[net.religion] Herodotus and the Jews, Zoroastrians

robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (01/09/84)

Some Jewish historians believe that they can trace the development
of the Kabala back to the time when Jews were in contact with
Parsi and Zoroastrians.  The leading Jewish rabbis kept Kabala
secret, and restricted to the chosen few, until the Middle ages,
when renegade rabbis finally exposed it to popular view.
SOme of these historians are able to see parallels between
Zoroastianism and Kabala.

Kabala presents very different religious views than the bible by
itself, so it may have made sense to keep it secret.  Some of the
most brilliant Jewish scholars committed suicide or converted out
of Judaism after being introduced to Kabala.

Many chassidic (and other orthodox) groups today are heavily influenced
by Kabala in their religious philosophy, so that it has begun
to influence the attitudes of most religious Jews, and is no longer
the strange and dangerous branch of learning it was a thousand years
ago.

				  - Toby Robison
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