Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The understanding of the word Kabbalah undergoes a transformation of its meaning in medieval Judaism, in the books which are now primarily referred to as 'the Kabbalah': the Bahir, the Zohar, Etz Hayim etc. [29] In these books the word Kabbalah is used in manifold new senses.
Christian Kabbalists sought to transform Kabbalah into "a dogmatic weapon to turn back against the Jews to compel their conversion – starting with Ramon Llull", whom Harvey J. Hames called "the first Christian to acknowledge and appreciate kabbalah as a tool of conversion", though Llull was not a Kabbalist himself nor versed in Kabbalah. [4]
The primary texts of Kabbalah were allegedly once part of an ongoing oral tradition.The written texts are obscure and difficult for readers who are unfamiliar with Jewish spirituality which assumes extensive knowledge of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Midrash (Jewish hermeneutic tradition) and halakha (Jewish religious law).
Kabbalah's beginnings date to the Middle Ages, originating in the Bahir [4] and the Zohar. [5] Although the earliest extant Hebrew kabbalistic manuscripts dating to the late 13th century contain diagrams, including one labelled "Tree of Wisdom," the now-iconic tree of life emerged during the fourteenth century. [6]
This article lists figures in Kabbalah according to historical chronology and schools of thought. In popular reference, Kabbalah has been used to refer to the whole history of Jewish mysticism, but more accurately, and as used in academic Jewish studies, Kabbalah refers to the doctrines, practices and esoteric exegetical method in Torah, that emerged in 12th-13th century Southern France and ...
In Hasidic explanation, through completing this esoteric Kabbalah-Wisdom process, thereby the more sublime ultimate Divine purpose-Will is achieved, revealing this World to be the Atzmus "dwelling place" of God. In Kabbalah, the Torah is the Divine blueprint of Creation: "God looked into the Torah and created the World". [12]
To Kabbalah, as Creation is enacted through Divine "speech" as in Genesis 1, so gematria (numerical value of Hebrew letters) has spiritual meaning. In the supernal World of Atziluth -Emanation, the origin of our spiritual Order of Worlds, the sparks of holiness are said to subdivide into 288 general-root sparks, read out from the rest of ...
In Lurianic Kabbalah, the origin of disharmony in the Sephirot is located earlier, in the primordial Realm of Tohu before the creation of Man, though later sin brings further exile. The task of man, while also affecting Male-Female union on High, involves Messianic redemption of the exiled "Sparks of Holiness" (Birur) from Tohu that are ...