<0^" snii ^ 
 
 MAR 7 1914 
 
 A. 
 
 
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 BM 525 .P52 1913 
 
 Pick, Bernhard, 1842-1917. 
 
 The cabala 
 
THE CABALA 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 ITS INFLUENCE ON 
 JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
 BERNHARD PICK, Ph.D. D.D. 
 
 CHICAGO LONDON 
 
 THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 191$ 
 
COPYRIGHT BY 
 
 THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 1913 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 chap. page 
 
 Foreword 3-8 
 
 I. Name and Origin of The Cabala 9-15 
 
 II. The Development of The Ca- 
 bala in the Pre-Zohar Period 16-44 
 
 III. The Book of Zoiiar or Splendor 45-53 
 
 IV. The Cabala in the Post-Zohar 
 
 Period 54-65 
 
 V. The Most Important Doctrines 
 
 of The Cabala . . . 66-94 
 
 VI. The Cabala in Relation to Juda- 
 ism and Christianity . . 95-109 
 
 Bibliography .... 110-111 
 
 Index 113 
 
THE CABALA 
 
THE CABALA. 
 
 Foreword. — Although the Cabala belongs to 
 the past, it nevertheless demands our attention 
 on account of the interest taken in it by men like 
 Raymond Lully, the "Doctor Illuminatus" as he 
 was styled (died 1315) : John Picus di Miran- 
 dola (1463-1494); John Reuchlin (1455-1522); 
 Cornelius Henry Agrippa von Nettesheim ( 1486- 
 1535) ; John Baptist von Helmont (1577-1644) ; 
 the English scholars Robert Fludd (1574-1637) 
 and Henry More (1614-1687). How much The- 
 ophrastus Paracelsus (1493-1541) and Jacob 
 Boehme (1575-1624), called "Philosophus Teu- 
 tonicus," were influenced by cabalistic doctrines, 
 is difficult to state. At any rate the names men- 
 tioned before are sufficient to call attention to a 
 theosophical system which has engaged the 
 minds of Jewish and Christian scholars. 
 
 It is surprising how scanty the English liter- 
 ature is on the Cabala. True that in the History 
 of the Jews by Basnage, London, 1708, we have 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 a lengthy account of this theosophy (pp. 184- 
 256) ; but this account is originally given in the 
 French work Histoire des Juifs, by the same au- 
 thor. John Gill (died 1771) in his "Dissertatio 
 de genuina Punctorum Vocalium Hebraicorum 
 Antiquitate, contra Cappellum, Waltonwm" etc., 
 prefixed to his Clavis Pentateuchi, Edinburgh, 
 1770, refers to the Zohar to prove the antiquity 
 of the Hebrew vowel-points, because it states 
 that "the vowel-points proceeded from the Holy 
 Spirit who indited the Sacred Scriptures," etc. 
 (on Song of Songs 57b; ed. Amsterdam, 1701). 
 Of course so long as the Cabala was believed to 
 be a genuine revelation from God, and Simon 
 ben Jochai (of the second century)' was believed 
 to be the author of the Zohar, to whom God com- 
 municated all the mysteries, it was but a matter 
 of course to believe in the antiquity and divinity 
 of the vowel-points. 
 
 John Allen (died 1839) in his Modern Juda- 
 ism, London, 1816, (2d. ed. 1830) also gives an ac- 
 count of the Cabala, in which he premises the 
 antiquity of the Zohar, which he makes the pri- 
 mary source of the primitve Cabala. Passing 
 over Dean Milman's (died 1868) History of the 
 Jews, London, 1829, (often reprinted), in which 
 we naturally also find references to the Cabala, 
 we mention J. W. Etheridge (died 1866), author 
 of Jerusalem and Tiberias; Sora and Cordova, a 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Survey of the Religious and Scholastic Learning 
 of the Jews, Designed as an Introduction to He- 
 brew Literature, London, 1856. This author 
 seems to have been acquainted with the re- 
 searches of the Jewish scholars in Germany, but 
 he nevertheless stoutly adheres to the traditional 
 view. Thus he remarks on page 314: 
 
