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Possible definitions for kabalas

Kabbala
Jewish mysticism as it developed in the 12th cent. and after. Essentially an oral tradition, it laid claim to secret wisdom of the unwritten Torah communicated by God to Adam and Moses. It provided Jews with a direct approach to God, a notion regarded as heretical and pantheistic by Orthodox Judaism. A major text was the 12th-cent. Book of Brightness, which introduced the doctrine of transmigration of souls to Judaism and provided Kabbala with extensive mythical symbolism. In 13th-cent. Spain the tradition included the Book of the Image, which asserted that each cycle of history had its own Torah, and the Book of Splendor, which dealt with the mystery of creation. In the 16th cent. the center of Kabbala was Safed, Galilee, where it was based on the esoteric teachings of the greatest of all Kabbalists, I. ben S. Luria. The doctrines of Lurianic Kabbala, which called for Jews to achieve a cosmic restoration (tiqqun) through an intense mystical life and an unceasing struggle against evil, were influential in the development of modern Hasidism.


Kabila
Leader of rebel forces in Zaire (now Congo) that in 1997 overthrew the government of Mobutu Sese Seko. Kabila attended schools abroad, incl. military school in China, before participating in several Marxist-inspired uprisings in Zaire in the 1960s and '70s. He later became a trader in precious minerals and ivory. In the Rwandan civil war, Kabila collaborated with P. Kagame in attacking Hutu guerrilla groups in Zaire as well as Zairean government forces. His troops ousted Mobutu in 1997, and Kabila proclaimed himself president and renamed the country. His repressive policies soon led to a new and larger war, in which many African states sent troops and aid to both sides.


Karbala
Battle between forces of the second Umayyad caliph, Yazid I, and Husayn ibn Ali. Husayn was on his way to Kufah, where he had been invited to be proclaimed caliph when he was attacked and killed in the town of Karbala, Iraq, by an army sent by the Umayyad governor of Basra. Shiites regard the battle's date as a holy day of mourning and Husayn's tomb as the holiest place in the world. See also Ali, fitnah, al-Muawiyah I.

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