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You're listening to episode 218 of Jimmy Aiken's mysterious world.

We'll be looking at mysteries from the twin perspectives of faith and reason.

In this episode, we're talking about the hidden origins of the Jewish School of Mysticism,

known as Kabala. I'm Dom Betanelli and join me today as Jimmy Aiken. Hey Jimmy.

Howdy, Dom. Kabala is a school of Jewish mysticism that has been around for centuries.

Today, it's experiencing a revival in popularity with pop stars like Madonna and Ariana

Grande becoming advocates of it. But there are controversies surrounding Kabala or Kabala.

One of them is its history. Kabalists claim that its teachings go back more than 3,000 years.

But modern academic scholars have challenged this. So what is the truth about Kabala?

Where did it come from? And what happened in its turbulent history?

That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of Jimmy Aiken's mysterious world.

Jimmy, why did you want to do today's episode?

I've been aware of Kabala for a long time. In fact, before I was Catholic, when I was in my teens,

I was a new ageer for a number of years. And during that time, I encountered Kabala and got a

rather crude understanding of its teachings. As an adult, I've continued to study all kinds of

religious views, including those of Kabala, both because I study religion and religious history as

part of my work as an apologist. And because I study esoteric things as part of my research for

mysterious world. So for some time, I've been watching esoterica, the YouTube channel of a Jewish

scholar named Dr. Justin Sledge. And he discusses all kinds of different things that we talk about.

...