Welcome to my fourth installment in a series on Occultism. Having been exposed to different religious traditions since youth, including Roman Catholicism and later biblical Christianity, I thought understanding Jewish Mysticism, as presented in the Kabbalah, would be somewhat easy and straightforward…I was wrong.
Preface
A long time ago while working on-site at Kennedy Space Center during the J-BOSC or possibly IMCS contract, an email came out with an open invitation to attend a Kabbalah presentation in the KSC Training Auditorium—attendance being off-the-clock of course. I don’t remember any details of the presentation only that the presenter was a practitioner…a true believer. After the lecture, he handed out a Special Pocket-Sized Edition of The Holy Zohar donated by The Kabbalah Centre in North Miami Beach, FL. To my surprise, other than a few introductory pages in English, the content was in Hebrew. This suppressed my interest until recently.
Introduction
I titled this installment Kabbalah; Jewish Cosmology instead of just Kabbalah because I wanted to indicate that I was narrowing the scope of this installment to a discussion on fundamental concepts such as the nature of Divinity, creation, the broken world, and the role of man in the cosmos. I’ve also included sections on Terminology and a Brief History.
It’s not uncommon to hear the adjective “Judeo-Christian” used when describing a system of values and/or beliefs based on the Bible, Ten Commandments, and Judaism. I would argue that that adjective is only used in a very narrow sense since Kabbalistic writings strongly influenced how the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, is interpreted—”Kabbala is the truth of the Torah and its mitzvot.”1 That is, Judaism interprets the Torah using metaphors2 to uncover its ‘esoteric’ or ‘inner’ meaning while biblical Christianity interprets the Scripture’s ‘exoteric’ or outer meaning.3 Put another way, the exoteric interpretation understands that God, through Scripture, meant what He said and said what He meant.
Again, the Chabad.org website affirms “The only way to grasp every single nuance of Torah, however, is through the prophetic wisdom that is contained in Kabbala.”4
Terminology
The following terms and definitions, in no particular order, were taken almost exclusively from the Chabad.org website.
Torah — The Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
Tanakh — The Holy Scriptures: Torah (The Five Books of Moses), Nevi’im (The Prophets), and Kethuvim (The Writings)
Talmud — the basic compendium of Jewish law and thought
Midrash — the classical collection of the Sages’ homiletic teachings on the Torah, on the non-literal level of derush (a method of exposition of scriptural verses in Jewish tradition)
Mashiach — Messiah
Mitzvah — One of the 613 Torah’s Divine commandments
Mitzvot — The 613 commandments given by God in the Torah, forming the foundation of Jewish law and practice
Halakhah — Lit. “the pathway,” the body of Jewish law
Kabbalah Iyunit — Contemplative Kabbalah; “…a descriptive ‘anatomy’ of the divine reality.”
Sefirot — Divine attributes or emanations
Seder Hishtalshelut — (Chassidic term; lit. “order of evolution”); the chainlike progression of spiritual worlds; the spiritual cosmos
Rabbi Isaac Luria — Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572), also known by the acronym ‘Ari’ or ‘Arizal.’ One of the greatest kabbalists of all times, founded a new school in Kabbalah – the so-called “Lurianic Kabbalah” – which is the basis of almost all mystical works that followed him
Zohar — the classic text of the Kabbalah; compiled by 2nd century Mishnaic sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai
Brief History
The term Kabbalah “literally means ‘reception’ or ‘that which has been received.’”5 According to an article on the Chabad.org website, the Kabbalah was revealed to Moses at Sinai implying equal authority with the Torah.6
Christian D. Ginsburg elaborates on the origin story as follows:
The Kabbalah was first taught by God himself to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophic school in Paradise. After the fall the angels most graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient child [sic] of earth, to furnish the protoplasts with the means of returning to their pristine nobility and felicity.7
Rabbi Isaac Luria taught that “It [Kabbalah] is not a knowledge that can be attained through the finite quality of the letters, but a perception that must be ‘received’ from a master who himself received from one before him. The perception of the esoteric tradition is then a merging of spirits with the Divine which, by its very essence, cannot be condensed into letters.”8 As shown in the above references, Kabbalah was an oral tradition initially passed from God to the patriarchs, the prophets, and the initiated.9
The idea of Kabbala, then, is to become completely infused with Torah and to connect with it on every possible level. Without Kabbala, a person could understand Torah on a number of levels. The only way to grasp every single nuance of Torah, however, is through the prophetic wisdom that is contained in Kabbala.10
The Kabbalah, the ‘decoder’11 of the Torah, wasn’t written down until “Rav Shimon bar Yochai was granted Divine permission to share its ancient secrets in written form.”12 Sources indicate his Kabbalistic teachings were first written down as the Zohar in the 2nd or 3rd century CE.
