Overview
's Shaarei Ora Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline, and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal (). Kabbalah emerged from earlier forms of Jewish mysticism in 12th to 13th-century Occitania, specifically in Languedoc, among the Hachmei Provence ('sages of Occitania'), as evidenced by the Bahir. Following the movement of Jews from Occitania, Catalonia, and other parts of Spain, it was found in the Rhineland school of Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg, during the Golden Age of al-Andalus (Spain). This included the Zohar, It was then reinterpreted during the Jewish mystical renaissance in 16th-century Ottoman Palestine.
Though minor works contribute to an understanding of the Kabbalah as an evolving tradition, the primary texts of the major lineage in medieval Jewish tradition are the Bahir, Zohar, , and (). The early Hekhalot literature is acknowledged as ancestral to the sensibilities of this later flowering of the Kabbalah, and, more especially, the is acknowledged as the antecedent from which all these books draw many of their formal inspirations. The document has striking similarities to a possible antecedent from the Lesser Hekhalot, the Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva, which in turn seems to recall a style of responsa by students of Joshua ben Levi in tractate Shabbat 104a.
The is a brief document of only a few pages that was written sometime between 200-600, many centuries before the high and late medieval works detailing an alphanumeric vision of cosmology and may be understood as a kind of prelude to the major phase of Kabbalah.
History of Jewish mysticism
The history of Jewish mysticism encompasses various forms of esoteric and spiritual practices aimed at understanding the divine and the hidden aspects of existence. This mystical tradition has evolved significantly over millennia, influencing and being influenced by different historical, cultural, and religious contexts. Among the most prominent forms of Jewish mysticism is Kabbalah, which emerged in the 12th century and has since become a central component of Jewish mystical thought. Other notable early forms include prophetic and apocalyptic mysticism, which are evident in biblical and post-biblical texts. The roots of Jewish mysticism can be traced back to the biblical era, with prophetic figures such as Elijah and Ezekiel experiencing divine visions and encounters.
This tradition continued into the apocalyptic period, where texts like 1 Enoch and the Book of Daniel introduced complex angelology and eschatological themes. The Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, dating from the 2nd century to the early medieval period, further developed these mystical themes, focusing on visionary ascents to the heavenly palaces and the divine chariot. The medieval period saw the formalization of Kabbalah, particularly in Southern France/Occitania and Spain. Foundational texts such as the Bahir and the Zohar were composed during this time, laying the groundwork for later developments. The Kabbalistic teachings of this era delved deeply into the nature of the divine, the structure of the universe, and the process of creation.
Notable Kabbalists like Moses de León played crucial roles in disseminating these teachings, which were characterized by their profound symbolic and allegorical interpretations of the Torah. In the early modern period, Lurianic Kabbalah, founded by Isaac Luria in the 16th century, introduced new metaphysical concepts such as (, ) and (), which have had a lasting impact on Jewish thought. The 18th century saw the rise of Hasidism, a movement that integrated Kabbalistic ideas into a popular, revivalist context, emphasizing personal mystical experience and the presence of the divine in everyday life.
Traditions
According to the , a foundational text for Kabbalistic thought, Torah study can proceed along four levels of interpretation. These four levels of exegesis are called the , a Hebrew abbreviation created from their initial letters (namely, P-R-D-S; ): * (): the literal interpretations of meaning. * (): the allegoric meanings (through allusion). * (, from the Hebrew : 'inquire' or 'seek'): midrashic meanings, often with imaginative comparisons with similar words or verses. * (, ): the inner, esoteric (metaphysical) meanings, as expressed in Kabbalah. Its followers consider Kabbalah as a necessary part of the Torah study, which is believed to be an inherent duty for observant Jews.
Modern academic-historical study of Jewish mysticism reserves the term Kabbalah to designate the particular, distinctive doctrines that textually emerged fully expressed in the Middle Ages, as distinct from the earlier Merkabah mysticism 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 Meditative-Ecstatic Kabbalah incorporates a parallel, inter-related medieval tradition. A third tradition, related but often shunned, involves the magical aims of Practical Kabbalah. Moshe Idel, for example, writes that these three 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-Practical tradition of theoretical Kabbalah, the main focus of the and Isaac 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's Aristotelianism, this speculation became the central stream of Kabbalah, and the usual reference of the term Kabbalah. Theosophical Kabbalah also implies the innate, central theurgic influence of human conduct on the redemption or corruption of the spiritual realms, as humankind is a divine microcosm and the spiritual realms the divine macrocosm.
The purpose of traditional Theosophical Kabbalah was to impart mystical, metaphysical meaning to normative Judaism as a whole. * Adherents of the Meditative tradition of Kabbalah, exemplified by Abraham Abulafia and Isaac ben Samuel of Acre, strive to achieve a mystical union with God or nullify the meditator in God's active intellect. Abraham Abulafia's "Prophetic Kabbalah" was the supreme example of this—though marginal in Kabbalah's development—and his alternative to Theosophical Kabbalah. Abulafian meditation built upon the philosophy of Maimonides, whose following remained the rationalist threat to Theosophical Kabbalists. * The Talismanic–Magical tradition of Practical Kabbalah—oftentimes in unpublished manuscripts—endeavours to alter both the divine realms and the world using practical methods like talismanic magic.
