Discussion UsefulNotes / Kabbalah

This entire page needs a rewrite First off, the page should make the distinction. The Kabbalah is a family of texts on certain schools of Jewish esoteric mysticism and general rabbinical matters that were published by some scholars around the middle ages. Before this, most of these teachings were oral tradition or came from the talmud, midrash, or other texts. The best anyone could get close to without years of training at this time were interpretations and comments on the Torah and other seminal works. Jewish mysticism has been around for much longer than the Kabbalistic writings. This is evident in what evidence we do have of the second temple period. Gnosticism also, had been around for longer than Kabbalistic writings. The ideas however are debatable, it cannot be determined which came first or who inspired who. More on that later when we get into Luria.

So Jewish mysticism has been around for a while, and works have been constantly argued over by many groups and individuals as word of god or horsecrap. It starts with a few major influences. Firstly, everything that comes after exodus in the torah. Second, the rest of the tanakh along with the Halakha. Third, oral tradition/commentaries. Texts and commentaries on the torah start, then come along text and commentaries on the texts and commentaries. Someone needs to write this all down. Most but not all of these would be collectively known as the midrashic texts, collections of exegesis to stand beside the tanakh. Along comes various deuterocannonical works and apocrypha, oral mythologies, and whisper down the lane syndrome. Second temple period starts, things start getting wacky. To try and keep a cap on this, the some writings in the midrash organize torah study into separate groups collectively known by the acronym Pa R De S. For whatever reason that somewhat worked for a while. Things were getting messy but they held through. the Zohar was written along with a few other works, these would become the foundational texts for most of what we now call mysticism. Then came the middle ages and we start to see a boom in written tradition, prayer books like the Siddur, and written works that push the boarder on esoteric Jewish tradition. Whether this was a response to the holy war, the current state of Judaism, or just a response to writing materials becoming easier to come by, I don't know. Some sepha This is where the Kabbalah starts being written down by a bunch of Spanish and German Rabbis. If it hasn't occurred to you yet, this means that these traditions have probably gone through a few languages starting with Aramaic and ending with Ashkenazim and Sephardi classical hebrew and an older dialects of Spanish. The Kabbalah is a collection of transcriptions of oral tradition, supposedly ancient in nature. It seems to most like some incomprehensible jewish rambling because it was meant for the eyes of those who spent a lifetime studying the previous works. It is said that these writings come from the oral tradition, but its difficult to prove. The Sefer Yetzirah is supposedly from the 2nd century. These schools go around talking with each other and comparing weird ideas and dialogues and fragmenting until a rabbi named Maimonides unites Judaism again somewhat by drawing a distinction between Jewish philosophy and religion. Then the printing press comes along, and there's no stopping regular old rich people from getting these texts now. not even a hundred years later, It doesn't help that a guy by the name of Isaac Luria helps emphasize a certain frame of interpretation of the zohar that emphisizes particular mystic themes and figures. It is this kind of Lurianic Kabbalah that is stressed most often in the modern day, and the one most often compared to gnosticism and strange mystery cults. Lurianic Kabbalah is what helped influence William Blake, Aleister Crowley, Cabala, latter Islamic mysticism and the like. This is the sect that emphisizes that there is a god (adonai elohim), but there is also greater than that god, another god (elohim). That "another god, elohim" created from his body the universe and the god(adonai elohim) that this wiki would call the godhead. It is mainly after Luria that you start to see the main divides in Judaism. other than Ashkenazim and Sephardi, Hasidim and Reform Judaism begin a little later on because of polarization of attitudes and beliefs, while the rest of the schools are lumped under conservative or masorti Judaism. Also thanks to the sudden boom in jewish texts, literacy, and translations, you start to see the way paved years later for the religion that calls itself the Kabbalah. This religion holds these writings by rabbis as if they were the word of god, most often more than the actual Torah. The Internet comes along with mass printing and sudden new age intrest and suddenly everyone thinks they understand kabbalah. For most it seems like the actual work doesn't take nearly a quarter of a lifetime to comprehend, when generally it does. Now with death of the author and multiple translations and interpretations, it is now difficult to tell wrong from right. it really makes more sense if you read genesis chapter 1 and 2 and understand that god creates the universe, then adam (he-them/she, [maybe mankind], splits he-them/she)(http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm). Then god goes to rest on the seventh day, then suddenly has a different name, creates the world and adam and eve (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0102.htm). Then the rest of the genesis narrative starts. Depending on the interpretation, it is less that the godhead is a demiurge, demon, or malicious ignorant creature, more like either an orphan, priest, or teacher. Some interpret that "godhead" as more or less a child or of some ignorance, but I honestly often interpret that as a relatively new interpretation. The point is that the "godhead" is not the ayin soph that we are created from, and is somewhat of a medium between us and the ayin soph. I'm not going to say it isn't confusing and complicated. The sephirot on this page however is incorrect though, very few of them are that simply put in modern English. So you see there is a difference between Jewish mysticism, The Kabbalah (texts), Kabbalah (the religion), Cabala (the christian mystic spin off), Lurianic Kabbalah (the religious tradition), and gnostic religions.