Kabbalah

Kabbalah or Qabalah (/kəˈbɑːlə, ˈkæbələ/ kə-BAH-lə, KAB-ə-lə; Hebrew: קַבָּלָה‎, romanized: Qabbālā, lit. 'reception, tradition')^[1]^[a] is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism.^[2] A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal (מְקוּבָּל‎, Məqūbbāl, 'receiver').^[2] The definition of Kabbalah varies according to the tradition and aims of those following it,^[3] from its origin in medieval Judaism to its later adaptations in Western esotericism (Christian Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah). Jewish Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between the unchanging, eternal God—the mysterious Ein Sof (אֵין סוֹף‎, 'The Infinite')^[4]^[5]—and the mortal, finite universe (God's creation).^[2]^[4] It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism.^[2]^[6]

Jewish Kabbalists originally developed their own transmission of sacred texts within the realm of Jewish tradition^[2]^[6] 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 and traditional rabbinic literature and their formerly concealed transmitted dimension, as well as to explain the significance of Jewish religious observances.^[7]

Traditional practitioners believe its earliest origins pre-date world religions, forming the primordial blueprint for Creation's philosophies, religions, sciences, arts, and political systems.^[8] Historically, Kabbalah emerged from earlier forms of Jewish mysticism, in 12th- to 13th-century Spain and Southern France,^[2]^[6] and was reinterpreted during the Jewish mystical renaissance in 16th-century Ottoman Palestine.^[2] 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 from the 18th century onwards.^[2] During the 20th century, academic interest in Kabbalistic texts led primarily by the Jewish historian Gershom Scholem has inspired the development of historical research on Kabbalah in the field of Judaic studies.^[9]^[10]

Though innumerable glosses, marginalia, commentaries, precedent works, satellite texts and other minor works contribute to an understanding of the Kabbalah as an evolving tradition, the major texts in the main line of Jewish mysticism that inarguably fall under the heading 'Kabbalah' are the Bahir, Zohar, Pardes Rimonim, and Etz Chayim ('Ein Sof').^[11] The early Hekhalot writings are acknowledged as ancestral to the sensibilities of Kabbalah^[12]^[11] and the Sefer Yetzirah—a brief document of only few pages written centuries before the high and late medieval works, detailing an alphanumeric vision of cosmology—may be understood as a kind of prelude to the canon of Kabbalah.^[11]

^ "קַבָּלָה". /www.morfix.co.il. Melingo Ltd. Archived from the original on 26 March 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Ginzberg, Louis; Kohler, Kaufmann (1906). "Cabala". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 November 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
^ Dan, Joseph (2007). "The Term and Its Meanings". Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–11. ISBN 978-0-19-530034-5.
^ ^a ^b "Ein-Sof". Jewish Virtual Library. American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE). 2018. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2018-10-23. EIN-SOF (Heb. אֵין סוֹף; "The Infinite," lit. that which is boundless), name given in Kabbalah to God transcendent, in His pure essence: God in Himself, apart from His relationship to the created world. Since every name which was given to God referred to one of the characteristics or attributes by which He revealed Himself to His creatures, or which they ascribed to Him, there is no name or epithet for God from the point of view of His own being. Consequently, when the kabbalists wanted to be precise in their language they abstained from using names like Elohim, the Tetragrammaton, "the Holy One, blessed be He," and others. These names are all found either in the Written or the Oral Law. The Torah, however, refers only to God's manifestations and not to God's own being which is above and beyond His relationship to the created world. Therefore, neither in the Bible, nor in rabbinic tradition was there a term which could fulfill the need of the kabbalists in their speculations on the nature of God. "Know that Ein-Sof is not alluded to either in the Pentateuch, the Prophets, or the Hagiographa, nor in the writings of the rabbis. But the mystics had a vague tradition about it" (Sefer Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut). The term Ein-Sof is found in kabbalistic literature after 1200.
^ "אינסוף". Morfix, מורפיקס. Melingo Ltd. Archived from the original on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c Dennis, Geoffrey W. (18 June 2014). "What is Kabbalah?". ReformJudaism.org. Union for Reform Judaism. Archived from the original on 25 April 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2018. Historians of Judaism identify many schools of Jewish esotericism across time, each with its own unique interests and beliefs. Technically, the term "Kabbalah" applies only to writings that emerged in medieval Spain and southern France beginning in the 13th century. [...] Although until today Kabbalah has been the practice of select Jewish "circles," most of what we know about it comes from the many literary works that have been recognized as "mystical" or "esoteric." From these mystical works, scholars have identified many distinctive mystical schools, including the Hechalot mystics, the German Pietists, the Zoharic Kabbalah, the ecstatic school of Abraham Abulafia, the teachings of Isaac Luria, and Chasidism. These schools can be categorized further based on individual masters and their disciples.
^ "Imbued with Holiness" Archived 2010-10-12 at the Wayback Machine – The relationship of the esoteric to the exoteric in the fourfold Pardes interpretation of Torah and existence. From www.kabbalaonline.org
^ "The Freedom | Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) | Kabbalah Library – Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute". Kabbalah.info. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
^ Huss, Boaz; Pasi, Marco; Stuckrad, Kocku von, eds. (2010). "Introduction". Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 1–12. ISBN 978-90-04-18284-4.
^ Magid, Shaul (Summer 2014). "Gershom Scholem". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Center for the Study of Language and Information. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c Scholem, Gershom (1995). Major trends in Jewish mysticism: foreword by Robert Alter. New York: Schocken Books. ISBN 978-0-8052-1042-2.
^ Scholem, Gershom (2015). Jewish gnosticism, Merkabah mysticism, and Talmudic tradition: based on the Israel Goldstein Lectures, delivered at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York. New York, N.Y: The Jewish Theological Seminary Press. ISBN 978-0-87334-178-3.