While Theosophical interpretations of worship see its redemptive role as harmonizing heavenly forces, Practical Kabbalah properly involved white magical acts and was censored by Kabbalists for those only completely pure of intent, as it relates to lower realms where purity and impurity are mixed. Consequently, it formed a separate minor tradition shunned by Kabbalah. Practical Kabbalah was prohibited by the Arizal (, an abbreviation of ; i.e., Isaac Luria) until the Third Temple is built and the required state of ritual purity is attainable. According to traditional Kabbalah, early Kabbalistic knowledge was transmitted orally by the biblical patriarchs, prophets, and ages, eventually becoming "interwoven" into Jewish religious writings and culture.
According to this view, early Kabbalah was, around the 10th century BCE, an open knowledge practiced by over a million people in ancient Israel; traditional Kabbalah bases its claim on rabbinic discussions recorded in tractate Megillah 14a, Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4:22, and Ruth Rabbah 1:2. Foreign conquests drove the 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 difficult to fully clarify the philosophical and theological underpinnings of many Kabbalistic positions. There are several different schools of thought, and each has a different outlook; however, all are accepted as correct.
Modern halakhic authorities have tried to narrow the scope and diversity within Kabbalah by restricting the breadth of texts studies; notably, the and the teachings of Isaac Luria 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, , Albotonian writings, and the , which is known to the Kabbalistic elect and which, as described more recently by Gershom Scholem, combined ecstatic with theosophical mysticism. It is therefore important to bear in mind, when discussing things such as the 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 onwards Jewish Kabbalah texts entered non-Jewish culture, where they were studied and translated by Christian Hebraists and Hermetic occultists. The syncretic traditions of Christian Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah developed independently of Judaic Kabbalah, reading the Jewish texts as universalist ancient wisdom preserved from Gnosticism of antiquity. Both adapted Jewish concepts freely from their Jewish understanding, merging them with multiple other theologies, religious traditions, and magical associations. With the decline of Christian Kabbalah in the Age of Enlightenment, Hermetic Kabbalah 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 Practical Kabbalah was a minor, permitted tradition restricted to a few elite. Today, many publications on Kabbalah belong to the non-Jewish New Age 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 a wide readership.
Concepts
The definition of Kabbalah varies according to the traditions and aims of those who follow it. According to its earliest and original usage in ancient Hebrew, it means 'reception' or 'tradition', and in this context it tends to refer to any sacred writing composed after (or otherwise outside of) the five books of the Torah. Post-compilation of the Talmud, it refers to the Oral Torah (both in the sense of the 'Talmud' itself and in the sense of continuing dialog and thought devoted to the scripture in every generation). In the much later writings of Eleazar of Worms (), it refers to theurgy or the conjuring of demons and angels by the invocation of their secret names. The word Kabbalah underwent a transformation of its meaning in medieval Judaism via books now referred to as "the Kabbalah": the Bahir, the Zohar, and the Etz Chaim, among others.
In these books, the word Kabbalah is used in manifold new senses, including as the continuity of revelation in every generation as well as the necessity that revelation remain concealed, secret, or esoteric throughout eras as dictated by formal requirements native to sacred truth. When the term Kabbalah is used to refer to a canon of secret mystical books by medieval Jews, the aforementioned books and other works comprise the canon as well as the literary sensibility to which the term refers. After the medieval period, the word was adapted and appropriated by Western esotericism, including Christian Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah, and influenced the tenor and aesthetics of European occultism practiced by gentiles (non-Jews).
Broadly, Jewish Kabbalah is a set of sacred and magical teachings meant to explain the relationship between the unchanging, eternal God—the mysterious () —and the mortal, finite universe (i.e., God's creation).
Concealed and revealed God
The nature of the divine prompted Kabbalists to envision two aspects of God: * God in essence: an absolutely transcendent, unknowable, limitless divine simplicity beyond revelation. * God in manifestation: the revealed persona of God through which he creates, sustains, and relates to humankind. Kabbalists speak of the first as the (). Of the impersonal , nothing can be grasped. However, the second aspect of divine manifestation—accessible to human perception and dynamically interacting throughout spiritual and physical existence—reveals the divine immanently and is bound up in human life. Kabbalists believe that these two aspects are not contradictory but complement one another, being emanations mystically revealing the concealed mystery from within the Godhead.
As a term for describing the infinite Godhead, Kabbalists viewed the 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 . 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 with the first word of the Ten Commandments, a reference without any description of the simple Divine essence (, ). In contrast, the term describes the Godhead as an infinite life-force, the first cause, continuously sustaining all Creation.
The Zohar reads the first words of the Genesis creation narrative as "With (the level of) Beginning (the ) created Elohim (God's manifestation in creation)": The structure of emanations has been described in various ways: * () and () * (; ) * Names of God and the supernal Torah * The Four Worlds () * A Tree of Life and ( * mystical palaces and the divine chariot * Male and female * Enclothed layers of reality * Inward holy vitality and external () * 613 channels () and the divine souls of humankind These symbols are used to describe various levels and aspects of divine manifestation, from the () dimensions to the (). It is solely in relation to God emanations—not the itself—that Kabbalah uses anthropomorphic symbolism to relate psychologically to divinity.
