Kabbalah, “a set of esoteric teachings meant to define the inner meaning of both the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and traditional Rabbanic literature, as well as explain the significance of Jewish religious observances,” is considered to be the “mystical” aspect of Judaism-the practice by which members of the Jewish religion can draw close to and become one with their God.
Kabbalah consists of four levels of study of the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament):
1.) Peshat, the understanding of the simple meaning of the text
2.) Remez, the biblical allusion and allegory in the writing
3.) Derash, the Rabbinic scriptural exegesis
4.) Sod, the kabbalah, the secret inner meaning of the Torah
It is said among those who study Judaism that Kabbalah dates back to Eden, coming down from a remote past as a revelation to elect Tzadikim (the righteous). Knowledge of the Kabbalah was an integral part of Judaism’s oral law that God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Following the Isrealites arrival in Canaan this esoteric knowledge was referred to as Hitbonennut, the practice of being alone to seek God.
The origin of Kabbalah lies in the Judaic belief in the origin of the Torah. It is said that the Torah was created before the world, and the Torah advised God. Supposedly Moses received not only the Ten Commandments, God’s written law, on Mt. Sinai, but also a oral law referred to as the oral tradition which has been passed by word of mouth from generation to generation.
In Judaism the study of mysticism and Kabbalah does not begin until one is an adult, although that line has been cut fairly close. (The great Kabbalist R. Isaac Luria began to study Kabbalah at the age of seventeen.) There are some cultures which have tried to spread the myth that Kabbalah shold not be studied until after the age of forty, a myth that has no basis in religion and is instead the product of a quest to eliminate the study of Kabbalah altogether.
Interestingly enough, even those sects of Judaism that do not subscribe to the beliefs of mysticism still encourage the study of Kabbalah. One Orthodox Jew has been quoted as saying, “It’s nonsense, but it’s Jewish nonsense, and the study of anything Jewish, even nonsense, is worthwhile.”
The essence of mysticism can be seen in Kabbalah in that unlike many religions, where the answers to the usual questions in life are absolute (God created the universe, the soul goes to heaven/hell/Hades/reincarnation/purgatory after death, etc) in Judaism these answers are personal and open to opinion. There are stories of places similar to heaven and purgatory, of reincarnation and wandering souls, and none of these is considered to be right or wrong.
And so it can be assumed that the study of mysticism and Kabbalah are one and the same, because each leads the student closer to God, or the One, through a deeper study and knowledge of the word, the world and the self.