Difference between revisions of "Kabbalah"

Many texts have been produced, that are important to Kabbalistic doctrine, among them the ancient descriptions of ''[[Sefer Yetzirah]]'', the Heichalot mystical ascent literature, the ''[[Sefer HaBahir]]'', ''[[Sefer Raziel HaMalakh]]'' and the ''[[Zohar]]'', the main text of Kabbalistic exegesis.

''[[Sefer HaRazim]]'', was, according to the Kabbalists, transmitted by the [[angel]] [[Archangel Raziel|Raziel]] to Adam after he was evicted from Eden. Another famous work, the early ''Sefer Yetzirah'', is dated back to the patriarch Abraham. This tendency toward pseudepigraphy has its roots in apocalyptic literature, which claims that esoteric knowledge such as magic, [[divination]] and [[astrology]] was transmitted to humans in the mythic past by the two angels, Aza and [[Azazel]] (in other places, Azaz'el and Uzaz'el) who fell from heaven.

As well as ascribing ancient origins to texts, and reception of Oral Torah transmission, the greatest and most innovative Kabbalists claimed mystical reception of direct personal divine revelations, by heavenly mentors such as Elijah the Prophet, the souls of Talmudic sages, prophetic revelation, soul ascents on high, etc. On this basis, Arthur Green speculates, that while the Zohar was written by a circle of Kabbalists in medieval Spain, they may have believed they were channeling the souls and direct revelations from the earlier mystic circle of Shimon bar Yochai in 2nd century Galilee depicted in the Zohar's narrative. Academics have compared the Zohar mystic circle of Spain with the romanticised wandering mystic circle of Galilee described in the text.