Kabbalists debated the validity of anthropomorphic symbolism between its disclosure as a mystical allusion and its instrumental use as an allegorical metaphor; in the language of the Zohar, symbolism "touches yet does not touch" its point.
Sephirot
The (also spelled ; ) are the ten emanations and attributes of God with which he sustains the existence of the universe. These emanations are regarded as aspects of God's divine nature, which reveal themselves in various ways. The Zohar and other Kabbalistic texts elaborate on the emergence of the from a state of concealed potential in the until their manifestation in the mundane world. In particular, Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, also known as the Ramak (), described the mechanism by which God emanated the details of finite reality through the ten in his work .
Ten sephirot as process of creation
According to Lurianic cosmology, the represent different levels of creation—ten in each of the Four Worlds, with four worlds within each of the larger four worlds. Each contains ten , which themselves contain ten , leading to an infinite number of possibilities. They emanate from the Creator to facilitate the creation of the universe. The are considered revelations of the Creator's (). They should not be understood as ten different "gods" but as ten different ways the one God reveals his will through emanations. It is not God who changes, but the ability to perceive God that changes.
Ten sephirot as process of ethics
Divine creation through the ten is an ethical process. They signify aspects of morality: lovingkindness is possibly founded upon the moral justification of , and is the moral basis of justice, with both mediated by mercy (). However, these pillars of morality become immoral when taken to extremes. When lovingkindness becomes extreme, it can lead to sexual depravity and a lack of justice against the wicked. When justice becomes extreme, it can result in torture, the murder of innocents, and unfair punishment. (; ) ascend the ladder of by doing acts of righteousness. If there were no , the blessings of God would become completely hidden, and Creation would cease to exist. While real human actions are the 'foundation' () of this universe (), they must be accompanied by the conscious intention of compassion.
Compassionate actions are often impossible without faith (), meaning trusting that God always supports them, even when God seems hidden. Ultimately, it is necessary to show compassion to oneself as well as to share compassion with others. This 'selfish' enjoyment of God's blessings—but only 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 of 'adornment' (), which is part of the so-called Middle Column of . The Ramak wrote Tomer Devorah (Date Palm of Deborah), in which he presents an ethical teaching of Judaism in the Kabbalistic context of the ten . The Tomer Devorah became a foundational part of the Musar literature.
Partzufim
The most esoteric (, ) of the Zohar make reference to hypostatic male and female (, ; ) displacing the . The of God are anthropomorphic personalities based on pardesic and midrashic narratives. Lurianic Kabbalah places these at the centre of existence, whereas earlier Kabbalah placed at its centre. In light of contemporary cognitive perspectives, symbols can be understood as representing Jungian archetypes of the collective unconscious, reflecting a psychologised progression back to the infinite (or the unconscious, to Jung).
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 described by contemporary Jewish philosophy, but as only referring to the , the unknowable and impersonal Godhead. Kabbalists reinterpreted the theistic philosophical concept of . Kabbalah replaced God's creative act with panentheistic continual self‑emanation from a metaphysical (; complemented by ), ), which they argued sustains all spiritual and material realms and wears them as successively more corporeal garments, veils, and condensations of divine immanence. Together, the heavens form the divine persona ().
The emanations of the divide into Four Worlds as they come into being: * (, ) * () * () * () * A fifth world, (), is often excluded due to its sublimity. 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 panentheism. According to this philosophy, God's existence is higher than anything this world can express, yet he includes all things in this world within his divine reality in perfect unity, so that 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
from the 15th century. Theosophical Kabbalists, especially Luria, censored contemporary Practical Kabbalah, but allowed amulets by Sages Kabbalah has a unique theology of theodicy and the broader philosophical problem of evil. In the views of some Kabbalists, this conceives "evil" as a "quality of God", asserting that negativity is integral to 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 Kabbalah situated 'evil' as the material output of the (), with its parallel being all that is 'holy'. The evil forces at work in the material realm are called in Kabbalah. conceal the 'holy' and derive subsistence from it; however, they also protect it by limiting its revelation to the material world.
Scholem termed this element of the Spanish Kabbalah a "Jewish gnostic" motif—in the sense that 'evil' and 'holy' are dual powers. He also argued that Spanish Kabbalists placed the root of evil within the ten , arising from an imbalance in . is necessary for the universe's existence as it counterposes , restricting divine lovingkindness to vessels (i.e., the universe) and forming the Four Worlds. However, if humans sin, actualising impure judgement within their soul, the supernal is reciprocally empowered over , introducing disharmony among the in the divine realm and exile from God. The demonic realm, though illusory in its origin, becomes the apparent realm of impurity in material Creation. In the Zohar, the sin of Adam and Eve, who embodied , actually took place in the spiritual realms, not the material realm of Genesis 3.
Their sin was that they separated the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (ten within , representing divine immanence), from the Tree of Life within it (ten within , representing divine transcendence). This introduced the false perception of duality into lower creation, external nurtured from holiness, and an of impurity. In Lurianic Kabbalah, evil originates from a primordial shattering of the of God's persona before creation of the Four Worlds, which is mystically represented by the eight kings of Edom and the derivative of ; the kings 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 of God, psychologising evil.
