Is Kabbalah a separate religion, or a part of another religion?
It’s religious, but it’s not an independent religion. It is “a Jewish esoterical tradition of contemplation of divine secrets,” according to Joseph Dan, the Gershom Scholem Professor of Kabbalah at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Kabbalah was adapted by Christians in late medieval times; its symbols and some of its teachings (often spelled as Qabala) appear in non-Jewish esoteric systems like Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and Freemasonry. They can even be found in neo-pagan systems like Wicca. While most mystical systems share similar aspirations-that is, ecstatic union with God-and while the experiences of their practitioners can be quite similar, they cannot be fully understood apart from their particular religious contexts. So most kabbalist rabbis would say you could not separate it from Judaism.
