Search Results: Kabbalah

The term Kabbalah refers specifically to the form of Jewish mysticism that became widespread in the Middle Ages. However, in recent decades it has essentially become a generic term for the entirety of Jewish mystical thought. Literally meaning...

Ezekiel was both a priest and a prophet who lived in the 6th century BCE. The prophets of Israel were oracles (a term for a person as well as a place) for ways in which humans communicated with their gods. The oracle was possessed by the...

The angel Metatron as depicted in the Daqa’iq al-Haqa’iq by 14th-century Islamic artist Nasir al-Din Rammal. Metatron appears in Kabbalistic mystical texts and was considered to be the highest of angels closest to God. In Jewish apocryphal...

Enoch is taken up to heaven, chalk painting by Albertus Pictor (1440-1507) in Trave 2 of Härkeberga Church, Enköping, Sweden. The painting portrays the biblical character Enoch being taken to heaven by God. He was the son of Jared, the father...

A cherub (pl. cherubim) was a divine being who dwelt in the heavenly realm of the gods, either as a servant or a mediator between humans and the divine. The word most likely derived from the Akkadian karabu ("to bless"). The cherubim are...

The Bar Kochba Revolt (132–136 CE) was the third and final war between the Jewish people and the Roman Empire. It followed a long period of tension and violence, marked by the first Jewish uprising of 66-70 CE, which ended with the destruction...

Leo Africanus (al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Wazzan al-Fasi al-Granati, 1485-1554) was a diplomat, merchant traveller and scholar who famously voyaged from Timbuktu to the Niger River and wrote 'The Description of Africa' (La Descrittione...

Kabbalistic "Tree of life" with the ten Sefirot and the 22 Hebrew letters as they are presented in the Sefer Yetzirah.

The Vision of Ezekiel by Raphael, 1518. Pallazzo Pitti, Florence.

Title page of the first edition of the Zohar, Mantua, 1558 CE. Library of Congress.