The mystical task of the in the Zohar is to reveal the concealed Monad and absolute good, and to "convert bitterness into sweetness, darkness into light".
Role of Humankind
's role as both legalist and mystic underscores Kabbalah's spiritualisation of normative Jewish observance Kabbalah gives humankind the central role in Creation, as humans' souls and bodies correspond to the supernal divine manifestations. In Christian Kabbalah, this schema was universalised to describe , or the harmony of Creation within humankind. To normative Judaism, it presented a novel and profound spiritualisation of religious practice. While the Kabbalistic framework represented a fundamentally innovative yet conceptually continuous development vis-à-vis mainstream midrashic and Talmudic hermeneutics, the emerging Kabbalah accentuated and revitalized the conservative traditions of Judaism during the Middle Ages.
Despite its broad esotericism, Kabbalah assigned a central role to the observance of traditional (; ) in spiritual creation, regardless of whether the practitioner possessed specialized knowledge. The combination of normative Jewish worship and observance with elite mystical (; ) endowed them with theurgic power; however, sincere observance by ordinary adherents, particularly through the Hasidic popularisation of Kabbalah, could compensate for a lack of esoteric expertise. Many prominent Kabbalists, including legal authorities such as Nachmanides and Rabbi Joseph Karo (author of the ), also played leading roles in Jewish legal scholarship. Medieval Kabbalah offered textual and theological explanations for each biblical and their role in harmonizing the supernal divine flow, uniting masculine and feminine forces.
With this, the feminine aspect of the Divine is drawn from exile hack into the . The 613 commandments are embodied in the organs and soul of humans. Lurianic Kabbalah incorporates this into the broader schema of Jewish messianic rectification of exiled divinity. Jewish mysticism, in contrast to divine transcendental and rationalist explanations for Jewish observance, gave immanent, providential, cosmic significance to the mundane activities of humankind's daily life, as well as the spiritual role of Jewish observance in particular.
Levels of the soul
's meditations included the "inner illumination of" the human form Kabbalah posits that the human soul has three elements: (, ), (, ), and (). The 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 individual's actions and beliefs. 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: * : 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. * : the middle soul, the "spirit". It contains the moral virtues and the ability to distinguish between good and evil. * : the higher soul, or "super-soul".
This separates humankind from all other life-forms. It is related to the intellect and allows humans to enjoy and benefit from the afterlife. It allows one to have some awareness of God's existence and presence. * (; ): The part of the soul that allows one to have an awareness of the divine life force itself. * (; ): The highest plane of the soul, in which one can achieve as full a union with God as is possible.
Reincarnation
Reincarnation, the transmigration of the soul into a new body after death, was incorporated into mystical Jewish thought as a core principle of Kabbalah beginning in the medieval period. It is known in this tradition as (). is not explicitly mentioned in the Hebrew Bible or in the classical Rabbinic literature, which provided reason for its dismissal by some medieval Jewish philosophers. Nonetheless, Kabbalists interpreted various scriptural passages as allusions to (, ) to support its theological significance. The idea gained prominence through the teachings of Isaac Luria, who systematized it as the individual's personal process of spiritual rectification aligned with the cosmic order.
With the influence of Lurianic Kabbalah and Hasidic Judaism, reincarnation gradually became a widespread motif in popular Jewish culture and literature, reflecting its spiritual importance and mystical significance.
Tzimtzum, Shevirah and Tikkun
, Galilee. The messianic focus of its mystical renaissance culminated in Lurianic thought. () designates the primordial, cosmic act in which God "contracted" his infinite light, thereby producing a void into which the light of existence could subsequently be poured. This contraction enabled the emergence of an independent ontological realm that would not be nullified by the pristine infinitude of God, reconciling the unity of the with the plurality of creation. The initial creative act was thus reframed as one of withdrawal or exile, in tension with the will of God. A subsequent emanation following the illuminated the vacuum to initiate the creation of the world, but this process generated an instability termed (, ). The instability culminated in the crisis of (), the breaking of the sephirotic vessels.
The fragments of these vessels descended into lower realms, animated by residual divine light, thereby producing a primordial exile within the Tree of Life prior to the creation of humankind. The exile and enclothement of higher divinity within lower realms necessitated human participation in the process of (). Rectification in the upper worlds corresponded to the reorganization of the into relational structures. From this catastrophe emerged both the possibility of self-aware creation and the imperative of cosmic repair. According to the interpretations of Isaac Luria, the catastrophe originated in the unwillingness of the residual imprint left by the to integrate with the new vitality that initiated creation. The process was arranged to harmonize the Divine with the latent potential of evil.
The creation of Adam was intended to redeem existence, but his transgression precipitated a renewed of divine vitality, thereby requiring the giving of the Torah to inaugurate messianic rectification. Historical and individual narratives thus became the ongoing account of reclaiming exiled divine sparks.
