Kabbalah

            The Kabbalah is a body of mystical teachings of rabbinical origin, liberally based off obscure interpretations of the Jewish scriptures. These teachings embody meditative, devotional, mystical and magical practices usually only taught to an elite. The meaning of the word itself is unclear, though the two most common translations are "tradition" and "Receiving", both of which refer to the understanding of the Kabbalah being passed down through oral tradition for nearly a thousand years before it was formally documented and a strict codification set down to define its belief structure and rituals.
             The origins of the Kabbalah are hotly disputed between followers of the tradition and secular scholars. While followers of the Kabbalah claim its roots extend back to the first century, scholastic sources label it as beginning in the 12th century with a man called Isaac the Blind who drew together many trains of Jewish mystic and Gnostic thought into what is now known as the Kabbalah. The next most influential characters in the development of the Kabbalah were Moses Cordovero and his successor Isaac Luria in the mid 16th century, who founded and ran the Safed School of Mystics, a primary root of many current-day interpretations of the Kabbalah. .
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             The underlying foundation of early Kabbalism was the revolutionary doctrine that there were ten sefirot, the causal divine flows through Creation. (These being Unknowable Infinity, the Divine Crown, Wisdom, Understanding, Mercy, Justice, Beauty, Eternity, Glory and Foundation). They are multifaceted figurations of God, that act as surrogates or proxies for God to intercede in His creation. This principle completely redefined for Kabbalists both their interpretations of the scripture, and their Talmudic legends. Since these ten forces are believed to be the conduits God uses to influence our world, they are therefore revered second only to God Himself by Kabbalists.