Part 1: General
Part 2: Specifics
Q1.1 : What is Kabbalah
Q1.2 : What does the word "Kabbalah" mean, and how should I spell
it?
Q1.3 : What is the "Tradition"?
Q1.4 : How old is Kabbalah?
Q1.5 : Do I need to be Jewish to study Kabbalah?
Q1.6 : Is there an obstacle to a woman studying Kabbalah?
Q1.7 : I've heard that one shouldn't study Kabbalah unless one is
over forty years old? Is this true?
Q1.8 : Do I need to learn Hebrew to study Kabbalah?
Q1.9 : Is non-Judaic Kabbalah really Kabbalah?
Q1.10 : How can I find someone who teaches Kabbalah?
Part 1: GENERAL
Q1.1 : What is Kabbalah?
Kabbalah is an aspect of Jewish mysticism. It consists of a large
body of speculation on the nature of divinity, the creation, the
origin and fate of the soul, and the role of human beings. It
consists also of meditative, devotional, mystical and magical
practices which were taught only to a select few and for this reason
Kabbalah is regarded as an esoteric offshoot of Judaism.
Some aspects of Kabbalah have been studied and used by non-Jews for
several hundred years.
Q1.2 : What does the word "Kabbalah" mean, and how should I spell
it?
The word "Kabbalah" is derived from the root "to receive, to
accept",
and in many cases is used synonymously with "tradition".
No-one with the slightest interest in Kabbalah can fail to notice that
there are many alternative spellings of the word, the two most common
being Kabbalah and Qabalah. Cabala, Qaballah, Qabala, Kaballah (and
so on) are also seen. The reason for this is that some letters in the
Hebrew alphabet have more than one representation in the English
alphabet, and the same Hebrew letter can be written either as K or Q
(or sometimes even C). Some authors choose one spelling, and some
choose the other. Some (the author for example) will even mix Q and K
in the same document, spelling Kabbalah and Qlippoth (as opposed to
Qabalah and Klippoth!). A random selection of modern Hebrew phrase
books and dictionaries use the K variant to represent the letter Kuf,
so anyone who claims that the "correct" spelling is "Qabalah" is
on
uncertain ground.
There has been a tendency for non-Jewish books on Kabbalah published
this century to use the spelling "Qabalah". Jewish publications are
relatively uniform in preferring the spelling "Kabbalah".
The author takes the view (based on experience) that the spelling "Kabbalah" is recognised by a wider selection of people than the "Qabalah" variant, and for this purely pragmatic reason it is used
throughout the FAQ.
Q1.3 : What is the "Tradition"?
According to Jewish tradition, the Torah (Torah - "Law" - the first
five books of the Old Testament) was created prior to the world and
she advised God on such weighty matters as the creation of human kind.
When Moses received the written law from God, tradition has it that he
also received the oral law, which was not written down, but passed
from generation to generation. At times the oral law has been referred
to as "Kabbalah" - the oral tradition.
The Torah was (and is) believed to be divine, and in the same way as
the Torah was accompanied by an oral tradition, so there grew up a
secret oral tradition which claimed to possess an initiated
understanding of the Torah, its hidden meanings, and the divine power
concealed within it. This is a principle root of the Kabbalistic
tradition, a belief in the divinity of the Torah, and a belief that by
studying this text one can unlock the secrets of the creation.
Another aspect of Jewish religion which influenced Kabbalah was the
Biblical phenomenon of prophecy. The prophet was an individual chosen
by God as a mouthpiece, and there was the implication that God, far
from being a transcedental abstraction, was a being whom one could
approach (albeit with enormous difficulty, risk, fear and trembling).
Some Kabbalists believed that they were the inheritors of practical
techniques handed down from the time of the Biblical prophets, and it
is not impossible or improbable that this was in fact the case.
These two threads, one derived from the study of the Torah, the other
derived from practical attempts to approach God, form the roots from
which the Kabbalistic tradition developed.
Q1.4 : How old is Kabbalah?
No-one knows.
The earliest documents which are generally acknowledged as being
Kabbalistic come from the 1st. Century C.E., but there is a suspicion
that the Biblical phenomenon of prophecy may have been grounded in a
much older oral tradition which was a precursor to the earliest
recognisable forms of Kabbalah. Some believe the tradition goes back
as far as Melchizedek. There are moderately plausible arguments that
Pythagoras received his learning from Hebrew sources. There is a
substantial literature of Jewish mysticism dating from the period
100AD - 1000AD which is not strictly Kabbalistic in the modern sense,
but which was available as source material to medieval Kabbalists.
