in the 20th century, outside of Kabbalistic or Hasidic traditions. The first Chief Rabbi of Mandate Palestine, Abraham Isaac Kook was a mystical thinker who drew heavily on Kabbalistic notions through his own poetic terminology. His writings are concerned with fusing the false divisions between sacred and secular, rational and mystical, legal and imaginative. Students of

Joseph B. Soloveitchik Joseph Ber Soloveitchik ( he, יוסף דב הלוי סולובייצ׳יק ''Yosef Dov ha-Levi Soloveychik''; February 27, 1903 – April 9, 1993) was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion ...

, figurehead of American Modern Orthodox Judaism have read the influence of Kabbalistic symbols in his philosophical works. Neo-Hasidism, rather than Kabbalah, shaped

Martin Buber Martin Buber ( he, מרטין בובר; german: Martin Buber; yi, מארטין בובער; February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism ...

's philosophy of dialogue and

Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish T ...

's Conservative Judaism. Lurianic symbols of Tzimtzum and Shevirah have informed Holocaust theologians.

's central academic influence on reshaping Jewish historiography in favour of myth and imagination, made historical arcane Kabbalah of relevance to wide intellectual discourse in the 20th century. Moshe Idel traces the influences of Kabbalistic and Hasidic concepts on diverse thinkers such as

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish ...

, Jacques Derrida, Franz Kafka, Franz Rosenzweig, Arnaldo Momigliano, Paul Celan and George Steiner.

Harold Bloom Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...

has seen Kabbalistic hermeneutics as the paradigm for western literary criticism. Sanford Drob discusses the direct and indirect influence of Kabbalah on the depth psychologies of

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...

and Carl Jung, as well as modern and postmodern philosophers, in his project to develop new intellectual relevance and open dialogue for kabbalah. The interaction of Kabbalah with modern physics, as with other mystical traditions, has generated its own literature. Traditional Kabbalist

Yitzchak Ginsburgh Yitzchak Feivish Ginsburgh (Hebrew: יצחק פייוויש גינזבורג; born 14 November 1944) sometimes referred to as "the Malakh" () is an American-born Israeli rabbi affiliated with the Chabad movement. In 1996 he was regarded as one ...

brings esoteric dimensions of advanced kabbalistic symmetry into relationship with mathematics and the sciences, including renaming the

elementary particles In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. Particles currently thought to be elementary include electrons, the fundamental fermions (quarks, leptons, anti ...

of Quantum theory with Kabbalistic Hebrew names, and developing kabbalistic approaches to debates in

Evolutionary theory Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

Concepts

Concealed and revealed God

The nature of the divine prompted kabbalists to envision two aspects to God: (a) God in essence, absolutely transcendent, unknowable, limitless divine simplicity beyond revelation, and (b) God in manifestation, the revealed persona of God through which he creates and sustains and relates to humankind. Kabbalists speak of the first as '' Ein/Ayn Sof'' (אין סוף "the infinite/endless", literally "there is no end"). Of the impersonal ''Ein Sof'' nothing can be grasped. However, the second aspect of divine emanations, are accessible to human perception, dynamically interacting throughout spiritual and physical existence, reveal the divine immanently, and are bound up in the life of man. Kabbalists believe that these two aspects are not contradictory but complement one another, emanations mystically revealing the concealed mystery from within the Godhead. As a term describing the Infinite Godhead beyond Creation, Kabbalists viewed the ''Ein Sof'' itself as too sublime to be referred to directly in the Torah. It is not a Holy Name in Judaism, as no name could contain a revelation of the Ein Sof. Even terming it "No End" is an inadequate representation of its true nature, the description only bearing its designation in relation to Creation. However, the Torah does narrate God speaking in the first person, most memorably the first word of the

, a reference without any description or name to the simple Divine essence (termed also ''Atzmus Ein Sof'' – Essence of the Infinite) beyond even the duality of Infinitude/Finitude. In contrast, the term Ein Sof describes the Godhead as Infinite lifeforce first cause, continuously keeping all Creation in existence. The Zohar reads the first words of Genesis, ''BeReishit Bara Elohim – In the beginning God created'', as "''With'' (the level of) ''Reishit (Beginning)'' (the Ein Sof) ''created Elohim'' (God's manifestation in creation)": The structure of emanations has been described in various ways:

(divine attributes) and

(divine "faces"),

Ohr ''Ohr'' ("Light" he, אור; plural: ''Ohros/Ohrot'' "Lights" ) is a central Kabbalistic term in the Jewish mystical tradition. The analogy of physical light is used as a way of describing metaphysical Divine emanations. ''Shefa'' ("Flow" an ...

(spiritual light and flow),

Names of God There are various names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of a Supreme Being. The English word '' god'' (and its equivalent in other languages) is used by multiple religions as a noun to refer to different deities, or spec ...

and the supernal

, Olamot (Spiritual Worlds), a Divine Tree and Archetypal Man, Angelic Chariot and Palaces, male and female, enclothed layers of reality, inwardly holy vitality and external Kelipot shells, 613 channels ("limbs" of the King) and the divine Souls of

Man A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...

. These symbols are used to describe various levels and aspects of Divine manifestation, from the '' Pnimi'' (inner) dimensions to the '' Hitzoni'' (outer). It is solely in relation to the emanations, certainly not the Ein Sof Ground of all Being, that Kabbalah uses anthropomorphic symbolism to relate psychologically to divinity. Kabbalists debated the validity of anthropomorphic symbolism, between its disclosure as mystical allusion, versus its instrumental use as allegorical metaphor; in the language of the Zohar, symbolism "touches yet does not touch" its point.

Sephirot

The ''Sephirot'' (also spelled "sefirot"; singular ''sefirah'') are the ten emanations and attributes of God with which he continually sustains the existence of the universe. The Zohar and other Kabbalistic texts elaborate on the emergence of the sephirot from a state of concealed potential in the ''Ein Sof'' until their manifestation in the mundane world. In particular, Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (known as "the Ramak"), describes how God emanated the myriad details of finite reality out of the absolute unity of Divine light via the ten sephirot, or vessels. Comparison of the Ramak's counting with Luria's, describes dual rational and unconscious aspects of Kabbalah. Two metaphors are used to describe the ''sephirot'', their theocentric manifestation as the Trees of Life and Knowledge, and their

anthropocentric Anthropocentrism (; ) is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity in the universe. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism. ...

correspondence in man, exemplified as

Adam Kadmon In Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon (, ''ʾāḏām qaḏmōn'', "Primordial Man") also called Adam Elyon (, ''ʾāḏām ʿelyōn'', "Most High Man"), or Adam Ila'ah (, ''ʾāḏām ʿīllāʾā'' "Supreme Man"), sometimes abbreviated as A"K (, ''ʾA.Q.' ...

. This dual-directional perspective embodies the cyclical, inclusive nature of the divine flow, where alternative divine and human perspectives have validity. The central metaphor of man allows human understanding of the sephirot, as they correspond to the psychological faculties of the soul, and incorporate masculine 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 ''sefirah'' in Creation is the indwelling shekhinah (Feminine Divine Presence). Downward flow of divine Light in Creation forms the supernal

Four Worlds The Four Worlds ( he, עולמות ''Olamot'', singular: ''Olam'' עולם), sometimes counted with a prior stage to make Five Worlds, are the comprehensive categories of spiritual realms in Kabbalah in the descending chain of Existence. The c ...

;

Atziluth Atziluth or Atzilut (also ''Olam Atsiluth'', עוֹלָם אֲצִילוּת, literally "the World of Emanation") is the highest of four worlds in which exists the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It is also known as "near to God."MEIJERS, L. D., and J. ...

Beri'ah Beri'ah (Hebrew: בְּרִיאָה), Briyah, or B'ri'ah (also known as ''Olam Beriah'', עוֹלָם בְּרִיאָה in Hebrew, literally "the World of Creation"), is the second of the four celestial worlds in the Tree of Life of the Kabbalah, ...

, Yetzirah and

Assiah Assiah (also 'Asiya'MEIJERS, L. D., and J. TENNEKES. “SPIRIT AND MATTER IN THE COSMOLOGY OF CHASSIDIC JUDAISM.” Symbolic Anthropology in the Netherlands, edited by P.E. DE JOSSELIN DE JONG and ERIK SCHWIMMER, vol. 95, Brill, 1982, pp. 200–21 ...

manifesting the dominance of successive sephirot towards action in this world. The acts of man unite or divide the Heavenly masculine and feminine aspects of the sephirot, their anthropomorphic harmony completing Creation. As the spiritual foundation of Creation, the sephirot correspond to the names of God in Judaism and the particular nature of any entity.

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), and are emanated from the Creator for the purpose of creating the universe. The ''sephirot'' are considered revelations of the Creator's will (''ratzon''), 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.

