According to the traditional understanding, Kabbalah dates from Eden. It came down from a remote past as a revelation to elect tzadikim (righteous people), and, for the most part, was preserved only by a privileged few. Talmudic Judaism records its view of the proper protocol for teaching this wisdom, as well as many of its concepts, in the "Talmud", Tractate "Hagigah", 11b-13a, "One should not teach ... the work of Creation in pairs, nor the work of the Chariot to an individual, unless he is wise and can understand the implications himself etc."