The question of the origin and early stages of the Kabbalah, that
form of Jewish mysticism and theosophy that appears to have
emerged suddenly in the thirteenth century, is indisputably one of
the most difficult in the history of the Jewish religion after the de-
struction of the Second Temple. Just as indisputably, it is one of the
most important. The significance acquired by the kabbalistic move-
ment within the Jewish world was so great and its influence at times
so preponderant that if one wishes to understand the religious pos-
sibilities inherent in Judaism, the problem of the specific historical
character of this phenomenon appears to be of primary importance.
Researchers, therefore, have justly devoted a great deal of attention
to this problem and have made diverse attempts to find a solution.

The difficulty does not lie only in the prejudices with which
many scholars have approached this problem, although such preju-
dices—whether of an apologetic or of an explicitly hostile nature—
are in no small measure responsible for the prevailing confusion.
Two circumstances, in particular, have impeded research in this
area. Above all, the original sources, the oldest kabbalistic texts—

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