Other Sects and Teachers

Kabbala (Mystical Judaism)

    This is the esoteric offshoot of Judaism. One of its main sacred texts is called the Zohar. Some propose this book was authored by Rabbi Simeon Ben Yohai in the second century A.D. Others contend it was authored by a group of mystics associated with Moses De Leon, a Jew who lived in Spain around the second part of the 13^th century. Kabbalistic doctrine overflows with spiritual symbolism, mathematical and numerological projections, metaphysical insights and a unique method of interpreting Scripture. Its doctrines often conflict with orthodox Judaism.

Doctrinal Stance on the Seven Pillars of Wisdom

The Origin and Nature of the Universe

Kabbala (Mystical Judaism): God created the universe by manifesting a series of ten rays or intelligences, which descended from him. These ten emanations are called Sefirot. These are considered personifications of various attributes of God. (See “Kabbala” under The Nature of God for a detailed description of these emanations.)

Creation is comprised of four major realms of consciousness, called worlds or universes, plus a fifth that could be called the realm of origination. These “are not separate universes, but are concentric, one within the other. Assiyah is the world of physicality; Yetzirah, the world of emotions; Beriyah, the world of the intellect; Atzilut, the world of the spirit; and Adam Kadmon, the primordial source.”¹

In the Zohar (the “Book of Splendor”-one of the two main sources of Kabbalistic doctrine), it is “implied that the evil in the universe originated from the leftovers of worlds that were destroyed.”²

The Nature of God  

Kabbala (Mystical Judaism): God or Ultimate Reality, is called Ein Sof (meaning “Infinite” or “Without End”). Ein Sof is not personal, but rather, an impersonal principle, a supreme divine will beyond human reasoning. Ten emanations stream forth from Ein Sof, called Sefirot, that personify ten different aspects of the divine nature. As seekers come back into union with God, the Sefirot are “ten stages…by which God the Creator can be discerned.”¹

The generally accepted order and naming of the Sefirot are: (1) Keter Elyon (“Supreme Crown”); (2) Hokhmah (“Wisdom”); (3) Binah (“Understanding”); (4) Hesed (“Lovingkindness”) or Gedullah (“Greatness”); (5) Gevurah (“Power”) or Din (“Judgment”); (6) Tiferet (“Beauty”); (7) Nezah (“Victory” or “Lasting Endurance”); (8) Hod (“Splendor” or “Majesty”); (9) Zaddick (“Righteous One”) or Yesod Olam (“Foundation of the World”); (10) Malkhut (“Kingdom”) or Atarah (“Diadem”).²

There is a female aspect of God as expressed in the third and tenth Sefirot. Referred to as the Shekinah, she is considered the bride of God. She is a demiurge, a lesser deity who manifests creative powers. She is also considered the daughter of God and mother of man. Normally, Kabbalists do not embrace pantheism. “Nature may be the garment of God, as the Zohar teaches, but it is not the body of God.”³

According to Kabbalistic tradition, though God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, ‘It’ (Ein Sof is without gender) has surrendered some of its sovereign power over the world to allow humanity to function according to ‘free will.’ This is called tzimtzum (“self-limitation”).

The origin and Nature of Man

Kabbala (Mystical Judaism): Man has a body and a soul. Some Kabbalistic schools teach that the soul consists of five ‘levels’ or ‘dimensions of awareness.’ These correspond to the five levels of consciousness in creation. (See “Kabbala” under The Origin and Nature of the Universe.) The two higher aspects of the soul are identified in Kabbalistic teachings as hayyah and yehidah. These relate to the fourth and fifth levels of creation, the “world of the spirit” and the “primordial source” (also known as the “world of emanation” and the “world of will”). These “represent the sublimest levels of intuitive apprehension and to be within the grasp only of a few chosen individuals.”¹ Hayyah (or chayah) means “living essence.” Yehidah means “unity,” and speaks of the highest state of ‘unity’ or communion with God available. Yehidah is described as the “center point of the soul, and as such it disappears into the infinitude of creation.”²

The first three parts of the soul consist of “a vital spirit, an intellectual spirit and the soul proper.”³ The Hebrew terms are nefesh, ru’ah and neshamah. The nefesh is found in every man, entering at birth, and is the source of all his psychological and physical functions as a human being. It relates to the “world of physicality” (the “world of action”). The ru’ah or anima is “aroused at an unspecified time when a man succeeds in rising above his purely vitalistic side. This relates to the “world of emotions” (the “world of formation”). It is the third part of the soul, the neshamah or spiritus, which excels in importance. It is aroused in a man when he occupies himself with the Torah and its commandments, and it opens his higher powers of apprehension, especially his ability to mystically apprehend the Godhead and the secrets of the universe.”⁴ Neshemah relates to the “world of the intellect” (the “world of creation”).