Linguistic mysticism and the mystical Torah
Kabbalistic thought extended biblical and midrashic notions that God enacted Creation through the Hebrew language and through the Torah into a full linguistic mysticism. In Jewish mysticism, every detail of the Hebrew Bible—its letters, words, numbers, and even the accents used in Torah reading—carries hidden spiritual meaning. These meanings are not just symbolic; they are seen as ways of connecting everyday religious ideas to deeper spiritual dimensions. Mystics developed special methods of Jewish mystical exegesis to uncover these layers. The names of hold particular importance, but in fact the entire Torah is understood as one vast Divine name. Hebrew itself is viewed as a sacred language: the names of things are thought to channel their spiritual life-force.
Holy living and adherence to are not only moral or ritual obligations but are seen as ways s presence is revealed in the world—both in transcendent mystery and in tangible experience. Mystics describe the Torah as having infinite layers of meaning, reflecting the infinite nature of (). This is symbolized by the two trees in the Garden of Eden: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which represents the external, practical Torah of laws and commandments, and the Tree of Life, which represents the inner, limitless Torah of spiritual wisdom. The outer Torah is like a garment that contains the inner Torah's endless depth. In later mystical thought, especially in Lurianic Kabbalah, each of the 600,000 root souls of Israel is said to have its own unique interpretation of the Torah.
This reflects the idea that ", the Torah, and Israel are all One"—a unity whereby the Divine wisdom, sacred text, and the people themselves are inseparably connected. As early as the 1st century BCE, Jews believed that the Torah and other canonical texts contained encoded messages and hidden meanings. Gematria 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 interpretations of Kabbalah, Sanford Drob makes cognitive sense of this linguistic mythos by relating it to postmodern philosophical concepts described by Jacques Derrida and others, in which all reality embodies narrative texts with an infinite plurality of meanings brought by the reader.
In this dialogue, Kabbalah survives the nihilism of deconstruction by incorporating its own Lurianic and by the dialectical paradox in which man and God imply each other.
Cognition, mysticism, or values
composed of Hebrew letters as a mystical symbol from the Jewish Kabbalistic work Parashat Eliezer, from the 18th century or earlier
Kabbalists as mystics
The founder of the academic study of Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem, 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 mystical 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 sephirot 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 and midrash, 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, ascents during sleep, heavenly messengers, etc.
A tradition of parapsychology abilities, psychic knowledge, and theurgic intercessions in heaven for the community is recounted in the hagiographic 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 drawing of new mystical revelations in Torah. The mythological symbols Kabbalah uses to answer philosophical questions, themselves invite mystical 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 psychology, Sanford Drob shows philosophically how every symbol of the Kabbalah embodies the simultaneous dialectical paradox of the mystical unity of opposites. Thus the Ein Sof is above the duality of Ayin and Yesh 'Being and Non-Being'; the sephirot bridge the philosophical problem of the One and the Many; Man is both Divine (Qadmon) and human; Tzimtzum is both illusion and real from divine and human perspectives; evil and good imply each other (the qlippoth draw from divinity, good arises only from overcoming evil); Existence is simultaneously partial (Tzimtzum) in the World of Chaos and the World of Rectification; God self-experiences as the Other through humanity, humanity embodies and completes the Partsufim.
In Kabbalah's reciprocal Panentheism, Theism, and Atheism/Humanism represent two incomplete poles of a mutual dialectic that imply and include each other's partial validity. The Chabad Hasidic thinker Aaron HaLevi ben Moses of Staroselye expressed 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 theology, psychology and unconscious depth psychology, mysticism and meditation, Jewish exegesis, theurgy, and ethics, as well as overlapping with theory from magical elements. Its symbols can be read as questions which are their own existentialist answers (the Hebrew sephirah Chokmah-Wisdom, the beginning of Existence, is read etymologically by Kabbalists as the question "Koach Mah?" the "Power of What?").
Alternative listings of the Sephirot start with either Keter (Unconscious Will/Volition), or Chokmah (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 metaphysical intellectual cognition or Axiology values. Messianic redemption requires both ethical Tikkun olam and contemplative Kavanah. 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 antinomian mystical breaking of Jewish observance alluded to throughout Kabbalistic and Hasidic mysticisms.
Primary texts
, main sourcebook of Kabbalah, from Mantua, Italy in 1558 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 ) 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 (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 purely rational terms in the emancipatory Haskalah spirit of their age. They opposed Kabbalah and restricted its significance in Jewish historiography. In the mid-20th century, it was left to Gershom Scholem to overturn their stance, establishing the flourishing present-day academic investigation of Jewish mysticism, and making Hekhalot, 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 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 other seminal works, remains the major historical standard survey covering all main historical periods of Jewish mysticism.
Although the study has sometimes been subject to criticism for its various particularities, and proposals of a hermeneutical revision of the text have been introduced, the encompassing sweep and depth of historical analysis in Scholem's Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism remains without equal despite voluminous clarifying scholarship on the subject produced in the meantime, expanding and deepening the terrain. Scholars across the eras of Jewish mysticism in America and Britain have included Rabbi Alexander Altmann, Rabbi Arthur Green, Lawrence Fine, Elliot Wolfson, Daniel C. Matt, Rabbi Louis Jacobs and Ada Rapoport-Albert.
