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It introduced the diminishing Four Worlds, God as the transcendent Ain Soph, Israel as embodying the Shekinah, or "presence", as children of the True God, and most famously the ten Sephiroth as schema of the universe between Israel and Jehovah. It did this by interpreting the concrete ethics of the scripture.
Jewish Kabbalists portrayed in 1641; woodcut on paper. Saxon University Library, Dresden. Kabbalistic prayer book from Italy, 1803. Jewish Museum of Switzerland, Basel. Kabbalah or Qabalah (/ k ə ˈ b ɑː l ə, ˈ k æ b ə l ə / kə-BAH-lə, KAB-ə-lə; Hebrew: קַבָּלָה , romanized: Qabbālā, lit.
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).
The Zohar (Hebrew: זֹהַר , Zōhar, lit."Splendor" or "Radiance" [a]) is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. [1] It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology.
The creative power of letters is particularly evident in Sefer Yetzirah (Hebrew: book of creation), a mystical text that tells a story of the creation which is based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, a story which diverges greatly from that in the Book of Genesis. The creative power of letters is also explored in the Talmud and Zohar. [9] [10]
The Rabbinic ban on studying Kabbalah in Jewish society was lifted by the efforts of the 16th-century kabbalist Avraham Azulai (1570–1643). I have found it written that all that has been decreed Above forbidding open involvement in the Wisdom of Truth [Kabbalah] was [only meant for] the limited time period until the year 5,250 (1490 C.E.).
Jewish mysticism, from early Hekhalot texts, through medieval spirituality, to the folk religion storytelling of East European shtetls, absorbed motifs of Jewish mythology and folklore through Aggadic creative imagination, reception of earlier Jewish apocrypha traditions, and absorption of outside cultural influences.
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 ...