Kabbalah became popular because it opened up an approach to religion that seemed more pleasurable, immediate, and less confining. This need seemed to be met best through the doctrine of the Sephiroth, the groundwork of which had already been laid by the Gnostics, and Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher and contemporary of Christ.Ī second reason for Kabbalah’s emergence was that by around the twelfth century, Talmudic legalism, ritualism, and intellectual slavery had reached its peak (the Talmud is the body of writings that seeks the interpret the Law of God contained in Jewish Scripture). As the Jew assumed an increasingly transcendent view of God, he needed to reconcile this with the traditional Hebrew belief in the immanence and accessibility of God to man. These Platonic philosophies had a very transcendent view of God: He is infinite and far removed from any conceivable contact with man. The overwhelming philosophical influence in areas where Kabbalah began was Greek Neo-Platonism and its “Christian” offshoot, Gnosticism. This left them feeling that God was far away and removed from them and made them more prone to be influenced by the philosophical climate of the people in whose lands they dwelt. Because they had rejected their Messiah, God temporarily rejected the Jewish nation (Luke 13:35), and so, in the centuries that followed, there were no prophets there was no immediate manifestation of God’s presence among the Jewish people. What Is Kabbalah?- A Historical PerspectiveTo give you an historical perspective, Kabbalah grew out of two basic needs in the Jewish consciousness. Thus, the doctrine of the Kabbalah was derived through study of the Old Testament, albeit, only after occultic interpretative methods had been applied to it. Intrinsic to Kabbalah is the belief that Scripture is inspired, not only in its obvious interpretations, but even to the degree that, through the use of occult symbol interpretation, one could find hidden meaning in the very numerical and alphabetical interpretation of the texts.

This is attempted through prayer, ascetic practices, and the employment of various occult means, such as numerology, talismans, amulets, and incarnation of divine names and words. The practical is concerned with bringing what has been theorized into the realm of everyday experience. The theoretical is concerned with theosophical speculation upon God and His attributes, such as what is described above. Kabbalah is classically divided into two systems: theoretical and practical. Taking on a personal form, these Sephiroth, as angels, served as intermediaries between God and man. The Sephiroth would be repeated on four different levels, and these realms, according to descent, were called: “Atziluth” (the world of the supernals, or heavenless), “Briah” (the world of creation), “Yetzirah” (the world of formation), and “Assiah” (the world of material action). Each emanation would be further removed from the En Sof, and thus further from God’s perfection and transcendence. The finite creation came into existence when the En Sof voluntarily limited Himself by allowing Himself to become manifest through attributes or emanation (called Sephiroth), listed as Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence, Greatness, Strength, Beauty, Firmness, Spendor, Foundation, and Sovereignty. God, or “En Sof” (Endless One) is infinite and transcendent, and could make no direct contact with finite beings. The most basic philosophical presupposition behind Kabbalah is that the world is an emanation of the spiritual essence of God. At first it was used by the mainstream of Judaism, but eventually it became identified with those who believed that the Kabbalah was an esoteric, occultic tradition that explained the true meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures, which was kept hidden from the masses and only made known to those who were spiritually ready to receive it. The word “Kabbalah” means “to receive,” and refers to heavenly revelation received by Jews and passed on to succeeding generations through oral tradition. What is Kabbalah- What does “Kabbalah” mean?

Kabbalah is the name of an occult philosophy and theosophy that developed among Jews in Babylonia, and later Italy, Provence, and Spain, between the sixth and thirteenth centuries A.D.

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