Ten Sephirot as process of ethics

Divine creation by means of the Ten Sephirot is an ethical process. They represent the different aspects of Morality. Loving-Kindness is a possible moral justification found in Chessed, and Gevurah is the Moral Justification of Justice and both are mediated by Mercy which is Rachamim. However, these pillars of morality become immoral once they become extremes. When Loving-Kindness becomes extreme it can lead to sexual depravity and lack of Justice to the wicked. When Justice becomes extreme, it can lead to torture and the Murder of innocents and unfair punishment. "Righteous" humans (''tzadikim'' plural of Tzadik) ascend these ethical qualities of the ten ''sephirot'' 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 Yesod (Hebrew: יְסוֹד ''Yəsōḏ'', Tiberian: ''Yăsōḏ'', "foundation") is a sephirah or node in the kabbalistic Tree of Life, a system of Jewish philosophy. Yesod, located near the base of the Tree, is the sephirah below Hod and ...

'') of this universe (''

Malchut Modern: ''Malḵūt'' , Tiberian: ''Malḵūṯ'' , Ashkenazi: ''Malḵūs'' , 'kingdom'), Malkhut Malkhuth or Malchus is the tenth of the sephirot in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It sits at the bottom of the Tree, below Yesod. This sephirah ...

''), 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 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 Tiferet ( he, תִּפְאֶרֶת ''Tip̄ʾereṯ,'' in pausa: תִּפְאָרֶת ''Tip̄ʾāreṯ'', lit. 'beauty, glory, adornment') alternatively Tifaret, Tiphareth, Tifereth or Tiphereth, is the sixth sefira in the kabbalistic Tree of ...

) being part of the "Middle Column". Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, wrote ''

Tomer Devorah ''Tomer Devorah'' (Hebrew: תומר דבורה, English: ''The Palm Tree of Deborah'') was written in Hebrew in the middle of the 16th century by Moses Cordovero, a Jewish kabbalist in Safed, Ottoman Syria. This short text deals mostly with the ...

'' (''Palm Tree of Deborah''), in which he presents an ethical teaching of Judaism in the kabbalistic context of the ten ''sephirot''. ''Tomer Devorah'' has become also a foundational Musar text.

Divine Feminine

Both Rationalist Jewish philosophy and Kabbalah developed among the elite thinkers of medieval Spanish Jewry, but the austere intellectual sublimation of Judaism by the philosophers remained, by their own admission, accessible and appealing to restricted intellectually questioning circles. In contrast, while intuitive kabbalistic creativity was confined to esoteric circles, kabbalah deliberately appealed to wide reaches of the Jewish people in their popular piety, as its profoundly psychological depth theory incorporated the mythic, imaginative, sexual, and demonic in human experience. Kabbalah describes Man as the inner dimension of all Spiritual and Physical Realms (with

angels In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles incl ...

the outer aspect), from the verses "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them... Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7). Kabbalists equated the final

Sephirah Sefirot (; he, סְפִירוֹת, translit=Səfīrōt, Tiberian: '), meaning '' emanations'', are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah, through which Ein Sof (The Infinite) reveals itself and continuously creates both the physical realm an ...

Malkuth Modern: ''Malḵūt'' , Tiberian: ''Malḵūṯ'' , Ashkenazi: ''Malḵūs'' , 'kingdom'), Malkhut Malkhuth or Malchus is the tenth of the sephirot in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It sits at the bottom of the Tree, below Yesod. This sephira ...

'' (Kingdom) with the indwelling Feminine Divine immanent Presence of God throughout Creation, adapting for it the previous Rabbinic term ''Shekhinah'' (Divine Presence), but lending the concept new hypostatic and sexual interpretation (Earlier Biblical Wisdom literature describes Wisdom as a feminine manifestation of God). The fallen, exiled state of Creation by man exiles the Shekhinah into captivity among the Kelipot forces of impurity, awaiting redemption Above by man Below.

saw this archetype in fairy tales of the world, but in disordered narrative. His Kabbalistic tales rearrange the symbols to free the Divine Queen for reunion with ''The Holy One Blessed Be He''.

Partzufim

The most esoteric Idrot sections of the classic Zohar make reference to hypostatic male and female ''

'' (Divine Personas) displacing the Sephirot, manifestations of God in particular Anthropomorphic symbolic personalities based on Biblical esoteric exegesis and

midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

ic narratives. Lurianic Kabbalah places these at the centre of our existence, rather than earlier Kabbalah's Sephirot, which Luria saw as broken in Divine crisis. Contemporary cognitive understanding of the Partzuf symbols relates them to Jungian archetypes of the collective unconscious, reflecting a psychologised progression from youth to sage in therapeutic healing back to the infinite Ein Sof/Unconscious, as Kabbalah is simultaneously both

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

Descending spiritual worlds

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 roots in supernal divinity. Kabbalists agreed with the

divine transcendence In religion, transcendence is the aspect of a deity's nature and power that is completely independent of the material universe, beyond all known physical laws. This is contrasted with immanence, where a god is said to be fully present in the p ...

described by Jewish philosophy, but as only referring to the '' Ein Sof'' unknowable Godhead. They reinterpreted the

theistic Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with ''deism'', the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred t ...

philosophical concept of creation from nothing, replacing God's creative act with

panentheistic Panentheism ("all in God", from the Greek grc, πᾶν, pân, all, label=none, grc, ἐν, en, in, label=none and grc, Θεός, Theós, God, label=none) is the belief that the divine intersects every part of the universe and also extends bey ...

continual self-emanation by the mystical

Ayin ''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac ܥ, and Arabic (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only). The letter represen ...

Nothingness/No-thing sustaining all spiritual and physical realms as successively more corporeal garments, veils and condensations of

divine immanence The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world. It is held by some philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence. Immanence is usually applied in monotheistic, pantheist ...

. The innumerable levels of descent divide into Four comprehensive spiritual worlds, ''

'' ("Closeness" – Divine Wisdom), '' Beriah'' ("Creation" – Divine Understanding), '' Yetzirah'' ("Formation" – Divine Emotions), ''

'' ("Action" – Divine Activity), with a preceding Fifth World ''

'' ("Primordial Man" – Divine Will) sometimes excluded due to its sublimity. Together the whole spiritual heavens form the Divine Persona/ Anthropos. Hasidic thought extends the divine immanence of Kabbalah by holding that God is all that really exists, all else being completely undifferentiated from God's perspective. This view can be defined as acosmic

monistic Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...

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 as seen from dual human and divine perspectives is dealt with at length in Chabad texts.

Origin of evil

Among problems considered in the Hebrew Kabbalah is the theological issue of the nature and origin of evil. In the views of some Kabbalists this conceives "evil" as a "quality of God", asserting that negativity enters into the essence of the Absolute. In this view it is conceived that the Absolute needs evil to "be what it is", i.e., to exist. Foundational texts of Medieval Kabbalism conceived evil as a demonic parallel to the holy, called the ''Sitra Achra'' (the "Other Side"), and the '' Kelipot/Qliphoth'' (the "Shells/Husks") that cover and conceal the holy, are nurtured from it, and yet also protect it by limiting its revelation. Scholem termed this element of the Spanish Kabbalah a "Jewish gnostic" motif, in the sense of dual powers in the divine realm of manifestation. In a radical notion, the root of evil is found within the 10 holy Sephirot, through an imbalance of

Gevurah Gevurah or Geburah ( he, גְּבוּרָה, Gəvūrā}, Tiberian: ''Găḇūrā,'' lit. 'strength'), is the fifth '' sephirah'' in the kabbalistic tree of life, and it is the second of the emotive attributes of the ''sephirot''. It sits below ...

, the power of "Strength/Judgement/Severity". Gevurah is necessary for Creation to exist as it counterposes

Chesed ( he, חֶסֶד, also Romanized: ) is a Hebrew word that means 'kindness or love between people', specifically of the devotional piety of people towards God as well as of love or mercy of God towards humanity. It is frequently used in Psalms i ...

("loving-kindness"), restricting the unlimited divine bounty within suitable vessels, so forming the Worlds. However, if man sins (actualising impure judgement within his soul), the supernal Judgement is reciprocally empowered over the Kindness, introducing disharmony among the Sephirot in the divine realm and exile from God throughout Creation. The demonic realm, though illusory in its holy origin, becomes the real apparent realm of impurity in lower Creation. In the Zohar, the sin of Adam and Eve (who embodied

below) took place in the spiritual realms. Their sin was that they separated the Tree of knowledge (10 sefirot within

, representing

Divine immanence The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world. It is held by some philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence. Immanence is usually applied in monotheistic, pantheist ...

), from the Tree of life within it (10 sefirot within

, representing

Divine transcendence In religion, transcendence is the aspect of a deity's nature and power that is completely independent of the material universe, beyond all known physical laws. This is contrasted with immanence, where a god is said to be fully present in the p ...

