What is Kabbalah

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Frankenfurter

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Please help me understand what is Kabbalah?

I have a friend who has embraced this. I really don’t know what it is.

Legit answers please?!?
 
I’m pretty sure that it is something like Jewish mysticism. As relatively harmless as that may sound, it is basically a “new age” practice which basically means that it is occult and not good at all for the soul.

Encourage your friend to give up these sorts of occult practices!

That’s what I have off the top of my head. Hopefully someone with fuller knowledge than I have will post, but maybe if you do a Wikipedia search, you can find something…

Peace,

J. S. Sebastiano P.
 
The Church has published a “Christian reflection on the ‘new age’”: vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html, referenced here on Wikipedia.

While containing what looks like only one reference to kabbalah, the document is a critique from the Church of what is wrong with the new age mindset that I would think would usually precede an interest in Kabbalah.

I have seen a loved one walk down this path starting with what seemed like innocent alternative medicine, become involved with reiki and all sorts of evil practices such as dowsing (using a pendulum). In fact, they are so demonic in origin that I wonder if I should try to have an exorcism done.

There is a woman by the name of Sharon Lee Giganti, I believe, who was involved with this kind of stuff. Her website: newagedeception.com/new/, even though it may not explicitly mention kabbala should be a good resource for Catholics on how to fight new age ism.

Peace,

J. S. Sebastiano P.
 
Frankenfurter said:
Please help me understand what is Kabbalah?

I have a friend who has embraced this. I really don’t know what it is.

Legit answers please?!?
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I’m not an expert on Kabbalah teaching, but I do know it involves several layers of interpretative textual and contextual analysis of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), rabbinical writings, and, particularly, the Torah (Pentateuch). I don’t believe it is required study for Torah Judaism, but it can be helpful in understanding the deeper meanings of Torah, the Hebrew Bible, and Judaism in general. Once upon a time, it may have been regarded as heretical, but I don’t think it is considered so today among Torah Jews. I would also advise a Wikipedia search, as well as asking on the Orthodox Jewish Forum (Hashkafa.com) since there may be some knowledgeable people there who study it.
 
JSSebastianoP said:
As relatively harmless as that may sound, it is basically a “new age” practice which basically means that it is occult and not good at all for the soul.
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It seems that perhaps I should have said “it is basically treated as” a new age practice by many who are “into” that…

Peace,

J. S. Sebastiano P.
 
JSSebastianoP said:
It seems that perhaps I should have said “it is basically treated as” a new age practice by many who are “into” that…

Peace,

J. S. Sebastiano P.
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Ayup.

I had to an academic study of Jewish mysticism when i was much younger. Kabbalah has been around for a very long time. I mean heck, it could call more than 1/2 of our own spirituality traditions within the Church “New Age” if we were simply going on age alone.

Like traditional Buddhism and Hinduism however, it has been expropriated by individuals in the modern era for their own ends.

You’ll always notice that the stern moral/ethical/disciplinary training and age limits that come with these systems of thought are chucked out the window and commodified when absorbed by the “New Age” movement.

I find it rather sad and ironic that many Catholics when encountering these ideas tend to chalk them up to this “New Age” mentality, never bothering to ask what the traditional adherents thought about in the first place.

More often than not they are just as appalled…and disapproving of what has occurred.
 
MatteoRicci said:
Ayup.

I find it rather sad and ironic that many Catholics when encountering these ideas tend to chalk them up to this “New Age” mentality, never bothering to ask what the traditional adherents thought about in the first place.

More often than not they are just as appalled…and disapproving of what has occurred.
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My friend is Jewish, and her family has embraced Kabbalah for many generations I understand. I don’t think of her involvement as New Age.

I am interested in understanding this faith tradition. It brings her great peace and she is a dear friend. Whenever she sends me little notes from her tradition they seem all too, well Catholic. Somehow, we Jews and Catholics are the same thing. I just don’t know what is Kabbalah vs Judaism?!?
 
Frankenfurter said:
My friend is Jewish, and her family has embraced Kabbalah for many generations I understand. I don’t think of her involvement as New Age.

I am interested in understanding this faith tradition. It brings her great peace and she is a dear friend. Whenever she sends me little notes from her tradition they seem all too, well Catholic. Somehow, we Jews and Catholics are the same thing. I just don’t know what is Kabbalah vs Judaism?!?
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Your thinking about it a little off.

It isn’t so much “Kabbbalah vs. Judaism” anymore than its “Ignatian spirituality vs. Catholicism.”

Kabbalah is Rabbinic Judaism’s esoteric side, with roots in early forms of judaic mysticism dating back to the 2nd Temple period and even earlier. What most traditional Kabbalists study however is the codification and explication of those ideas that occurred somewhere between the 10th-13th centuries.

And that usually requires a strong foundation in the knowledge of the Torah.
 
MatteoRicci said:
And that usually requires a strong foundation in the knowledge of the Torah.
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Which is probably ignored by most people who like to take those ideas and manipulate them towards new age ism…

Peace,

J. S. Sebastiano P.
 
The Qaballah is a tool rooted in Jewish mysticism that assists “union with God” through a “construct” called the Tree of Life. It it consists of spheres of influence of the various “energies” emminating from God…Ain Soph Aur…“Light beyond Limitless Light”.

There are 10 “sephirots” and there are “paths” between them which one meditates upon “traveling the paths”.

