kabbalah Gershom scholem

INTRODUCTION 5
by Meir b. Gabbai (1567). It became widely accepted that the Kabbalah was the
esoteric part of the Oral Law given to Moses at Sinai. Several of the genealogies
of the tradition appearing in kabbalistic literature, which were intended to support
the idea of the continuity of the secret tradition, are themselves faulty and
misconceived, lacking in any historical value. In actual fact, some kabbalists
themselves give concrete instances of the historical development of their ideas,
since they regard them either as having deteriorated to some extent from the
original tradition, which found its expression in the increase of kabbalistic systems,
or as part of a gradual progress toward the complete revelation of the
secret wisdom. Kabbalists themselves rarely attempt to attain a historical orientation,
but some examples of such an approach may be found in Emunat f:lakhamim
by Solomon Avi'ad Sar-Shalom Basilea {1730), and in Divrei Soferim by
Zadok ha-Kohen of Lublin ( 1913).
From the beginning of its development, the Kabbalah embraced an esotericism
closely akin to the spirit of Gnosticism, one which was not restricted to
instruction in the mystical path but also included ideas on cosmology, angelology,
and magic. Only later, and as a result of the contact with medieval Jewish
philosophy, the Kabbalah became a Jewish "mystical theology," more or less
systematically elaborated. This process brought about a separation of the mystical,
speculative elements from the occult and especially the magical elements, a
divergence that at times was quite distinct but was never total. It is expressed in
the separate usage of the terms Kabbalah iyyunit ("speculative Kabbalah") and
Kabbalah ma'asit {"practical Kabbalah"), evident from the beginning of the 14th
century - which was simply an imitation of Maimonides' division of philosophy
into "speculative" and "practical" in chapter 14 of his Millot ho-Higgayon.
There is no doubt that some kabbalistic circles {including those in Jerusalem up
to modern times) preserved both elements in their secret doctrine, which could
be acquired by means of revelation or by way of initiation rites.
Once rabbinic Judaism had crystallized in the halakhah, the majority of the
creative forces aroused by new religious stimuli, which neither tended nor had
the power to change the outward form of a firmly established halakhic Judaism,
found expression in the kabbalistic movement. Generally speaking, these forces
worked internally, attempting to make of the traditional Torah and of the life
led according to its dictates a more profound inner experience. The general
tendency is apparent from a very early date, its purpose being to broaden the
dimensions of the Torah and to transform it from the law of the people of Israel
into the inner secret law of the universe, at the same time transforming the
Jewish !:zasid or ;addik into a man with a vital role in the world. The kabbalists
were the main symbolists of rabbinic Judaism. For Kabbalah, Judaism in all its
aspects was a system of mystical symbols reflectig the mystery of God and the