Moshe Idel has studied Ecstatic Kabbalah alongside the Theosophical tradition, and has called for new multi-disciplinary approaches, beyond the predominant philological and historical approaches, to include phenomenology, psychology, anthropology and comparative studies.
Claims for authority
Scholem provides a map of how authority is determined within the tradition in the document Revelation & Tradition as Religious Categories, first sent as the postscript to a letter from Jerusalem to Berlin in the early hours of 1933. The letter is addressed to Walter Benjamin. This postscript was published with minimal alterations as a chapter in Scholem’s anthology of miscellaneous, longer articles, some forty years later. The document resists summary encapsulation but, taken according to its own terms (and especially considering the context of its composition), it can scarcely be argued with even by rigorous atheists outside the tradition.
This explanation is intended for the modern reader, ensconced in a secular world (in point of fact, it is literally intended for the reader Walter Benjamin). and an account in yet another work explains that the Kabbalists themselves expressively describe the nomination of authority as proceeding from conversations with the Prophet Elijah. Scholem writes: “Since the beginnings of Rabbinical Judaism the Prophet Elijah has been a figure profoundly identified with the central preoccupations of Jewry: it is he who carries the divine message from generation to generation, he who at the end of time will reconcile all the conflicting opinions, traditions, and doctrines manifested in Judaism. Men of true piety meet him in the market place no less than in visions.
Since he was conceived as the vigilant custodian of the Jewish religious ideal, the Messianic guardian and guarantor of the tradition, it was impossible to suppose that he would ever reveal or communicate anything that was in fundamental contradiction with the tradition. Thus by its very nature the interpretation of mystical experience as a revelation of the Prophet Elijah tended far more to confirm than to question the traditional authority of the Torah and its acknowledged library of commentaries .” As a result, the foundational works in the main phase of Kabbalah as a literature, from Bahir to the Zohar, pseudepigraphically 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. Most (in fact, to our knowledge, all) of the earliest extant versions of the Sefer Yetzirah do not internally claim authorship by Abraham, but this attribution grows up as a tradition or rumor following the text. 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).
This tendency relates to a phase so early that it can scarcely be called Kabbalah, according to the trend in historiography, but relates to the twin traditions referred to as the way of the chariot and the account of creation. The book of Enoch (in which conversations between angels and an antediluvian patriarch are recorded), for example, may be almost as old as our extant version of the Book of Daniel if ascriptions of the Aramaic Fragment of Enoch are found to be reliable. As well as ascribing ancient origins to texts, and reception of Oral Torah 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 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.
Distinction between Jews and non-Jews
One point of view is represented by the Tanya (1797), venerated by Chabad Ḥasidic Jews, which argues that Jews have a different character of soul: while a non-Jew, according to its, author Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745–1812), can achieve a high level of spirituality, similar to an angel, his soul is still fundamentally different in character from a Jewish one. A similar view is found in Kuzari, an early medieval philosophical book by Judah Halevi (1075–1141). Another rabbi, Abraham Yehudah Khein (1878–1957), 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".
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 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 . Pinchas Elijah Hurwitz, a Lithuanian-Galician Kabbalist of the 18th century and a moderate proponent of the , 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 an approach was particularly common among the Renaissance and post-Renaissance Italian Jews.
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, and a wide range of ancient pagan mystical systems. He believed that Kabbalah could reconcile the differences among the world's religions, which represent different facets and stages of universal human spirituality. In his writings, Benamozegh interprets the Christian New Testament, Muslim Hadith, Hindu Vedas, and Zoroastrian Avesta and pagan mysteries according to the Kabbalistic theosophy. Elliot R.
Wolfson provides numerous examples from the 17th to the 20th centuries that challenge the notion that "modern Judaism" has rejected or dismissed this "outdated aspect" of the religion; he argues that Kabbalists still 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
on the Knesset Menorah, Maimonides holding Aristotle's work , which shared some similarities of theory with Jewish Neoplatonists Jewish critics also argue the idea that there are ten divine could evolve 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 between the and God, adopting a range of essentialist and instrumental views. Modern Kabbalah, based on the 16th century systemisations of rabbis Moses ben Jacob Cordovero and Isaac Luria, takes an intermediate position: the instrumental vessels of the are created, but their inner light is from the undifferentiated () essence.
Maimonides (12th century), celebrated by followers for his Jewish rationalism, rejected many of the pre-Kabbalistic Hekhalot texts, particularly , 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 systemization and publication of the historical oral doctrine by Kabbalists as a move to rebut the threat to normative Judaism posed by laymen's misreading of Maimonides's ideal of philosophical contemplation over ritual performance in his philosophical Guide for the Perplexed.
They objected to Maimonides equating the Talmudic secrets of the Torah with Aristotelian physics and metaphysics in that work and in his halakhic corpus 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), a classic opponent of Maimonidean rationalism, provides background to many Kabbalistic ideas. An entire book entitled 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 on the Torah.
Abraham Maimonides, in the spirit of his father Moses, Saadiah Gaon, and other predecessors, explains at length in his 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, emphasizing an absolute monotheist oneness of divine transcendence. Kabbalah's panentheism, expressed by Rabbi Moses ben Jacob Cordovero 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's view, yet real from its own perspective.
