Kabbalah Ma'asit
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For other Kabbalistic and esoteric mystical traditions see Kabbalah Hermetic Qabalah, Christian Kabbalah, Emanation: Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Kabbalah Ma'asit ("Practical Kabbalah") is used to refer to secret science in general, mystic art, or mystery regarding the ability to foretell events or know occult events by the Kabbalah.
Within Judaism proper, the foretelling of the future through magical means is not permissible, not even with the Kabbalah. However, there is no prohibition against understanding the past nor coming to a greater understanding of present and future situations through inspiration gained by the Kabbalah (a subtle distinction and one often hard to delineate). The appeal to occult power outside the monotheist deity for divination purpose is unacceptable in Judaism, but at the same time it is held that the righteous have access to occult knowledge. Such knowledge can come through dreams and incubation (inducing clairvoyant dreams), metoscopy (reading faces, lines on the face, or auras emanating from the face), Ibburim and Maggidim (spirit possession), and/or various methods of scrying (see Sefer Chasidim, Sefer ha-Hezyonot).
The Midrash and Talmud are replete with the use of Divine names and incantations that are claimed to effect supernatural or theurgic results. Most post-Talmudic rabbinical literature seeks to curb the use of any or most of these formulae, termed Kabbalah Ma'asit ("practical Kabbalah"). There are various arguments for this; one stated by the Medieval Rabbi Jacob Mölin (Maharil) is that the person using it may lack the required grounding, and the spell would be ineffective. Yet the interest in these rituals of power continued largely unabated until recently. And in fact, since the Talmud exempts virtually all forms of magical healing from this prohibition ("Whatsoever effects healing is not considered witchcraft" - Tractate Shabbat), there has been the widespread practice of medicinal sorcery, amulets, and segullot (folk remedies) in Jewish societies across time and geography.
Other dramatic examples of such "practical" power include: the knowledge required to produce a Golem, a homunculus or artificial lifeform. Some adherents of Kabbalah developed the idea of invoking a curse against a sinner termed a Pulsa diNura (lit. "lashes of fire",) although the majority of Kabbalists reject the notion that a person can actually cause it.
Many kabbalistic rituals require the participation of more than one individual, e.g., the creation of a Golem, for which at least three individuals are required. Further, Kabbalah itself can only be taught to a very small group of select individuals who had mastered the other branches of Torah. For these reasons, the English word "cabal" came to refer to any small, secretive and possibly conspiratorial group.
