What Is Kabbalah?

The Jewish mystical tradition — the inner Torah, esoteric and beautiful, central since the 13th century.

By The Editors

Diving Deeper · 3 minute read

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Summary. Kabbalah (literally “that which is received”) is the Jewish mystical tradition. Its core text is the Zohar (13th century, traditionally attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai of the 2nd century, critically attributed to Rabbi Moshe de Leon of 13th-century Spain). The system of the ten Sefirot, the doctrine of Ein Sof, the practice of meditative intentions (kavvanot) in prayer, and the cosmic drama of tzimtzum, shevirat hakelim, and tikkun are its distinctive teachings. Lurianic Kabbalah (16th-century Safed) is the dominant form. Kabbalah is the inner Torah; the outer Torah remains its precondition.

The Texts

Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation) — the earliest mystical text, possibly 2nd century CE, treating the creation through 10 sefirot and 22 letters.

Sefer haBahir (Book of Brightness) — 12th-century Provence; the earliest Kabbalistic text proper, the first to teach the Sefirot in their developed form.

Zohar (Book of Splendor) — the central work, traditionally Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, critically Rabbi Moshe de Leon, late 13th century Spain. The Pritzker Edition (translated by Daniel Matt) is the great contemporary scholarly translation.

Etz Chaim — the systematic exposition of Lurianic Kabbalah, compiled by Rabbi Chaim Vital from the teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Arizal).

Sha’ar haGilgulim — the Lurianic Gate of Reincarnations.

Tanya — Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi’s philosophical exposition of Chabad Kabbalah.

The Sefirot

The ten Sefirot are the divine attributes through which Ein Sof (the unknowable infinite) becomes knowable and through which the world is created and sustained. They are: Keter (Crown), Chochmah (Wisdom), Binah (Understanding), Chesed (Loving-kindness), Gevurah (Severity/Strength), Tiferet (Beauty/Truth), Netzach (Eternity/Endurance), Hod (Splendor), Yesod (Foundation), Malchut (Kingship). The Sefirot are arranged in a tree-shaped diagram (the Etz Chaim) familiar from any Kabbalistic image. They are not separate beings; they are the modes through which the One acts.

The Lurianic Drama

The Arizal’s system: tzimtzum (divine contraction making space for finite being), shevirat hakelim (the shattering of the vessels of creation as the divine light overflowed), the scattering of the sparks into the realms of impurity (klipot), and the work of tikkun (repair) accomplished through the mitzvot of every Jew.

How to Begin

The traditional injunction is to study Kabbalah only after age 40, after thorough grounding in Tanakh, Mishnah, and Talmud, and ideally with a teacher. This is sound advice. For an introduction without violating that injunction: read Arthur Green’s A Guide to the Zohar, Daniel Matt’s The Essential Kabbalah, or DovBer Pinson’s introductions. For the meditative dimension, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s Jewish Meditation and Meditation and the Bible are excellent.

Where Denominations Diverge

Kabbalah is foundational in Hasidic Judaism, central in Sephardic Judaism, and historically respected though not always central in Lithuanian Mitnagdic Judaism (the Vilna Gaon himself was a master Kabbalist). Conservative thought has engaged Kabbalah seriously through Heschel and others. Reform classically rejected Kabbalah as obscurantist; current Reform is increasingly hospitable. Renewal Judaism is the most explicitly Kabbalistic of the non-Orthodox movements. Madonna’s Kabbalah Centre and similar enterprises are not regarded as serious Kabbalah by any traditional authority.

Sources

Zohar (Pritzker Edition, trans. Daniel Matt, 12 vols.).

Arizal (via Chaim Vital), Etz Chaim; Sha’ar haGilgulim.

Sefer Yetzirah; Sefer haBahir.

Shneur Zalman of Liadi, Tanya.

Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism.

Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives.