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The Kabbalah is a body of mystical teachings of rabbinical origin, liberally based off obscure interpretations of the Jewish scriptures. These teachings embody meditative, devotional, mystical and magical practices usually only taught to an elite. The meaning of the word itself is unclear, though the two most common translations are "tradition" and "Receiving", both of which refer to the understanding of the Kabbalah being passed down through oral tradition for nearly a thousand years before it was formally documented and a strict codification set down to define its belief structure and rituals. The origins of the Kabbalah are hotly disputed between followers of the tradition and secular scholars. While followers of the Kabbalah claim its roots extend back to the first century, scholastic sources label it as beginning in the 12th century with a man called Isaac the Blind who drew together many trains of Jewish mystic and Gnostic thought into what is now known as the Kabbalah. The next most influential characters in the development of the