). This introduced the false perception of duality into lower creation, an external Tree of Death nurtured from holiness, and an Adam Belial of impurity. In Lurianic Kabbalah, evil originates from a primordial shattering of the sephirot of God's Persona before creation of the stable spiritual worlds, mystically represented by the 8 Kings of Edom (the derivative of

) "who died" before any king reigned in Israel from Genesis 36. In the divine view from above within Kabbalah, emphasised in Hasidic Panentheism, the appearance of duality and pluralism below dissolves into the absolute

Monism Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...

of God, psychologising evil. Though impure below, what appears as evil derives from a divine blessing too high to be contained openly. The mystical task of the righteous in the Zohar is to reveal this concealed Divine Oneness and absolute good, to "convert bitterness into sweetness, darkness into light".

Role of Man

Kabbalistic doctrine gives man the central role in Creation, as his soul and body correspond to the supernal divine manifestations. In the Christian Kabbalah this scheme was universalised to describe ''harmonia mundi'', the harmony of Creation within man. In Judaism, it gave a profound spiritualisation of Jewish practice. While the kabbalistic scheme gave a radically innovative, though conceptually continuous, development of mainstream Midrashic and Talmudic rabbinic notions, kabbalistic thought underscored and invigorated conservative Jewish observance. The esoteric teachings of kabbalah gave the traditional mitzvot observances the central role in spiritual creation, whether the practitioner was learned in this knowledge or not. Accompanying normative Jewish observance and worship with elite mystical kavanot intentions gave them theurgic power, but sincere observance by common folk, especially in the Hasidic popularisation of kabbalah, could replace esoteric abilities. Many kabbalists were also leading legal figures in Judaism, such as Nachmanides and Joseph Karo. Medieval kabbalah elaborates particular reasons for each Biblical mitzvah, and their role in harmonising the supernal divine flow, uniting masculine and feminine forces on High. With this, the feminine Divine presence in this world is drawn from exile to the Holy One Above. The 613 mitzvot are embodied in the organs and soul of man. Lurianic Kabbalah incorporates this in the more inclusive scheme of Jewish messianic rectification of exiled divinity. Jewish mysticism, in contrast to Divine transcendence rationalist human-centred reasons for Jewish observance, gave Divine-immanent providential cosmic significance to the daily events in the worldly life of man in general, and the spiritual role of Jewish observance in particular.

Levels of the soul

The Kabbalah posits that the human soul has three elements, the ''nefesh'', ''ru'ach'', and ''neshamah''. The ''nefesh'' is found in all humans, and enters the physical body at birth. It is the source of one's physical and psychological nature. The next two parts of the soul are not implanted at birth, but can be developed over time; their development depends on the actions and beliefs of the individual. They are said to only fully exist in people awakened spiritually. A common way of explaining the three parts of the soul is as follows: * ''Nefesh'' (נֶפֶשׁ): the lower part, or "animal part", of the soul. It is linked to instincts and bodily cravings. This part of the soul is provided at birth. * ''Ruach'' (רוּחַ): the middle soul, the "spirit". It contains the moral virtues and the ability to distinguish between good and evil. * ''Neshamah'' (נְשָׁמָה): the higher soul, or "super-soul". This separates man from all other life-forms. It is related to the intellect and allows man to enjoy and benefit from the afterlife. It allows one to have some awareness of the existence and presence of God. The Raaya Meheimna, a section of related teachings spread throughout the Zohar, discusses fourth and fifth parts of the human soul, the ''chayyah'' and ''yehidah'' (first mentioned in the Midrash Rabbah). Gershom Scholem writes that these "were considered to represent the sublimest levels of intuitive cognition, and to be within the grasp of only a few chosen individuals". The Chayyah and the Yechidah do not enter into the body like the other three—thus they received less attention in other sections of the ''Zohar''. * ''Chayyah'' (חיה): The part of the soul that allows one to have an awareness of the divine life force itself. * ''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 a few additional, non-permanent states of the soul that people can develop on certain occasions. These extra souls, or extra states of the soul, play no part in any afterlife scheme, but are mentioned for completeness: * ''Ruach HaKodesh'' (רוח הקודש) ("spirit of holiness"): a state of the soul that makes prophecy possible. Since the age of classical prophecy passed, no one (outside of Israel) receives the soul of prophecy any longer. * ''Neshamah Yeseira'': The "supplemental soul" that a Jew can experience on Shabbat. It makes possible an enhanced spiritual enjoyment of the day. This exists only when one is observing Shabbat; it can be lost and gained depending on one's observance. * ''Neshamah Kedosha'': Provided to Jews at the age of maturity (13 for boys, 12 for girls) and is related to the study and fulfillment of the Torah commandments. It exists only when one studies and follows the Torah; it can be lost and gained depending on one's study and observance.

Reincarnation

Reincarnation, the transmigration of the soul after death, was introduced into Judaism as a central esoteric tenet of Kabbalah from the Medieval period onwards, called Gilgul neshamot ("cycles of the soul"). The concept does not appear overtly in the Hebrew Bible or classic rabbinic literature, and was rejected by various Medieval Jewish philosophers. However, the Kabbalists explained a number of scriptural passages in reference to Gilgulim. The concept became central to the later Kabbalah of Isaac Luria, who systemised it as the personal parallel to the cosmic process of rectification. Through Lurianic Kabbalah and Hasidic Judaism, reincarnation entered popular Jewish culture as a literary motif.

Tzimtzum, Shevirah and Tikkun

PikiWiki Israel 11324 The city wore white

'' Tzimtzum'' (Constriction/Concentration) is the primordial cosmic act whereby God "contracted" His infinite light, leaving a "void" into which the light of existence was poured. This allowed the emergence of independent existence that would not become nullified by the pristine Infinite Light, reconciling the unity of the ''Ein Sof'' with the plurality of creation. This changed the first creative act into one of withdrawal/exile, the antithesis of the ultimate Divine Will. In contrast, a new emanation after the Tzimtzum shone into the vacuum to begin creation, but led to an initial instability called '' Tohu'' (Chaos), leading to a new crisis of ''Shevirah'' (Shattering) of the sephirot vessels. The shards of the broken vessels fell down into the lower realms, animated by remnants of their divine light, causing primordial exile within the Divine Persona before the creation of man. Exile and enclothement of higher divinity within lower realms throughout existence requires man to complete the '' Tikkun olam'' (Rectification) process. Rectification Above corresponds to the reorganization of the independent sephirot into relating ''Partzufim'' (Divine Personas), previously referred to obliquely in the Zohar. From the catastrophe stems the possibility of self-aware Creation, and also the ''Kelipot'' (Impure Shells) of previous Medieval kabbalah. The metaphorical anthropomorphism of the partzufim accentuates the sexual unifications of the redemption process, while Gilgul reincarnation emerges from the scheme. Uniquely, Lurianism gave formerly private mysticism the urgency of Messianic social involvement. According to interpretations of Luria, the catastrophe stemmed from the "unwillingness" of the residue imprint after the Tzimtzum to relate to the new vitality that began creation. The process was arranged to shed and harmonise the Divine Infinity with the latent potential of evil. The creation of Adam would have redeemed existence, but his sin caused new shevirah of Divine vitality, requiring the Giving of the Torah to begin Messianic rectification. Historical and individual history becomes the narrative of reclaiming exiled Divine sparks.

Linguistic mysticism and the mystical Torah

Kabbalistic thought extended Biblical and

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

ic notions that God enacted Creation through the Hebrew language and through the

into a full linguistic mysticism. In this, every Hebrew letter, word, number, even accent on words of the Hebrew Bible contain Jewish mystical meanings, describing the spiritual dimensions within exoteric ideas, and it teaches the hermeneutic methods of interpretation for ascertaining these meanings. Names of God in Judaism have further prominence, though infinite meaning turns the whole Torah into a Divine name. As the Hebrew name of things is the channel of their lifeforce, parallel to the sephirot, so concepts such as "holiness" and " mitzvot" embody ontological Divine immanence, as God can be known in manifestation as well as transcendence. The infinite potential of meaning in the Torah, as in the ''Ein Sof'', is reflected in the symbol of the two trees of the Garden of Eden; the Torah of the Tree of Knowledge is the external, finite

Halachic ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical comman ...

Torah, enclothed within which the mystics perceive the unlimited infinite plurality of meanings of the Torah of the Tree of Life. In Lurianic terms, each of the 600,000 root souls of Israel find their own interpretation in Torah, as "God, the Torah and Israel are all One". As early as the 1st century BCE Jews believed that the Torah and other canonical texts contained encoded messages and hidden meanings.

Gematria Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher ...

is one method for discovering its hidden meanings. In this system, each Hebrew letter also represents a number. 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. In contemporary interpretation of kabbalah, Sanford Drob makes cognitive sense of this linguistic mythos by relating it to postmodern philosophical concepts described by Jacques Derrida and others, where all reality embodies narrative texts with infinite plurality of meanings brought by the reader. In this dialogue, kabbalah survives the nihilism of Deconstruction by incorporating its own Lurianic ''Shevirah'', and by the dialectical paradox where man and God imply each other.

