The Evangelical Dictionary of World Religions

KABBALAH. Kabbalah is a form of Jewish mysticism, based on allegorical interpretations of the Bible and dependent on the Talmud, that seeks to bring devotees into union with God. For three hundred years (approximately between 1500 and 1800), kabbalah was considered part of mainstream Jewish theology, but it lost much of its appeal with the emergence of the antisupernatural Enlightenment period. With the rise of postmodernism, kabbalah has made a comeback. It gained worldwide notoriety when pop divas Madonna and Barbra Streisand announced they had become followers of kabbalah.

The word kabbalah comes from a Hebrew root meaning “tradition” or “that which is received.” Properly understood kabbalah is not a book that one can reference but rather a set of mystical traditions that have been developed and passed down orally over the centuries from teacher to pupil. Tracing its origin to early forms of Jewish gnosticism, kabbalah has much in common with other esoteric-based religions such as Theosophy and Rosicrucianism. The earliest form of kabbalistic teaching was Maaseh Merkavah, also known as the “Matter of the Chariot,” based on Ezekiel’s vision of the chariot (Ezek. 1). Adherents are encouraged to keep the law, observe ritual purity, and practice a variety of mystical exercises such as meditative travel, which will enable them to spiritually ascend through the seven heavenly halls to the throne of God, where they can encounter God in an ecstatic vision.

Another form of kabbalah, known as Maaseh Beresheet or the “Matter of Creation,” speculates about the methods God used to create the various heavens and earths that make up the universe. The Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation), written between the third and sixth centuries and often attributed to Rabbi Akiva, deals with this topic and speaks of God creating the universe out of himself through ten emanations called sefiroth or sephirot, which represent his knowable attributes. These attributes are found in the various descriptive names for God: Keter (Crown), Hokhmah (Wisdom), Hesed (Mercy), Nezar (Eternal), Binah (Understanding), Din (Justice), Hod (Glory), Tiferet (Beauty), Yesod (Foundation), and Malkut (King). These are names ancient Jews often substituted for the unutterable name of God, and according to kabbalah, they form a mystical “tree of life” representing the descent of the divine in creation and the tenfold ascent one must traverse to reach God. In purist form, God is called En Sof and is infinite and unknowable. While he cannot be comprehended, he can be experienced through kabbalah.

Medieval Jewish mysticism of the eleventh and twelfth centuries saw the rise of the Hasidei Ashkenaz, or “the pious ones of Germany,” who believed in the unity of several different forces within God, as opposed to the simple unity expressed in the Bible. During this period, many different collections of ethical teachings were formulated.

France and Spain became the geographical centers for the next era of kabbalah development, which spanned the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. The Sefer ha-Bahir, or “Book of Brightness,” is concerned with the hidden and secret meanings of the biblical text and the Hebrew letters. Rabbi Isaac the Blind is one of the key figures of this period. His followers focused on connecting with ten sefiroth through meditation. Kabbalah really began to grow in popularity when two of Isaac’s students spread his teachings throughout Spain.

The Sefer ha-Zohar (Zohar, for short), or “Book of Splendor,” a work largely attributed to thirteenth-century mystic Moses de León, is considered by many kabbalists to be the most important of their writings. It also reveals that the unknowable God can only be understood through the ten manifestations or emanations. But there is a twist. The third of these manifestations, known as Binah, brought forth creation. The next seven sefiroth constitute the seven days of creation. Hence there are two levels of emanations: upper and lower.

Joseph Gikatilla and Abraham Abulafia, who worked closely with Moses de León, spread Zohar kabbalism throughout Spain. They developed prophetic kabbalah by assigning numerical values to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and linking them to twenty-two paths of wisdom. Prophetic kabbalah flourished in Spain until the sixteenth century.

After the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, many found their way to Safed, Israel, a Galilean town, where Isaac Luria formed a new school of kabbalistic thought. While holding to the original beliefs about En Sof (infinite God) and the ten sefiroth, he expanded on the creation myth, the self-development of God, the origin of evil, and the solution for evil. He taught that the first emanation from God was a ray of light that brought forth Adam Kadmon (the first man). Out of Adam’s head, the light shone forth. God sent forth other emanations, which became vessels to contain the light. More emanations poured forth from God as one gigantic stream of light with such explosive force that the vessels were shattered. The light contained a hidden quality called kelipot, or evil. The light and evil mixed to produce demons. The salvation process, called tikkun, involves the restoration of the cosmos through prayer, obedience to the Torah, and arrival of the Messiah.

Between 1665 and 1666, Shabbetai Tzvi, a Turkish Jew, proclaimed himself to be this Messiah. This gave rise to the popular Shabbatean kabbalah movement. Many followers left their homes to travel with him to Israel, where, he claimed, he would reinstitute the Jewish commonwealth. As they traveled through Constantinople, Shabbetai was captured by a Muslim sultan, who gave him the option to either convert to Islam or face death. Shabbetai chose the former. His followers abandoned him, but their Shabbatean hope of a mystical messiah who brings salvation lived on. Many turned to a new form of mysticism called Hasidim.

Hasid comes from the Hebrew word meaning “pious.” The Hasidic movement, based on the teachings of a Polish Jew, Israel ben Eliezer, also known as the Baal Shem Tov, or “Master of the Good Name,” gained a following during the eighteenth century. Israel ben Eliezer did not emphasize Talmudic study or the sort of meditations taught by Isaac Luria but encouraged his followers to see God in everyday life and devote themselves to prayer, joyous singing, dancing, and storytelling. Many rabbis were attracted to his simple teachings and carried on his traditions for generations.

Over the years, Hasidic kabbalism faced many difficulties and adversaries. Many Jews considered the traditions to be little more than superstition and a corruption of Judaism. The rise of modernism, along with the horrors of the Holocaust, dealt massive blows to Jewish mysticism. In the late 1960s, with the Western world facing a spiritual vacuum, Hasidic mysticism made a comeback. Small, informal congregations were formed, called havurot, or “fellowships.” The earliest was Havurot Shalom in Boston, which revived dancing, singing, meditation, and teachings on mysticism and was the first to allow women to participate equally with men. In 1979 Arthur Waskow founded the New Menorah, a quarterly journal featuring mystical articles. Rabbi Zalman founded another havurot in Philadelphia and introduced Buddhist and Sufi spiritual practices into the services.

Gershom Scholem founded the first academic program in Jewish mysticism at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in the 1920s and wrote many books on kabbalah. The Kabbalah Centre opened in 1922 in Jerusalem, with other centers opening around the world, many of which are still in operation. The Beverly Hills Kabbalah Centre, led by controversial New Age guru Philip Berg, attracts the rich and famous.

Occultic Kabbalah. In the mid-1800s, Frenchman Eliphas Levi combined the Jewish kabbalah with tarot and astrology to concoct an alternative occultic religion that he dubbed Qabalah. By the end of the century, other occult societies, such as the Order of the Golden Dawn, were inventing new hybrids of Jewish-based cults.

Christian Kabbalah. In the fifteenth century, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola of Florence, Italy, introduced a Christianized form of kabbalah, linking the first three sefiroth with the three persons of the Trinity: Keter (Father), Hokhmah (Son), and Binah (Holy Spirit). He developed an elaborate gnostic system of theology, which he called Cabala. Christian mysticism was given a big boost at the beginning of the twentieth century with the rise of the various theosophical and anthroposophical schools of thought, followed in midcentury by the birth of the New Age movement.

Regardless of the form it takes, kabbalah is essentially pantheistic in nature. Pantheism is the belief that God and his creation are one. This is contrary to the biblical record that God created all that exists from nothing.