Kabbalah

The Kabbalah (also Kabbalah ) is a mystical tradition of Judaism. It builds upon a centuries-old oral tradition, whose roots in the Tanakh, the Holy Scriptures of Judaism, see.

The basic Kabbalistic traditions is the human search for the experience of a direct relationship to God. There are several cabalistic writings and schools, but not dogmatic or doctrinal content testable, so no general Kabbalistic teaching.

Furthermore, there is a rich written tradition partly contradictory kabbalistic currents ( for example, the ecstatic and the theosophical direction in the older Kabbalah ). As the most important written work of Kabbalah applies the Zohar, a pseudepigraphisches work from the direction of the theosophical Kabbalah older.

The written tradition and production of Kabbalah also contains Gnostic, Neo-Platonic and Christian elements. Since Pico della Mirandola (15th century), the Kabbalah is also used in non-Jewish circles continue (see Christian Kabbalah, Hermetic Kabbalah ).

The term Kabbalah

The term Kabbalah (Hebrew קבלה ) goes back to the Hebrew word root QBL, meaning tradition ',' acquisition 'and' forwarding '. Originally, the word Kabbalah was generally designate any tradition, but especially the revelation of the Torah to Moses at Sinai. Thus, the Sayings of the Fathers begin from the Mishnah: " Moses received ( QBL ) the Torah at Sinai and handed them ..."

From the Middle Ages this name " for a certain speculative direction and an affiliated piety form of Judaism " related. In the main part of the Zohar, the word Kabbalah is not used, but appear in later parts as Ra'aya Meheimna and the Sefer ha - Tiqunim.

From the beginning of the 14th century, the term Kabbalah over others then in use terms that meant similar sat through.

Teachings, practices and issues

• Correspondences from Above and Below: After Kabbalistic view God has everything that he has created in the universe, also created in humans. This results in a worldview of mutual correlation between top and bottom. Here, the Kabbalistic idea of micro-and macrocosm is clear. The whole " lower" world has been thus modeled after the " upper " and made ​​every person in itself is a universe in miniature. The physical form of man is this a universal significance, as God himself is thought anthropomorphic in the tradition of Jewish mysticism with the final analysis. The perfection of the divine macrocosm is personified in this case in man, which, though imperfect, but nevertheless represents a microcosm of an image of the heavenly Adam qadmon primitive man. God as the infinite and eternal needs the he created intermediary nature of man to let it shine through the ' ten spiritual forces ' ( Sephiroth ) his divine omnipotence.

• The World Tree: The ten Sephiroth are the divine Urpotenzen which extend through all levels of being in the form of the Kabbalistic world tree. This world tree with the people in it represents the associated embodied organism of the universe dar. This elementary intertwining of man into a divine universal system illustrates by Kabbalistic view also the mutual interference potential of the divine and the human level. - The person is under the holistic impact of universal forces, but can affect these in turn. An example is the Kabbalistic magic of words in which the pronunciation of words is to draw a direct influence on the order signified by itself.

• Overcoming the usual everyday I: How often in mysticism it is about the conscious and self-directed transition in an ecstasy, that is to find a way to go beyond the usual everyday self, to transcend its limitations. There are various techniques to deliver a secret teachings that are studied and experienced. This initiatory experience mediated initially in an initially purely oral, later written tradition. In Kabbalah, the relationship between teachers and students is seen as essential today. Kabbalistic experience should be able to cancel the boundary between subject and object. A Kabbalist breaks through a wall thus "harder than a diamond " and experiences the universal unity.

• Levels of wisdom: According to Jewish tradition, only four ways came alive into paradise and of these returned alone Rabbi Akiva returned unharmed. Most succeed only a few kicks on the sky ladder or opening a few doors. However, to keep, so the Kabbalistic doctrine, all seekers and learners their special skills acquired and are they after extra-biblical tradition even can inherit ( deuterokanonisches Ecclesiasticus 4:16). So shall the blessing - arise Bəracha ברכה.