 "To the authenticity of the Zohar, as a work 
 of the early Kabalistic school, objections have in- 
 deed been made, but they are not of sufficient 
 gravity to merit an extended investigation. The 
 opinion that ascribes it as a pseudo-fabrication 
 to Moses de Leon in the thirteenth century, has, 
 I imagine, but few believers among the learned 
 in this subject in our own day. The references 
 to Shemun ben Yocha'i and the Kabala in the 
 Talmud, and abundant internal evidence found 
 in the book itself, exhibit the strongest probabil- 
 ity, not that Shemun himself was the author of 
 it, but that it is the fruit and result of his per- 
 sonal instructions, and of the studies of his im- 
 mediate disciples." 
 
 We may say that Etheridge's view is mutatis 
 mutandis also that of Ad. Franck, author of 
 Systcme de la Kabbale ou la philosophic reli- 
 gieuse des Hebreux, Paris, 1843 (2d. ed. 1892) ; 
 translated into German by A. Gelinek (Jellinek), 
 Die Kabbala oder die Religions philosophic dcr 
 Hebrder, Leipsig, 1844, with which must be com- 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 pared D. H. Joel, Die Religionsphilosophie des 
 Sohar, ibid., 1840, which is an exceedingly good 
 supplement to Franck's work. But an exami- 
 nation of the works published by Zunz, Die got- 
 tesdienstlichen Vortr'dge dcr Juden, Berlin, 1831, 
 p. 405 ; Geiger, Melo Chofnayim, ibid., 1840, in- 
 troduction, p. xvii ; Sachs, Die religiose Pocsie dcr 
 Juden in Spanien, ibid., 1845, p. 327, Jellinek, 
 Moses Ben Schem Tob de Leon, Leipsig, 1851, 
 could have convinced Etheridge that the Zohar, 
 the text-book of the Cabala, is the "pseudo-fabri- 
 cation" of Moses de Leon in the thirteenth cen- 
 tury. That Landauer (died 1841) in his essays 
 on the Cabala published in the Litteraturblatt des 
 Orients, 1845, p. 178 et seq., 1846, p. 12 et seq., 
 ascribes the authorship of the Zohar to Abraham 
 ben Samuel Abulafia towards the end of the 
 second half of the thirteenth century, is the more 
 weighty and instructive because he originally 
 started with opinions of an exactly opposite 
 character (Steinschneider, Jezvish Literature, p. 
 299). Nevertheless Etheridge's book was a good 
 work; it was the praiseworthy attempt of an 
 English Christian to acquaint the English-speak- 
 ing people with the post-Biblical literature of the 
 Jews. 
 
 Four years after the publication of the above 
 work, Canon Westcott (died 1901) published his 
 Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, Lon- 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 don, 1860, in which he incidentally refers to the 
 Cabala, without adopting Etheridge's view as to 
 the authorship of the Zohar; on the contrary he 
 says (p. 159, Boston, 1867) : "The Sepher ha- 
 Zohar, or Book of Splendor, owes its existence 
 to R. Moses of Leon in the thirteenth century,'' 
 and this, he says in a note, "has been satisfac- 
 torily established by Jellinek in his tract, Moses 
 ben Schemtob de Leon und sein Verh'dltniss zum 
 Sohar, Leipsig, 1851. The warm approval of 
 Jost is sufficient to remove any lingering doubt 
 as to the correctness of Jellinek's conclusion: A 
 Jellinek and die Kabala, Leipsic, 1852." 
 
