The Practical Kabbalah PDF Free: Learn Jewish Wisdom for Everyday Life

Historically speaking, a large part of the contents of practical Kabbalah predate those of the speculative Kabbalah and are not dependent on them. In effect, what came to be considered practical Kabbalah constituted an agglomeration of all the magical practices that developed in Judaism from the Talmudic period down through the Middle Ages. The doctrine of the Sefirot hardly ever played a decisive role in these practices..."[4]

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Halakha (Jewish religious law) forbids divination and other forms of soothsaying, and the Talmud lists many persistent yet condemned divining practices.[5] The very frequency with which divination is mentioned is taken as an indication that it was widely practiced in the folk religion of ancient Israel, and a limited number of forms of divination were generally accepted within all of Israelite society, the most common being oneiromancy (interpretation of dreams for prophetic meanings).[6][need quotation to verify] Other magical practices of Judaic folk religion which became part of practical Kabbalah date from Talmudic times and include the making of amulets and other folk remedies using the esoteric names of angels.[2]

In Talmudic and Gaonic times, rabbinic mysticism focused around exegesis of Ezekiel's vision of the divine Chariot-Throne, and meditative introspective ascent into the heavenly chambers. This elite practical mysticism, as described in the esoteric Hekhalot literature, incorporated and merged into magical incantation elements. The Talmud and Midrash refer to this as "using the Divine Name" for theurgic-practical ascent, as in the story of the Ten Martyrs who enquired in Heaven of the decree. In the Hekhalot literature, angels guarding each level are meditatively bound by formulae and seals to allow entry.[citation needed]

The separation of the mystical and magical elements of Kabbalah, dividing it into speculative theological Kabbalah (Kabbalah Iyyunit) with its meditative traditions, and theurgic practical Kabbalah (Kabbalah Ma'asit), had occurred by the beginning of the 14th century.[9] Many traditional speculative Kabbalists disapproved of practical Kabbalah, including Abraham Abulafia, who strongly condemned it.[2][need quotation to verify] While the great majority of historical Kabbalistic involvement, writing and development concerns the theological Kabbalah, the majority of practical Kabbalaistic writings were never published.[10]

In the 16th century Isaac Luria, who opposed Kabbalah Ma'asit and forbade his students from writing amulets and using other techniques of practical Kabbalah, evolved a form of exorcism which effectively transferred techniques from practical to speculative Kabbalah. While this led to the displacement of magical formulas and rites by contemplative exercises, the old forms of practical Kabbalah continued to exert broad appeal.[14] Luria's position as the central teacher of modern Kabbalah, the foundation for later Hasidism, gives his proscription authoritative force. He taught that in our generations, without the Temple in Jerusalem and its ashes of the Red Heifer to purify, the pursuit of the realm of practical Kabbalah by a person with an impure body is very detrimental.[15]

In Hasidism, the displacement of practical Kabbalah using directly magical means, by conceptual and meditative trends gained much further emphasis, while simultaneously instituting meditative theurgy for material blessings at the heart of its social mysticism.[20] Hasidism internalised Kabbalah through the psychology of deveikut (cleaving to God), and cleaving to the Tzadik (Hasidic Rebbe). In Hasidic doctrine, the tzaddik channels Divine spiritual and physical bounty to his followers by altering the Will of God (uncovering a deeper concealed Will) through his own deveikut and self-nullification. Dov Ber of Mezeritch is concerned to distinguish this theory of the Tzadik's will altering and deciding the Divine Will, from directly magical process.[21] This rendered the external methods of practical Kabbalah, its willed power over angels and lower spiritual forces, as unnecessary and a hindrance, though some Hasidic leaders retained use of traditional amulets at the borderline of practical Kabbalah.

The Midrash and Talmud are replete with the use of names of God and incantations that are claimed to effect supernatural or theurgic results. Most post-Talmudic rabbinical literature seeks to curb the use of any or most of these formulae, termed Kabbalah Ma'asit ("practical Kabbalah"). There are various arguments for this; one stated by the Medieval Rabbi Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin is that the person using it may lack the required grounding, and the ritual would be ineffective.

"Kabbalah," according to Orthodox rabbi, lawyer, and educational psychologist Laibl Wolf, "is practical, and its knowledge is universal. The insights provide a model that is as comfortable in Western psychology and Eastern mysticism as it is in Jewish spiritual practice." These mystical teachings arose in the medieval period of history as "tools to tame the ego mind and harness haphazard emotions." Rabbi Wolf explores mind as the way the soul expresses itself through the physiology of the brain. Then he dissects emotion as the way the soul is manifested through the metaphoric heart.

An impressive handwritten codex at the National Library of Israel embodies the intricacies and peculiarities of crafting, reading, and transmitting practical knowledge in early modern Jewish contexts. The volume, known today as manuscript NLI 8º 1070, was likely produced in the 1730s somewhere in the Polish territories. A variety of local Polish-Ashkenazi traditions are well attested throughout the codex: vernacular and elite, theoretical and practical, of Jewish and Christian provenance, and transmitted mainly in Hebrew and Yiddish, but with elements of Latin, German, Polish, Russian, and Ruthenian.

There are actually two streams of Kabbalah: practical and speculative. Practical Kabbalah focuses on using mystical formulas to perform miracles or supernatural deeds. By manipulating the names of God, angels, and the actual letters of the Torah, practical Kabbalah claims that certain combinations can be formed to produce whatever charm or outcome is desired, whether it be healing the sick or succeeding in business.

Deploying a distinctive disaggregative approach to the study of 'religion', this volume shows that spiritual movements with extensive counterfactual beliefs have been much more creative than one might expect. Specifically, Wayne Hudson explores the creativity of six spiritual movements: the Bahá'ís, a Persian movement; Soka Gakkai, a Japanese movement; Ananda Marga and the Brahma Kumaris, two reformed Hindu movements; and two controversial American churches, The Church Universal and Triumphant and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most of these movements have counterintuitive features that have led Western scholars making Enlightenment assumptions to dismiss them as irrational and/or inconsequential. However, this book reveals that these movements have responded to modernity in ways that are creative and practical, resulting in a wide range of social, educational and cultural initiatives. Building on research surrounding the ways in which spiritual movements engage in cultural productions, this book takes the international research in a new direction by exploring the utopian intentionality such cultural productions reveal. 2ff7e9595c