Kabbalah

[JordanMaria]

What is it? Is it a philosophy? Is it a religion? Is it a bit of both? Is it some sort of money-making scam? (I've heard their commercials on the radio) I've been to the Kabbalah site and from what I can see it's rooted in Judaism. I know I can Google but I wanted to know if anyone here has had any experience with it.

[dramaturge]

My understanding of it is that it's essentially a mystical, philosophical Judaism. I also find, in my limited experience, that the Hollywood version is more of a feel-good, buffet-style extract of the mystical parts (rather like Hollywood Buddhism and Hollywood Hinduism). I read a little about it a few years ago, but I don't remember the specifics of what I read other than that I took away the impression that it was the mystical distillations of Judaism.

[DaisyDeadhead]

I associate it with that red string they were all wearing a few years ago. Hollywood lemmings!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_string_(Kabbalah)

The main departure from traditional Judaism is that they believe the Bible is in a "code" that must be deciphered with certain rules only known to certain wise Kabbalah people. (Something like that.)

[dramaturge]

(07-30-2012 08:47 PM)DaisyDeadhead Wrote:  I associate it with that red string they were all wearing a few years ago. Hollywood lemmings!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_string_(Kabbalah)

The main departure from traditional Judaism is that they believe the Bible is in a "code" that must be deciphered with certain rules only known to certain wise Kabbalah people. (Something like that.)

A bit gnostic, then.

[ninetythree]

Responding to a thread almost 2 years after the last comment? That's how you be classy.

I can speak from experience here, having dealt with the Kabbalah for a while. It's really just Judaic mysticism. There's an element of code to it, definitely, like numerology hooked up to the Hebrew alphabet. It stems from the literary tradition of various Rabbis who practiced it, as well as the original, apocryphal text, Sepher Yetzirah, rumored to have been written by Moses, whether or not you buy that. It describes the process of creation in symbolic detail, speaking of the ten attributes of God, or Sephiroth, which lay like veils between physical creation and God. There are also four levels of existence, according to the Kabbalah, which correspond to four parts of the human soul, starting with the Nephesh (animal soul, Id, corrupted human nature, instinct, etc) and moving up to the Yechida, or union with God, the breath that was breathed into Adam.

Outside of traditional, gender-specific Kabbalah, it's mainly used by Western Occult lodges. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was especially famous for it. It's a key element in religions like Thelema, where it is used as a meditaiton tool to symbolize the psychological effects of the divinity systems being impressed upon the mind.

I love when the useless stuff I know can seem relevant.