 The publication of Jellinek's Beitrdge sur Ge- 
 schichte der Kabbala, 2 parts, Leipsic, 1852; and 
 his Auszvahl kabbalistischer Mystik, part I, ibid., 
 1853 ; Stern's "Versuch einer umstandlichen 
 Analyse des Sohar" (in Ben Chananja, Monats- 
 schrift fiir jiidische Theologie, Vols. I-IV, Sze- 
 gedin, 1858-1861); Jost's Geschichte des Juden- 
 thums und seiner Sekten, Vol. Ill, pp. 66-81, 
 Leipsic, 1859; more especially of Graetz's Ge- 
 schichte der Juden, 1 Vol. VII, pp. 73-87, 442- 
 459; 487-507, Leipsic, 1863, paved the way for 
 Christian D. Ginsburg's (now very scarce) essay 
 
 J The English translation of this work, published by 
 the Jewish Publication Society of America, is of no 
 service to the student, because the scholarly notes, 
 which are the best part of the original, are entirely 
 omitted. 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 The Kabbalah, London, 1865. As a matter of 
 course he adopts the results of modern scholar- 
 ship and rejects the authorship of Simon ben 
 Jochai. 
 
 As far as we are aware, nothing has been pub- 
 lished in English since 1865. The Kabbalah Un- 
 veiled by S. L. M. Mathers, London, 1887, gives 
 only a translation of some parts of the Zohar, 
 which Knorr von Rosenroth had rendered into 
 Latin. Nevertheless this work is interesting, be- 
 cause an English reader — provided he has enough 
 patience — can get a taste of the Zoharic wisdom 
 and unwisdom. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 NAME AND ORIGIN OF THE CABALA. 
 
 The Cabala. — By Cabala we understand that 
 system of religious philosophy, or more properly, 
 of Jewish theosophy, which played so important 
 a part in the theological and exegetical literature 
 of both Jews and Christians ever since the Mid- 
 dle Ages. 
 
 The Hebrew word Cabala (from Kibbel) prop- 
 erly denotes "reception," then "a doctrine re- 
 ceived by oral tradition." The term is thus in 
 itself nearly equivalent to "transmission," like 
 the Latin traditio, in Hebrew masorah, for which 
 last, indeed, the Talmud makes it interchange- 
 able in the statement given in Pirke Abot I, 1 : 
 "Moses received {kibbel) the Law on Mount 
 Sinai, and transmitted (umsarah) it to Joshua." 
 The difference, however, between the word "Ca- 
 bala" and the cognate term masorah is that the 
 former expressed "the act of receiving," while 
 the latter denotes "the act of giving over, sur- 
 rendering, transmitting." The name, therefore, 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 tells us no more than that this theosophy has 
 been received traditionally. In the oldest Jewish 
 literature (Mishna, Midrash, Talmud), the Ca- 
 bala denotes the whole body of Jewish tradition. 
 The name is even applied to the prophetic writ- 
 ings of the Old Testament, and the Hagiographa, 
 in contradistinction to the Pentateuch. As a 
 scientific system the Cabala is also called chokmat 
 ha-cabalah, i. e., science of tradition, or chokmah 
 nistarah (abbreviated ch'n, i. e., chcn, }n), i. e., 
 secret science or wisdom, and its representatives 
 and adherents delighted in calling themselves 
 maskilim, i. e., "intelligent," or with a play of 
 words yode ch'n, i. e., "connoisseurs of secret 
 wisdom." 
 
 Having defined the term Cabala, which was 
 still commonly used for "oral tradition" in the 
 13th and 14th centuries even after the technical 
 sense of the word was established, we must be 
 careful to distinguish between cabala and mys- 
 ticism. Like other Eastern nations, the Jews 
 were naturally inclined to theosophical specula- 
 tion and though this tendency may have been re- 
 pressed by the definite teaching of revelation as 
 long as they were confined within the sacred 
 boundaries of Palestine, it found a freer scope 
 after the Exile. 
 
 There were two subjects about which the 
 Jewish imagination especially busied itself, — the 
 
 10 
 
NAME AND ORIGIN 
 
 history of the Creation, and the Merkabah, or the 
 Divine apparition to Ezekiel. Both touch the 
 question of God's original connection with His 
 creatures, and that of His continued intercourse 
 with them. They treat of the mystery of nature 
 and of Providence, especially of Revelation ; and 
 an attempt is made to answer the question, how 
 the Infinite God can have any connection or in- 
 tercourse with finite creatures. 
 