Cognition, mysticism, or values

Kabbalists as mystics

The founder of the academic study of Jewish mysticism,

, privileged an intellectual view of the nature of Kabbalistic symbols as dialectic Theosophical speculation. In contrast, contemporary scholarship of Moshe Idel and Elliot R. Wolfson has opened a phenomenological understanding of the

nature of Kabbalistic experience, based on a close reading of the historical texts. Wolfson has shown that among the closed elite circles of mystical activity, medieval Theosophical Kabbalists held that an intellectual view of their symbols was secondary to the experiential. In the context of medieval Jewish philosophical debates on the role of imagination in Biblical prophecy, and essentialist versus instrumental kabbalistic debates about the relation of

to God, they saw contemplation on the sephirot as a vehicle for prophecy. Judaism's ban on physical iconography, along with anthropomorphic metaphors for Divinity in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

, enabled their internal visualisation of the Divine sephirot Anthropos in imagination. Disclosure of the aniconic in iconic internal psychology, involved sublimatory revelation of Kabbalah's sexual unifications. Previous academic distinction between ''Theosophical'' versus Abulafian '' Ecstatic-Prophetic Kabbalah'' overstated their division of aims, which revolved around visual versus verbal/auditory views of prophecy. In addition, throughout the history of Judaic Kabbalah, the greatest mystics claimed to receive new teachings from Elijah the Prophet, the souls of earlier sages (a purpose of Lurianic meditation prostrated on the graves of Talmudic Tannaim, Amoraim and Kabbalists), the soul of the

mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Tor ...

, ascents during sleep, heavenly messengers, etc. A tradition of

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...

abilities,

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws ...

knowledge, and theurgic intercessions in heaven for the community is recounted in the

hagiographic A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...

works ''Praises of the Ari'', ''Praises of the Besht'', and in many other Kabbalistic and Hasidic tales. Kabbalistic and Hasidic texts are concerned to apply themselves from exegesis and theory to spiritual practice, including

prophetic In religion, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divine will or law, or pret ...

drawing of new mystical revelations in Torah. The mythological symbols Kabbalah uses to answer philosophical questions, themselves invite

contemplation, intuitive apprehension and psychological engagement.

Paradoxical coincidence of opposites

In bringing Theosophical Kabbalah into contemporary intellectual understanding, using the tools of modern and postmodern philosophy and

, Sanford Drob shows philosophically how every symbol of the Kabbalah embodies the simultaneous dialectical paradox of mystical ''

Coincidentia oppositorum The unity of opposites is the central category of dialectics, said to be related to the notion of non-duality in a deep sense.

'', the conjoining of two opposite dualities. Thus the Infinite Ein Sof is above the duality of '' Yesh/Ayin Being/Non-Being'' transcending Existence/Nothingness (''Becoming'' into Existence through the souls of Man who are the inner dimension of all spiritual and physical worlds, yet simultaneously the Infinite Divine generative lifesource beyond Creation that continuously keeps everything spiritual and physical in existence);

bridge the philosophical problem of the One and the Many; Man is both Divine (

) and human (invited to project human psychology onto Divinity to understand it); Tzimtzum is both illusion and real from Divine and human perspectives; evil and good imply each other ( Kelipah draws from Divinity, good arises only from overcoming evil); Existence is simultaneously partial (Tzimtzum), broken ( Shevirah), and whole ( Tikun) from different perspectives; God experiences Himself as Other through Man, Man embodies and completes (Tikun) the Divine Persona Above. In Kabbalah's reciprocal Panentheism,

Theism Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with '' deism'', the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred ...

and Atheism/

Humanism Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and Agency (philosophy), agency of Human, human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical in ...

represent two incomplete poles of a mutual dialectic that imply and include each other's partial validity.http://newkabbalah.com/index3.html ''Kabbalah and Postmodernism: A Dialogue'', Sanford Drob, Peter Lang publishers 2009. "Examines the convergence between Jewish mystical ideas and the thought of Jacques Derrida, the founder of deconstruction, and puts this convergence in the service of a theology that not only survives the challenges of atheism, cultural relativism, and anti-foundationalism, but welcomes and includes these ideas. Challenges certain long-held philosophical and theological beliefs, including the assumptions that the insights of mystical experience are unavailable to human reason and inexpressible in linguistic terms, that the God of traditional theology either does or does not exist, that systematic theology must provide a univocal account of God, man, and the world, that truth is absolute and not continually subject to radical revision, and that the truth of propositions in philosophy and theology excludes the truth of their opposites and contradictions." This was expressed by the

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic grou ...

Hasidic thinker Aaron of Staroselye, that the truth of any concept is revealed only in its opposite.

Metaphysics or axiology

By expressing itself using symbols and myth that transcend single interpretations, Theosophical Kabbalah incorporates aspects of philosophy, Jewish

and unconscious depth psychology,

and

, Jewish exegesis,

, and

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...

, as well as overlapping with theory from magical elements. Its symbols can be read as questions which are their own

existentialist Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...

answers (the Hebrew sephirah

Chokhmah ''Chokmah'' ( Hebrew: חָכְמָה ) is the Biblical Hebrew word rendered as "wisdom" in English Bible versions (LXX '' sophia'', Vulgate ').'' Strong's Concordance'H2451 "from H2449 �ָכַם ''chakam'' "wise" wisdom (in a good sense):— ...

-Wisdom, the beginning of Existence, is read etymologically by Kabbalists as the question "Koach Mah?" the "Power of What?"). Alternative listings of the

start with either Keter (Unconscious Will/Volition), or

(Wisdom), a philosophical duality between a Rational or Supra-Rational Creation, between whether the Mitzvot Judaic observances have reasons or transcend reasons in Divine Will, between whether study or good deeds is superior, and whether the symbols of Kabbalah should be read as primarily

intellectual cognition or Axiology values. Messianic redemption requires both ethical Tikkun olam and contemplative

Kavanah Kavanah, kavvanah or kavana (also pronounced /kaˈvonə/ by some Ashkenazi Jews) (כַּוָּנָה; in Biblical Hebrew kawwānā), plural kavanot or kavanos (Ashkenazim), literally means "intention" or "sincere feeling, direction of the heart". ...

. Sanford Drob sees every attempt to limit Kabbalah to one fixed dogmatic interpretation as necessarily bringing its own Deconstruction (Lurianic Kabbalah incorporates its own Shevirah self shattering; the Ein Sof transcends all of its infinite expressions; the infinite mystical Torah of the Tree of Life has no/infinite interpretations). The infinite axiology of the Ein Sof One, expressed through the Plural Many, overcomes the dangers of nihilism, or the

mystical breaking of Jewish observance alluded to throughout Kabbalistic and Hasidic mysticisms.

Primary texts

Like the rest of the rabbinic literature, the texts of kabbalah were once part of an ongoing oral tradition, though, over the centuries, much of the oral tradition has been written down. Jewish forms of esotericism existed over 2,000 years ago. Ben Sira (born c. 170 BCE) warns against it, saying: "You shall have no business with secret things". Nonetheless, mystical studies were undertaken and resulted in mystical literature, the first being the Apocalyptic literature of the second and first pre-Christian centuries and which contained elements that carried over to later kabbalah. Throughout the centuries since, many texts have been produced, among them the ancient descriptions of ''Sefer Yetzirah'', the ''Heichalot'' mystical ascent literature, the ''Bahir'', '' Sefer Raziel HaMalakh'' and the ''Zohar'', the main text of Kabbalistic exegesis. Classic mystical Bible commentaries are included in fuller versions of the ''

Mikraot Gedolot A ''Mikraot Gedolot'' (''Great Scriptures''; in Hebrew: ), often called the " Rabbinic Bible" in English, is an edition of the Hebrew Bible (in Hebrew) that generally includes three distinct elements: * The biblical text according to the '' ma ...

'' (Main Commentators). Cordoveran systemisation is presented in ''Pardes Rimonim'', philosophical articulation in the works of the Maharal, and Lurianic rectification in ''Etz Chayim''. Subsequent interpretation of Lurianic Kabbalah was made in the writings of Shalom Sharabi, in ''Nefesh HaChaim'' and the 20th-century ''Sulam''. Hasidism interpreted kabbalistic structures to their correspondence in inward perception. The Hasidic development of kabbalah incorporates a successive stage of Jewish mysticism from historical kabbalistic metaphysics.

