The concept of Kabbalah
Kabbalah, taken literally, is understood as a “reception”, “tradition”, or “correspondence”. It is, in fact, considered within the framework of Jewish mysticism as an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought.
The traditional Kabbalist in Judaism is called Mekubbal.Kabbalah is seen as wisdom and as “an order of descent of roots, conditioned by the connection of cause and effect, subject to constant and absolute laws, which are interconnected and directed towards one sublime, but very hidden goal, called “revealing the Divinity of the Creator to His creations in this world”.
Some Kabbalists consider Kabbalah a science. But it seems that this is probably not correct. Although this does not detract from the significance of Kabbalah. And scientific research within its framework is welcome.
There is variation in the Kabbalah, depending on such variables as the traditions and goals of the followers, its religious origins as an integral part of Judaism, to its later adaptations in Western esotericism (Christian Kabbalah and Hermetic Kabbalah).
Kabbalah provides a reflection of the mystical side of Judaism, telling “about the deep connections between man and the Creator, about the role of man and the Creator in the process of the universe, about how everything that nature has created functions on a secret deep level hidden from a superficial glance” .
Kabbalah may be considered the 4th most difficult level of Torah study.
Its study can be associated with the process of a computer game, as well as with the process of all human life, when there is a gradual transition from understanding the simplest things to understanding things more and more complex, to seeing deep secret meanings and hidden knowledge in texts.
At the same time, sometimes in order to effectively understand the complex, one has to look for simpler or more extensive explanations, and then return to more complex and compact explanations.
For a better understanding and assimilation of Kabbalah, it is advisable to repeat the material from a variety of perspectives, and it is also advisable to move from studying general aspects to studying details and nuances.
Comprehension of Kabbalah for spiritually immature people is an incredibly difficult task, and perhaps practically impossible and even harmful.
This teaching has been specially prepared by the Creator as a reward for those who have managed to walk the long and thorny path of true knowledge before.
There is a statement that Kabbalah can be studied only by those persons who have already completed the comprehension of each previous level: those who know both the Written Torah and the Oral (Talmud).
However, if people have not yet reached this level, they still have a chance to gradually get acquainted with the basics of Kabbalah.
But at the same time they must advance in other areas of the Jewish Law and reach heights in the field of secular education.
Purpose of Kabbalah
Kabbalah ensures the disclosure of the secret meaning of the Torah, considered as a deep mystical code.
From the point of view of people involved in the study of Kabbalah, all the problems of humanity in general and of each individual in particular occur due to inconsistency with the laws of the universe.
Kabbalah is studied for the sake of spiritual perfection of the personality, which gives a person the opportunity to understand his true destiny in the material and spiritual worlds.
Kabbalah adheres to the statement that the incarnation of the soul in the material world takes place until the soul “learns its lesson” and until it is provided with the fulfillment of the function for which it was created.
Kabbalah adheres to the assertion that each of the souls has some kind of its own, only its inherent feature, which the soul must be aware of. After realizing this feature through the study of Kabbalah, the incarnation of the soul stops.
The following is known about the goals of the soul and Kabbalah.
The school of Isaac the Blind was a school with the Kabbalistic tradition of the “Circle of Contemplation” (thirteenth century, Spain), it ensured the development of the doctrine of thirteen middots (“Sefer iyyun”, “Source of Wisdom”), etc.
The world also learned about the book The Zohar in the thirteenth century. Abraham Abulafia introduced elements of Sufism into Kabbalah, he created the practice of meditation “Hochmat ha-Tseruf”, based on the assertion that the Divine language (Hebrew) is the essence of reality.
The most ancient source of Kabbalah is considered to be the book Sefer Yetzirah, most likely prepared in the second century AD by Rabbi Akiva, although there is evidence that the source of Kabbalah dates back to the sixteenth century AD.
If you believe the Kabbalists, the writing of the book took place in the seventeenth-sixteenth centuries BC, it was written by the forefather Abraham.
The book under consideration contains the first mention of the Kabbalah-specific term “sefirot”, with the help of the sefirot God creates the world. This book also contains a symbolic interpretation of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.