Editing Kabbalah (section)

== Traditions ==
{{See also|Ecstatic Kabbalah|Practical Kabbalah}}
According to the {{transliteration|he|[[Zohar]]}}, a foundational text for kabbalistic thought,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://reformjudaism.org/what-kabbalah |last=Dennis |first=Geoffrey W. |title=What is Kabbalah? |date=18 June 2014 |publisher=Union for Reform Judaism |website=ReformJudaism.org |access-date=25 October 2018 |archive-date=2 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802225752/https://reformjudaism.org/what-kabbalah |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Torah study]] can proceed along four levels of interpretation ([[exegesis]]).<ref>''Shnei Luchot HaBrit'', R. Isaiah Horowitz, ''Toldot Adam'', "Beit Ha-Chokhma", 14.</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Broydé |first1=Isaac |author-link1=Isaac Broydé |last2=Jacobs |first2=Joseph |author-link2=Joseph Jacobs |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15278-zohar |title=Zohar |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Kopelman Foundation]] |date=1906 |access-date=26 October 2018 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324223059/https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15278-zohar |url-status=live }}</ref> These four levels are called {{transliteration|he|[[Pardes (Jewish exegesis)|pardes]]}} from their initial letters (PRDS {{lang|he|{{Script/Hebrew|פַּרדֵס}}}}, 'orchard'):

* {{transliteration|he|[[Peshat]]}} ({{langx|he|פשט|links=no}} {{lit|simple}}): the direct interpretations of meaning.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12060-peshat|title=PESHAṬ - JewishEncyclopedia.com|website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com|access-date=2019-03-18|archive-date=2023-08-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230826211103/https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12060-peshat|url-status=live}}</ref>
* {{transliteration|he|Remez}} ({{lang|he|{{Script/Hebrew|רֶמֶז}}}} {{lit|hint[s]}}): the [[allegory|allegoric]] meanings (through [[allusion]]).
* {{transliteration|he|Derash}} ({{lang|he|{{Script/Hebrew|דְרָשׁ}}}} from the Hebrew {{transliteration|he|darash}}: 'inquire' or 'seek'): [[midrash]]ic (rabbinic) meanings, often with imaginative comparisons with similar words or verses.
* {{transliteration|he|Sod}} ({{lang|he|סוֹד}}, {{lit|secret|mystery}}): the inner, esoteric ([[Metaphysics|metaphysical]]) meanings, expressed in kabbalah.

Kabbalah is considered by its followers as a necessary part of the study of [[Torah]] – the study of Torah (the [[Tanakh]] and rabbinic literature) being an inherent duty of observant Jews.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/The_Written_Law.html |title=The Written Law – Torah |encyclopedia=Jewish Virtual Library |access-date=2015-09-27 |archive-date=2022-05-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521215140/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/The_Written_Law.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Modern academic-historical study of Jewish mysticism reserves the term ''kabbalah'' to designate the particular, distinctive doctrines that textually emerged fully expressed in the Middle Ages, as distinct from the earlier [[Merkabah mysticism|Merkabah mystical concepts]] and methods.{{sfnp|Dan|2007|loc=chapters on "The Emergence of Medieval Kabbalah" and "Doctrines of Medieval Kabbalah"}} According to this descriptive categorization, both versions of Kabbalistic theory, the medieval-Zoharic and the early-modern [[Lurianic Kabbalah]] together comprise the Theosophical tradition in Kabbalah, while the [[Jewish meditation|Meditative]]-[[Ecstatic Kabbalah]] incorporates a parallel inter-related Medieval tradition. A third tradition, related but more shunned, involves the magical aims of [[Practical Kabbalah]]. [[Moshe Idel]], for example, writes that these 3 basic models can be discerned operating and competing throughout the whole history of Jewish mysticism, beyond the particular Kabbalistic background of the Middle Ages.{{sfnp|Idel|1995|p=31}} They can be readily distinguished by their basic intent with respect to God:{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

* The Theosophical or Theosophical-[[Theurgic]] tradition of Theoretical Kabbalah (the main focus of the {{transliteration|he|Zohar}} and Luria) seeks to understand and describe the divine realm using the imaginative and mythic symbols of human psychological experience. As an intuitive conceptual alternative to rationalist [[Jewish philosophy]], particularly [[Maimonides]]' Aristotelianism, this speculation became the central stream of Kabbalah, and the usual reference of the term ''kabbalah''. Its [[Jewish mysticism|theosophy]] also implies the innate, centrally important theurgic influence of human conduct on redeeming or damaging the spiritual realms, as man is a divine microcosm, and the spiritual realms the divine macrocosm. The purpose of traditional theosophical kabbalah was to give the whole of normative [[Judaism|Jewish religious]] practice this mystical metaphysical meaning.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}
* The [[Jewish meditation|Meditative]] tradition of [[Ecstatic Kabbalah]] (exemplified by [[Abraham Abulafia]] and [[Isaac of Acre]]) strives to achieve a mystical union with God, or nullification of the meditator in God's [[Active intellect]]. Abraham Abulafia's "Prophetic Kabbalah" was the supreme example of this, though marginal in Kabbalistic development, and his alternative to the program of theosophical Kabbalah. Abulafian meditation built upon the philosophy of Maimonides, whose following remained the [[Maimonidean Controversy|rationalist threat]] to theosophical Kabbalists.{{sfnp|Idel|1988b}}
* The [[Magic (supernatural)|Magico-Talismanic]] tradition of [[Practical Kabbalah]] (in often unpublished manuscripts) endeavours to alter both the Divine realms and the World using [[Talisman|practical methods]]. While theosophical interpretations of worship see its redemptive role as harmonising heavenly forces, Practical Kabbalah properly involved [[Magic (supernatural)|white-magical]] acts, and was censored by Kabbalists for only those completely pure of intent, as it relates to lower realms where purity and impurity are mixed. Consequently, it formed a separate minor tradition shunned from Kabbalah. Practical Kabbalah was prohibited by the Arizal until the [[Temple in Jerusalem]] is rebuilt and the required state of ritual purity is attainable.{{sfnp|Ginsburgh|2006|p=31}}

