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==Misunderstanding and misrepresentations==

==Misunderstanding and misrepresentations==

Misunderstandings of kabbalism stem largely from the fact that the teachings of Kabbalah have been so badly distorted by mystics and occultists. Kabbalah was popular together with "spiritual" alchemy among Christian intellectuals during the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, who reinterpreted its doctrines to fit into their Christian dogma. The same ideas of the macrocosm and microcosm were also found in Greek philosophy, that the whole of the great cosmos of the universe of spirit and matter as the body of God is found reflected in the minor universe of the human being, body, soul and spirit, as the image of God.

Misunderstandings of kabbalism stem largely from the fact that the teachings of Kabbalah have been so badly distorted by mystics and occultists. Kabbalah was popular together with "spiritual" [[alchemy]] among Christian intellectuals during the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, who reinterpreted its doctrines to fit into their Christian dogma. The same ideas of the macrocosm and microcosm in Jewish mysticism and [[Christian humanism]] were found in earlier Greek philosophy, that the whole of the great cosmos of the universe of spirit and matter as the whole body of God (''as above'') is found reflected in the minor universe of the human being, body, soul and spirit (''so below''), as the image of God and the image of the whole cosmos. The ten sefirot of the kabbalistic tree of life are frequently represented in graphic diagrams showing them as colored spheres superimposed over the image of the human body to demonstrate this correspondence of human and cosmos.

In more recent times, many have wrenched kabbalistic symbolism out of context for use in tarot card readings and other forms of divination and magic that were never a part of the original Jewish teachings. This fact does not stop many New Age practitioners from falsely (and often, with full awareness, deceitfully) claiming that they are.  

In more recent times, many have wrenched kabbalistic symbolism out of context for use in tarot card readings and other forms of divination and magic that were never a part of the original Jewish teachings. This fact does not stop many New Age practitioners from falsely (and often, with full awareness, deceitfully) claiming that they are.  

Any books on the subject of "practical kabbalah" can be safely dismissed as not authentic Jewish tradition because true kabbalistic practices and techniques have always been thought by those who have entered deeply into it to be far too dangerous to be distributed to the common masses, and for this reason much of the deeply esoteric Kabbalah has never been entrusted to writing. Only disciples who have full knowledge of Torah and all of the Talmud, who are at ''least'' 40 years old, of sound mind and mature and devout disposition, and have been carefully tested and chosen by the teacher (never by themselves), are secretly recruited for study and training and given, by slow and patient degrees, over a period of a decade or more, eventually, full knowledge of genuine Kabbalah. Those who truly know Kabbalah are over 60 years old.

Any "how-to" books on the subject of "practical kabbalah" can be safely dismissed as not authentic Jewish tradition because true kabbalistic practices and techniques are never distributed impersonally to a faceless general public. They have always been thought by those who have entered deeply into Kabbalah to be far too dangerous to be distributed to the common masses, and for this reason much of the deeply esoteric Kabbalah has never been entrusted to writing. Only disciples who have full knowledge of Torah and all of the Talmud, who are at ''least'' 40 years old, of proven sound mind and mature and devout disposition, and have been carefully tested and chosen by the teacher (they are never chosen by themselves), are secretly recruited for study and training and given, by slow and patient degrees, over a period of a decade or more, eventually, full knowledge of genuine Kabbalah. Those who truly know Kabbalah are over 60 years old.

Today, many well-known celebrities have popularized a new age pop-psychology distortion of kabbalah. It borrows the language of kabbalah and the forms of Jewish folk superstitions, but at its heart it has more in common with the writings of [[Deepak Chopra]] than with any authentic Jewish source.

Today, many well-known celebrities have popularized a new age pop-psychology distortion of kabbalah. It borrows the language of kabbalah and the forms of Jewish folk superstitions, but at its heart it has more in common with the writings of [[Deepak Chopra]] than with any authentic Jewish source.