These three lower soul-parts, collectively referred to as naran, originate from three different sources (three of the ten emanations from the Godhead called Sefirot): “the nefesh originates in the Sefirah Malkhut, the ru’ah in the Sefirah Tiferet, and the neshamah in the Sefirah Binah.”⁵

There is also an aspect of man called the zelem (the “image” mentioned in Genesis 1:26 when God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”). The zelem is the essence of individuality bestowed upon every human being. It is also man’s “ethereal garment” or “ethereal body which serves as an intermediary between his material body and his soul.” “It is the garment with which the souls clothe themselves in the celestial paradise before descending to the lower world and which they don once again after their reascent following physical death.” “Unlike the soul, the zelem grows and develops in accordance with the biological processes of its possessor.”⁶

So apparently there are seven divisions that comprise the whole of man: the physical body, the ethereal body, and the five aspects of the soul. In the Encyclopedia Judaica, Gershom Scholem explains the Kabbalistic view of the “Nature of Man,” “At opposite poles, both man and God encompass within their being the entire cosmos…man’s role is to complete this process by being the agent through whom all the powers of creation are fully activated and made manifest…Man is the perfecting agent in the structure of the cosmos: like all the other created beings, only even more so, he is composed of all ten Sefirot and “of all spiritual things,” that is, of the supernal principles that constitute the attributes of the Godhead.”⁷

The Nature of Salvation, Liberation or Enlightenment

Kabbala (Mystical Judaism): Salvation consists of the ascent of the soul, through various religious disciplines, from the material world (Asiyyah) to the supernal world (Atzilut). According to the Sefer Yezeriah (the Book of Creation) the goal is to reach the realm of God (Ein Sof) by meditating on the thirty-two paths. These are made up of the ten Sefirot (emanations of God) plus the twenty-two connections between the Sefirot. Originally, “ten” merely related to the foundational numbers and “twenty-two” to the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Later, these came to be interpreted as “divine potencies.” The Kabbala also teaches fifty gates of understanding through which a person must pass in to achieve enlightenment. Transmigration of the soul is not accepted in all Kabbalistic schools. However, among those who do, a belief is sometimes embraced that a person’s predestined mission in life must be fulfilled in order to avoid rebirth.

Dimensions or Planes of Existence

The Spiritual Journey and Ultimate Destiny of Man

Kabbala (Mystical Judaism): Kabbalists believe in the evolutionary progress of the soul through transmigration (reincarnation). There is a conscious pre-existence of the soul before its incarnation. It passes before God in the “Room of Love” before descending into this world. “God makes the soul swear to fulfill its earthly mission and attain to the ‘knowledge of the mysteries of the faith’ which will purify it for its return to its homeland.”[1] If a soul fulfills its mission in one life, it can return to dwell near to God. If its mission is not accomplished, the soul must go through as many incarnations as necessary for this purpose to be achieved (a concept called metempsychosis). Some extremely wicked souls are “denied even hell or reincarnation…exiled without the possibility of finding rest.”[2] Though reincarnation is one of their basic beliefs, Kabbalists also cling to the concept of the “resurrection of the dead, which will take place at the end of the days of redemption, “on the great Day of Judgment.””[3]

     “In its root every soul is a composite of male and female, and only in the course of their descent do the souls separate into masculine souls and feminine souls.”[4] The Zohar states “these souls are rejoined by God at the right time into one body and one soul.” This doctrine suggests the existence of ‘soul-mates’ in the world.[5]

     As mentioned under “The Origin and Nature of Man” Kabbalists believe in five main soul-parts. The lower three of these five parts originate from three distinctly different sources (three of the ten emanations from the Godhead called Sefirot): “the nefesh originates in the Sefirah Malkhut, the ru’ah in the Sefirah Tiferet, and the neshamah in the Sefirah Binah.”[6]

