In Defense of Kabbalah Part 2 Is Kabbalah Gnosticism?

Those that attack Kabbalah claiming that it is Gnosticism, have a lack of understanding of Gnosticism, Kabbalah or both.

Gnosticism teaches that men are god-spirits trapped in our material world which was supposedly created by an imperfect god called “the demiurge”. This creator god is identified by Gnostics with the Jewish “God” of the “Old Testament”. This god is contrasted with a superior god, often identified with the Christian “god” of the “New Testament” as well as with the serpent in the Garden of Eden. The demiurge employs beings called “archons” (powers) who rule the material world and seek to prevent men from coming to the superior god. The demiurge was said to have actually been created by the Superior god by way of a series of emanations called aeons, however having become distant from the Superior god through this series of emanations, the demiurge was evil, and created this material universe as a tool to deceive men and keep them away from the Superior god.

Kabbalah is very different from Gnosticism (though one can see that certain elements of Gnosticism were corruptions of Kabbalah). Kabbalah teaches that there is only one true “God” (Elohim). This one Elohim created this universe through a series of emanations called Sefirot which were actually aspects of YHWH. The universe was incapable of containing the light that was poured into it by YHWH and it shattered. This shattering manifested itself as the fall of both men and angels. As a result of this fall the universe was plunged into darkness, and the truth in this universe became coated over by husks of darkness called “Kelifot” (literally “shells”). The Enemy seeks to hide truth in this universe and discovering truth involves a process of “cracking” through the husks of darkness to get to the truth hidden behind them. This process of truth seeking is called “Tikkun” (repair) or “repairing” the universe.

Kabbalah is absolutely not Gnosticism. Kabbalah and Gnosticism are non compatible systems. Gnosticism is in some ways a perversion of certain elements of Kabbalah.

(to be continued)

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