According to Kabbalistic belief, early kabbalistic knowledge was transmitted orally by the Patriarchs, [[Neviim|prophets]], and sages, eventually to be "interwoven" into Jewish religious writings and culture.{{sfnp|Dan|Kiener|1986}} According to this view, early kabbalah was, in around the 10th century BCE, an open knowledge practiced by over a million people in ancient Israel.<ref>Megillah 14a, Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4:22, Ruth Rabbah 1:2.</ref>{{sfnp|Kaplan|2011|pp=44–48}} Foreign conquests drove the Jewish spiritual leadership of the time (the [[Sanhedrin]]) to hide the knowledge and make it secret, fearing that it might be misused if it fell into the wrong hands.<ref>Yehuda Ashlag; ''Preface to the Wisdom of Truth'' p.12 section 30 and p.105 bottom section of the left column as preface to the "Talmud Eser HaSfirot"</ref>

It is hard to clarify with any degree of certainty the exact concepts within kabbalah. There are several different schools of thought with very different outlooks; however, all are accepted as correct.<ref>See ''Shem Mashmaon'' by Shimon Agasi. It is a commentary on Otzrot Haim by Haim Vital. In the introduction he lists five major schools of thought as to how to understand the Haim Vital's understanding of the concept of ''[[Tzimtzum]]''.</ref> Modern [[halakhic]] authorities have tried to narrow the scope and diversity within kabbalah, by restricting study to certain texts, notably {{transliteration|he|Zohar}} and the teachings of Isaac Luria as passed down through [[Hayyim ben Joseph Vital]].<ref>See ''Yechveh Daat'' Vol 3, section 47 by Ovadiah Yosef</ref> However, even this qualification does little to limit the scope of understanding and expression, as included in those works are commentaries on Abulafian writings, {{transliteration|he|Sefer Yetzirah}}, Albotonian writings, and the {{transliteration|he|Berit Menuhah}},<ref>See ''Ktavim Hadashim'' published by Yaakov Hillel of Ahavat Shalom for a sampling of works by Haim Vital attributed to Isaac Luria that deal with other works.</ref> which is known to the kabbalistic elect and which, as described more recently by [[Gershom Scholem]], combined ecstatic with theosophical mysticism. It is therefore important to bear in mind when discussing things such as the {{transliteration|he|[[sephirot]]}} and their interactions that one is dealing with highly abstract concepts that at best can only be understood intuitively.<ref>{{cite news|last=Wagner |first=Matthew |url=http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=15550 |title=Kabbala goes to yeshiva – Magazine – Jerusalem Post |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post &#124; Jpost.com |publisher=Jpost.com |access-date=2015-09-27}}</ref>

===Jewish and non-Jewish Kabbalah===
{{See also|Christian Cabala|Hermetic Qabalah}}
From the [[Renaissance]] onwards Jewish Kabbalah texts entered non-Jewish culture, where they were studied and translated by [[Christian Hebraists]] and [[Hermeticism|Hermetic]] occultists.{{sfnp|Dan|2007|loc=ch. 5 & 9}} The syncretic traditions of [[Christian Cabala]] and [[Hermetic Qabalah]] developed independently of Judaic Kabbalah, reading the Jewish texts as universalist ancient wisdom preserved from the [[Gnostic]] traditions of antiquity.{{sfnp|Scholem|1962}} Both adapted the Jewish concepts freely from their Jewish understanding, to merge with multiple other theologies, religious traditions and magical associations. With the decline of Christian Cabala in the [[Age of Enlightenment|Age of Reason]], Hermetic Qabalah continued as a central underground tradition in [[Western esotericism]]. Through these non-Jewish associations with magic, [[alchemy]] and divination, Kabbalah acquired some popular [[occult]] connotations forbidden within Judaism, where Jewish Practical Kabbalah was a minor, permitted tradition restricted for a few elite. Today, many publications on Kabbalah belong to the non-Jewish [[New Age]] and occult traditions of Cabala, rather than giving an accurate picture of Judaic Kabbalah.{{sfnp|Jacobs|1995|loc=Entry: Kabbalah}} Instead, academic and traditional Jewish publications now translate and study Judaic Kabbalah for wide readership.