Around the 1230s, Rabbi Meir ben Simon of Narbonne wrote an epistle (included in his ) against his contemporaries (i.e., the early Kabbalists), characterizing them as blasphemers who approach heresy. He particularly singled out the , rejecting the attribution of its authorship to the Rabbi Nehunya ben HaKanah and describing some of its content as truly heretical. from Italy, 1803. Jewish Museum of Switzerland, Basel Leon of Modena, a 17th-century Venetian critic of Kabbalah, wrote that if Jews were to accept Kabbalah's truth claims, 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 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 . In contrast to Christianity, Kabbalists declare that one prays only "to Him (God's Essence), not to his attributes." Kabbalists directed their prayers to God's essence through the channels of particular using (; ) and divine names. To pray to a manifestation of God introduces false division among the sephirot, disrupting their absolute unity, dependence, and dissolving into the transcendent ; the descend throughout Creation, only appearing from man's perception of God, where God manifests by any variety of numbers.
Rabbi Yaakov Emden (1697–1776), himself an Orthodox Kabbalist who venerated the Zohar, sought to battle Sabbatean misuse of Kabbalah, wrote the (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. Vilna Gaon (1720–1797) held the Zohar and Isaac Luria in deep reverence, critically emending classic Judaic texts of historically accumulated errors through his acute acumen and scholarly belief in the perfect unity of Kabbalistic revelation and Rabbinic Judaism. Although 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 Talmud, he had no use for canonical medieval Jewish philosophy, declaring that Maimonides 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 wisdom as compatible, to those who polemicized 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". Moses Cordovero 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 and use of Aristotelian terms of Form over Matter.
Orthodox Judaism
, a popular Jewish custom from the Safed Kabbalists Pinchas Giller and Adin Steinsaltz write that Kabbalah is best described as the inner part of traditional Jewish religion, the official metaphysics 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 has always maintained a minority tradition of religious rationalist criticism of Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem 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 and in the Sabbatean 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, there is a dispute over the status of the Zohar and the Kabbalistic teachings of Isaac Luria (the Arizal). While a portion of Modern Orthodox, followers of the Dor De'ah movement, and many students of the Rambam 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 accurately represent the esoteric teachings to which the Talmud refers. The mainstream Haredi (Hasidic, Lithuanian, Oriental) and Religious Zionist 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 toward rationalism, the embrace of academic scholarship, and the individual's autonomy to define Judaism, embodies a diversity of views on Kabbalah, ranging from Neo-Hasidic spirituality to Maimonist anti-Kabbalism. German Neo-Orthodoxy, the movement pioneered by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, also proposed more nuanced views on Kabbalah, arguably stressing its ethical, rather than external-theurgic dimension. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch did utilise the Zohar in his monumental legal work, Horeb. In a book written 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 adaptations 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 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, rabbinical schools, and synagogues that featured a rationalist approach to Judaism based on the Talmud and works of Saadia Gaon and Maimonides (Rambam). In recent years, 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.
Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903–1994), an ultra-rationalist Modern Orthodox philosopher, referred to Kabbalah as "a collection of "pagan superstitions" and "idol worship" in remarks given in 1990.
Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism
song to welcome the Shabbat, a cross-denominational Jewish custom from Kabbalah Kabbalah tended to be rejected by most Jews in the Conservative and Reform movements, though its influences were not 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 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 (Dean of the Conservative Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies): However, in the late 20th to early 21st centuries, there has been a revival of interest in Kabbalah across 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 forebears. 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 Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies of the American Jewish University 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 have renewed interest in Kabbalah among Reform Jews. At the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, 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.
Antinomian Kabbalah
Antinomian strands of Kabbalah reject or invert normal religious principles as a way of attempting purification. In these frameworks, transgression or sin itself is viewed as a spiritual necessity, capable of unleashing hidden divine sparks trapped in impure realms. The most prominent antinomian movements within Judaism were the Sabbateans and the Frankists. Followers of Sabbatai Zevi believed that the coming of the messiah rendered Jewish commandments obsolete, with some sects engaging in ritualistic violations of the Law. Many of his adherents continued to view his actions as part of a hidden divine plan. In the 18th century, Jacob Frank pushed this theology further, advocating explicitly for "redemption through sin," such as ritualized orgies and incest. Eventually, the Frankists were encouraged to mass convert into Catholicism.
These movements were widely condemned as heretical but demonstrate the extent to which mystical ideas could support radical or subversive, reinterpretations of Jewish life.
Contemporary study
The teaching of classical, esoteric Kabbalistic texts and practices 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 Jewish method, used since the 16th century in study circles, requires being born Jewish or converting, then joining a group of Kabbalists under a rabbi—often Hasidic since the 18th century, though others exist among Sephardi-Mizrachi and Lithuanian scholars. Besides elite Kabbalah, Hasidic texts explain Kabbalistic ideas for broad spiritual use, focusing on the psychological perception of panentheism.
A second, new universalist form is the method of modern-style Jewish organisations and writers, who seek to disseminate Kabbalah to individuals regardless of race or class, especially since the rise of Western interest in mysticism in 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 is non-Jewish organisations, mystery schools, initiation bodies, fraternities and secret societies, the most popular of which are Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, although hundreds of similar societies claim a Kabbalistic lineage.
