WThe primary texts of Kabbalah were allegedly once part of an ongoing oral tradition. The written texts are obscure and difficult for readers who are unfamiliar with Jewish spirituality which assumes extensive knowledge of the Tanakh, Midrash and halakha.
WAlphabet of Rabbi Akiva is a midrash on the names of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Two versions or portions of this midrash are known to exist.
WBahir or Sefer HaBahir is an anonymous mystical work, attributed to a 1st-century rabbinic sage Nehunya ben HaKanah because it begins with the words, "R. Nehunya ben HaKanah said". It is also known as Midrash of Rabbi Nehunya ben HaKanah מִדְרָשׁ רַבִּי נְחוּנְיָא בֶּן הַקָּנָה.
WThe Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz is a German book edited in 1616 in Strasbourg. Its anonymous authorship is attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae. The Chymical Wedding is often described as the third of the original manifestos of the mysterious "Fraternity of the Rose Cross" (Rosicrucians), although it is markedly different from the Fama Fraternitatis and Confessio Fraternitatis in style and in subject matter.
WDerech HaShem is a philosophical text written in the 1730s by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. It is considered one of the quintessential handbooks of Jewish thought. The text covers a vast gamut of philosophical topics in the vast spectrum of classical Judaism's outlook on the world. These topics include: The purpose of creation, the Creator, human responsibility, the spiritual realms, providence, Israel and the nations, astrology, the human soul, theurgy, prophecy, the study of Torah, prayer, and the function of mitzvah observance. All these are brought in a clear flowing structure that builds on previous topics.
WEtz Chaim is a literary work that deals with the Kabbalah, the book was written in 1573. The book of Etz Chaim is a summary of the teachings of the Ashkenazi Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Arizal (1534-1572). The Arizal was a rabbi and a kabbalist who created a new tendency in the study of the Kabbalah.
WThe Idra, which means threshing floor in Aramaic, is a Kabbalistic work included in printings of the Zohar, and was probably written and appended to the main body of the Zohar at a later date. Contemporary scholars believe the Idra dates to the third generation of Zoharic literature, which produced also the Tikunei haZohar, the Ra'aya Meheimna, and other Zoharic material. The main body of the Zohar, or guf ha-zohar, dates to the second generation of Zoharic material.
WPardes Rimonim is a primary text of Kabbalah, composed in 1548 by the Jewish mystic Moses ben Jacob Cordovero in Safed, Galilee. 16th century Safed saw the theoretical systemisation of previous Kabbalistic theosophical views. Pardes Rimonim was the first comprehensive exposition of Medieval Kabbalah, though its rationally influenced scheme was superseded by the subsequent 16th century Safed mythological scheme of Isaac Luria.
WReshit Chochmah is an important book of Kabbalah, ethics and morality, written by the 16th century scholar Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas. It is based largely on the Zohar. Its name literally translates into “the beginning of Wisdom”, in allusion to the Biblical verse "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom".
WSefer HaTemunah is a 13–14th century kabbalistic text. It is quoted in many Halakhic sources.
WSefer Raziel HaMalakh,, is a grimoire of Practical Kabbalah from the Middle Ages written primarily in Hebrew and Aramaic. The Liber Razielis Archangeli, its 13th-century Latin translation produced under Alfonso X, survives.
WSefer Yetzirah is the title of the earliest extant book on Jewish mysticism, although some early commentators treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed to Kabbalah. Yetzirah is more literally translated as "Formation"; the word Briah is used for "Creation". The book is traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Abraham, although others attribute its writing to Rabbi Akiva. Modern scholars have not reached consensus on the question of its origins. According to Rabbi Saadia Gaon, the objective of the book's author was to convey in writing how the things of our universe came into existence.
WThree Books of Occult Philosophy is Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's study of occult philosophy, acknowledged as a significant contribution to the Renaissance philosophical discussion concerning the powers of ritual magic, and its relationship with religion. The first book was printed in 1531 in Paris, Cologne, and Antwerp, while the full three volumes first appeared in Cologne in 1533.
WTikunei haZohar, also known as the Tikunim (תקונים), is a main text of the Kabbalah. It is a separate appendix to the Zohar consisting of seventy commentaries on the opening word of the Torah, Bereishit (בראשית), in a style of Kabbalistic Midrash. Containing deep secret teachings of Torah, stirring dialogues and fervent prayers, the explicit and apparent theme and intention of Tikunei haZohar is to repair and support the Shekhinah or Malkhut — hence its name, "Repairs of the Zohar" — and to bring on the Redemption and conclude the Exile.
WTomer Devorah was written in Hebrew in the middle of the 16th century by Moses Cordovero, a Jewish kabbalist in Safed, Israel. This short text deals mostly with the Imitation of God through the acquisition of divine traits, especially those of the sephirot. The first edition was published in Venice in 1588. Although not widely read among Jews today, it is popular in the mussar tradition, which focuses on the individual cultivation of the middot, or qualities of God.
WThe Zohar is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology. The Zohar contains discussions of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, redemption, the relationship of Ego to Darkness and "true self" to "The Light of God". Its scriptural exegesis can be considered an esoteric form of the rabbinic literature known as Midrash, which elaborates on the Torah.