This is an expansive question!!! Multiple thousands of volumes, books, and articles, in print and digital, have been written about kabbalah. It is one of the most complex, convoluted systems of Jewish thinking, truly understood by few, and lived by even fewer. I am told by one who had Rebbe Gelberman for a teacher that he referred to Kabbalah as a system of Jewish theology.
In Hebrew, Kabbalah literally means “receiving.” The term Kabbalah is applied to a particular stream of Jewish religious thought that reached its fullest development in 16th century Safed, and its goal is to penetrate beneath the surface of everyday reality, to explore, and possibly influence, unseen spiritual worlds, and to grasp, through mystical meditation, inquiry, and the study of sacred texts, deeper meanings which are said to lead one to the ultimate meaning and purpose of life.
The Jewish tradition has three levels of intensity when it comes to spiritual teachings. First and primarily, there is the written Torah, which commonly refers to the first 5 books of the Hebrew Scriptures, but more loosely also refers to the books of the Prophets and the Holy Writings, known as TaNaKh, or the Hebrew Bible.
Secondly, there is the Talmud, which comprises the accumulated commentaries on the Mishnah as well as the comments on and discussions surrounding the Mishnah, known as the Gemara, and the Midrash. These, although now in written form, are known as the Oral Torah or the Oral traditions. The purpose of the Oral traditions is to explain the inner layers of the Torah. Torah scholar and kabbalist Akiva Tatz, in his book, Worldmask, explains that the purpose of the Oral traditions is to explain the inner layers of the Torah, revealing its spiritual core.
The third level of intensity is referred to as the Kabbalah. The Zohar is the major source of Kabbalistic commentary on the Written Torah. From the perspective of the Zohar, the stories and parables are considered as symbolic reflections of the metaphysical sphere through which one can perceive the divine and hidden mysteries of the universe. Rabbi Shimon Leiberman writes, “Kabbalah is to Torah what philosophy is to science.” The role of Kabbalah is to bridge the gap between the physical world of “how” and the spiritual world of “why”. Kabbalah uses the metaphor of the root and the branch to describe this phenomenon, with the tree upside-down, where the root is in the upper level, while the branches constitute the lower level. This language of the Kabbalists reflects the belief that there is nothing in our world which does not derive from the world above.
Kabbalists assert that the Torah has two dimensions:
1. The body of the Torah, comprising the manifestation of the laws and will of G!d for our ultimate and absolute good in this world and all worlds.
2. The soul of the Torah, being the inner dimension, the Kabbalah, comprising the comprehension of the “secrets” of creation, that is, the manner or mode in which G!d is said to work in creation.
As to the origin of the Kabbalah, Rabbi H Geffen writes that the Kabbalah originated with the Essenes, and also with the initiated Talmudists, who arranged Kabbalistic schools that followed Akiba and Simon Ben Yochai, who consolidated it into a scientific system in the two books, Yetzirah and Zohar.The most ancient and most comprehensive of the two is Sefer Yetzirah, attributed to Abraham, but written down by Rabbi Akiba. It sets forth the principal symbol of the Kabbalah which is Etz Hayim (the “Tree of Life”).
Rebbe Gelberman wrote that, “the study of Kabbalah is a lifelong commitment. It is a complex metaphysical system that includes the use of numbers – gematria – and the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which are considered sacred by the Kabblistic mystics. True Kabbalah is concerned with coming close to G!d, the divine creator of the universe….Basically, the Kabbalah teaches us that our mission on earth is to be in partnership with G!d. We are shutafim Elohim. We are in partnership with G!d. Indeed, the purpose of Kabbalah is to become one as a partner with G!d in the creative process of life itself, which is to make the world a dwelling place for G!d’s Infinite Light and G!d’s Absolute Essence.”
But who, or what, according to Kabbalistic teaching, is this “G!d”? According to Kabbalah, G!d, also known as Ein Sof or “the Infinite”, cannot be comprehended by humans. Rabbi David A Cooper replies, “What is G!d?…Our perception of G!d usually leads to a misunderstanding that seriously undermines our spiritual development. G!d is not what we think It is. G!d is not a thing, a being, a noun. …Ein Sof should never be conceptualized in any way….The closest thing we can come to thinking about G!d is as a process rather than a being.” Ein-Sof must be constantly redefined, as by its very nature, it is in a constant process of self-creation and redefinition. Martin Buber writes that G!d is an inner potentiality in us.