 It is difficult to say how far it is possible to 
 trace with certainty Jewish mysticism. Even in 
 the book of Sirach (Ecclus, xlix. 8) it is the 
 special praise of Ezekiel that he saw the chariot 
 of the Cherubim. When we come to the period 
 of the Mishna, we find the existence of a body 
 of esoteric doctrine already presupposed. It is 
 laid down that "no one ought to discourse the 
 history of Creation (Gen. i) with two, or the 
 Chariot (Ezek. i) with one, unless he be a 
 scholar, who has knowledge of his own" (Chag- 
 igall, 1). 
 
 Further allusions to these mysterious doctrines 
 occur in the Talmud, but any rash investigation 
 of them was discouraged, as is shown by the 
 story of the four sages in "the enclosed garden," 
 i. e., who were engaged in theosophical studies. 
 One of them, it was said, had looked around and 
 died ; another had looked around and lost his rea- 
 son; a third eventually tried to destroy the gar- 
 
 11 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 den ; l while the fourth alone had entered and re- 
 turned in safety (Chagiga, fol. 14, col. 2). 
 
 Little by little mysticism made its way from 
 Palestine into Babylonia and found many follow- 
 ers. Its adepts called themselves "Men of 
 Faith." They boasted of possessing the means 
 of obtaining a view of the divine household. By 
 virtue of certain incantations, invocations of the 
 names of God and the angels, and the recitation 
 of certain prayer-like chants, combined with 
 fasting and an ascetic mode of living, they pre- 
 tended to be able to perform supernatural deeds. 
 For this purpose they made use of amulets and 
 cameos (Kameoth), and wrote upon them the 
 names of God and the angels with certain signs. 
 Miracle-working was a trifle to these mystics. 
 The books which they wrote only gave hints, and 
 only those were initiated into the mystic secrets, 
 in whose hand and forehead the adepts pretended 
 to discover lines that proved them to be worthy 
 of being initiated. 
 
 Origin of the Cabala. — Deferring until later 
 
 Mn the Talmud he is called Elisha ben-Abuja, sur- 
 named Acher, i. e., "the other one," after his apostasy 
 From Judaism. It is related of him that while attending 
 the Jewish college he had often been noticed to carry 
 with him writings of the "Minim" (probably of Gnos- 
 tics), and that he had even been in the habit of quoting 
 Greek poetry. Elisha was a pupil of the famous rabbi 
 Akiba; comp. Jellinek, Elisha ben-Abujja, genannt 
 . Ichcr, Leipsic, 1847. 
 
 U 
 
NAME AND ORIGIN 
 
 the works belonging to this period, we will now 
 speak of the origin of the Cabala. Although the 
 name "Cabala" in its pregnant meaning is first 
 used in the 13th century, yet Jewish tradition 
 claims a high antiquity for the Cabala and traces 
 it back, among others, to three famous Talmud- 
 ists, as the proper founders of the Cabala, viz., 
 Rabbi Ismael ben Elisa (about 121 A. D.) ; Ne- 
 chunjah Ben-Ha-Kanah (about 70 A. D.), and 
 especially Simon ben Jochai (about 150 A. D.), 2 
 the reputed author of the Zohar. 
 
 Whatever may be the claims of these tradi- 
 tions they must be rejected. The mystical specu- 
 lations of the Cabala are entirely foreign to 
 older Judaism, especially original Mosaism. It 
 is true that the Talmud contains many things 
 concerning God, heaven, hell, world, magic, 
 etc., 3 but these things were generally assigned to 
 some individuals, and are elements derived from 
 Parsism and neo-Platonism ; and much as the 
 Talmud and Midrash may otherwise speak of the 
 three teachers mentioned before, such things are 
 not recorded of them. The Cabala as a mystical 
 system and its development as such undoubtedly 
 belongs to the Middle Ages, beginning probably 
 with the seventh century of our era, and culmin- 
 
 2 See my article s. v. in McClintock and Strong's 
 Cyclop., Vol. IX, p. 757. 
 
 3 The reader is referred for such things to my ar- 
 ticle "Talmud," loc. cit., Vol. X, pp. 170. 171. 
 
 13 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 ating in the Book Zohar. A fuller and more ma- 
 ture development of the Cabala is due to the spec- 
 ulations of later masters. 
 
