levo
Get notified

Judaism: Movements, Change and Contemporary Issues

Kabbalah, the Zohar and the experience of God

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 3

Overview

Word Kabbalah, practical Kabbalah and en Sof.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

What is tikkun in Lurianic Kabbalah?

Key term

Why is Kabbalah described as esoteric?

Key term

Give three practices used in kabbalistic devotion.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What does the word Kabbalah mean, and what does it name?

    Model answer

    It means that which is received, and names the Jewish mystical tradition transmitted from teacher to pupil about the hidden nature of God and creation.

  2. 2

    Why is Kabbalah described as esoteric?

    Model answer

    Because its teaching was deliberately restricted, traditionally to mature scholars already grounded in Talmud, on the grounds that it could unsettle or mislead the unprepared.

  3. 3

    Give three practices used in kabbalistic devotion.

    Model answer

    Meditation on divine names and letters, contemplation of diagrams that map the emanations, and the use of decorated plaques and amulets to focus attention.

  4. 4

    What is meant by practical Kabbalah, and how is it regarded?

    Model answer

    It is the use of divine names, amulets and formulae to produce effects in the world, and mainstream authorities have generally treated it with suspicion as bordering on magic.

  5. 5

    What is the Zohar?

    Model answer

    The Zohar is the central work of Kabbalah, an Aramaic mystical commentary on the Torah, presented as the teaching of the second-century sage Shimon bar Yochai.

  6. 6

    Where and when did the Zohar appear, and what do scholars say about its authorship?

    Model answer

    It appeared in Castile in the late thirteenth century through Moses de León, and modern scholarship, following Gershom Scholem, holds that he was substantially its author.

See the rest and revise

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

See a huge jump in your memorisation

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Christianity: Religious Figures and Sacred Texts
Christianity: Key Religious Concepts
Christianity: Religious Life and Moral Principles
Christianity: Practices and Religious Identity

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

The Circle.
ViennaBerlinOxford

Blank Blitz consolidates the facts

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AThe first blast destroys creation.
BThe second raises all the dead.
CHumanity is gathered before God.

Build It trains answer structure

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

A murti is the image itself.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Judaism: Movements, Change and Contemporary Issues, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Start revising, £5 a monthSee how the method works

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.