ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 11 Heard It

kabbalah heard it from his teacher” (Ḥag. 3b). It is also used for tradi- Man and his Soul (Psychology and Anthropology of the tions from the outstanding early authorities Shemaiah and Kabbalah) Avtalyon (Pes. 66a) or from Shammai the Elder (Git. 57a). Exile and Redemption Family traditions are quoted as a kabbalah “from my father’s The Torah and its Significance house” (Ber. 10a, 34b), “from my ancestors” (Shab. 119b), and The Torah as the Mystical Name of God to emphasize a continuous tradition “from the house of my The Torah as a Living Organism father’s father” (BM 59b; BB 110a; Sanh. 89a). From the Middle The Infinite Significance of the Divine Speech Ages the word kabbalah has been used for the certificate of The Mystic Way competence issued by a rabbi for a shoḥet. Devekut Bibliography: W. B a c h e r, Die exegetische Terminologie der Prayer, Kavvanah, and Meditation juedischen Traditionsliteratur, 1 (1905), 165f.; C. Tchernowitz, Toledot Ecstasy ha-Halakhah, 1 pts. 1–2 (1934–36), index S.V. Kabbalah, Torah she- Practical Kabbalah be-al Peh. The Wider Influences of and Research on the Kabbalah The Influence of the Kabbalah on Judaism KABBALAH. The Christian Kabbalah Scholarship and the Kabbalah This entry is arranged according to the following out- Bibliography line: Kabbalah in the Late 20th Century Introduction Central Schools and Figures General Notes The Ḥasidic World Terms Used for Kabbalah The Non-Ḥasidic Ultra-Orthodox The Historical Development of the Kabbalah The Oriental Jewish World The Early Beginnings of Mysticism and Esotericism Religious Zionism Apocalyptic Esotericism and Merkabah Mysticism Non-Jewish Kabbalah Esoteric Literature: the Heikhalot, the Ma’aseh Bereshit, and The Ideology of Dissemination the Literature of Magic National Mysticism Jewish Gnosis and the Sefer Yeẓirah Psychological Interpretations The Sefer Yeẓirah Sacred Space and Sacred Persons Mysticism in the Geonic Period The Loosening of the Link toHalakhah (Jewish Law) Ḥasidic Movements in Europe and Egypt Contemporary Kabbalah and Classical Kabbalah The Establishment of the Kabbalah in Provence Bibliography The Kabbalist Center of Gerona Kabbalah Studies Other Currents in the 13t-Century Spanish Kabbalah Kabbalah Studies in the 20t Century: Three Main Stages The Zohar from 1923 to 1998 The Kabbalah in the 14t Century up to the Expulsion from 1923–1948: the Creative Period Spain 1948–1973: the Reproductive Period The Kabbalah after the Expulsion from Spain and the New 1973–1998: the Period of Criticism Center in Safed New Developments in the Study of Jewish Mysticism since The Kabbalah in Later Times 1973 The Basic Ideas of Kabbalah Bibliography God and Creation General Studies on Jewish Mysticism Will Recent Collections of Scholem’s Studies and Thought Studies on Scholem Nothingness Experiential Aspects of Jewish Mysticism The Three Lights Jewish Mysticism and Magic Emanation and the Concept of the Sefirot Kabbalah in Italy and Christian Kabbalah Details of the Doctrine of the Sefirot and Their Symbolism Halakhah and Kabbalah Earlier Worlds, Lower Worlds, and Cosmic Cycles (the Major Critical Editions and Translations Doctrine of the shemittot) Monographs on Individual Books and Kabbalists The Problem of Evil Language, Hermeneutics, and Jewish Mysticism The Doctrine of Creation in Lurianic Kabbalah Gender, Sex, Eros, and Femininity in Jewish Ẓimẓum Mysticism The Breaking of the Vessels Origins of Jewish Mysticism Tikkun Safedian Kabbalah The Kabbalah and Pantheism Naḥmanides 586 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 11 kabbalah Shabbateanism cism, while at the same time it obstructs other religious con- Kabbalah in North Africa ceptions. The second element in Kabbalah is that of theosophy, Mystical and Related Studies in Ḥasidism which seeks to reveal the mysteries of the hidden life of God and the relationships between the divine life on the one hand introduction and the life of man and creation on the other. Speculations of General Notes this type occupy a large and conspicuous area in kabbalistic Kabbalah is the traditional and most commonly used term for teaching. Sometimes their connection with the mystical plane the esoteric teachings of Judaism and for Jewish mysticism, es- becomes rather tenuous and is superseded by an interpreta- pecially the forms which it assumed in the Middle Ages from tive and homiletical vein which occasionally even results in a the 12t century onward. In its wider sense it signifies all the kind of kabbalistic pilpul. successive esoteric movements in Judaism that evolved from In its form the Kabbalah became to a large extent an eso- the end of the period of the Second Temple and became ac- teric doctrine. Mystical and esoteric elements coexist in Kab- tive factors in the history of Israel. balah in a highly confused fashion. By its very nature, mysti- Kabbalah is a unique phenomenon, and should not gen- cism is knowledge that cannot be communicated directly but erally be equated with what is known in the history of religion may be expressed only through symbol and