Although G!d is said to be essentially unknowable, there are various ways in which, according to the Kabbalists, we can come to understand certain aspects of G!d’s being. Kabbalah posits that G!d can be understood and described as revealed in ten mystical attributes, or sefirot, also referred to as the Tree of Life. In the Kabbalistic view, the sefirot make it possible for an infinite and transcendental G!d to interact with creation. In essence, the sefirot act as filters, garments or vessels for the light of the Infinite Creator to dwell within us.
These sefirot are presented as the Tree of Life, and viewed as a graphic representation of the blueprint of creation, commonly represented by an illustration of ten (sometimes eleven) drawings of circles. Schematically, the sefirot are drawn in three vertical lines. The center is the trunk, representing four (or five) sefirot. Two vertical branches, one on either side of the trunk, represent three sefirot each. The system is complex. The Sefer Yetzirah uses language like, “These are the ten sefirot of nothingness: the breath of the living G!d; breath from breath; water from breath; fire from water; up, down, east, west, north, south.” Read literally, the first sefirah is the breath of G!d, the second is breath caused by this breath, the third is water, fourth is fire, followed by six directions; ten sefirot in all.
The Hebrew names usually given to the ten sefirot are: keter (crown), chochma (wisdom), binah (understanding), chesed (loving kindness), gevurah (strength), tiferet (beauty), netzach (triumph/dominance), hod (grandeur/empathy), yesod (foundation), and malkhut (sovereignty). As keter is ineffable and inaccessible, an additional sefirah called da’at (knowledge) is often added to the list so that there are ten working attributes.
The Tree of Life has ten primordial elements, based on the opening to the Torah, in which there are ten statements that use the words vay’omer elohim (“And Elohim said...”). These ten statements are considered to be divine emanations out of which the world was created. Each emanation is an archetype, which in combination with other emanations provides the mystical elements necessary to form everything in creation, whether physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual. The emanations are referred to as sefirot (numbers) because every possible number in creation is a combination of the ten basic numbers from zero to nine. Kabbalists believe that every time the number ten is written in the Torah, it is related in some way to the Tree of Life. Ten plagues in the story of Exodus, ten commandments, ten days of judgment from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur. Even the fact that we have ten fingers and ten toes is related to the Tree of Life.
According to the kabbalists of Safed, each of the ten sefirot contains within it all of the others; that is, each sefirah represents a piece of a totality and contains an image of this totality within itself. By understanding their interrelationship, we can understand in some small way the process of The Creation itself. Rebbe Gelberman reminded us that, “The Tree of Life blooms because it is in harmony. It teaches us a lesson about the great value of staying in balance. Harmony comes when resistance is faced with love instead of confronted with opposition. …The Crown represents the highest divinity – all that G!d is as a metaphysical concept. And since, according to the Kabbalistic tradition, you and G!d are always in a partnership, then the Crown also represents you.”
The Kabbalah also places considerable emphasis on what is known as the “Shekhinah”, which relates to the feminine aspect of G!d as well as Divine Immanence. In the imagery of the Kabbalah, the shekhinah is the most overtly female sefirah, and the last of the ten sefirot. The harmonious, interactive relationship between the female shekhinah and the six sefirot which precede her causes the world itself to be sustained by the flow of divine energy. It is a Hebrew word meaning “to settle, inhabit, or dwell,” referring to the dwelling or settling, or sometimes even hovering quality, of the divine presence of G!d. The Shekhinah is the feminine aspect of the Divine Presence. This term does not occur in the Bible, coming from rabbinic literature.
The word for the Tabernacle, mishkan, is a derivative of the same root, and is used in the sense of dwelling-place in the Bible. One of our most well-known Jewish songs, often used to open our liturgical gatherings, Mah Tovu (which comes from Numbers 24:5: “How beautiful are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling places, Israel!”), uses the word mishkenotecha, which means “your dwelling places.” Accordingly, in classic Jewish thought, the Shekhinah refers to a dwelling or settling in a special sense, a dwelling or settling of divine presence.
