Kabbalah is a tradition within Jewish mysticism that attempts to explain the relationship between the eternal (God, the unchanging creator) and the mortal (the universe, God’s creation). There is no single text or philosophy that defines Kabbalah; instead, it is a collection of philosophies, texts, and theories that build upon each other with the same goal. Kabbalah arose within the Jewish mystic tradition in twelfth- to thirteenth-century Spain and Southern France, and it was a primary influence in the development of Hasidic Judaism in the eighteenth century.