 The origin of the Cabala belongs to that period 
 in which Judaism on the one hand was permeated 
 by a crude anthropomorphic notion of the Deity, 
 whereas on the other hand Platonism and Aris- 
 totelianism strove for the ascendency in formu- 
 lating the fundamental doctrines of Jewish be- 
 lief. With Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) ra- 
 tionalism had reached its climax. The injunc- 
 tions of the Bible were only to be explained by 
 the light of reason. Only the simple, primary 
 or literary sense (peshat) of the Scripture was 
 recognized, the existing allegorical interpretation 
 (dcrush) was considered either as rabbinical 
 fancy, or one saw in it only a poetical form. 
 Even the Talmud had been systematized and co- 
 dified. Religion had become a more or less 
 meaningless opus operatum. Philosophy had al- 
 ways been treated as something secondary, which 
 had nothing to do with practical Judaism, as it 
 is daily and hourly practiced. Maimonides, on 
 the other hand, had introduced it into the holiest 
 place in Judaism, and, as it were, gave Aristotle 
 a place next to the doctors of the Law. Instead 
 of unifying Judaism, Maimonides caused a divi- 
 sion, and the Maimunists and Anti-Maimunists 
 opposed each other. A reaction came and the 
 
 ll 
 
NAME AND ORIGIN 
 
 Cabala stepped in as a counterpoise to the grow- 
 ing shallowness of the Maimunists' philosophy. 
 The storm against his system broke out in Prov- 
 ence and spread over Spain. The latter country 
 may be considered as the real home of the Ca- 
 bala. When the Jews were driven from that 
 country, the Cabala took root in Palestine and 
 thence it was carried back into the different 
 countries of Europe. 
 
 The fundamental ideas of the Cabala are un- 
 Jewish, derived from Philo, the neo-Platonists 
 and the neo- Pythagoreans ; we sometimes even 
 notice Gnostic influences. But the close amalga- 
 mation of these different elements with Biblical 
 and Midrashic ideas has given to these foreign 
 parts such a Jewish coloring, that at the first 
 glance they appear as an emanation of the Jew- 
 ish mental life. 
 
 IS 
 
CHAPTER 1L 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CABALA 
 IN THE PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD. 
 
 Pre-Zohar Period. — The history of the Ca- 
 bala comprises a period of nearly a thousand 
 years, its beginning may be traced back to the 
 seventh century, whereas its last shoots belong 
 to the eighteenth century. For convenience^ 
 sake we can distinguish two periods, the one 
 reaching from the seventh to the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, the other from the fourteenth to the eight- 
 eenth century. The former is the time of grad- 
 ual growth, development and progress, the other 
 that of decline and decay. The origin of the Zo- 
 har in the thirteenth century forms the climax in 
 the history of the Cabala. It became the treasury 
 to the followers of this theosophy, a text-book 
 for the students of the Cabala, the standard and 
 code of the cabalistic system, the Bible of the 
 Cabalists. 
 
 From the seventh to the ninth century we 
 meet with the representatives of the mysteries of 
 
 16 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 the mcrkaba, 1 which is expounded in the so-called 
 Hekaloth, i. e., "Palaces." This work, which is 
 ascribed to Ismael ben-Elisa, opens with a de- 
 scription of God's throne and his household con- 
 sisting of angelic hosts. In this mystical pro- 
 duction, which has been reprinted by Jellinek in 
 Bet ha-Midrash, Vol. Ill, pp. 83-108, the praises 
 of the Almighty God and his chariot throne are 
 celebrated. We are told that each of the seven 
 heavenly palaces is guarded by eight angels; a 
 description of the formula is given by virtue of 
 which these angelic guards are obliged to grant 
 admission into the celestial palaces; also a de- 
 scription of the peculiar qualifications necessary 
 for those who desire to enter into these palaces. 
 Some hymns of praise and a conversation with 
 God, Israel and the angels conclude this treatise, 
 which like the Shiar Koma or the treatise on "the 
 Dimensions of the Deity," also ascribed to Rabbi 
 Ismael, knows nothing of the speculations of the 
 En Soph, the ten Sephiroth and the doctrine of 
 the Transmigration of Souls. 
 