In the Mishna, the noun is used twice: once by Rabbi Hananiah ben Teradion (c. 135 CE): “If two sit together and the words between them are of the Torah, then the Shekhinah is in their midst”; and Rabbi Halafta ben Dosa: “If ten men sit together and occupy themselves with the Law, the Shekhinah rests among them.” In the Talmud Sanhedrin 39a, we find, “Whenever ten are gathered for prayer, there the Shekhinah rests”. In Talmud tractate Berachot 6a, it is connected to righteous judgment: “when three sit as judges, the Shekhinah is with them.”
The 17th blessing of the daily Amidah prayer said in Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform services is “Blessed are You, Adonai, who returns [His] Presence (shekhinato) to Zion.”
The theme of the Shekhinah as the Sabbath Bride occurs in the writings and songs of 16th century Kabbalist, Rabbi Isaac Luria. A paragraph in the Zohar states: “One must prepare a comfortable seat with several cushions and embroidered covers, from all that is found in the house, like one who prepares a canopy for a bride. For the Shabbat is a queen and a bride. This is why the masters of the Mishna used to go out on the eve of Shabbat to receive her on the road, and used to say: ‘Come, O bride, come, O bride!’And one must sing and rejoice at the table in her honor ... one must receive the Lady with many lighted candles, many enjoyments, beautiful clothes, and a house embellished with many fine appointments...” This tradition of the Shekhinah as the Shabbat Bride continues, especially among the more traditional.
The Qur’an mentions the Sakina, or Tranquility, referring to G!d’s blessing of solace upon both the Children of Israel and Muhammad. The word and concept of Shekhinah is also present in some gnostic writings written in Aramaic, such as the writings of the Manichaeans and the Mandaeans, and others. In these writings, shekinas are described as hidden aspects of G!d, somewhat resembling the Amahrāspandan of the Zoroastrians. Maimonides regarded the Shekinah as a distinct entity, and as a light created to be an intermediary between G!d and the world, while Nachmanides considered it the essence of G!d as manifested in a distinct form.
The Renewal movement within Judaism draws especially on the kabbalistic idea of the Shekhinah as the female aspect of G!d. However, the focus in Jewish Renewal kabbalah on the “divine feminine” as a model of egalitarianism has not been met without controversy, and has been criticized by several scholars with a more gender-rigid perspective. Dr. Sharon Koren, in The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, reminds us that “The Zohar is the product of a 13th century worldview. Its author, Moses de Leon, and his circle lived in a world in which women’s physical and intellectual inferiority was believed to have been proven scientifically. It would have been inconceivable for them to develop a mythology of the Shechinah that defied societal norms. Hence, the Shechinah is most often represented as a passive vessel with ‘nothing of her own.’ When she acts righteously, she sometimes changes gender and becomes male; when she comes under the sway of the sitra achra, she always remains female. …The Shechinah as caring mother, basing the Omer on a female biological function, and the notion of the giving of Torah as a birth are notions that we can reclaim and make our own. The notion that the Shechinah gave birth to the Torah tablets gives an entirely new meaning to the notion of ‘Torah from Sinai.’ Indeed, I believe that the custom of eating dairy on Shavuot can be traced to this very myth. After all, dairy foods symbolize the lactating Shechinah who nourishes her children Israel with the Torah.”
Kabbalists, along with others devoted to esoteric spirituality, insist that the Scriptures must be interpreted allegorically and spiritually. Reincarnation (transmigration of souls) is one of the more mystical kabbalistic doctrines, something that is alluded to in the prayer known as “The Bedtime Sh’ma.” This is witness to how deeply kabbalah teachings have seeped into the Jewish soul.
The basic purpose of the kabbalah is the refinement of one’s personality and character traits through drawing closer to this G!d whose attributes are manifest and revealed in reality. The study of kabbalah is ultimately directed at the Divinity of G!d, so as to be able to emulate G!d in our lives. The idea is that the more one studies Kabbalah properly, the closer one comes to G!d, and the more one refines one’s character.
There is a saying in kabbalah, adapted from the Zohar: “G!d is concealed from our minds, but revealed to our hearts”. Rebbe Gelberman asserts that “Basically, the kabbalah teaches us that our mission on earth is to be in partnership with G!d. We are shutafim Elohim. We are in partnership with G!d. Indeed, the purpose of kabbalah is to become one as a partner with G!d in the creative process of life itself, which is to make the world a dwelling place for G!d’s Infinite Light and G!d’s Absolute Essence.” That’s as simple as it gets.
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