What is Kabbalah?

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slinky1882:
I believe it is a branch of Jewish mysticism. Below is a link on the basics. Hope this helps. Thanks and God Bless.

kabbalah.info/index.php
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Nothing to purports to offer on-line classes in kabbalah can be taken seriously. What’s next? Celebrity endorsements from Madonna?

– Mark L. Chance.
 
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mlchance:
Nothing to purports to offer on-line classes in kabbalah can be taken seriously.
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I’m not endorsing the kabbalah, but what’s wrong with online learning? I teach web design at a community college and most of my program is offered exclusively online. I’m currently completely a masters degree in online learning. It is a powerful way to teach, and has several pedegogical benefits over traditional classroom learning. So I don’t see the logic in dismissing classes on kabbalah simply on the basis that the classes are online.
 
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petra:
I’m not endorsing the kabbalah, but what’s wrong with online learning? I teach web design at a community college and most of my program is offered exclusively online. I’m currently completely a masters degree in online learning. It is a powerful way to teach, and has several pedegogical benefits over traditional classroom learning. So I don’t see the logic in dismissing classes on kabbalah simply on the basis that the classes are online.
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Not necessarily bad, but online classes won’t work for some things… can you imagine learning martial arts, for example, online?
 
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exoflare:
Not necessarily bad, but online classes won’t work for some things… can you imagine learning martial arts, for example, online?
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Of course not–because martial arts is a physical activity. But just about anything else can be learned online very effectively.
 
Kaballism is pretty similar to Gnosticism in a lot of respects. Wikipedia always has great answers for questions like these…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaballism &
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism

Just don’t take any of this stuff seriously. It’s 100% heresy. The central point of most mystic practices is that the earth is evil and that the spiritual world is good, which is contrary to the teachings of the Bible. Most mystical religions claim that the earth was created by Satan to help keep humans from their divine nature (yes, it teaches humans are divine).
 
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petra:
Of course not–because martial arts is a physical activity. But just about anything else can be learned online very effectively.
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I’m not very clear on what Kaballah is, but I thought it was somewhat of a physical activity too. :confused: Who knows, I guess I’m way off.
 
It’s not a physical activity, but it’s not something that can just be taught online, either. One has to be above a certain age, be male, be Jewish, and have a firm grounding in the teachings of the Midrash. I believe you also have to be under direct tutorship by Orthodox Rabbis who meet certain requirements as well. It’s not something you can just “sign up” for.

Besides, there’s simply no way to condense the Zohar, the key text of Kabbalah. You can’t make it easily digestable for an online teaching format, and it’s about the size of an encyclopedia, IIRC. It’s heavy, heavy stuff.
 
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mlchance:
Nothing to purports to offer on-line classes in kabbalah can be taken seriously. What’s next? Celebrity endorsements from Madonna?

– Mark L. Chance.
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As with all sources, you can glean the bits and pieces. I never posted it as authoritative but merely having some basic, basic background in some of the articles. Thanks and God Bless.
 
Sounds yummy!

Like cabbage and sasuage in like a pie crust! or such.

:bounce:
 
Hi all!

You’re welcome Fieryjades! I’m glad to be of service.

Be well!

ssv 👋
 
My understanding is that the Kabbalah that Madonna and other celebrities follow in Hollywood is a corruption of the true Kabbalah. Seeing Britney Spears wearing Ugg boots and a t-shirt reading, “Addicted to Kabbalah” is not exactly a spiritual moment for me.
 
There is a Catholic Kabbalistic thread from the Renaissance. People like pico della Mirandola refer to it directly and in positive terms, and others such as John of the Cross seem to be aware of Kabbalistic concepts. Mirandola was disliked by the Pope, but not for the Kabbalistic ideas he promulgated. I think a lot of Kabbalistic thinking can be found in many Catholic theologians and certainly artists and architects.

In a nutshell, Kabbalah is a philosophy of religion that contains elements of Egyptian/Hermetic thought and is applicable to both Jewish and Christian doctrine. It is very intellectually demanding and has so many branches that I’ve taken 15 years to sort decent sources from bad ones.

The main public proponents of Kabbalah in recent centuries have been either occultists or charlatans. I would generally recommend avoiding it unless you run across Christian Kabbalism via a deep study of Renaissance theology from a Catholic perspective, in which case you may find that some of the concepts of Kabbalah help with scriptural interpretation of number symbols (it’ll give you a whole new perspective on the book of Daniel) or application of scripture to daily life.

The modern pop Kaballah is all about a few “rabbis” making tons of money. It’s total garbage to be avoided at all costs.

Peace, love and blessings,
Seraphim S.
 
Just don’t take any of this stuff seriously. It’s 100% heresy. The central point of most mystic practices is that the earth is evil and that the spiritual world is good, which is contrary to the teachings of the Bible. Most mystical religions claim that the earth was created by Satan to help keep humans from their divine nature (yes, it teaches humans are divine).

What Kabbalah are you thinking of? Because that does make a difference. Are you thinking of the distorted, disciplineless, “new age” Kabbalah of Madonna and other celebrities. Or are you actually thinking of the disciplined, tradition Kabbalah that has been in practice for centuries. And What about the mystical traditions within your own faith. Are Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and so many other SAINTS heretics? And also If the practicioners of kabbalah and Gnostism aren’t Catholic to begin with, it isn’t heresy.
 
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