Scholarship

The first modern-academic historians of Judaism, the " Wissenschaft des Judentums" school of the 19th century, framed Judaism in solely rational terms in the emancipatory Haskalah spirit of their age. They opposed kabbalah and restricted its significance from Jewish historiography. In the mid-20th century, it was left to

to overturn their stance, establishing the flourishing present-day academic investigation of Jewish mysticism, and making Heichalot, Kabbalistic and Hasidic texts the objects of scholarly critical-historical study. In Scholem's opinion, the mythical and mystical components of Judaism were at least as important as the rational ones, and he thought that they, rather than the exoteric

Halakha ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

or intellectualist Jewish philosophy, were the living subterranean stream in historical Jewish development that periodically broke out to renew the Jewish spirit and social life of the community. Scholem's magisterial '' Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941) among his seminal works, though representing scholarship and interpretations that have subsequently been challenged and revised within the field, remains the only academic survey studying all main historical periods of Jewish mysticism The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has been a centre of this research, including Scholem and Isaiah Tishby, and more recently Joseph Dan, Yehuda Liebes, Rachel Elior, and Moshe Idel. Scholars across the eras of Jewish mysticism in America and Britain have included

Alexander Altmann Alexander Altmann (April 16, 1906 – June 6, 1987) was an Orthodox Jewish scholar and rabbi born in Kassa, Austria-Hungary (present-day Košice, Slovakia). He emigrated to England in 1938 and later settled in the United States, working productive ...

, Arthur Green, Lawrence Fine, Elliot Wolfson, Daniel Matt, Louis Jacobs and

Ada Rapoport-Albert Ada Rapoport-Albert (; 26 October 1945 – 18 June 2020) was an Israeli-British scholar whose scholarship focused on Jewish mysticism, Sabbateanism, and gender in Hasidic Judaism. Rapoport-Albert also served as the president of the Jewish Histori ...

. Moshe Idel has opened up research on the Ecstatic Kabbalah alongside the theosophical, and has called for new multi-disciplinary approaches, beyond the philological and historical that have dominated until now, to include phenomenology,

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

and comparative studies.

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 early foundational works

pseudepigraph Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseu ...

ically 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 by the angel Raziel to Adam after he was evicted from Eden. Another famous work, the early '' Sefer Yetzirah'', is dated back to the patriarch

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Je ...

. 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). As well as ascribing ancient origins to texts, and reception of

transmission, the greatest and most innovative Kabbalists claimed mystical reception of direct personal divine revelations, by heavenly mentors such as Elijah the Prophet, the souls of Talmudic sages, prophetic revelation, soul ascents on high, etc. On this basis Arthur Green speculates, that while the '' Zohar'' was written by a circle of Kabbalists in medieval Spain, they may have believed they were channeling the souls and direct revelations from the earlier mystic circle of

Shimon bar Yochai Shimon bar Yochai ( Zoharic Aramaic: שמעון בר יוחאי, ''Shim'on bar Yoḥai'') or Shimon ben Yochai (Mishnaic Hebrew: שמעון בן יוחאי, ''Shim'on ben Yoḥai''), also known by the acronym Rashbi, was a 2nd-century ''tannaiti ...

in 2nd century Galilee depicted in the Zohar's narrative. Academics have compared the Zohar mystic circle of Spain with the romanticised wandering mystic circle of Galilee described in the text. Similarly, Isaac Luria gathered his disciples at the traditional Idra assembly location, placing each in the seat of their former reincarnations as students of Shimon bar Yochai.

Criticism

Dualistic cosmology

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 Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...

, believes creation is ontologically divided between good and evil forces; the second, found largely in Greco-Roman

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

Neo-Platonism Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some id ...

, argues that 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 Sephirot 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. Kabbalistic texts, including the ''Zohar'', appear to affirm dualism, as they ascribe all evil to the separation from holiness known as the Sitra Achra ("the other side") which is opposed to ''Sitra D'Kedushah'', or the Side of Holiness. 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 Sephirot, 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. 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

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 {{Kabbalah Ze`ir Anpin (Aramaic: זְעֵיר אַנפִּין meaning "Lesser Countenance/Small Face", called Microprosopus in the Kabbala Denudata) is a revealed aspect of God in Kabbalah, comprising the emotional sephirot attributes: Chesed, G ...

), and the rest of the infinity of God as remaining hidden from human experience (corresponding to Arich Anpin). One reading of this theology is monotheistic, similar to panentheism; another reading of the same theology is that it is dualistic. Gershom Scholem writes:

Distinction between Jews and non-Jews

According to Isaac Luria (1534–72) and other commentators on the Zohar, righteous Gentiles do not have this demonic aspect and are in many ways similar to Jewish souls. A number of prominent Kabbalists, e.g., 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 Satmar (Yiddish: סאַטמאַר, Hebrew: סאטמר) is a Hasidic group founded in 1905 by Grand Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, in the city of Szatmárnémeti, Hungary (now Satu Mare in Romania). The group is an offshoot of the Sighet Hasidic dynasty ...

. On the other hand, many prominent Kabbalists rejected this idea and believed in essential equality of all human souls. Menahem Azariah da Fano (1548–1620), in his book ''Reincarnations of souls'', provides many examples of non-Jewish Biblical figures being reincarnated into Jews and vice versa. But one point of view is represented by the Hasidic work '' Tanya'' (1797), in order to argue that Jews have a different character of soul: while a non-Jew, according to the author Shneur Zalman of Liadi (born 1745), can achieve a high level of spirituality, similar to an angel, his soul is still fundamentally different in character, from a Jewish one.סידור הרב, שער אכילת מצה A similar view is found in ''

Kuzari The ''Kuzari'', full title ''Book of Refutation and Proof on Behalf of the Despised Religion'' ( ar, كتاب الحجة والدليل في نصرة الدين الذليل: ''Kitâb al-ḥujja wa'l-dalîl fi naṣr al-dîn al-dhalîl''), also k ...

'', an early medieval philosophical book by Yehuda Halevi (1075–1141 AD). Another prominent Habad rabbi,

Abraham Yehudah Khein Abraham Yehudah Khein (1878 in Chernigov – 5 October 1957) was a Hasidic Rabbi in the Ukrainian town Nyezhin. Rabbi Klein was a pacifist anarchist. He belonged to the Hasidic Chabad tradition by family descent and spiritual training. Khein was ...

(born 1878), 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". 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 argues 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 In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environmen ...

they experienced between the negative perception of Gentiles found in some exponents of Kabbalah, and their own positive dealings with non-Jews, which were rapidly expanding and improving during this period due to the influence of

the Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...

. However, a number of renowned Kabbalists claimed the exact opposite, stressing universality of all human souls and providing universal interpretations of the Kabbalistic tradition, including its Lurianic version. In their view, Kabbalah transcends the borders of Judaism and can serve as a basis of inter-religious theosophy and a universal religion. Pinchas Elijah Hurwitz, a prominent Lithuanian-Galician Kabbalist of the 18th century and a moderate proponent of the Haskalah, called for brotherly love and solidarity between all nations, and believed that Kabbalah can empower everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike, with prophetic abilities. The works of Abraham Cohen de Herrera (1570–1635) are full of references to Gentile mystical philosophers. Such approach was particularly common among the

and post-Renaissance

Italian Jews Italian Jews ( it, Ebrei Italiani, he, יהודים איטלקים ''Yehudim Italkim'') or Roman Jews ( it, Ebrei Romani, he, יהודים רומים ''Yehudim Romim'') can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living in or with roots in I ...

. Late medieval and Renaissance Italian Kabbalists, such as Yohanan Alemanno, David Messer Leon and Abraham Yagel, adhered to humanistic ideals and incorporated teachings of various Christian and pagan mystics. A prime representative of this humanist stream in Kabbalah was Elijah Benamozegh, who explicitly praised Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, as well as a whole range of ancient pagan mystical systems. He believed that Kabbalah can reconcile the differences between the world religions, which represent different facets and stages of the universal human spirituality. In his writings, Benamozegh interprets the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

Avesta The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the lit ...

and pagan mysteries according to the Kabbalistic theosophy. E. R. Wolfson provides numerous examples from the 17th to the 20th centuries, which would challenge the view of Halperin as well as the notion that "modern Judaism" has rejected or dismissed this "outdated aspect" of the religion and, he argues, there are still Kabbalists today who harbor this view. He argues that, while it is accurate to say that many Jews do and would find this distinction offensive, it is inaccurate to say that the idea has been totally rejected in all circles. As Wolfson has argued, it is an ethical demand on the part of scholars to continue to be vigilant with regard to this matter and in this way the tradition can be refined from within.

Medieval views

The idea that there are ten divine ''

'' 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. The early Kabbalists debated the relationship of the Sephirot to God, adopting a range of essentialist versus instrumental views. Modern Kabbalah, based on the 16th century systemisations of Cordovero and Isaac Luria, takes an intermediate position: the instrumental vessels of the sephirot are created, but their inner light is from the undifferentiated

Ohr Ein Sof ''Ohr'' ("Light" he, אור; plural: ''Ohros/Ohrot'' "Lights" ) is a central Kabbalistic term in the Jewish mystical tradition. The analogy of physical light is used as a way of describing metaphysical Divine emanations. ''Shefa'' ("Flow" and ...