On the basis of a detailed examination of texts, and a study of the
development of a specialist vocabulary and a distinct body of ideas,
Scholem has concluded that the origins of Kabbalah can be traced to
12th. century Provence. The origin of the word "Kabbalah" as a label
for a tradition which is definitely recognisable as Kabbalah is
attributed to Isaac the Blind (c. 1160-1236 C.E.), who is also
credited with being the originator of the idea of sephirothic
emanation.
Prior to this (and after) a wide variety of terms were used for those
who studied the tradition: "masters of mystery", "men of belief",
"masters of knowledge", "those who know", "those who
know grace",
"children of faith", "children of the king's palace", "those
who know
wisdom", "those who reap the field", "those who have entered
and
left".
Q1.5 Do I need to be Jewish to study Kabbalah?
No.
The Law of Gravitation was formulated by Isaac Newton, who was
English. You do not need to be English to fall on your face. You do
not need to be English to study the physics of gravitation.
However, if you choose to study Kabbalah by name you should recognise
that Kabbalah was and is a part of Judaism, and an important part of
the history of Jewish people, and respect the beliefs which not only
gave rise to Kabbalah, but which are still an essential part of Jewish
faith.
It must also be said that there are many aspects of Kabbalah which
would be meaningless if lifted out of the context of Judaism.
Q1.6 : Is there an Obstacle to a Woman studying Kabbalah?
Within Judaism the answer is a resounding "Yes!": there are many
obstacles. Perle Epstein relates some of her feelings on the subject
in her book on Kabbalah (see the Reading List below).
The obstacles are largely grounded in traditional attitudes: it is
less easy for a woman to find a Rabbi prepared to teach Kabbalah than
it would be for a man. Persistence may reward (see below).
Outside of Judaism the answer is a resounding "No!": there are no
obstacles. For the past one hundred years women have been active both
in studying and in teaching Kabbalah.
Q1.7 : I've heard that one shouldn't study Kabbalah unless one is over
forty years old? Is this true?
The great Kabbalist R. Isaac Luria (1534-1572), began the study of
Kabbalah at the age of seventeen and died at the age of thirty-eight!
His equally famous contemporary R. Moses Cordovero (1522-1570) began
at the age of twenty. Many other famous Kabbalists also began the
study early.
This prohibition has come from Ashkenazic (East European) Jews and has
never applied to Sepharidic (Middle Eastern) Jews.
The historical basis for the "rule" comes from opponents of Kabbalah
within Judaism who (successfully) attempted to restrict its study. At
the root of this was the heresy of false messiah Shabbatai Tzevi
(17th. C) which resulted in large numbers of Jews leaving the
orthodox fold. This heresy had deep Kabbalistic underpinnings, and in
the attempt to stamp out Shabbateanism, Kabbalah itself became
suspect, and specific prohibitions against the study of Kabbalah were
enacted (e.g. the excommunication of the Frankists in Poland in
1756).
A further factor was the degeneration (in the eyes of their
rationalist opponents) of 18th. century Hasidism, which had roots
both in Kabbalah and Shabbateanism, into "wonder working" and
superstition. The rationalist faction in Judaism triumphed, and the
study of Kabbalah became largely discredited, to the extent that many
Jewish publications written this century discuss Kabbalah (if at all)
in a very negative way.
Greg Burton has supplied this (mildly amusing) post from America
OnLine, from a Rabbi Ariel Bar-Zadok:
" One thing I assure you, I am not a "new ager", nor am I sympathetic
to anything that is not pure, authoritative Kabbalah. Remember,
Kabbalah means "to receive". I am an Orthodox Sephardic Rabbi,
ordained in Jerusalem. I teach only from the true texts, many of
which most Rabbis for whatever reasons have never read. I document
all my sources so as to verify to you that these teachings are
authentic. (I must also admit that I have studied other religious and
meditative systems, in this way I feel comfortable and confident to
discuss them). My classes are open to all, Jew and Benei Noah alike,
men and women, (in accordance to Tana D'vei Eliyahu, Eliyahu Raba,
Chapter 9). By the way, according to the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabi
Ovadiah Yosef (Yehaveh Da'at 4,47) quoting Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, one
only has to be 20 years old to study Kabbala, and not 40. THIS IS THE
HALAKHA!!"
This still leaves R.Isaac Luria looking embarrassed, but R. Moses
Cordevero scrapes in under the bar
Q1.8 : Do I need to learn Hebrew to study Kabbalah?
Do you need to learn French in order to visit France? Should you
learn French if you intend to visit France regularly? These are
questions you need to answer for yourself. The author of this FAQ
visits France regularly and does a lot of pointing and grunting - it
all comes down to deciding whether asking for food in colloquial
French is more important than simply getting the food and eating it.
The author takes the latter view; the realities of mysticism and magic
can be pointed at, and the accompanying grunts can be found in many
traditions and many different languages. There are many practical
exercises and ritual techniques which can be employed with only a
minimal knowledge of Hebrew.
