The Kabbalah is the essence of the Torah (law, doctrine or direction), and contains the mysteries hidden since the beginning of time.
These teachings were known through the Middle Ages, and right upto modern times. They may be said to constitute the mystical tradition of Judaism. Through its symbolic language, the Kabbalah tries to express the origin of the finite in the midst of the infinite.
The fundamental teachings concern the emanation from the universal principle and reintegration into it. The cosmology consists of four worlds – the transcendent
world of emanation, the ideal world of creation, the subtle world of formation and the sensory / corporeal world of fact.
The closer man comes to his pure essence, the more he experiences the intrinsic unity in all the emanations.
“He is One and there is no other”, the One is without a second.
creation exists only as a great illusion woven out of myriads of fleeting shadows of which we are the witnesses. This mirage of the cosmos, with all its worlds, beings and things (these reflections or images of God) flow out of the One and are absorbed into the One. Although by its very nature the creation is illusory, it contains something of reality; in other words, it is a mixture of light and darkness.
When the world sees God through the eyes of man, it sees its own uncreated fullness.
The knowlede of God does not depend on any science, but all human knowledge depends on and derives from it. The Kabbalah says that that the One draws a curtain (veil) before him, through which his kingdom begins to take shape. The Kabbalah says that God is hidden in everything that He creates.
Man is the most
perfect image of reality in the whole of creation. His pure and uncreated being is identified with the world of emanation, his spirit with the world of creation, his
soul with the world of formation and his body with the sensory world of fact. Our world being threefold in nature, being composed of spirit, soul and body. The return of man to God involves the return of all the worlds, and it brings about redemption.
The Kabbalah says that true knowledge of the heavenly kingdom can be obtained only through the perception of the universal mind which dwells within man. The heavens are the steps of the ladder set upon the earth reaching upto the supreme heaven, beyond which is God. In heaven are justice, judgement and charity, as well as the souls of the just. The essential activity of the higher angels is the direct affirmation of God; the whole of creation is justified and upheld by this praise.
The earthly state when peace and harmony reigns between spirit and matter, creator and creation, is the perfect state. The human or perfected state is the culmination of a long development. Man is the last of all created beings. The human state is the end of evolution upon the earth, the purpose behind the work of creation. Chaos, on the other hand, is an inversion of the
divine order. And the fall of the soul from the divinely ordered world (into the darkness of the abyss) is due to its sins.
The union of man with god takes place through meditation upon the real presence, or by invocation of the divine names. This may be regarded either as an ascent of man to the divine, or the descent of the divine into man. The dissociation of man from his spiritual union (with divinity) is regarded as the original sin; this causes him to forsake His grace and to lead an individual existence apart from God, through countless births and deaths. The return of man to his pure essence unites the knower with the known, and is marked by a state of perfect bliss. To bring this about, the base side of man needs to be subdued and the individual ego sacrificed.
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