Getting Started With Kabbalah

It’s important to state up front that there is a lot of misinformation out there about Kabbalah. Red wrist bands, mantras, meditation; none of these come from Kabbalah, rather made up by humans confused by the holy texts. Hopefully this section will help you answer a few of your burning questions.

What is Kabbalah?

The wisdom of Kabbalah has been connected to religion, mysticism and mystics, Judaism, yoga, tarot cards, numerology, astrology, charms, amulets, magic, sacred geometry and that a person must be at least 40 years of age in order to study, none of these are correct.

The reason for the misconceptions is that Kabbalah is thousands of years old. The first person who discovered the wisdom of Kabbalah was Adam HaRishon, who lived over 5,000 years ago. The wisdom developed from Adam HaRishon's time until a significant transition in the wisdom took place around 2,000 years ago, which left only a few unique individuals to engage in it, i.e. in its authentic form.

Since then, Kabbalistic writings have passed through the hands and minds of millions of people. Likewise, many who have encountered Kabbalah have blended it with their own backgrounds, teachings and understandings, without attaining what authentic Kabbalah was intended for. This ongoing mixture over the generations has given rise to the numerous misconceptions (read more about the misconceptions in the "Kabbalah and Magic" section of this page, and in the "Myths about Kabbalah" section of the website).

So what then is Kabbalah? As written above, Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag's definition of the wisdom of Kabbalah is as follows:

This wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots, which hang down by way of cause and effect, in fixed, determined rules, interweaving to a single, exalted goal described as, "the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world." Kabbalah is a method by which any person can attain a higher level of reality.

You can read more about this question here.

Who are the Jewish people?

Abraham, our father, who went from Mesopotamia to the land of Israel, is called the first Hebrew (and the first Jew), because he was the first to cross from idolatry to the land of Israel (land – Eretz and Israel – from the words, Yashar El, meaning “directly to the Creator”). He went over from a state of worshiping idols to recognition of the existence of a higher power that controls everything, and identified himself with that power of his own free will. That is why he was designated Hebrew (Ivri – from the word Over) and Jew.

The terms “Jew” and “Gentile” are completely different in spirituality from the meanings we are familiar with. Anyone who did not exit this world to the spiritual world is called a “gentile,” and a person who crosses over to the spiritual world, is called a “Hebrew,” or “Jew” (from the Hebrew word Yehudi – Yechudi, meaning unique and unified), because that person unites with the Creator.