However .... there is no question that a knowledge of Hebrew can make
a very large difference. Non-Jewish texts on Kabbalah abound in
simple mistakes which are due largely to uninformed copying.
Thousands of important Kabbalistic texts have not been translated out
of Hebrew or Aramaic, and the number of important source texts in
translation is small. The difficulties in trying to read the archaic
and technically complex literature of Kabbalah should not be
discounted, but it is well worthwhile to acquire even a superficial
knowledge of Hebrew. Four useful books are:
Levy, Harold, "Hebrew for All", Valentine, Mitchell 1976
Harrison R.K. "Teach yourself Biblical Hebrew", NTC Publishing Group
1993
Kelley, P.H., "Biblical Hebrew, an introductory grammar", Eerdmans
1992
Brown, F, "The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon",
Hendrickson 1979
Many Kabbalists view the Torah as the word of God and Hebrew as the
language of creation. In this view the alphabet and language are
divine and have immense magical power. Many of the source texts of
Kabbalah are commentaries on the Bible, and derive their insights
using a variety of devices, such as puns, anagrams, gematria (letter
manipulations) and cross references to the same word in different
contexts. The reader is presumed to be adept at playing this game,
which becomes completely inaccesible in translation.
Q1.9 : Is non-Judaic Kabbalah really Kabbalah?
This is a matter of definition. Jewish writers on the subject tend to
downplay aspects of Kabbalah which conflict with orthodox rabbinic
Judaism, so that we do not see the heretic Nathan of Gaza classed as
an important Kabbalist, despite the fact that he was very influential
for almost two hundred years. We hear little about the non-rabbinic "Baal Shem" or "Masters of the Name" who used Kabbalah
for healing and
other practical purposes. There is ample evidence that many magical
practices currently associated with non-Judaic Kabbalah were widely
used and well understood by some of the most famous rabbinic
Kabbalists.
It is the author's opinion that non-Jewish Kabbalah has preserved up
to the current day many practical techniques, and R. Aryeh Kaplan
makes the following significant comment:
"It is significant to note that a number of techniques alluded to
in these fragments also appear to have been preserved among the
non-Jewish school of magic in Europe. The relationship between
the practical Kabbalah and these magical schools would constitute
an interesting area of study."
A more difficult question is whether non-Jewish Kabbalah conforms to
the spirit of Jewish Kabbalah. One of the most visible distinctions
is that between theurgy and thaumaturgy, between the attempt to
participate in the workings of the divine realm for the betterment of
the creation, and the attempt to interfere with its workings, for a
variety of reasons which might include personal gain. Modern Kabbalah
outside of Judaism appears in many guises, and is often associated or
combined with ceremonial or ritual. It may be mixed with a wide range
of theosophical traditions. This does not in itself set it apart from
historical Kabbalah. Ritual has always been an integral part of
Kabbalah, and Kabbalah has absorbed from cultures and traditions all
over Europe and the Middle East. Even the distinction between theurgy
and thaumaturgy may be meaningless, as similar techniques can be used
for both, and one would need to climb into someone's head to figure
out what is going on.
Given the lack of a dogmatic tradition in Kabbalah it is not clear
that the question is meaningful. Even within Judaism it is unclear
what the authentic spirit or tradition is - there are large
differences in outlook between someone like Abraham Abulafia and Isaac
Luria.
One person will be reassured that the tradition is alive and going off
in many different directions; another will feel threatened by cowboys
who are bringing the tradition into disrepute. About the only thing
which can be said with certainty is that there is a great deal of
prejudice. Just about everyone who studies Kabbalah seems to be
certain that someone else hasn't a clue what Kabbalah is about.
Q1.10 : How can I find someone who teaches Kabbalah?
It is not possible to recommend specific people or organisations as
what is right for one person may not be right for another. In general,
(good) teachers of Kabbalah are not easy to find and never have been,
and the search for a teacher proceeds in the Micawberish belief that
when the time is right "something will turn up".
The difficulty in finding a teacher can be viewed as a nuisance or a
positive part of learning Kabbalah. A thing is valued more when it is
hard to find. Associate with people who share your interests, go to
lectures and public meetings, go to workshops, go to whatever happens
to be available, (even if it is not entirely to your taste), and
sooner or later someone will "turn up".
Many Kabbalists are people with strong personal convictions of a
religious nature, and may see their teaching as a personal obligation
(see "What is the Great Work?"). Those who do not charge money for
their teaching may require a strong commitment from pupils, and are
unlikely to welcome "flavour of the month" mystical aspirants.
A word of advice: a genuine teacher of Kabbalah will help you to
develop your own personal relationship with God. Beware of a teacher
who has preconceived and well-developed ideas about what is good for
you, or who tries to control the development of your beliefs.
Continued In Part 2 Kabbalah FAQ
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