Jewish mystical exegesis

Jewish mystical exegesis most likely dates back to the third century. This method of interpreting the Bible is based on the assumption that the Torah itself contains secret knowledge regarding creation and the essence of G-d. The only way to find these secrets is to know how to decode the text and reveal them.

Focusing on the holiness of the text, mystics consider every nuance of the text to be a clue in discovering divine secrets, from the entire text to the accents on each letter. Once one can find such knowledge, one can use the text in mystical rituals to affect both the upper worlds (heavens) and the lower world (our world). The name of G-d is considered one of the greatest sources of power and is assumed to be hidden in various forms throughout the text. Much work has been done to try to rearrange the breaks between words to seek out different names for G-d as well as other aspects of hidden knowledge.

There are two main texts within the realm of Jewish mysticism, the Sefer Yezirah and the kabbalistic Zohar. The Zohar was originally considered to be a revelation from G-d through R. Simeon ben Yohai, though it was most likely written by Moses de Leon of Spain in the 13th century. The text uses large amounts of gematria to interpret the Torah text.

The method of gematria involves numeric values assigned to Jewish letters, giving every word a value, allowing one to look for patterns in the text based on those numerical values.

According to the Zohar, gematria is the highest category of interpretation, called “Sod” which refers to mystical interpretation. There is also the literal, allusion-based and anagogical meanings of the text which are referred to as “Peshat”, “Remez” and “Derash” respectively. When the 4th category is added, the words form “PaRDeS” (paradise) which can be achieved once one understands the Torah in all four modes of interpretation.