Kabbalah has a number of definitions, but is essentially a teaching with the breadth and depth of the sea, with wisdom that can become accessible to every soul and allow consciousness to descend to the roots revealing the divine power of the Creator and his creations in the world. Learning about this religious-mystical tradition shows that it is a teaching about everything in life.
Essence and basis of Kabbalah
Kabbalah emerged as an occult and esoteric current of Judaism in the 12th century. The main spread of the teaching was in the 16th century.
The emergence of the teaching can be seen as a way to specifically interpret the texts of the Torah, as the five books of Moses known as the Law of the Old Testament are called. In interpreting the texts, Kabbalah dwells on the mystical meaning that lies behind the literal reading of the words. This confirms the researchers' conclusions that Kabbalah originally originated as the art of divination, which developed and eventually grew into a religion-philosophical occult system.
A universally accepted definition of Kabbalah cannot be given. For some, it is not a religious teaching, but only a key to a correct understanding and reading of religious texts. Therefore, it can be accepted as a definition the indisputable fact that Kabbalah is an essential part of the spiritual heritage of mankind.
Early history of Kabbalah
As an ideological system, Kabbalah has its origins in the understanding that, in addition to the literal meaning of the text of the Holy Scriptures, there is a secret knowledge available only to the chosen.
In the Third Book of Ezra, it is told that God commanded this prophet of his to write books, some of them to be accessible to all people, and to reserve selected texts only for the wise who can see the truths in them. Belief in this secret tradition is found not only among the Kabbalists, but also in the canonical books of the Old Testament, which means that it is widespread. And since there has been an understanding that the secret is encoded in the canonical text itself, the Kabbalah is the attempt to decipher this secret meaning.
Kabbalah worldview system
In the beginning, the whole essence of Kabbalah consisted in the interpretation of the ancient texts. In the early Middle Ages, the separate groups of Kabbalists who were concerned with the interpretation of the texts were united. From the 5th - 6th century onwards, Kabbalah already became an independent teaching and had its own cosmogony, ethics and other elements.
The followers of Kabbalah develop a vast teaching that has several main points of reference. All of them are united by the common vision that God created the world with a language, and by understanding this language, man will reach all the secrets of the Universe.
The Cosmogenesis of Kabbalah
According to Kabbalah, there is no doubt that the world is a creation of God. More controversial is the way in which this happens and to what extent God intervenes after creation in the development of the world. The classical understanding of Kabbalah posits that God created all spheres of life, placing in them a divine principle - that of Creation.
These spheres are associated with the Sephirah, as pure numbers are called, and with them 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. These elements form the basis of interpretation.
Anthropogenesis in Kabbalah
For Kabbalah, man is identical as a creature with the first man - Adam. Adam is God's creation, carrying the harmony of the basic spheres, but after the Fall, this harmony is destroyed. Man is seen as a microcosm reflecting the macrocosm. If the microcosm and the macrocosm are harmonized, the lost harmony will be restored.
Ethical rules of Kabbalah
Kabbalah believes that man's destiny is decided from above. The human personality can change this destiny with his personal will by shifting the places of the spheres, letters and pure numbers. Apart from a mystical way, this can also be done through life actions.
Basic symbols of Kabbalah
The oldest and most important of all Kabbalistic symbols is The Tree of Life in Kabbalah. It is a spiritual landmark in which the understanding of the vast Cosmos is embedded. It is used for various spiritual needs - meditations, reflections, predictions related to the vicissitudes of human life.
The Tree of Life is the living model of the energies that govern the universe. Its structure is made up of 10 spheres with 22 connections between them. They correspond to 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Separately, the spheres correspond to 10 archetypes - Will, Wisdom, Understanding, Compassion, Love, Communication, Death and Practicality.
All 10 Sephiroth participate in the creation of the world, manifesting in thoughts, actions and speech.
How Kabbalah Works
The lesson deals with the study of the numerical meaning of words. Sometimes it does the opposite - examines a number to determine which word leads to it.
Kabbalah analyzes personal human names, looking for mystical meaning in them. The analysis of the names of God is most important in this work. It also correlates data from different methodologies. This is how you can make assumptions.
The path drawn by Kabbalah to reach God
To reach the Creator, Kabbalah points to two paths that are identical and have no differences between them.
The first leads from the top down to this world.
The second starts from this world and rises upwards.
One is obliged to walk these steps gradually, going from step to step, following the laws by which the light has moved, descending to this world.
It takes a long time to reveal the Creator, which is determined by the degree of purification of each passing through the steps, each step being higher than the previous one. Thus, a kind of movement on a ladder is obtained, which is why the term steps is used.
Language of Kabbalists
Since it uses its own concepts, the most important of which is the Tree of Life in Kabbalah, the teaching needs its own vocabulary to be used in colloquial language. For individual followers of Kabbalah, the meaning of the words branch and root is understood in a spiritual, not just a literal sense, which allows the individual members to understand each other without depriving them of the understanding that is put into the words in their everyday use.
The language of Kabbalah can be said to be that which can only be heard by one who knows and understands the relationship between the branches and the roots in their spiritual sense.
All this wisdom of Kabbalah is aimed at one goal - revealing the divine essence of the Creator and his creations in this world.
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