These derive from religious syncretism between Jewish Kabbalah and Christian, occultist, or contemporary New Age 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. While the first academic historians of Judaism in the 19th century opposed and marginalized Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem and his successors repositioned the historiography of Jewish mysticism as a central, vital component of Judaic renewal throughout history.
Cross-disciplinary academic revisions of Scholem's and others' theories are regularly published for a wide readership.
Universalist Jewish organisations
In recent decades, Kabbalah has seen a resurgence of interest, with several modern groups and individuals exploring its profound teachings. These contemporary interpretations of Kabbalah offer a fresh perspective on this ancient mystical tradition, often bridging the gap between traditional wisdom and modern thought. Some of these interpretations emphasize universalist and philosophical approaches, seeking to enrich secular disciplines through the lens of Kabbalistic insights. Others have gained attention for their unique blends of spirituality and popular culture, attracting followers from diverse backgrounds. These modern expressions of Kabbalah showcase its enduring appeal and relevance in today's world. () is a group of Kabbalah students based in Israel. Michael Laitman established in 1991, following the passing of Rav Baruch Ashlag, the son of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag.
Laitman named his group to commemorate his mentor. The teaching strongly suggests restricting one's studies to 'authentic sources': Kabbalists in the direct lineage from master to disciple. The Kabbalah Centre was founded in the United States in 1965 as the National Research Institute of Kabbalah by Philip Berg and Rav Yehuda Tzvi Brandwein, a disciple of Yehuda Ashlag. Later, Philip Berg and his wife re-established the organisation as the Kabbalah Centre. The organization's leaders "vehemently reject" Orthodox Jewish identity. The Kabbalah Society, run by Warren Kenton, is an organization that claims adherence to pre-Lurianic medieval Kabbalah, though presented in a universalist style. In contrast, traditional Kabbalists read earlier Kabbalah through later Lurianism and the systemisations of 16th-century Safed. The New Kabbalah by Sanford L.
Drob is a scholarly investigation of Lurianic symbolism from 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 physicist and entrepreneur Eduard Shifrin.
The main tenet of the book is, "In the beginning He created information", rephrasing the famous saying of Nachmanides, "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 within Hasidic Judaism, turning Kabbalah into a social revival through texts that internalize mystical thought. Among different schools, such as Chabad-Lubavitch and Breslov, along with related organizations, provide 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 divine meaning within Kabbalah through rational analogies, aiming to unite the spiritual and material, esoteric and exoteric in their Divine source:
Neo-Hasidic
Since the early 20th century, neo-Hasidism expressed a modernist or non-Haredi Jewish interest in Jewish mysticism, becoming influential among Modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish denominations from the 1960s, and organised through the Jewish Renewal and movements. The writings and teachings of Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Arthur Green, Lawrence Kushner, Herbert Weiner, and others have sought to advance a critically selective, non-fundamentalist, neo-Kabbalistic and Hasidic study of Jewish mysticism among contemporary Jews. The proliferation of scholarship of Jewish mysticism by academia has contributed to critical adaptations of Jewish mysticism. Green's translations of the religious writings of Hillel Zeitlin present the latter as a precursor to contemporary neo-Hasidism.
Reform rabbi Herbert Weiner's Nine and a Half Mystics (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 Adin Steinsaltz (The Thirteen Petalled Rose) and Aryeh Kaplan as major presenters of Kabbalistic spirituality for contemporary Jews.
Rav Kook
The writings of Rav Abraham Isaac Kook (1864–1935), the first chief rabbi of Mandate Palestine, incorporate Kabbalistic themes through his own poetic language and concern with human and divine unity. His influence is in the Religious Zionist community, which aims to infuse its philosophy into Israeli secular society:
Cathar and Mandaean parallels
In several important areas of his history of the Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem investigates and considers the evidence of an interactivity of influence between the medieval Kabbalists of Provence and the Cathars, which was also prevalent in the region at the same time that the earliest works of medieval Kabbalah were written. In Jewish Influence on Christian Reform Movements, Louis Israel Newman concluded, "Point by point, parallels can be found between Catharist views and the Kabbalah, and it may well be that at times there was an exchange of opinions between Jewish and Gentile mystics." Earlier in the same book, Newman observed: …that the powerful Jewish culture in Languedoc, which had acquired sufficient strength to assume an aggressive, propagandist policy, created a milieu wherefrom movements of religious independence arose readily and spontaneously.
Contact and association between Christian princes and their Jewish officials and friends stimulated the state of mind which facilitated the banishment of orthodoxy, the clearing away of the debris of Catholic theology. Unwilling to receive Jewish thought, the princes and laity turned towards Catharism, then being preached in their domains. apparently a variant of Ptahil in Mandaeism, is found in the Sefer HaRazim, listed among other angels who stand on the ninth step of the second firmament.
See also
* List of Jewish Kabbalists * * * * * * *
Works cited
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Further reading
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External links
* Jewish Encyclopedia: Cabala * Judaism 101: Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism * King David Kabbalah on Mount Zion, Jerusalem * Learn Kabbalah: Lurianic Kabbalah * Chabad.org's "What is Kabbalah?"