The word Kabbalah designates the mysteries of the Jewish mystic tradition. The kabbalah is both theoretical philosophy and a practice close to that of meditation. It is a path to spiritual elevation, a mystique. Many practitioners of the Kabbalah believe it to have been brought down from heaven by angels to teach the first man, after his fall, how to recover his primal nobility and harmony. The kabbalah embraces a tremendous, detailed and consistent vision of one’s relationship with the universe. It consists of specific methods to help us to go beyond our normal level of consciousness and discover another light, deep within ourselves, that will lead us far beyond the commonplace of our daily life. It also seeks to reveal the true relationship between God, man, and the universe.
The word kabbalah comes from the Hebrew qabbalah. It is derived from the verb leqabbel, which means “to receive or to take upon”. This refers to “receiving” the hidden mystical truths behind Jewish thinking and Jewish Traditions. There is no universally accepted form of Hebrew translation into the Latin alphabet. Authors of kabbalistic works have used a variety of spellings including Kabbalah, Kabala, Cabala, Cabbalah and Kabalah.
Kabala is based on mystical interpretations of the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) as well as the rest of the Old Testament. Its premises is that there are secret and hidden meanings in the biblical text that can be discovered by examining the shape of Hebrew letters, the gemetria (the study of the numeric equivalents of Hebrew and Greek letters in order to find hidden meanings in the words) of words and how these word values relate to each other. Kabbalah is being studied by many people all over the world including famous celebrities. Jewish mysticism has begun to attract the attention of the masses as they search for hidden wisdom and meaning in turbulent times.
Who is a kabbalist?
A kabbalist is a person who is accepted to receive Kabbalistic knowledge, and is able to hold it by following the path of Torah and rightness. The Hebrew word for a kabbalist is mequbal (“accepted by the group”). A kabbalist is a “master”, an expert of the Cabala. The master has the right and the obligation to teach and to make legal judgments. For a student to be promoted to the rank of a master, for him to receive authorization to teach Torah, to lead the people, and to decide any judicial matter, he must first provide a proof of his lucidity of mind and capacity for initiative. Only than can the ceremony of initiation take place. The Kabbalist must constantly strengthen himself and the people around him. He is a spiritual person who will give the utmost importance to the higher meaning of things, and continually try to advance in his learning. For him, the main goal of his existence is to get closer to the creator and serve him to the best of his possibilities.
