kabbalah

noun

kab·​ba·​lah kə-ˈbä-lə  ˈka-bə-lə 

variants or less commonly kabbala or kabala or cabala or cabbala or cabbalah

often capitalized

1

: a medieval and modern system of Jewish theosophy, mysticism, and thaumaturgy marked by belief in creation through emanation and a cipher method of interpreting Scripture

2

a

: a traditional, esoteric, occult, or secret matter

b

: esoteric doctrine or mysterious art

kabbalism

ˈkä-bə-ˌli-zəm 

ˈka-

noun

kabbalistic

ˌkä-bə-ˈli-stik 

ˌka-

adjective

Examples of kabbalah in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In code, artists were able to include references to alchemy, astrology, and even kabbalah, a mystical branch of Judaism. —National Geographic, 16 Jan. 2020

While Isaac Luria expounded the kabbalah following the expulsion from Spain, Joseph Caro updated the practical application of halakhah in the Shulchan Aruch code of laws (1563). —Dominic Green, WSJ, 30 Mar. 2018

Gershom Scholem, the pioneering scholar of kabbalah, was one of many public intellectuals who felt that Arendt had lost track of the human reality of the Holocaust amid the scintillating twists of her argument. —George Prochnik, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2018

Incarcerated, not so much for his libidinous ways, but for gambling, cheating tourists, his flagrant libertinism in the face of the Venetian Inquisition, and his heretical interests in alchemy and the kabbalah. —Gaile Robinson, star-telegram, 30 Aug. 2017

Word History

Etymology

Medieval Latin cabbala — more at cabal

First Known Use

1521, in the meaning defined at sense 1