The history of the Kabbalah

The Kabbalah, literally translated from Hebrew as reception, makes reference to received tradition, or, in other words, all Judaisms oral law. With the passing of time, those teachings that were transmitted orally were recorded and available to all. But some teachings were still kept from everyones eyes, the esoteric teachings. They were meant to be transmitted from a rabbi to his student, because of the freedom of interpretation that was taken by kabbalistic scholars and the heresies these teachings might lead to. That is the main reason why these teachings were preserved for only a few, but nowadays, even these teachings are recorded.

The will of the Kabbalah mystic Mekubal is the foundation for all Kabbalistic thought. Mekubal strives to unite consciously with god in order to narrow the gap between him and his material world and the divine. The entire material reality and all phenomena are believed to be gods revelations. The Mekubal believes that by revealing the presence of the godly being in everything he will rise spiritually and be one with god. The Kabbalah makes a difference between the hidden aspects of god, which no creature is able to understand, and the revelations of god, also known as the Ten Sephiroth.

The Ten Sephiroth form the structure of the Tree if Life. They are basically the ways god delegates his actions and through them he created the world. Each of the Ten Sephiroth is different, and sometimes in contrast. You can divide the Tree of Life into three branches: left judgment, right grace and center mercy. What the Mekubal is trying to achieve is to release the tension created by the opposite powers in the system and create harmony by bringing everything into the middle.

The first book of the Kabbalah is attributed to the scholars of Mishnah and is named the Book of Brightness, or the Bahir Book. It first appeared in southern France in the year 1180 and some ideas from the Hekhalot and Merkaba literature are included in it. The process of creation which god undertook is also explained by using statements from the Book of Creation, or Sefer Yetzirah. The use of the Sacred Names in magic is also mentioned in the Book of Brightness.

The book of Zohar appeared in the 13th century and the common belief is that Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai wrote it. The greatest effect this book had was after the Alhambra Decree, when Jews were deported to Spain. This led to the increased need for redemption. In the 16th century the Zohar book was printed and the impact of it was even greater than before. Thus, contrary to many objections, the Zohar had gained the status of being the primary source of esoteric teachings, placed aside the Bible and the Talmud.

At the end of the 15th century, a lot of Christian scholars showed some interest in the Kabbalah teachings and even translated some writings into Latin. Observing the similarities between their beliefs and Kabbalistic teachings, they took on the quest to find their source. The movement ended up in the attempt to convince the Jews of the authenticity of Christian beliefs using the Zohar and trying to convert them to Christianity. Using the Kabbalah and the Zohar in Christianity led to the opposition of many Jewish scholars about spreading esoteric teachings.

Kabbalistic teachings rose in popularity world wide, with people of different religions, not only Jews. This happened because of the growing interest in religion and mysticism. Its influence has reached all kinds of socio-economic groups, going as far as celebrities like Madonna, a student at Kabbalah Center, who added the name Esther, which is Hebrew, to her own name.