Kabbala

Kabbalah (also spelled Kabbala, Kabala, Cabala, Cabbala, or Cabbalah) is a mystical religious philosophy based in the teachings of Judaism. Derived from the Hebrew word "to receive," Kabbalah is an esoteric system of interpreting the universe in an effort to understand the true nature of God and mankind’s relationship with God. Kabbalah teachings state that God is eternal, infinite, and beyond human comprehension but is revealed to man through ten aspects represented in the symbolic Tree of Life. Those who study Kabbalah meditate on these ten aspects in hopes of reaching an understanding about the essence of God.

Kabbalah is not a religion but a secret knowledge found in the Torah, or sacred Jewish scriptures. Knowledge of these teachings was considered dangerous and attainable only by a select few who spent considerable time studying them. Jewish tradition holds that Kabbalist teachings pre-date the creation and were presented to Moses by God along with the Ten Commandments. Scholars trace the modern origins of Kabbalah to Moses de León, a thirteenth-century Jewish rabbi who is believed to have written an influential book on Kabbalist philosophy called the Zohar, although some proponents claim de León’s work was based on much older writings. While it is a Jewish concept, Kabbalah has been incorporated into some Christian and New Age philosophies.

History

According to Jewish tradition, the Torah and Kabbalist knowledge were created before the world and were presented to the angels by God. Eventually God gave this knowledge to Adam, and later to Abraham, but it was lost by later generations. A third revelation of Kabbalah was to Moses after he received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. The commandments represent the written law of God, or the outer teachings, while Kabbalah is the oral tradition of Judaism, or the inner teachings. Kabbalist elements can be found in the Bible, particularly in Ezekiel where God manifests as a being of fire wrapped in cloud. Because knowledge of Kabbalist teachings was considered dangerous to the average person, it was kept a secret, accessible only to Jewish men over the age of forty who had devoted themselves to religious study of the Torah.

The most influential Kabbalist work is the Zohar, or Book of Splendor, a collection of allegorical commentaries on the Torah designed to help the enlightened achieve a realization of God. Traditionalists say the Zohar was written by Shimon Bar Yochai, a second-century rabbi and hermit who received the knowledge through visions of Moses and Ezekiel. Modern scholars, however, believe the book was written by Spanish Rabbi Moses de León sometime in the thirteenth century. The concepts of Kabbalah evolved from the Zohar and were refined and interpreted over the centuries by other Jewish scholars, most notably sixteenth-century rabbi Isaac Luria, who is considered the father of modern Kabbalism, and twentieth-century rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, who sought to make Kabbalah accessible to the average person and discouraged the age limit on the study of Kabbalah.

During the Renaissance period of the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries, Christian groups began to study Kabbalah and merged many aspects of the tradition into Christian philosophy. This form of Kabbalah is called Hermetic Kabbalah. Hermetic Kabbalah contains many traditional elements of Jewish Kabbalah but includes the resurrection of Jesus and the concept of the Holy Trinity among its tenets. Followers of Hermetic Kabbalah believe it is possible to experience God but do not attempt to grasp the true nature of God or define human belief. In the twentieth century, some movements have adopted elements of Hermetic Kabbalah, merging them with Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and pagan ideals to form a variety of New Age belief systems. Believers in traditional Jewish Kabbalah condemn these forms.

Beliefs

Kabbalah often is referred to as the "soul" of Judaism. At its core is the belief that God is an eternal being, both masculine and feminine, described as En Sof, "That Which Is Without Limit." While man is incapable of understanding En Sof, God has set out a path for humans to follow that allows man to experience the divine. This path consists of ten attributes of God called the Sefirot. When linked together, these ten Sefirot are called the Tree of Life, representing the levels of creation:

• Keter: The Crown, or top of the tree. This aspect represents conscious will.
• Hokhmah: Wisdom, or the highest goal of thought.
• Binah: Understanding of one’s potential for thought.
• Hesed: Mercy or kindness.
• Gevurah: Justice or strength.
• Tiferet: Beauty. This aspect represents balance between Hesed and Gevurah.
• Netsah: Eternity or victory.
• Hod: Glory or splendor.
• Yesod: Foundation.
• Malkhut: God’s kingship and dominion over Earth.

Much of modern Jewish Kabbalist thought comes from the teachings of Rabbi Luria, known as Lurianic Kabbalah. According to Lurianic Kabbalah, God created the world by contracting his being to allow room for his creation. This process damaged the earthly and spiritual realms and allowed evil to enter the world. By following the righteous path laid out in the Sefirot and other Jewish law, mankind creates divine light that helps heal this damage. Conversely, every evil deed done by man further damages these realms. Lurianic Kabbalah also holds that each person has a soul, a spark of the divine consisting of three parts: an animal force, a moral force, and a spiritual force. Like the essence of God, these souls possess both male and female qualities that split apart at birth. When a man and woman marry, these aspects of the soul are reunited. Souls also can be reborn many times over, entering new bodies upon birth in a cycle of reincarnation. The new life a soul inhabits depends on the task it needs to perform in the physical world.

Bibliography

"5 Things You Should Know about the Zohar." Kabbalah. Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute. 2015. Web. 16 Aug. 2015. http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/mystzohar.htm#.VdNNyrJVikr

Brawer, Naftali. "The Origins of Kabbalah." The Jewish Chronicle. The Jewish Chronicle Online. 2010. Web. 16 Aug. 2015. http://www.thejc.com/judaism/judaism-book-extracts/9932/the-origins-kabbalah

Bronner, Leila Leah. "What Is Kabbalah? Will the Real Kabbalah Stand Up?" Bible and Jewish Studies.net. Bible and Jewish Studies. 2015. Web. 16 Aug. 2015. http://www.bibleandjewishstudies.net/articles/kabbalah.htm

"Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism." Judaism 101. Tracey R. Rich. 2011. Web. 17 Aug. 2015. http://www.jewfaq.org/kabbalah.htm

"Kabbalah: The Ten Sefirot of the Kabbalah." Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. 2015. Web. 18 Aug. 2015. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Sefirot.html

Telushkin, Joseph. "Kabbalah: An Overview." Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. 2015. Web. 16 Aug. 2015. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/kabbalah.html