Kabbalah for Dummies

Kabbalah Tree of Life

Kabbalah is an ancient spiritual belief and philosophy that focuses on exploring the divine kingdom. It offers a paradoxical platform for realizing the infinite being in the framework of finite boundary. Here, God is an infinite entity, termed as Ein Sof in Kabbalah, meaning ‘endless’ in Hebrew. Humans within their finite limitation put attempts to understand the vastness of infinite being that is God. This is certainly paradoxical in nature since a finite boundary is not sufficient to explicate the understanding of infinite entity at its truest shape. Kabbalah offers answer here and helps us to resolve this paradox. When we are able to understand Kabbalah meaning, we come to realize the true reality beyond the limited realm of physical world.

[edit] Kabbalah and Its Forces

According to Kabbalistic belief, reality is based on two interdependent energies. Each of these forces is known as Kabbalah energy or quality. Each of these qualities offers the base of wisdom to the seeker. These energies are – (1) a strong willingness to receive wisdom and (2) a strong willingness to bequeath. Only when an individual is enthusiastically willing to bequeath, his or her soul is ready to receive the power of wisdom. This is why in Kabbalah God is an omnipotent and omniscience force that has a strong desire to bequeath. However, all humans state at the level of receiving. The Kabbalah energy of bequeathing governs the energy of receiving and the interaction between these two energies leads to the materialization of creation and the cosmological plan for intelligent design.

[edit] Fundamental Concept of Kabbalah

When we try to understand the fundamental concept of Kabbalah, we need to first understand three fundamental concepts – G-d or Ein Sof, the Ten Sefirot and Kabbalistic tree of life. The G-d is so pure and omnipresent that it does not comprise of any direct association with the materialistic world and it only interacts with the Ten Sefirot, known as Keter (circlet), Binah (perceptive), Chokhmah (awareness), Gevurah (strength), Chesed (compassion), Tiferet (magnificence), Hod (brilliance), Netzach (victory), Yesod (organization) and Malkut (sovereignty). All of these energies are again described of having both masculine and feminine characteristics. When these ten emanations are represented graphically based on their corresponding valence, the presentation is referred to as Kabbalistic tree of life.

[edit] What Kabbalah Is Not

Many people around the world have misinterpreted Kabbalah meaning and termed it as a ‘Black Magic’ or ‘Dark Magic’ of Judaism. Needless to say, Kabbalah is NOT a black or dark magic. In fact, it is a rich spiritual philosophy which is based on the understanding of the interaction between materialistic world and non-materialistic world and how divine entity and spiritual world play their role in the materialization of physical world. During Renaissance period, the application of Kabbalah was limited to few orthodox, Christian intellectuals and most of them only used the part of Kabbalah to strengthen the Christian beliefs only. This results in a distorted form of Kabbalah.

[edit] What Kabbalah Is

As described above, there are many misconceptions about Kabbalah belief. Many people consider Kabbalah as a religion, which is not true to some extent. Rather Kabbalah is a form of scientific tool that helps in understanding absolute reality beyond the physical realm. No matter what your religion is, you can follow Kabbalah beliefs and try to use this tool as a key to open the door of absolute reality. From the time of Ari during 16th century till now, anyone is welcome in learning Kabbalah. There is no discrimination of age, gender, caste, creed, ethnicity or religion. Kabbalah never promotes any sort of magical shortcuts, rather it is a process where Kabbalah energy is directed towards investigating the absolute reality and wisdom. As a matter of fact the only prerequisite for studying Kabbalah is to have a pure and sincere desire to discover the implication and rationale of life.