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[1] "קַבָּלָה". /www.morfix.co.il. Melingo Ltd. Archived from the original on 26 March 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2014.

[JE-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Ginzberg, Louis; Kohler, Kaufmann (1906). "Cabala". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 November 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2018.

[4] Dan, Joseph (2007). "The Term and Its Meanings". Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–11. ISBN 978-0-19-530034-5.

[JVL-5] "Ein-Sof". Jewish Virtual Library. American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE). 2018. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2018-10-23. EIN-SOF (Heb. אֵין סוֹף; "The Infinite," lit. that which is boundless), name given in Kabbalah to God transcendent, in His pure essence: God in Himself, apart from His relationship to the created world. Since every name which was given to God referred to one of the characteristics or attributes by which He revealed Himself to His creatures, or which they ascribed to Him, there is no name or epithet for God from the point of view of His own being. Consequently, when the kabbalists wanted to be precise in their language they abstained from using names like Elohim, the Tetragrammaton, "the Holy One, blessed be He," and others. These names are all found either in the Written or the Oral Law. The Torah, however, refers only to God's manifestations and not to God's own being which is above and beyond His relationship to the created world. Therefore, neither in the Bible, nor in rabbinic tradition was there a term which could fulfill the need of the kabbalists in their speculations on the nature of God. "Know that Ein-Sof is not alluded to either in the Pentateuch, the Prophets, or the Hagiographa, nor in the writings of the rabbis. But the mystics had a vague tradition about it" (Sefer Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut). The term Ein-Sof is found in kabbalistic literature after 1200.

[6] "אינסוף". Morfix, מורפיקס. Melingo Ltd. Archived from the original on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2014.

[ReformJudaism-7] Dennis, Geoffrey W. (18 June 2014). "What is Kabbalah?". ReformJudaism.org. Union for Reform Judaism. Archived from the original on 25 April 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2018. Historians of Judaism identify many schools of Jewish esotericism across time, each with its own unique interests and beliefs. Technically, the term "Kabbalah" applies only to writings that emerged in medieval Spain and southern France beginning in the 13th century. [...] Although until today Kabbalah has been the practice of select Jewish "circles," most of what we know about it comes from the many literary works that have been recognized as "mystical" or "esoteric." From these mystical works, scholars have identified many distinctive mystical schools, including the Hechalot mystics, the German Pietists, the Zoharic Kabbalah, the ecstatic school of Abraham Abulafia, the teachings of Isaac Luria, and Chasidism. These schools can be categorized further based on individual masters and their disciples.

[8] "Imbued with Holiness" Archived 2010-10-12 at the Wayback Machine – The relationship of the esoteric to the exoteric in the fourfold Pardes interpretation of Torah and existence. From www.kabbalaonline.org

[9] "The Freedom | Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) | Kabbalah Library – Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute". Kabbalah.info. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2018.

[10] Huss, Boaz; Pasi, Marco; Stuckrad, Kocku von, eds. (2010). "Introduction". Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 1–12. ISBN 978-90-04-18284-4.

[stanford.edu-11] Magid, Shaul (Summer 2014). "Gershom Scholem". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Center for the Study of Language and Information. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2018.

[:0-12] Scholem, Gershom (1995). Major trends in Jewish mysticism: foreword by Robert Alter. New York: Schocken Books. ISBN 978-0-8052-1042-2.

[13] Scholem, Gershom (2015). Jewish gnosticism, Merkabah mysticism, and Talmudic tradition: based on the Israel Goldstein Lectures, delivered at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York. New York, N.Y: The Jewish Theological Seminary Press. ISBN 978-0-87334-178-3.

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