Kabbalah

Kabbalah (Hebrew קַבָּלָה "reception", Standard Hebrew Qabbala, Tiberian Hebrew Qabbālāh; also written variously as Cabala, Cabalah, Cabbala, Cabbalah, Kabala, Kabalah, Kabbala, Qabala, Qabalah, Kaballah) is an interpretation (exegesis, hermeneutic) key, "soul" of the Torah (Hebrew Bible), or the religious mystical system of Judaism claiming an insight into divine nature.

Lurianic Kabbalah in the Middle Ages

:See main article: Isaac Luria.

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Following the upheavals and dislocations in the Jewish world as a result of the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, the trauma of Anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages, Jews began to search for signs of when the long-awaited Jewish Messiah would come to comfort them in their painful exiles. As part of that "search for meaning" in their lives, Kabbalah received its biggest boost in the Jewish world when the explication of the Kabbalistic teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572), by his disciple Rabbi Chaim Vital who published the Luria's teachings, gained wide-spread popularity. It was Luria who popularized and gave credence to the teachings of the Zohar which had until then been a little-known work. The author of the Shulkhan Arukh (the Jewish "Code of Law"), Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488-1575), and Rabbi Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (1522-1570) were also great scholars of Kabbalah and spread its teachings during this era.

Related Topics:
Spanish Inquisition - 1492 - Anti-Semitism - Middle Ages - Jewish Messiah - Isaac Luria - 1534 - 1572 - Chaim Vital - Zohar - Shulkhan Arukh - Yosef Karo - 1488 - 1575 - Moses ben Jacob Cordovero - 1522 - 1570

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