The Word as a Spell
Kabbalah The Word as a Spell Kabbalah as the mysticism of the word. A lmost two thousand years ago, during what is known as the Talmudic period, the sages who studied the details of the Bible would gather to discuss the meaning of every word, every letter and every space between letters. They understood that there was a mystery in speech: the roots of words, the words that shared letters, and even the way the letters were drawn on the worn scrolls seemed to hold another layer of meaning. They asked why one word had been chosen instead of another, what its absence meant, what was hidden in its repetitions, and what new meanings were born when its letters changed position. A single word could sustain a debate for generations, and a tiny mark, barely visible on the parchment, could open an entire universe of interpretation. Centuries later, Kabbalah would inherit that conviction that no letter was there by chance. Other d...