Adjacent Words

kabbala definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an esoteric or occult matter resembling the Kabbalah that is traditionally secret [syn: cabala, cabbala, cabbalah, kabala, kabbala, kabbalah, qabala, qabalah]
2: an esoteric theosophy of rabbinical origin based on the Hebrew scriptures and developed between the 7th and 18th centuries [syn: Kabbalah, Kabbala, Kabala, Cabbalah, Cabbala, Cabala, Qabbalah, Qabbala]

Merriam Webster's

noun see kabbalah

Britannica Concise

Jewish mysticism as it developed in the 12th cent. and after. Essentially an oral tradition, it laid claim to secret wisdom of the unwritten Torah communicated by God to Adam and Moses. It provided Jews with a direct approach to God, a notion regarded as heretical and pantheistic by Orthodox Judaism. A major text was the 12th-cent. Book of Brightness, which introduced the doctrine of transmigration of souls to Judaism and provided Kabbala with extensive mythical symbolism. In 13th-cent. Spain the tradition included the Book of the Image, which asserted that each cycle of history had its own Torah, and the Book of Splendor, which dealt with the mystery of creation. In the 16th cent. the center of Kabbala was Safed, Galilee, where it was based on the esoteric teachings of the greatest of all Kabbalists, I. ben S. Luria. The doctrines of Lurianic Kabbala, which called for Jews to achieve a cosmic restoration (tiqqun) through an intense mystical life and an unceasing struggle against evil, were influential in the development of modern Hasidism.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

var. of CABBALA.