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

(12th century), celebrated by followers for his Jewish rationalism, rejected many of the pre-Kabbalistic Hekalot texts, particularly '' Shi'ur Qomah'' whose starkly anthropomorphic vision of God he considered heretical. Maimonides, a centrally important medieval sage of Judaism, lived at the time of the first emergence of Kabbalah. Modern scholarship views the systemisation and publication of their historic oral doctrine by Kabbalists, as a move to rebut the threat on Judaic observance by the populance misreading Maimonides' ideal of philosophical contemplation over ritual performance in his philosophical Guide of the Perplexed. They objected to Maimonides equating the Talmudic Maaseh Breishit and Maaseh Merkavah secrets of the Torah with Aristotelean physics and metaphysics in that work and in his legal Mishneh Torah, teaching that their own Theosophy, centred on an esoteric metaphysics of traditional Jewish practice, is the Torah's true inner meaning. The Kabbalist medieval rabbinic sage Nachmanides (13th century), classic debater against Maimonidean rationalism, provides background to many kabbalistic ideas. An entire book entitled ''Gevuras Aryeh'' was authored by Yaakov Yehuda Aryeh Leib Frenkel and originally published in 1915, specifically to explain and elaborate on the kabbalistic concepts addressed by Nachmanides in his classic commentary to the Five books of Moses. Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, in the spirit of his father Maimonides, Saadiah Gaon, and other predecessors, explains at length in his ''Milḥamot HaShem'' that God 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, emphasising the

Monotheist Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxfor ...

Oneness of

unlike any worldly conception. Kabbalah's Panentheism expressed by

and Hasidic thought, agrees that God's essence transcends all expression, but holds in contrast that existence is a manifestation of God's Being, descending immanently through spiritual and physical condensations of the divine light. By incorporating the pluralist many within God, God's Oneness is deepened to exclude the true existence of anything but God. In Hasidic Panentheism, the world is acosmic from the Divine view, yet real from its own perspective. Around the 1230s, Rabbi Meir ben Simon of Narbonne wrote an epistle (included in his ''Milḥemet 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. Neḥunya ben ha-Kanah and describing some of its content as truly heretical. Leone di Modena, a 17th-century Venetian critic of Kabbalah, wrote that if we were to accept the Kabbalah, then the Christian trinity would be compatible with Judaism, as the Trinity seems to resemble the kabbalistic doctrine of the ''

''. This was in response to the belief that some European Jews of the period addressed individual ''sephirot'' in their prayers, although the practice was apparently uncommon. Apologists explained that Jews may have been praying ''for'' and not necessarily ''to'' the aspects of Godliness represented by the ''sephirot''. In contrast to Christianity, Kabbalists declare that one prays only "to Him ( God's Essence, male solely by metaphor in Hebrew's gendered grammar), not to his attributes (sephirot or any other Divine manifestations or forms of incarnation)". Kabbalists directed their prayers to God's essence through the channels of particular sephirot using kavanot Divine names intentions. To pray to a manifestation of God introduces false division among the sephirot, disrupting their absolute unity, dependence and dissolving into the transcendent Ein Sof; the sephirot descend throughout Creation, only appearing from man's perception of God, where God manifests by any variety of numbers.

Yaakov Emden Jacob Emden, also known as Ya'avetz (June 4, 1697 April 19, 1776), was a leading German rabbi and talmudist who championed Orthodox Judaism in the face of the growing influence of the Sabbatean movement. He was acclaimed in all circles for his ...

(1697–1776), himself an Orthodox Kabbalist who venerated the Zohar,''The Jewish Religion - A Companion'', Louis Jacobs, Oxford University Press 1995, entry: Emden, Jacob concerned to battle

Sabbatean The Sabbateans (or Sabbatians) were a variety of Jewish followers, disciples, and believers in Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676), a Sephardic Jewish rabbi and Kabbalist who was proclaimed to be the Jewish Messiah in 1666 by Nathan of Gaza. Vast ...

misuse of Kabbalah, wrote the ''Mitpaḥath Sfarim'' (''Veil of the Books''), an astute 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 Shimon bar Yochai. He also expressed the extremely unconventional view, contrary to all evidence, that the pious

could not have written the '' Guide of the Perplexed'', which must have been the work of an unknown heretic. Emden's Kabbalist contemporary the Vilna Gaon (1720–1797) early modern Rabbinic sage, held the Zohar and Luria in deep reverence, critically emending classic Judaic texts from historically accumulated errors by his acute acumen and scholarly belief in the perfect unity of Kabbalah revelation and Rabbinic Judaism. Though a Lurianic Kabbalist, his commentaries sometimes chose Zoharic interpretation over Luria when he felt the matter lent itself to a more exoteric view. Although proficient in mathematics and sciences and recommending their necessity for understanding

, he had no use for canonical medieval Jewish philosophy, declaring that

had been "misled by the accursed philosophy" in denying belief in the external occult matters of demons, incantations and amulets. Views of Kabbalists regarding Jewish philosophy varied from those who appreciated Maimonidean and other classic medieval philosophical works, integrating them with Kabbalah and seeing profound human philosophical and Divine kabbalistic wisdoms as compatible, to those who polemicised against religious philosophy during times when it became overly rationalist and dogmatic. A dictum commonly cited by Kabbalists, "Kabbalah begins where Philosophy ends", can be read as either appreciation or polemic. Moses of Burgos (late 13th century) declared, "these philosophers whose wisdom you are praising end where we begin".

appreciated the influence of Maimonides in his quasi-rational systemisation. From its inception, the Theosophical Kabbalah became permeated by terminology adapted from philosophy and given new mystical meanings, such as its early integration with the Neoplatonism of

Ibn Gabirol Solomon ibn Gabirol or Solomon ben Judah ( he, ר׳ שְׁלֹמֹה בֶּן יְהוּדָה אִבְּן גָּבִּירוֹל, Shlomo Ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol, ; ar, أبو أيوب سليمان بن يحيى بن جبيرول, ’Abū ’Ayy ...

and use of Aristotelian terms of Form over Matter.

Orthodox Judaism

Pinchas Giller and

Adin Steinsaltz Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (11 July 19377 August 2020) ( he, עדין אבן-ישראל שטיינזלץ) was an Israeli Chabad Chasidic rabbi, teacher, philosopher, social critic, author, translator and publisher. His '' Steinsaltz edi ...

write that Kabbalah is best described as the inner part of traditional

Jewish religion Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the M ...

, the official

of Judaism, that was essential to normative Judaism until fairly recently. With the decline of Jewish life in medieval Spain, it displaced rationalist Jewish philosophy until the modern rise of Haskalah enlightenment, receiving a revival in our postmodern age. While Judaism always maintained a minority tradition of religious rationalist criticism of Kabbalah,

writes that Lurianic Kabbalah was the last theology that was near predominant in Jewish life. While Lurianism represented the elite of esoteric Kabbalism, its mythic-messianic divine drama and personalisation of reincarnation captured the popular imagination in

Jewish folklore Jewish folklore are legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs that are the traditions of Judaism. Folktales are characterized by the presence of unusual personages, by the sud ...

and in the

and Hasidic social movements. Giller notes that the former Zoharic- Cordoverian classic Kabbalah represented a common exoteric popular view of Kabbalah, as depicted in early modern Musar literature. In contemporary

Orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses ...

there is dispute as to the status of the Zohar's and Isaac Luria's (the Arizal) Kabbalistic teachings. While a portion of Modern Orthodox, followers of the Dor De'ah movement, and many students of the

Rambam Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah s ...

reject Arizal's Kabbalistic teachings, as well as deny that the ''Zohar'' is authoritative or from Shimon bar Yohai, all three of these groups accept the existence and validity of the Talmudic '' Maaseh Breishit and Maaseh Merkavah'' mysticism. Their disagreement concerns whether the Kabbalistic teachings promulgated today are accurate representations of those esoteric teachings to which the Talmud refers. The mainstream

( Hasidic, Lithuanian, Oriental) and

Religious Zionist Religious Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת דָּתִית, translit. ''Tziyonut Datit'') is an ideology that combines Zionism and Orthodox Judaism. Its adherents are also referred to as ''Dati Leumi'' ( "National Religious"), and in Israel, the ...

