What are the similarities and differences between classic Gnosticism and Jewish Kabbalah?

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We can divide the realm of spiritual/religious ideas up into the exoteric and esoteric. Exoteric knowledge is available to anyone, the gospels, for instance. Esoteric knowledge, on the other hand, has to be refined out of the exoteric.

The Zohar notes that Torah study has four levels of interpretation, each a bit deeper than the one before. Let’s proceed through the levels so one can see how esoteric disciplines like Kabbalah are arrived at.

Peshat is the simplest form of interpretation. It roughly translates to “straight.” It does not try to find any hidden meaning in the text, simply interpreting the narrative forms as written. Torah is spiritual literature, meaning that while it’s primary purpose is to transmit truths about the world, it’s also just as literary and meant to be enjoyed as, say, Shakespeare.

Remez is the allegorical layer. Whereas a straight reading of the story of Adam and Eve provides the creation narrative Christians and Jews alike know and love, the allegorical interpretation of the story differs quite wildly between the two religions. Christians see a grand narrative with the story of Jesus the Christ as the ending, and so interpret Genesis 1–3 as beginning that arc with the theological notion of original sin.

Jews, on the other hand, read it as piercing insight into the nature of man. Given everything we could ever want, dominion, companionship, safety, novelty, humans will throw it all away in the selfish desire to assume God’s position as giver rather than receiver. The allegorical value of the story is timeless, the previous statement was as true at the creation of the world as it is now, it is man’s most basic nature. In fact the whole concept of sin is but reflections and inflections of the basic desire of man wanting to be God.

Midrash is uniquely Jewish and grew out of the realization that the Jewish community needed a set firmament of canonical texts to form the core of the religion. They recognized that they could not simply keep adding book after book to the Hebrew Bible. In order to keep the religion fresh, they created a form of literature that runs a fine-toothed comb over the Torah, looking for even more hidden meaning behind, beyond, and between the words and letters of the text.

An example of midrashic interpretation is the very first word of Genesis, bereishit, meaning “in the beginning,” has within it, reishit, which is used elsewhere to refer to both the Jewish people and the Torah. Thus you could say that the whole world was created for the sake of the Jews and Torah.

Finally, there’s Sod. I’m not going to bother paraphrasing Wikipedia, I’ll rather just quote it straight from the relevant article:

In Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides declares his intention to conceal from the average reader his explanations of Sod. Later on in the book, Maimonides mentions Divine secrets within Torah:

"Adam and Eve were at first created as one being, having their backs united: they were then separated, and one half was removed and brought before Adam as Eve." Note how clearly it has been stated that Adam and Eve were two in some respects, and yet they remained one, according to the words, "Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh" (Gen. ii. 23). The unity of the two is proved by the fact that both have the same name, for she is called ishah (woman), because she was taken out of ish (man), also by the words, "And shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh" (ii. 24). How great is the ignorance of those who do not see that all this necessarily includes some [other] idea [besides the literal meaning of the words].

If it all seems a bit, well, thin, to you, keep in mind that you’re not really supposed to start studying Sod until you know your Torah and midrash backwards and forwards. By the time you get to Sod, looking for meaning behind every pebble and rock feels altogether normal. You’ve spent your entire life studying one book.

Imagine reading the same story over and over again, hundreds of times. The rhythms and cadences of the story assume a life of their own. You see things you never could have seen the first ten times you read it. This effect is amplified a hundredfold when it comes to spiritual literature. It’s very composition encourages you to look for deep meaning.

So you can see this smooth shading from the exoteric to the esoteric. It’s not a matter of whether you’re in or out of the spectrum, you’re on the spectrum, you have a level of analysis you’re comfortable with, it’s just a question of how deep and how easy you see new meaning behind old words.

Some people study Dragonball Z incredibly thoroughly in order to appreciate the ideas that the anime presents. The Torah is a chronicle of events and stories that an ancient people found so relevant to their lives that many to this day dedicate their whole lives to their study. It’s only natural that these deeper levels of interpretation will manifest. Spend some time on DBZ power scaling communities, it’s the same thing in modern form. Knowledge that is hidden, that you have to search for.

Kabbalah deeply informed just about every other Western esoteric tradition, in this grand synthesis of spiritual ideas from, well, wherever anybody could get them. Deeper reading of texts allows one to reconcile ideas that conflict with exoteric understanding. For example, reincarnation was reintroduced to Judaism sometime during the Middle Ages after lying dormant since ancient mystics bandied it about as a possible alternative afterlife explanation.

Fanning the flames of all those wanting to draw connections between East and West, the Hasidic Rebbe, Moshe Teitelbaum of Ujhel (1759–1841) told his followers that he had been reincarnated three times, which he recalled. His first gilgul was as a sheep in the flock of the Biblical Patriarch Jacob. Feels downright Hindu.

The truth is, anyone trying to draw a truly-universal worldview will eventually have to grapple with the essential differences between individuals, and reincarnation is always going to rear its ugly head no matter what you do unless you bury your head in the sand and hum loudly to try to ignore it like modern-day Christians.

Speaking of Christianity, now’s a good time to segue into Gnosticism. Seen one way, it’s a heretical rebellion against the dominion of Christ. You can pejoratively describe it as salvation through knowledge rather than faith or works. Seen another, it’s just the Christian way to do midrash and sod. Since it doesn’t have mainstream acceptance like Kabbalah does in Judaism, there’s no established forms to go on, and so everybody whose interested in deeper interpretation of scripture has to do it their own way.

Esoteric Western traditions can find ways to re-introduce needed spiritual concepts like the divine feminine that just got lost in the historical shuffle, while still remaining somewhat grounded in the fundamentals of Western religion. These movements will forever remain smaller and be considered heretical by the orthodoxy.

And they have a point. You can paint yourself into some pretty dark, cult-like corners with these ideas. Aleister Crowley performed and taught what is now called High Magick. Ceremony and ritual have powerful effects on the mind and shouldn’t be taken lightly. But Crowley himself drew heavily from Kabbalah to inform his magickal pursuits. His early life was steeped in exactly the sort of study a young rabbi thousands of years ago would have done. Reading, searching, scouring, tearing apart ancient texts for hidden meaning.

Gnosticism, the seeking of gnosis, knowledge, is the continuation / corruption of an even more ancient practice, that of running down the rabbit hole and never looking back.