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Kabbala
[Hebrew, kabala = "acceptance of tradition"] -
An esoteric and mystic current within Judaism that had its
origins in
medieval Spain. The movement was influenced by Greek
philosophy,
particularly the Pythagoreans, Plato and Plotinus, and also
by the
Gnostics of the early medieval period.
This Jewish form of mysticism was based on the
assumption that the
main religious texts harbor secret meanings, knowledge of
which allows
one to influence the world's fate. The oldest known work
providing the
basis for the concepts underlying the Kabbala was Sefer
Yetsira [Hebrew,
The Book of Creation], dating back to the third and fourth
centuries.
The term "kabbala" was first used in reference to esoteric
speculations
about God and the creation of the world by Yitzhak the
Blind, a
twelfth-century Jewish mystic from Provence. Yitzhak the
Blind who was
probably the author of Sefer ha-bahir [Hebrew, "The Book of
Clarity"].
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Kabbalistic ideas took shape as a coherent
system in medieval Spain during the thirteenth to the
fifteenth
centuries. Nachmanides, Shlomo ibn Gabirol, Azriel of
Gerona, Abraham
Abulafia, and Moshe de Leon, who was probably the author of
Zohar, were
all active there. Kabbalistic works were published and
brotherhoods
established in various cities.
Kabbalistic speculations developed along two lines: the
first strove
to explain the existence of God, the creation of the world
(Sefira),
the purpose of the existence of material and man, the
origins of evil,
the manner in which God manifests Himself in the created
world, and,
finally, salvation through the Messiah. The second was
strictly
esoteric, and taught mystic practices enabling initiates to
unite with
God (or his last emanation, Shechina), and magic.
Contemplating the
letters of the Torah and divine names (names of God),
ecstatic prayer,
and combinations of letters and numbers and their study
(gematria)
played a fundamental role in this type of Kabbalism.
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After the Jews were expelled from Spain in
1492, one of the most important Kabbalistic centers became
the city of
Safed in Palestine, where Yitzhak Luria was active in the
sixteenth
century. He developed the theory of divine emanation in the
process of
creation. His ideas lay at the foundation of two Judaistic
heresies
(Sabbathaism, Frankism) and Chasidism. In the sixteenth
century, the
Kabbala was practiced in Italy, Prague, Poland and among the
German
Jews. It influenced Islamic and Christian mysticism, as well
as the
esoteric currents on the fringes of Christian culture, such
as alchemy,
eighteenth century Masonic mysticism, mystical speculations
of the
Romantics (such as Towianism and Polish Messianism), and
nineteenth
century theosophy.
(A.C./CM)
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