metaphor. Esoteric as “mysticism.” It is mysticism in fact; but at the same time knowledge, however, in theory can be transmitted, but those it is both esotericism and theosophy. In what sense it may be who possess it are either forbidden to pass it on or do not wish called mysticism depends on the definition of the term, a mat- to do so. The kabbalists stressed this esoteric aspect by impos- ter of dispute among scholars. If the term is restricted to the ing all kinds of limitations on the propagation of their teach- profound yearning for direct human communion with God ings, either with regard to the age of the initiates, the ethical through annihilation of individuality (bittul ha-yesh in ḥasidic qualities required of them, or the number of students before terminology), then only a few manifestations of Kabbalah can whom these teachings could be expounded. Typical of this is be designated as such, because few kabbalists sought this goal, the account of the conditions for initiates in Kabbalah found let alone formulated it openly as their final aim. However, Kab- in Moses *Cordovero’s Or Ne’erav. Often these limitations were balah may be considered mysticism in so far as it seeks an ap- disregarded in practice, despite the protests of many kabbal- prehension of God and creation whose intrinsic elements are ists. The printing of kabbalistic books and the influence of beyond the grasp of the intellect, although this is seldom ex- Kabbalah on widening circles broke down such restrictions, plicitly belittled or rejected by the Kabbalah. Essentially, these especially as far as the teachings on God and man were con- elements were perceived through contemplation and illumi- cerned. Nevertheless, there remained areas where these limi- nation, which is often presented in the Kabbalah as the trans- tations were still more or less adhered to; for example, in the mission of a primeval revelation concerning the nature of the meditations on the letter-combinations (ḥokhmat ha-ẓeruf ) Torah and other religious matters. In essence, the Kabbalah and practical Kabbalah. is far removed from the rational and intellectual approach to Many kabbalists denied the existence of any kind of his- religion. This was the case even among those kabbalists who torical development in the Kabbalah. They saw it as a kind of thought that basically religion was subject to rational enquiry, primordial revelation that was accorded to Adam or the early or that, at least, there was some accord between the path of generations and that endured, although new revelations were intellectual perception and the development of the mystical made from time to time, particularly when the tradition had approach to the subject of creation. For some kabbalists the been either forgotten or interrupted. This notion of the na- intellect itself became a mystical phenomenon. So we find in ture of esoteric wisdom was expressed in apocryphal works Kabbalah a paradoxical emphasis on the congruence between like the Book of Enoch, was again stressed in the *Zohar, and intuition and tradition. It is this emphasis, together with the served as the basis for the dissemination of kabbalistic teach- historical association already hinted at in the term “kabbalah” ing in Sefer ha-Emunot by *Shem Tov b. Shem Tov (c. 1400) (something handed down by tradition), that points to the basic and in Avodat ha-Kodesh by *Meir b. Gabbai (1567). It became differences between the Kabbalah and other kinds of religious widely accepted that the Kabbalah was the esoteric part of the mysticism which are less closely identified with a people’s his- Oral Law given to Moses at Sinai. Several of the genealogies of tory. Nevertheless, there are elements common to Kabbalah the tradition appearing in kabbalistic literature, which were and both Greek and Christian mysticism, and even historical intended to support the idea of the continuity of the secret links between them. tradition, are themselves faulty and misconceived, lacking in Like other kinds of mysticism, Kabbalah too draws upon any historical value. In actual fact, some kabbalists themselves the mystic’s awareness of both the transcendence of God and give concrete instances of the historical development of their His immanence within the true religious life, every facet of ideas, since they regard them either as having deteriorated to which is a revelation of God, although God Himself is most some extent from the original tradition, which found its ex- clearly perceived through man’s introspection. This dual and pression in the increase of kabbalistic systems, or as part of a apparently contradictory experience of the self-concealing and gradual progress toward the complete revelation of the secret self-revealing God determines the essential sphere of mysti- wisdom. Kabbalists themselves rarely attempt to attain a his- ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 11 587 kabbalah torical orientation, but some examples of such an approach Hilkhot ha-Kisse (in Merkabah Shelemah, 1921), and Sefer ha- may be found in Emunat Ḥakhamim by Solomon Avi’ad Sar- Shem.

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