Compiled By S. E. Ray

Kabbalah means "to receive" or "to accept." It is believed that when Moses brought the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai he also brought with him oral law, or Kabbalah. People who know this secret oral tradition claim to know the true meaning of the Torah, which has hidden messages. Therefore, the main principles of Kabbalah are a belief in the divinity of the Torah and that by studying the Torah you can understand the creation of the world.

Qabalah (modern "cultic" spelling, also known as Hermetic Qabalah), Kabbalah (traditional Jewish spelling), Cabala (Christian spelling) are all acceptable spellings and merely transliterations of the word in Hebrew. Isaac the Blind is considered the Father of Kabbalah traced back to the first century A.D. The first Kabbalistic ideas emerged in ancient times as an attempt by the Merkabah mystics to reach what they called the "higher throne" of God.

The movements sacred texts include the: Torah or the Five Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), Sepher Yetzirah or the Book of Formation (c. first century A.D.), Bahir (12th Century), Sepher ha Zohar or the Book of Splendour by Moses de Leon of Spain (late 13th century), Key of Solomon (Middle Ages). This text is considered part of the magical aspect of Qabalah, which is not accepted by mainstream Kabbalists.

In a today’s “me centered” society, people are seeking their inner-self by means of various paths of mysticism. They desire self-awareness, a spiritual consciousness by every method possible. Kabbalists believe that much of the world is unexplainable to humans who exist in one level of consciousness. Therefore, they seek to enter other levels of spirituality by detailed study of the Torah. Kabbalists believe the answers to all human perplexities can be found in this most sacred work, but the answers are hidden within a complex network of codes and symbols. Not only is the Torah all-encompassing, it is also dynamic, meaning God continues to create.

The main issues that must be addressed when studying the Kabbalah is the nature of God, the creation of the Universe, the destiny of man in the world, the nature of evil, and the ultimate meaning of the Written law. The major teachings of the Kabbalah are:

1) God did not create the world directly, since He is above all existence; He is the Eternal, the En Sof (the “Endless”); the world and all higher and lower forms of life and conduct are emanations proceeding from God and then from one another, from the more spiritual to the less spiritual. The Ten Spheres (Sefirot) emanated in the following descending order, each succeeding one from the preceding one: Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence, Greatness, Strength, Beauty, Firmness, Splendor, Foundation, and Kingdom. The last Sphere, “Kingdom,” created the physical world. Through these Spheres God rules the world and through them are explained all His activities.

2) Everything that exists is part of Deity, and man can achieve union with God through his acts of piety and moral conduct. Through the observance of the commandments every Jew can influence the Spheres, which, in turn, can influence God in behalf of mankind. The Jewish people were chosen to preserve the world by strict observance of the Law.

3) Man is judged by his soul, which is the most important part of his being. All souls were created at the same time during Creation, and the soul, which remains pure after its contact with the body, becomes after death a part of the world ruled by the Ten Spheres. The impure of contaminated souls must, after death, reinhabit another body, and continue to migrate from body to body, until they have been purified.

4) Evil does not exist in itself but is the negation of good, and can be overcome by prayer, repentance, self-affliction and strict observance of the Law.

5) The text of the Bible is filled with hidden meanings. Although written in the language of man, its words contain divine and mysterious concepts that man should strive to uncover. The Kabbalists, therefore, employed different techniques by which they tried to discover the hidden and divine meanings of Biblical terms.

Essentially, the foundational teachings of the Kabbalah system are a complete departure from what is written and understood by Christendom. Even though aspects of the system does hold true, the essence of it is garnered from false systems stemming from the first recorded departure from the true God to worship of the sun god Nimrod. Nothing is new under the sun; Satan continues to propogate in all manner of disguises. His kingdom flourishes and beckons the undiscerning who are hasty to respond.