Jewish movements revere Luria and the Kabbalah, but one can find both rabbis who sympathize with such a view, while disagreeing with it, as well as rabbis who consider such a view heresy. The Haredi Eliyahu Dessler and Gedaliah Nadel maintained that it is acceptable to believe that the Zohar was not written by Shimon bar Yochai and that it had a late authorship. Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg mentioned the possibility of Christian influence in the Kabbalah with the "Kabbalistic vision of the Messiah as the redeemer of all mankind" being "the Jewish counterpart to Christ." Modern Orthodox Judaism, representing an inclination to rationalism, embrace of academic scholarship, and the individual's autonomy to define Judaism, embodies a diversity of views regarding Kabbalah from a Neo-Hasidic spirituality to Maimonist anti-Kabbalism. In a book to help define central theological issues in Modern Orthodoxy, Michael J. Harris writes that the relationship between Modern Orthodoxy and mysticism has been under-discussed. He sees a deficiency of spirituality in Modern Orthodoxy, as well as the dangers in a fundamentalist adoption of Kabbalah. He suggests the development of neo-Kabbalistic adaptions of Jewish mysticism compatible with rationalism, offering a variety of precedent models from past thinkers ranging from the mystical inclusivism of Abraham Isaac Kook to a compartmentalisation between Halakha and mysticism. Yiḥyeh Qafeḥ, a 20th-century

Yemenite Jewish Yemenite Jews or Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from ''Yehudei Teman''; ar, اليهود اليمنيون) are those Jews who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. Between June 1949 and September 1950, the ...

leader and Chief Rabbi of Yemen, spearheaded the Dor De'ah ("generation of knowledge") movement to counteract the influence of the Zohar and modern Kabbalah. He authored critiques of mysticism in general and Lurianic Kabbalah in particular; his magnum opus was Milḥamoth ha-Shem (''Wars of Hashem'') against what he perceived as neo-platonic and gnostic influences on Judaism with the publication and distribution of the Zohar since the 13th Century. Rabbi Yiḥyah founded

yeshivot A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish education, Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish p ...

, rabbinical schools, and synagogues that featured a rationalist approach to Judaism based on the Talmud and works of Saadia Gaon and Maimonides (Rambam).

Yeshayahu Leibowitz Yeshayahu Leibowitz ( he, ישעיהו ליבוביץ; 29 January 1903 – 18 August 1994) was an Israeli Orthodox Jewish public intellectual and polymath. He was a professor of biochemistry, organic chemistry, and neurophysiology at the Hebrew ...

(1903–1994), an ultra-rationalist Modern Orthodox philosopher and brother of Nechama Leibowitz, publicly shared views expressed in Yiḥyeh Qafeḥ's book ''Milḥamoth HaShem'' against mysticism. For example, Leibowitz called Kabbalah "a collection of "pagan superstitions" and "idol worship" in remarks given after receiving the

Yakir Yerushalayim Yakir Yerushalayim ( he, יַקִּיר יְרוּשָׁלַיִם; en, Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem) is an annual citizenship prize in Jerusalem, inaugurated in 1967. The prize is awarded annually by the municipality of the City of Jerusalem to o ...

Award (English: worthy citizen of Jerusalem) in 1990. In modern times, rationalists holding similar views as those of the Dor De'ah movement have described themselves as "talmide ha-Rambam" (disciples of Maimonides) rather than as being aligned with Dor De'ah, and are more theologically aligned with the rationalism of Modern Orthodox Judaism than with Orthodox Ḥasidic or Ḥaredi communities.

Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism

Kabbalah tended to be rejected by most Jews in the Conservative and

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

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,

Saul Lieberman Saul Lieberman (Hebrew: שאול ליברמן, May 28, 1898 – March 23, 1983), also known as Rabbi Shaul Lieberman or, among some of his students, The ''Gra"sh'' (''Gaon Rabbeinu Shaul''), was a rabbi and a Talmudic scholar. He served as Professo ...

of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America 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

Bradley Shavit Artson Bradley Shavit "Brad" Artson (born 1959) is an American rabbi, author and speaker. He holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California, where ...

(Dean of the Conservative

Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, informally known as the "Ziegler School" or simply "Ziegler", is the graduate program of study, leading to ordination as a Conservative rabbi at the American Jewish University (formerly known as the Univers ...

in the

American Jewish University American Jewish University (AJU), formerly the separate institutions University of Judaism and Brandeis-Bardin Institute, is a Jewish institution in Los Angeles, California. Its largest component is its Whizin Center for Continuing Education in ...

) However, in the late 20th century and early 21st century 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 of America and the

of the

in Los Angeles have full-time instructors in Kabbalah and ''Hasidut'', Eitan Fishbane and Pinchas Giller, respectively. In Reform Judaism, Sharon Koren teaches at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Reform rabbis like Herbert Weiner and

Lawrence Kushner Lawrence Kushner (born 1943) is a Reform rabbi and the scholar-in-residence at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, California. Biography Born in Detroit in 1943, Kushner graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Cincinnati and went on ...

have renewed interest in Kabbalah among Reform Jews. At the

Reconstructionist Rabbinical College The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) is a Jewish seminary in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. It is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Associa ...

, the only accredited seminary that has curricular requirements in Kabbalah, Joel Hecker is the full-time instructor teaching courses in Kabbalah and Hasidut. According to Artson: The Reconstructionist movement, under the leadership of Arthur Green in the 1980s and 1990s, 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.

Contemporary study

Teaching of classic esoteric kabbalah texts and practice remained traditional until recent times, passed on in Judaism from master to disciple, or studied by leading rabbinic scholars. This changed in the 20th century, through conscious reform and the secular openness of knowledge. In contemporary times kabbalah is studied in four very different, though sometimes overlapping, ways: * The traditional method, employed among Jews since the 16th century, continues in learned study circles. Its prerequisite is to either be born Jewish or be a convert and to join a group of kabbalists under the tutelage of a rabbi, since the 18th century more likely a Hasidic one, though others exist among Sephardi-Mizrachi, and Lithuanian rabbinic scholars. Beyond elite, historical esoteric kabbalah, the public-communally studied texts of Hasidic thought explain kabbalistic concepts for wide spiritual application, through their own concern with popular psychological perception of Divine Panentheism. * A second, new universalist form, is the method of modern-style Jewish organisations and writers, who seek to disseminate kabbalah to every man, woman and child regardless of race or class, especially since the Western interest in mysticism from the 1960s. These derive from various cross-denominational Jewish interests in kabbalah, and range from considered theology to popularised forms that often adopt New Age terminology and beliefs for wider communication. These groups highlight or interpret kabbalah through non-particularist, universalist aspects. * A third way are non-Jewish organisations, mystery schools, initiation bodies, fraternities and secret societies, the most popular of which are

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, Rosicrucianism and the Golden Dawn, although hundreds of similar societies claim a kabbalistic lineage. These derive from

syncretic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...

combinations of Jewish kabbalah with Christian, occultist or contemporary

spirituality. As a separate spiritual tradition in Western esotericism since the Renaissance, with different aims from its Jewish origin, the non-Jewish traditions differ significantly and do not give an accurate representation of the Jewish spiritual understanding (or vice versa). * Fourthly, since the mid-20th century, historical-critical scholarly investigation of all eras of Jewish mysticism has flourished into an established department of university Jewish studies. Where the first academic historians of Judaism in the 19th century opposed and marginalised kabbalah, Gershom Scholem and his successors repositioned the historiography of Jewish mysticism as a central, vital component of Judaic renewal through history. Cross-disciplinary academic revisions of Scholem's and others' theories are regularly published for wide readership.

Universalist Jewish organisations

The two, unrelated organisations that translate the mid-20th-century teachings of Yehuda Ashlag into a contemporary universalist message, have given kabbalah a public cross-religious profile: * ''

Bnei Baruch Bnei Baruch (also known as Kabbalah Laam, he, קבלה לעם, links=no) is a universalist kabbalah association founded by Michael Laitman in the early 1990s. It is estimated to have around 50,000 students in Israel, and some 150,000 around the ...

'' is a group of Kabbalah students, based in Israel. Study materials are available in over 25 languages for free online or at printing cost. Michael Laitman established Bnei Baruch in 1991, following the passing of his teacher, Ashlag's son Rav Baruch Ashlag. Laitman named his group Bnei Baruch (sons of Baruch) to commemorate the memory of his mentor. The teaching strongly suggests restricting one's studies to 'authentic sources', kabbalists of the direct lineage of master to disciple. * '' The Kabbalah Centre'' was founded in the United States in 1965 as The National Research Institute of Kabbalah by

Philip Berg Philip S. Berg (original name Feivel Gruberger, he, שרגא פייבל; August 20, 1927 – September 16, 2013) was an American rabbi and dean of the worldwide Kabbalah Centre organization. Berg was a great populariser of Ashlagian Kabbalah. ...

and Rav Yehuda Tzvi Brandwein, disciple of Yehuda Ashlag's. Later Philip Berg and his wife re-established the organisation as the worldwide Kabbalah Centre. In recent times its outreach teaching in New Age style has been "derided by critics as Hollywood's new "non-religion" and even "the McDonald's of spirituality"" after having attracted a cross-religious celebrity following (see Madonna) and media profile, though the organisation is led by Orthodox Jewish teachers. Other prominent Jewish universalist organisations: * '' The Kabbalah Society'', run by Warren Kenton, an organisation based instead on pre-Lurianic Medieval Kabbalah presented in universalist style. In contrast, traditional kabbalists read earlier kabbalah through later Lurianism and the systemisations of 16th-century Safed. * ''The New Kabbalah'', website and books by Sanford L. Drob, is a scholarly intellectual investigation of the Lurianic symbolism in the perspective of modern and postmodern intellectual thought. It seeks a "new kabbalah" rooted in the historical tradition through its academic study, but universalised through dialogue with modern philosophy and psychology. This approach seeks to enrich the secular disciplines, while uncovering intellectual insights formerly implicit in kabbalah's essential myth: * The Kabbalah of Information is described in the 2018 book ''From Infinity to Man: The Fundamental Ideas of Kabbalah Within the Framework of Information Theory and Quantum Physics'' written by Ukrainian-born professor and businessman Eduard Shyfrin. The main tenet of the teaching is "In the beginning He created information", rephrasing the famous saying of Nahmanides, "In the beginning He created primordial matter and He didn't create anything else, just shaped it and formed it."

