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Kabbalah |
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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]
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.[8][9]
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').[10] The early Hekhalot writings are acknowledged as ancestral to the sensibilities of Kabbalah[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.[10]
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.
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.
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