dir@cbosgd.UUCP (Dean Radin) (02/23/84)
I'm not sure if I spelled Cabbalah correctly. I wonder if anyone familiar with this Jewish mystic tradition can give me a summary of what the Cabbalah is all about in 30 lines or less. All I know is that it is very old, it is involved in numerology in spots, and it forms the core of Jewish mysticism. Dean Radin - AT&T Bell Laboratories - cbosgd!dir
mmc@zeppo.UUCP (03/01/84)
#R:cbosgd:-100200:zeppo:59500002:000:826
zeppo!mmc Mar 1 09:55:00 1984
This is a reposting of a response which did not make it to
all the MARX machines. If it got out elsewhere, please
accept my apologies
The term "Cabbalah" (most commonly "Kabbalah"; sometimes "Qabbalah")
derives from the Hebrew root 'qbl', meaning 'receive'. Kabbalah
refers to a body of mystical tradition incorporated in a large set
of texts (some printed, others only in manuscript) produced over
the last two millenia.
I think that it is impossible to describe or even classify in thirty
lines the various traditions represented in Kabbalistic literature.
The articles on Kabbalah by the late Gershon Scholem in the
Encyclopedia Judaica have been incorporated in a single
English-language volume entitled "Kabbalah", published, I believe, by
the New York Times Press.
Mark Chodrow AT&T-BL WH 2C344A X6804