Editing Kabbalah (section)

== Cathar and Mandaean parallels ==
{{Main|Mandaeism}}
In several important areas of his history of the Kabbalah, [[Gershom Scholem]] investigates and considers the evidence of an interactivity of influence between the medieval Kabbalists of Provence and the [[Catharism|Cathar heresy]] which was also prevalent in the region at the same time that the earliest works of medieval Kabbalah were written.{{sfnp|Scholem|1962|pp=14–20, 148–155, 197}} In ''Jewish Influence on Christian Reform Movements'', [[Louis Israel Newman|Louis I. Newman]] concluded, "Point by point, parallels can be found between Catharist views and the Kabbalah, and it may well be that at times there was an exchange of opinions between Jewish and Gentile mystics."<ref name="Newman-1925">{{Cite book |last=Newman |first=Louis |url=https://maranathamedia.com/downloads/library/books/History/Middle%20Ages/JewishInfluenceOnChristianReformMovements%20Louis%20Newman%20(1925).pdf |title=Jewish Influence on Christian Reform Movements |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1925 |isbn= |location=New York |pages=176 |language=en}}</ref> Earlier in the same book, Newman observed:

<blockquote>…that the powerful Jewish culture in Languedoc, which had acquired sufficient strength to assume an aggressive, propagandist policy, created a milieu wherefrom movements of religious independence arose readily and spontaneously. Contact and association between Christian princes and their Jewish officials and friends stimulated the state of mind which facilitated the banishment of orthodoxy, the clearing away of the debris of Catholic theology. Unwilling to receive Jewish thought, the princes and laity turned towards Catharism, then being preached in their domains.<ref name="Newman-1925" /></blockquote>

[[Nathaniel Deutsch]] writes:

{{blockquote|Initially, these interactions [between [[Mandaeans]] and [[Jewish mysticism|Jewish mystics]] in Babylonia from Late Antiquity to the medieval period] resulted in shared magical and angelological traditions. During this phase the parallels which exist between [[Mandaeism]] and [[Hekhalot literature|Hekhalot]] mysticism would have developed. At some point, both Mandaeans and Jews living in Babylonia began to develop similar cosmogonic and theosophic traditions involving an analogous set of terms, concepts, and images. At present it is impossible to say whether these parallels resulted primarily from Jewish influence on Mandaeans, Mandaean influence on Jews, or from cross fertilization. Whatever their original source, these traditions eventually made their way into the priestly – that is, esoteric – Mandaean texts ... and into the Kabbalah.<ref name="Deutsch-2000">{{cite journal |last=Deutsch |first=Nathaniel |title=The Date Palm and the Wellspring:Mandaeism and Jewish Mysticism |journal=ARAM |volume=11 |issue=2 |date=1999–2000 |pages=209–223 |url=https://poj.peeters-leuven.be/secure/POJ/downloadpdf.php?ticket_id=607cdb7f1cabb |format=PDF |doi=10.2143/ARAM.11.2.504462 |access-date=2022-05-06 |archive-date=2022-06-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626212917/https://poj.peeters-leuven.be/secure/POJ/downloadpdf.php?ticket_id=607cdb7f1cabb |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|222}}}}

[[R.J. Zwi Werblowsky]] suggests Mandaeism has more commonality with Kabbalah than with [[Merkabah mysticism]] such as cosmogony and sexual imagery. [[The Thousand and Twelve Questions]], [[Scroll of Exalted Kingship]], and [[Alma Rišaia Rba]] link the alphabet with the creation of the world, a concept found in [[Sefer Yetzirah]] and the [[Bahir]].<ref name="Deutsch-2000"/>{{rp|217}}
Mandaean names for [[uthra]]s (angels or guardians) have been found in Jewish magical texts. [[Abatur]] appears to be inscribed inside a Jewish magic bowl in a corrupted form as "Abiṭur". [[Ptahil]] is found in [[Sefer HaRazim]] listed among other angels who stand on the ninth step of the second firmament.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Vinklat|first=Marek|title=Jewish Elements in the Mandaic Written Magic|url=https://www.academia.edu/1255149|journal=Biernot, D. – Blažek, J. – Veverková, K. (Eds.), "Šalom: Pocta Bedřichu Noskovi K Sedmdesátým Narozeninám" (Deus et Gentes, Vol. 37), Chomutov: L. Marek, 2012. Isbn 978-80-87127-56-8|date=January 2012|access-date=10 February 2022|archive-date=6 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220506030108/https://www.academia.edu/1255149|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|210–211}}