Hasidic

Since the 18th century, Jewish mystical development has continued in Hasidic Judaism, turning kabbalah into a social revival with texts that internalise mystical thought. Among different schools, Chabad-Lubavitch and Breslav with related organisations, give outward looking spiritual resources and textual learning for secular Jews. The Intellectual Hasidism of Chabad most emphasises the spread and understanding of kabbalah through its explanation in Hasidic thought, articulating the Divine meaning within kabbalah through human rational analogies, uniting the spiritual and material, esoteric and exoteric in their Divine source:

Neo-Hasidic

From the early 20th century, Neo-Hasidism expressed a modernist or non-Orthodox Jewish interest in Jewish mysticism, becoming influential among Modern Orthodox,

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

and Reconstructionalist Jewish denominations from the 1960s, and organised through the Jewish Renewal and Chavurah movements. The writings and teachings of

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi Meshullam Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (28 August 1924 – 3 July 2014), commonly called "Reb Zalman" (full Hebrew name: ), was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue. Early life Born Meshullam Zal ...

, Arthur Green,

, Herbert Weiner and others, has sought a critically selective, non-fundamentalist neo- Kabbalistic and Hasidic study and mystical spirituality among modernist Jews. The contemporary proliferation of scholarship by Jewish mysticism academia has contributed to critical adaptions of Jewish mysticism. Arthur Green's translations from the religious writings of

Hillel Zeitlin Hillel Zeitlin (1871–1942) was a Yiddish and Hebrew writer and poet. A leading pre-Holocaust Jewish journalist, he was a regular contributor to the Yiddish newspaper ''Moment'', among other literary activities. He was the leading thinker in the ...

conceive the latter to be a precursor of contemporary Neo-Hasidism. Reform rabbi Herbert Weiner's '' Nine and a Half Mystics: The Kabbala Today'' (1969), a travelogue among Kabbalists and Hasidim, brought perceptive insights into Jewish mysticism to many Reform Jews. Leading Reform philosopher Eugene Borowitz described the Orthodox Hasidic

(''The Thirteen Petalled Rose'') and

as major presenters of Kabbalistic spirituality for modernists today.

Rav Kook

The writings of Abraham Isaac Kook (1864–1935), first chief rabbi of Mandate Palestine and visionary, incorporate kabbalistic themes through his own poetic language and concern with human and divine unity. His influence is in the

community, who follow his aim that the legal and imaginative aspects of Judaism should interfuse:

Mandaean parallels

Nathaniel Deutsch writes: R.J. Zwi Werblowsky suggests Mandaeism has more commonality with Kabbalah than with

such as cosmogony and sexual imagery.

The Thousand and Twelve Questions ''The Thousand and Twelve Questions'' ( myz, ࡀࡋࡐ ࡕࡓࡉࡎࡀࡓ ࡔࡅࡉࡀࡋࡉࡀ ) is a Mandaean religious text. The ''1012 Questions'' is one of the most detailed texts on Mandaean priestly rituals. The text contains detailed com ...

Scroll of Exalted Kingship The ''Scroll of Exalted Kingship'' ( myz, ࡃࡉࡅࡀࡍ ࡌࡀࡋࡊࡅࡕࡀ ࡏࡋࡀࡉࡕࡀ ) is a Mandaean religious text. Written as a large illustrated scroll, the text consists of 1,363 lines. The scroll is a commentary on '' tarmida' ...

, and Alma Rišaia Rba link the alphabet with the creation of the world, a concept found in Sefer Yetzirah and the

. Mandaean names for

uthra An uthra or ʿutra ( myz, ࡏࡅࡕࡓࡀ; plural: ʿutri) is a "divine messenger of the light" in Mandaeism. Charles G. Häberl and James F. McGrath translate it as "excellency". Jorunn J. Buckley defines them as "Lightworld beings, called 'u ...

s (angels or guardians) have been found in Jewish magical texts. Abatur appears to be inscribed inside a Jewish magic bowl in a corrupted form as "Abiṭur".

Ptahil In Mandaeism, Ptahil ( myz, ࡐࡕࡀࡄࡉࡋ) also known as Ptahil-Uthra (uthra = angel or guardian), is the Fourth Life, the third of three emanations from the First Life, Hayyi Rabbi, after Yushamin and Abatur. Ptahil-Uthra alone does not con ...

is found in

Sefer HaRazim ''Sefer HaRazim'' ( he, ספר הרזים; "Book of Secrets") is a Jewish magical text supposedly given to Noah by the angel Raziel, and passed down throughout Biblical history until it ended up in the possession of Solomon, for whom it was a gr ...

listed among other angels who stand on the ninth step of the second firmament.

Citations

General 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 Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 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 The Paulist Fathers, officially named the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle ( la, Societas Sacerdotum Missionariorum a Sancto Paulo Apostolo), abbreviated CSP, is a Catholic society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men founded ...

, 1986. * Dennis, G.; ''The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism'', St. Paul: Llewellyn Worldwide, 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 Jewish Lights Publishing is a publishing company. Founded in 1990 by Stuart Matlins in Woodstock, Vermont, the company publishes works for children and adults that come from a Judaic perspective, yet provide wisdom to readers of any spiritual bac ...

, 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 Wayne State University Press (or WSU Press) is a university press that is part of Wayne State University. It publishes under its own name and also the imprints Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), ...

, 2005. * Levy, Patrick, ''HaKabbalist'', ''edi. Yael, Tel Aviv'' 201
Author's website.
* Idel, Moshe; ''Kabbalah: New Perspectives.'' New Haven and London:

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

, 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''. * Kaplan, Aryeh; ''Inner Space: Introduction to Kabbalah, Meditation and Prophecy''. Moznaim Publishing Corp 1990. * McGiney, John W.; The Written' as the Vocation of Conceiving Jewishly'' * Samuel, Gabriella; "The Kabbalah Handbook: A Concise Encyclopedia of Terms and Concepts in Jewish Mysticism". Penguin Books 2007. * 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. * Wirszubski, Chaim; ''Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism'',

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

, 1989. * Wolfson, Elliot; ''Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism'', Princeton:

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...

, 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:

, 2006. * Wolfson, Elliot; ''Alef, Mem, Tau: Kabbalistic Musings on Time, Truth, and Death'', Berkeley:

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...

, 2006. * Wolfson, Elliot; ''Luminal Darkness: Imaginal Gleanings From Zoharic Literature'', London: Onworld Publications, 2007. * ''The Wisdom of The Zohar: An Anthology of Texts'', three volume set, Ed. Isaiah Tishby, translated from the Hebrew by David Goldstein, The Littman Library. *

External links

Jewish Encyclopedia: Cabala

Hermetic Kabbalah

King David Kabbalah on Mount Zion, Jerusalem

The Kabbalah Centre

Learn Kabbalah: Lurianic Kabbalah

Devekut.com
A compendium of Neo-Hasidic thought {{Authority control Esoteric schools of thought Jewish culture Jewish mysticism Jewish theology Language and mysticism Panentheism

Traditions

Jewish and non-Jewish Kabbalah

History of Jewish mysticism

Origins

Terms

Mystic elements of the Torah

Talmudic era

Pre-Kabbalistic schools

Early mystical literature

Hasidei Ashkenaz

Medieval emergence of the Kabbalah

Ecstatic Kabbalah

Early modern era

Lurianic Kabbalah

Influence on non-Jewish society

Ban on studying Kabbalah

Sefardi and Mizrahi

''Maharal''

Sabbatian antinomian movements

Modern era

Traditional Kabbalah

Hasidic Judaism

Haskalah opposition to mysticism

20th-century influence

Concepts

Concealed and revealed God

Sephirot

Ten Sephirot as process of Creation

Ten Sephirot as process of ethics

Divine Feminine

Partzufim

Descending spiritual worlds

Origin of evil

Role of Man

Levels of the soul

Reincarnation

Tzimtzum, Shevirah and Tikkun

Linguistic mysticism and the mystical Torah

Cognition, mysticism, or values

Kabbalists as mystics

Paradoxical coincidence of opposites

Metaphysics or axiology

Primary texts

Scholarship

Claims for authority

Criticism

Dualistic cosmology

Distinction between Jews and non-Jews

Medieval views

Orthodox Judaism

Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism

Contemporary study

Universalist Jewish organisations

Hasidic

Neo-Hasidic

Rav Kook

Mandaean parallels

See also

Citations

General references

External links