• Theoretical Kabbalah and Practical Kabbalah: To prevent misuse of the forces that can be gained in the study of the Kabbalah, students are tested before admission. To separate " worthy " from " unworthy ", you have the Kabbalah in a theoretical ( קבלה עיונית Qabala ʕīyūnit ) and a practical ( קבלה מעשית Qabala maʕăśīt ) divided, with the former representing the teaching system, and includes the latter magic and mantic practices, such as Amulet beings, casting of lots, etc.

The Kabbalists

The carriers of the Kabbalistic traditions are Baʕaleh Haqabalā ( בעלה הקבלה ) or Məqūballīm called ( מקובלים ). In Məqūballīm the importance swings " of God received " with.

Older Kabbalists contributed nonspecific and flowery names like connoisseurs of Grace Beauty ( יודעי חן yōdəʕēy HEN ) or simply knower ( יודעים yōdəʕīm ), a designation which goes back to Nachmanides, reason Gifted ( משכלים miśkālīm ) and a way of the heart ( חכמי הלב ḥāchmēy Halev ). The object of their efforts was ( חכמה ניסתרה ḥåchmā nistara ) the hidden wisdom.

History of the Kabbalah

Vorkabbalistische time

Towards the end of the Talmudic period was in the tradition of existing text "Complex cosmological and linguistic speculative nature " Sefer Yetzirah the vorkabbalistische, which designs the doctrine of the Sephiroth ( spheres, digits). This doctrine does not yet meet all the later Kabbalistic understanding, but is interpreted appropriately Kabbalists. The origin and early history of the Sefer Yetzirah effect has not yet been explored safely. The text was " not independent, but as good as it related to comments received ."

Development in the 12th century

The origins of Kabbalah lie in southern France, where secret teachings supposedly oldest tradition were recorded; the authors called themselves meqûbballîm, recipient ',' Accepted '. They led their contents back to the wisdom of Adam. These were disclosed by Chosen; in fact, they were based on a " (most popular) Neoplatonic [n ] view of the world and of man", the position on a Neoplatonic worldview probably often done unconsciously. In support of the assertion that recourse to the most ancient traditions, " was as good as anything taken from the rich biblical and rabbinic tradition and processed their senses. And with such success that many older ideas for lay people ' appear, kabbalistic, which can obstruct the view of the actual Kabbalistic concern ". The first Kabbalists used the " editing and annotation of older texts as a vehicle for their teachings "; the first book containing a formed after this recovery method Kabbalistic text, Sefer ha - Bahir is the, which was completed around 1180 and edited " for a long time the main basis of the then gradually verschriftlichten kabbalistic secret doctrine " was.

The climate in the formation region was " strongly influenced by [ within Christianity ] oppositional and dualistic oriented tendencies, how they get especially in the Cathar and Albigensian movements to the effect that triggered infighting and even the official church prompted to direct counter- actions ". A direct relationship between these trends and the early Kabbalah could not be established, but probably was a common basic orientation and an occasional exchange of ideas. However, while these movements were in conflict with the official interpretation of Christianity, Kabbalah was not a protest movement against the interpretation of Judaism, " on the contrary, the Kabbalah proved for the Jewish religion despite speculative innovations of previously hardly known extent as the most effective force for the preservation and deepening of traditional Torah - piety ".

Spread in the 14th century

The classical Kabbalah spread " towards the end of 1300 from northern Spain mainly by the works of Joseph ben Abraham Josef Gikatilla and by the ( partially anonymous and pseudepigraphic ) writings of Moses ben Samuel de Leon".

In the high Middle Ages, the centers of Kabbalistic movements of German Hasidism in the Rhineland were ( mid-12th to mid-13th century ) and especially the so-called "prophetic Kabbalah " in Spain, the most important representatives of Abraham Abulafia and Joseph were Gikatilla.

The Zohar

From the tradition of Spanish Jewry in the late 13th century, the most important Kabbalistic writing was ever: the Zohar ( Sefer ha Zohar, Hebrew, The Book of Splendor "). As the author of its main part is considered the Spanish Kabbalist Moses de Leon ( † 1305). The main part of the Zohar was written in the Aramaic language of art and of Moshe de Leon from about 1275 spread " as a supposedly old work of the rabbis Shim ` on bar Jochaj " from the early 2nd century. Among Kabbalists of the Zohar applies " to this day as, Midrash of Simon bar Jochaj ' [ ... ] and a holy book." The Zohar contains various, sometimes very extensive treatises interpretations of the Torah, stories about mystical figures of Judaism, especially to Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai and his students, as well as speculation about numbers and letters as the foundations of the world.

