(Heb., “to receive”). The ancient Chaldean Secret Doctrine, an occult system handed down by oral transmission, but which, though accepting tradition, is not in itself composed of merely traditional teachings, as it was once a fundamental science, now disfigured by the additions of centuries and by interpolation by the Western occultists, especially by Christian mystics.
Originally, the doctrines were transmitted “from mouth to ear” only, in an oral manner from teacher to the pupil who received them; hence, the name Kabbalah, from the Hebrew root QBL (“to receive”). The mystery and poetry of the origin of Kabbalah as a gift from the deity to humankind cluster around the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, a second-century Adept.
Tradition has it that Kabbalah was a divine theosophy first taught by God to a company of angels, and that some glimpses of its perfection were conferred upon Adam; that the wisdom passed from him unto Noah, thence to Abraham, from whom the Egyptians of his era learnt a portion of the doctrine. Moses derived a partial initiation from the land of his birth, and this was perfected by direct communications with the deity. From Moses it passed to the seventy elders of the Jewish nation, and from them the theosophical scheme was handed down from generation to generation. David and Solomon especially became masters of this concealed doctrine.
No attempt, the legends tell us, was made to commit the sacred knowledge to writing until the time of the destruction of the Second Temple by the Emperor Titus, when Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, escaping besieged Jerusalem, concealed himself in a cave, where he remained for twelve years. Here he, a Kabbalist already, was further instructed by the prophet Elijah.
And here Shimon taught his disciples, and his chief pupils, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Abba, committed to writing those teachings which in later ages became known as the Zohar, and were certainly published afresh in Spain by Rabbi Moses de León around 1280. Thus, the Zohar we have now is not the Zohar left by Shimon ben Yochai to his son, Rabbi Eliezer, and secretary, Rabbi Abba, as an heirloom.
Currently, Kabbalah represents the hidden wisdom of the Hebrew Rabbis of the Middle Ages, derived from the older secret doctrines concerning the Divine and cosmogony, which were combined into a theology after the time of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. It deals with hitherto esoteric interpretations of the Jewish scriptures and teaches several methods of interpreting Biblical allegories. All the works that fall under the esoteric category are termed Kabbalistic. Hence, the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Enoch, and the Revelation of St. John are purely Kabbalistic.