ABSTRACT
The term Kabbalah derives from the old Hebrew meaning ‘received’ or ‘tradition’, and has many variant spellings. It is a mystical Jewish system, developed gradually between the third and twelfth centuries CE, which attained its flowering in Moorish Spain. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in the late fifteenth century, it spread all over Europe including Israel, eventually becoming a major influence on Hasidism. According to hermetic tradition, Kabbalah originated as a direct transmission from God to his angels to Adam, and was then handed down orally to the Old Testament prophets.