    At death, these three soul-parts also depart to different destinations: “the nefesh remains for a while in the grave, brooding over the body; the ru’ah ascends to the terrestrial paradise in accordance with its merits; and the neshamah flies directly back to its native home. Punishment and retribution are the lot of the nefesh and ru’ah alone.”[7]

     Kabbalistic doctrine yields a great deal of eschatological insights concerning the “fate of the soul after death, and its ascent up a river of fire, which resembles a kind of purgatory, to the terrestrial paradise and from there to the still sublimer pleasures of the celestial paradise and the realm referred to by the early kabbalists as ‘eternal life.’”[8]

      The upper two levels of the soulish part of a person—chayah, and yehidah—along with the third part—the neshamah—always remain pure, regardless of the life of the individual. The lowest level of the soul—nefesh—is that part of the human makeup most involved with “the process of purification after death.”[9] Following death, the upper levels of the soul go back to their original ‘home,’ but they must delay a state of final rest until the nefesh is redeemed. For the first week after a person passes away, the nefesh searches from the new grave to the old earthly dwelling of the deceased, looking for its living body. Then after being purified in Gehinnom (hell) it “wanders the world until it has a garment (signifying an awareness level).” (See Zohar 1:226a-b) This purification process lasts for twelve months. Once clothed, the nefesh is admitted to “the lower Garden of Eden where it joins the ruach. The ruach then gets crowned, the neshamah unites with the Throne, and all is well.”[10]

     There is disagreement among some Kabbalists concerning Gehinnom. For instance, the House of Shammai explain there are three types of people: the righteous who go immediately to paradise, the wicked who are doomed to spend a tortured eternity in Gehinnom, and the intermediate who are penalized for a season but then released. The House of Hillel offers instead that in the messianic era Gehinnom will be consumed and destroyed, but not its inhabitants. All its inhabitants will be released by the mercy of God.

      The Jewish, Kabbalistic experience of union or merging with God is called devekut. Some more broad-based Kabbalists might liken this ecstatic occurrence to the non-dual Buddhist experience of ‘Nirvana’ or the Hindu experience of ‘Samadhi.’ However, the majority of Kabbalists would never propose such an absolute stage of oneness with God as promoted in Far Eastern religions. With traditional Kabbalists, ‘separateness’ is ever maintained between the Creator and his devoted ones. Though the depth of divine ‘communion’ is possible, there can never be a complete, undifferentiated ‘union’ of the soul with God.

     “Five stages” are spoken of in the “Kabbalist’s journey through his soul: (1) Animal Nature; (2) Spiritual Nature; (3) Breath; (4) Living Essence; (5) Unique Essence, or Union.”[11] Final perfection and completion are only possible by passing through this earthly existence.

Cycles, Ages and the Ultimate State of the Universe

Kabbala (Mystical Judaism): According to the Kabbalah of Gerona, in the Sefer ha-Temunah (written about 1250 A.D.) the following cyclical view is presented. “The first three Sefirot remain concealed and do not activate ‘worlds’ outside themselves…From the Sefirot Binah, also called ‘the mother of the worlds,’ the seven apprehendable and outgoing Sefirot are emanated.” (See “Kabbalah” under The Origin and Nature of the Universe for an explanation of the Sefirot.)

     “Each one of these Sefirot has a special role in one creation-cycle. Each such cosmic cycle, bound to one of the Sefirot, is called a shemittah or sabbatical year—a term taken from Deuteronomy 15—and has an active life of 6,000 years. In the seventh millennium, which is the shemittah period, the Sabbath-day of the cycle, the sefirotic forces cease to function and the world returns to chaos. Subsequently, the world is renewed through the power of the following Sefirah and is active for a new cycle. At the end of all the shemittot there is the “great jubilee,” when not only all the lower worlds, but the seven supporting Sefirot themselves are reabsorbed into Binah. The basic unit of world history is therefore the 50,000-year jubilee.”[1]

     A later Kabbalist writer (Babya b. Asher) proposed “the world-process lasts for no less than 18,000 jubilees.”[2] This time-span is not calculable by present standards, though, because with each seventh millennium “measurements of time change,” being affected by a gradual slowing of universal bodies. Though some assert that at the conclusion of each “great jubilee,” God begins a new creation out of nothing (ex nihilo), no Kabbalist writings imply an infinite stream of jubilees yet to unfold.

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