The Zohar enjoyed " already within a short time a high reputation " and was even in modern times "like a treated sacred book '." According to extensive is the commentary tradition to this work. During the Zohar " something like canonical ' recognition came from " the other Kabbalistic writings were " thereby pushed into the background " and went partly lost.

15th Century: Lessons in Israel today

After the persecution and expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 Safed in Galilee was the center of kabbalistic doctrine. It was here especially Isaac Luria (1534-1572), who developed a significant contribution to the Kabbalistic conception of the creation of the world. These include ideas of Adam qadmon and a " shrinking back " of God to create the emerging global space ( tzimtzum ), which, breaking of the vessels ' in the creation and release of the divine spark of light ( Schvirat ha - Kelim ), speculation about the Infinite (En Sof ) and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls ( Gilgul ). The goal of all efforts of man is then, from a divine existence restore the original state of the world heal again in a process of perfection ( Tiqūn ).

Emergence of a Christian Kabbalah

In the 15th century, Christians appropriated Kabbalistic teachings. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola considered as the first representatives of the Christian Kabbalah, apart from converts. Followers of the Christian Kabbalah were more interested in looking for Greek philosophy and Christian content in the Kabbalah as at this himself, and "[ t] he ignorance of some authors even horrendous ". Representative designated as an occult philosophy flow as Agrippa and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, tried to develop philosophies, assimilate the hermetic, Hebrew and classical knowledge, and then to combine this with the Christian theology. Despite its esoteric character of the occult philosophy underlying hermetic and kabbalistic ideas in Europe were taken Renaissance initially positive. The historian Frances A. Yates studied the occult philosophy even as the driving force behind the renaissance itself in the late 16th century, however, grew up as part of the Counter-Reformation and the reaction against the Renaissance Neoplatonism and their associated occult streams. The Christian Kabbalah, which initially promoted the legitimacy of occult thought, has now been devalued and therefore associated with witchcraft.

17th to 19th century: Hasidism, loss of meaning

Developed in Safed Kabbalah of Isaac Luria ( Lurianic Kabbalah ) gained considerable influence. Many elements of this doctrine were also effective in the Eastern European Hasidism in the 17th and 18th centuries. Under careful inclusion of messianic elements and a certain simplification of the originally highly differentiated teaching building Kabbalah was able to develop great importance in the popular Hasidic centers of Eastern Jewry.

The Jewish Kabbalah lost until the 19th century influence and learned disdain by the Jewish scholars of that time. The opponents of Kabbalah assumed this, syncretistic, full of Christian influences, and thus not to be Jewish.

Emergence of the Hermetic Kabbalah

In the 18-19. Century arose the Hermetic Kabbalah, a flow with roots in Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, the hermetic, and the Christian Kabbalah, which was very significant here. However, the Hermetic Kabbalah away from Christianity, sometimes up to an anti-Christian orientation. Hermetic Kabbalah takes over the original Jewish Kabbalah to a more universal approach.

In the 19th and 20th century, several works by the French occultist Eliphas Levi, the Kabbalistic teachings and the works of other authors published falsified, while Arthur Edward Waite tried to correct display of the Kabbalah, but of Hebrew and Aramaic was not powerful and therefore error took over from Jean de Pauly's falsified Zohar translation in his work The Secret Doctrine in Israel.

20th century rediscovery, " Hollywood Kabbalah "

As a re-discoverer of the Kabbalah in the 20th century is Gershom Scholem.

In the 1960s or 1970s, Philip Berg founded the first Kabbalah Centre and began teaching that traditionally only male Jews was accessible via 40 to offer women and non-Jews. Berg's new-age version of the Kabbalah, which is popular among celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Madonna and Britney Spears, is also known as " Hollywood Kabbalah " and regarded by critics as the antithesis of true Kabbalah.

The original Jewish Kabbalistic tradition is also in the present still maintained and further developed, especially in Hasidic communities in the U.S. and in Israel. As one of the major Kabbalist of the 20th century is considered Yehuda Ashlag.