Infinite Divinity
The Kybalion, a Hermetic philosophy book, teaches that THE ALL, which is the “Substantial Reality”13 underlying the material universe, is “SPIRIT which in itself is UNKNOWABLE and UNDEFINABLE;”14 a UNIVERSAL, INFINITE, LIVING MIND. Compare this description of THE ALL with the Kabbalistic notion of Ein Sof as “absolute divine reality;”15 literally “’without end’ or ‘without limit.’”16 As evident in the previous definitions, both THE ALL and Ein Sof are remarkably similar.
Kabbalah has an interesting take on the “Shema”17 as written in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4: “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!” (Deut. 6:4 [NASB95]) as follows:
There is one infinite creator, the cause of causes and the maker of all. He is not one in a numerical sense — since He is not subject to change, definition or multiplicity. He is one in that the number one signifies an independent unit and is the basis of all numbers; the number one is also contained in all numbers. Similarly, the Creator is actually within everything, and everything is within Him. He is the beginning and cause of everything. The Creator does not change, and therefore one cannot add or subtract from Him.18
In the above quote, the phrase: “the number one is also contained in all numbers” sounds very similar to the “formula of the ancient alchemist (everything is in everything)”19 and further expounded on by theosophical calculations.20
In a previous blog post, I proposed a rationale for the Christian Godhead using object orientation concepts, that is, by using objects and classes. I proposed the Godhead as a superclass which encapsulates the Divine attributes, in Christian terms, which are also shared by both Ein Sof and THE ALL being Everlasting, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent.21 I challenge the reader to consider that my somewhat mystical interpretation coincides nicely with the literal meaning of Ein Sof as being “’without end’ or ‘without limit’.”22 Furthermore, I suggest that the Godhead superclass represents the Kabbalistic notion of Ein Sof and the YHVH instantiation of the Father class23 represents the Kabbalistic notion of “Or Ein Sof.”24
In Kabbalistic cosmology, the mode by which Ein Sof becomes immanent in creation is through the “Light of the Infinite” known as Or Ein Sof25 Christianity provides a different explanation for God’s mode of interacting with creation and that is by the expression “The Word of the LORD” found throughout the Tanakh and the expression “The Word of the Lord” throughout the Christian Bible. It’s no surprise that the matter is settled for Christians given the following verses written by the Apostle John who later in his epistle, declares that the “Word became flesh” (John 1:14-17 [NASB95]) in the person of Jesus.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5 [NASB95])
In only five concise verses, the Apostle John completely refutes any Kabbalistic metaphors used to rationalize the “medium through which the absolutely transcendent [God] begins to become immanent.”26 In biblical Christianity, God is immanent in creation through the person of the Holy Spirit.
Am I only a God near at hand
—says the LORD—
And not a God far away?
If a man enters a hiding place,
Do I not see him?
—says the LORD.
For I fill both heaven and earth
—declares the LORD. (Jer. 23:23-24 [NJPS])
Tzimtzum and Creation
In the Bible, Genesis states that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1 [NASB95]) which is the exoteric interpretation of creation. However, this did not satisfy the Kabbalists so the esoteric theory of Tzimtzum was concocted which states, in part, that since God is infinite and fills all things, He had to compress or constrict himself so that unused space could be made available to contain His finite creation.27 And, according to Berraquero in his book Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, the theory of Tzimtzum was a revolutionary concept for the Kabbalists—and for everyone else I suspect. Berraquero provides the following background on the theory:
The Tzimtzum—literally ‘contraction’ or ‘constriction’—is arguably the most original and revolutionary doctrine of all Lurianic Kabbalah. Introduced by Isaac Luria in the 16th century and recorded by his disciple Chaim Vital, this teaching completely transformed Kabbalistic understanding of creation. Where earlier Kabbalists spoke of emanation—light flowing from God—Luria spoke first of retraction: God withdrawing, making space, concealing Himself.28
First of all, I have a problem with the notion that God had to constrict Himself in order to create the finite world. Where does the idea come from that since God is infinite, He can’t create something finite? Doesn’t the Scripture teach “Is anything too wondrous for the LORD?” (Gen. 18:14 [NJPS]) Technically, the material creation was originally intended to be infinite; but became finite after the curse was pronounced by God after Adam’s sin. (Gen. 3:14-24 [NJPS])