I believe the Zohar is the main text that gets into depth.

As I understand is was becoming a predominant aspect of European Judaism before the Holocaust…where most of the great teachers of Holy Qaballah were killed.

A man could not study Qaballah until he turned 30 years of age and had a qualified “teacher”…“spiritual advisor”…'rabbi" to instruct him.

It was adopted by those of the “Esoteric Western Traditions” and incorporated into New Age mysticism.
 
Frankenfurter said:
My friend is Jewish, and her family has embraced Kabbalah for many generations I understand. I don’t think of her involvement as New Age.

I am interested in understanding this faith tradition. It brings her great peace and she is a dear friend. Whenever she sends me little notes from her tradition they seem all too, well Catholic. Somehow, we Jews and Catholics are the same thing. I just don’t know what is Kabbalah vs Judaism?!?
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If I had a friend like yours, I would just take advantage of the situation and learn from her. I think that would be great. I’d sure like to know more. What little I have seen of it is very interesting. Won’t your friend help you out?

Your friend
Sufjon
 
Publisher said:
As I understand is was becoming a predominant aspect of European Judaism before the Holocaust…where most of the great teachers of Holy Qaballah were killed.
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Yes her roots go back to these times with tragic stories from the holocaust in Poland.

I was wondering, would it be correct to say that someone is a Kabbalah Jew? Like saying one is a Saphardic Jew?

And I suppose after Madonna said she was into Kabbalah, which was most people’s first hearing of the word, the whole thing took a strange turn in popular culture. I’m having a hard time seeing Madonna as a serious student of the Torah. But some of her music’s not bad.
 
Frankenfurter said:
Yes her roots go back to these times with tragic stories from the holocaust in Poland.

I was wondering, would it be correct to say that someone is a Kabbalah Jew? Like saying one is a Saphardic Jew?

And I suppose after Madonna said she was into Kabbalah, which was most people’s first hearing of the word, the whole thing took a strange turn in popular culture. I’m having a hard time seeing Madonna as a serious student of the Torah. But some of her music’s not bad.
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I too have difficulty seeing Madonna pouring over and analyzing the writings of and rabbinical commentaries on the Torah, much less the multi-layered complexities of Kabbalah. That was one of her many career reincarnations; I wonder what she’s into nowadays. But, as you say, some of her music is all right, compared to, say, her imitator, Lady Gaga! (It just gets worse and worse, musically speaking.)

A Kabbalah Jew? I don’t know if there is such an animal. I think most Jews who study Kabbalah relate it to other teachings of Judaism. But a Kabbalah New Ager, that’s a different story.
 
meltzerboy said:
I too have difficulty seeing Madonna pouring over and analyzing the writings of and rabbinical commentaries on the Torah, much less the multi-layered complexities of Kabbalah. That was one of her many career reincarnations; I wonder what she’s into nowadays. But, as you say, some of her music is all right, compared to, say, her imitator, Lady Gaga! (It just gets worse and worse, musically speaking.)

A Kabbalah Jew? I don’t know if there is such an animal. I think most Jews who study Kabbalah relate it to other teachings of Judaism. But a Kabbalah New Ager, that’s a different story.
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As JSSebastianoP and Producer et al. have pointed out - Kabbalah’s modern day study seems to be abit skewed in a certain direction.

As for Madonna, there was actually an interview with more traditional kabbalistic scholars residing in Jerusalem around the time when her stardom first catapulted the organization she is a part of into the limelight.

Suffice it to say, they did not approve…
 
I’m probably not expressing this correctly, but my friend always talks about how music and sounds themselves are holy.

I resonate with this and understand it, partly because I know that Jesus is the living word of God. When I hear the Gospels spoken in words at church, reverberating through the hall, and I think of how Christ said that whenever two or more are gathered in my name, I am there, it seems to me that he is there in the sounds themselves.

I much prefer to hear the scripture read out loud then to read them.

I have learned something of Christ’s meaning from my Kabbalah friend I think.

I am comforted to know that this Kabbalah stuff is not just the New Age thing. Thanks for that.
 
Frankenfurter said:
Yes her roots go back to these times with tragic stories from the holocaust in Poland.

I was wondering, would it be correct to say that someone is a Kabbalah Jew? Like saying one is a Saphardic Jew?

And I suppose after Madonna said she was into Kabbalah, which was most people’s first hearing of the word, the whole thing took a strange turn in popular culture. I’m having a hard time seeing Madonna as a serious student of the Torah. But some of her music’s not bad.
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A Sephardic Jew traces their ancestry to Spain (Jews having been expelling in 1492), so that’s an ethnic/geographical category, whereas kabbalah is more akin to a particular branch of study or discipline within Judaism. Certainly not every Jews studies kabbalah, but it would not be considered outside of mainstream Judaism. As others have noted, it’s neither “new age” nor new.

Basically, Kabbalah looks for mystical/spiritual meanings in the torah using techniques that are similar in many ways to midrashic interpretation.
 
Frankenfurter said:
Midrashic?
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Midrash is a particular way of interpreting the Bible that assumes that each word (down to the letter and the vowels used) has a divine purpose and meaning and that the entire Hebrew Bible is one long divine speech–so it’s quite a bit different from what we would think of as a “plain sense” interpretation. These mystical “hidden meanings” are explicated in midrashic interpretation.
 
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