I believe the Hermetic Principles of Mentalism and Correspondence provide a more judicious, though still mystical and esoteric, explanation for “The Paradox of the Infinite and the Finite.”29 The Principle of Mentalism teaches that THE ALL (God) is Spirit and that all the phenomenal world is a mental creation of THE ALL;30 while the Principle of Correspondence teaches that “there is harmony, agreement, and correspondence between the several planes of Manifestation, Life, and Being.” [emphasis mine]31 The Kybalion identifies “three great classes of phenomena known as the “Three Great Planes”32 which are the Physical, Mental, and Spiritual as expected.33
Oddly enough, the following article on Chabad.org closely mirrors the Hermetic philosophy of the planes:
Kabbalah Iyunit has thus been characterized as a descriptive ‘anatomy’ of the divine reality. Kabbalah is concerned with the technical identities and ‘locations’ of, and relationships between, the worlds (planes of reality), the sefirot (divine emanations), and the order in which they evolve from one another and affect one another in the vast chain of being, known in Kabbalah as the seder hishtalshelut–the process by which divine energy (or ‘light’, in kabbalistic terminology) devolves from higher spiritual planes to lower ones, eventually to become manifest in this physical plane of existence.34
One final note on creation, Kabbalah teaches that “The universe is not a single creation in the past but continuous creation in every moment…” Contrast that with the precise statement in Genesis which states:
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. [emphasis mine] (Gen. 2:1-2 [NASB95])
The reading in the Tanakh is similar to the NASB but replaces “completed” with “finished.” (Gen. 2:1-2 [NJPS])
The Broken World
As pointed out in the previous section, the world became broken or finite because of Adam’s transgression in the Garden of Eden. (Gen. 3:22-24 [NASB95]) Again, this exoteric understanding of the Fall of Man and its consequences as revealed in Genesis was given an esoteric interpretation in the “Lurianic Kabbala”35 as follows:
Shevirat HaKelim (Breaking of the Vessels): When God projected divine light into the empty space to form the Sefirot, the ‘vessels’ destined to contain this light could not withstand its intensity and broke, scattering sparks of sacred light that fell and mixed with fragments of the broken vessels, forming the klipot (shells) of evil. This cosmic catastrophe explains both the existence of evil and the world’s imperfection.36
Humanity’s relation to or involvement with the scattered sparks and broken vessels is discussed directly in the next section.
Tikkun and Humanity’s Task
Unless you were living under a rock in the 1970s and 80s you couldn’t avoid being bombarded with apocalyptic, end-time messaging over the radio, in movies, in books, and in church sermons. I think we have all heard about the two end-time events preceding Jesus’ return, the rapture and tribulation. In Christianity, the world keeps getting worse and worse until Jesus returns to establish His kingdom; but in Judaism, Mashiach returns after the world has achieved “Tikkun (repair)”37 by humans performing “mitzvot with appropriate intention, [which] is to elevate the fallen sparks, rescuing them from their captivity in the klipot [shells of evil] and returning them to their divine source.”38
I believe an article from the Chabad.org website sums up this concept perfectly:
Through the practice of Torah and mitzvot, the will to receive is eventually transformed into the will to give. Then the souls are able to receive all the Good that is implicit in the thought of Creation. With this, they merit to a wondrous unity with G-d, since they have earned affinity of form with their Creator through their work in Torah and mitzvot. This state is designated as the end of the healing process.39
Wrap Up and Next Steps
I’ve heard pastors refer to the Shekinah glory in sermons not realizing that the word “Shekinah” is not in the Bible but was introduced in the Zohar as representing “the feminine Divine Presence.” [emphasis mine]40
Schachter-Brooks also directly quotes the Hermetic Principle of Correspondence to describe the alignment of our Divine nature with that of God’s.41
Finally, Schachter-Brooks provides an unambiguous description of how God is understood in Kabbalah as follows:
In a non-mystical reading of this last text from the Torah, it simply means that there is only one God. But in the Tanya, the classic “bible” of Chabad Hasidism, this is understood to mean that there is only God. In other words, God is not a supreme being or supernatural entity, but is rather Existence Itself…42
The above quote flies in the face of the Christian understanding of God. So, given the Kabbalistic readings on the nature of God, is it really appropriate for Christians to use the phrase “Judeo-Christian?”
Obviously, I omitted coverage of many topics in Kabbalah such as the Tree of Life, Soul, Four Worlds, Sheol, and practices. I felt the nature of these topics justified their own installment.
Coming up next, Theosophy.
2013-2026 Gerard Sczepura. All rights reserved.
Rabbeinu Yaakov Abuchatzeira, “Mysteries and Truth: We must listen to the Kabbala as if we have seen it ourselves.,” Kabbalah Online, Transforming the Worlds – We heal the world by converting our desire to receive for ourselves alone – Chabad.org. ↩
Brian Yosef Schachter-Brooks, Kabbalah for Beginners: Understanding and Applying Kabbalistic History, Concepts, and Practices, (p. 30), Kindle Edition. ↩
Yosef Schachter-Brooks, Kabbalah for Beginners, 19. ↩
Aryeh Kaplan, “The Transmission of Kabbalah: The study of Kabbala today is a tradition dating back to the most ancient of Jewish sages.,” Kabbalah Online, The Transmission of Kabbalah – The study of Kabbala today is a tradition dating back to the most ancient of Jewish sages. – Chabad.org. ↩
Berraquero, MsStaufer. Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism: The Complete Guide to the Tree of Life, Divine Emanations, and Cosmic Repair. (p. 4). Kindle Edition. ↩
Yerachmiel Tilles, “What is Kabbalah? …And Why?,” Kabbalah Online, What is Kabbalah? …And Why? – The wondrous mysteries of Kabbalah – Chabad.org. ↩
Christian D. Ginsburg, LL.D., THE KABBALAH: Its Doctrines, Development, and Literature, Second Impression. (GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, 1920), (p. 25), PDF Edition. ↩
Simcha Benyosef, “Revealing the Concealed,” Kabbalah Online, Revealing the Concealed – As the generations unfold, greater secrets become revealed – Chabad.org. ↩
Ginsburg, THE KABBALAH: Its Doctrines, Development, and Literature, 62. ↩
Aryeh Kaplan, “The Transmission of Kabbalah,” Kabbalah Online, The Transmission of Kabbalah – The study of Kabbala today is a tradition dating back to the most ancient of Jewish sages. – Chabad.org. ↩
Yehuda Berg, Shimon bar Yochai. The Holy Zohar: The Book of Abraham, (Kabbalah Centre International, Inc., 2000), v. ↩
Berg and bar Yochai, The Holy Zohar: The Book of Abraham, v. ↩
Three Initiates, The Kybalion: Centenary Edition, (Tarcher, New York, 2018), 15. ↩
Three Initiates, The Kybalion, 15. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 155. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 155. ↩
Chabad.org, “The Shema: The Daily Declaration of Faith,” Chabad.org, The Shema – The Daily Declaration of Faith – Chabad.org. ↩
Moshe Miller, “Oneness and the Infinite: Prior to Creation, there was only the infinite revelation of G-d.,” Kabbalah Online, Oneness and the Infinite – Prior to Creation, there was only the infinite revelation of G-d. – Chabad.org. ↩
Papus (Dr. Gérard Encausse), Elementary Treatise of Occult Science: Understanding the Theories & Symbols Used by the Ancients, the Alchemists, the Astrologers, the Freemasons & the Kabbalists, trans. Mark Anthony Mikituk (Llewellyn Publications, 2018), 23. ↩
Papus, Occult Science, 30. ↩
Gerard Sczepura, “The Godhead as an Aggregate Class,” Theological Ruminations (blog), May 03, 2020, The Godhead as an Aggregate Class – Gerard Sczepura. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 155. ↩
Gerard Sczepura, “The Godhead as an Aggregate Class,” Theological Ruminations (blog), May 03, 2020, The Godhead as an Aggregate Class – Gerard Sczepura. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 157. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 157. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 157. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 166. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 164. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 162. ↩
Three Initiates, The Kybalion, 15. ↩
Three Initiates, The Kybalion, 71. ↩
Three Initiates, The Kybalion, 71. ↩
Three Initiates, The Kybalion, 72. ↩
Moshe Miller, “Contemplative vs. Practical Kabbalah,” Kabbalah Online, Contemplative vs. Practical Kabbalah – Kabbalah Iyunit and Kabbalah Maasit – Chabad.org. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 64. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 63. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 63. ↩
Berraquero, Kabbalah: The Mystical Tradition of Judaism, 63. ↩
Rabbi Yehudah Leib Ashlag, “Transforming the Worlds: We heal the world by converting our desire to receive for ourselves alone,” Kabbalah Online, Transforming the Worlds – We heal the world by converting our desire to receive for ourselves alone – Chabad.org. ↩
Schachter-Brooks, Kabbalah for Beginners, 51. ↩
Schachter-Brooks, Kabbalah for Beginners, 58. ↩
Schachter-Brooks, Kabbalah for Beginners, 63. ↩