 Another work belonging to this period is the 
 
 1 Mevkaba, i. e., "Chariot," mentioned in Ezek. i and 
 x, which treat of the Divine Throne, resting on wheels, 
 and carried by sacred animals. Great mysteries are at- 
 tached by the ancient Jews to all details of this de- 
 scription of the Deity and his surroundings, which in 
 imitation of Maascy Bereshit, i. e., "the work of the 
 hexahemeron" or "cosmogony," is also called Maascy 
 Merkaba, "the Work of the Chariot," a kind of "the- 
 osophv." 
 
 \7 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 Othijoth dc Rabbi Akiba, i. e., "the Alphabet of 
 Rabbi Akiba," which alternately treats each let- 
 ter of the Hebrew alphabet "as representing an 
 idea as an abbreviation for a word, and as the 
 symbol of some sentiment, according to its pe- 
 culiar form, in order to attach to those letters 
 moral, theoanthropic, angelological and mystical 
 notions." This treatise is also given in Jellinek's 
 work, cited above, Vol. Ill, pp. 12-49, Leipsic, 
 1855. A Latin translation of Akiba's Alphabet 
 is given by Kircher, in his (Edipus Mgyptiacus, 2 
 and in Bartolocci's Bibliotheca Rabbinical 
 
 Bodenschatz in his Kirchliche Verfassung der 
 heutigen Juden, (Erlangen, 1748) gives in Part 
 III, p. 15, the following specimen: "On the 
 words: 'The Lord is nigh unto them that are 
 of a broken heart' (Ps. xxxiv, 18) we read: 'All 
 who are of a broken heart are more agreeable be- 
 fore God than the ministering angels, because the 
 ministering angels are remote from the divine 
 Majesty 360,000,000 miles, as it is said in Is. vi. 
 2: "Above it stood the Seraphim 7 ' {mimaal lo), 
 where the word lo by way of gematria means 
 36,000. This teaches us that the body of the 
 divine Majesty is 2,000,000,336,000 miles long. 
 From his loins upward are 1,000,000,180,000 
 miles, and from his loins downward 118 times 
 10,000 miles. But these miles are not like ours, 
 
 2 Rome. 1652, Vol. II, p. 225 f. 
 ft Vol. IV, pp. 27 f. 
 
 18 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 but like his (God's) miles. For his mile is 
 1,000,000 ells long, and his ell contains four 
 spans and a hand's breadth, and his span goes 
 from one end of the world to the other, as is 
 said Is. x. 12 : "Who has measured the waters 
 in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven 
 with the span?" Another explanation is that the 
 words "and meted out heaven with the span" 
 denote that the heaven and the heaven of all 
 heavens is only one span long, wide and high, 
 and that the earth with all the abysses is as long 
 as the sole of the foot, and wide as the sole of 
 the foot, etc., etc' " 
 
 Another part of Akiba's Alphabet is the so- 
 called "Book of Enoch," 4 which describes the 
 glorification of Enoch and his transformation 
 into the angel Metatron, regarding him as "the 
 little God" in contradistinction to "the Great 
 God." 
 
 These mystical treatises came into existence in 
 the course of time, and their teachings rapidly 
 spread. So numerous became the disciples of 
 mysticism in the twelfth century that Maimo- 
 nides found it necessary to denounce the system. 
 "Give no credence to the nonsense of the writers 
 of charms and amulets, to what they tell you or 
 to what you find in their foolish writings about 
 the divine names ; which they invent without any 
 
 * Also reprinted in Jellinek's Bet Ha-Midrash, Vol. 
 II. pp. 114-117. 
 
 19 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 sense, calling them appellations of the Deity, 
 and affirming that they require holiness and pur- 
 ity and perform miracles. All these things are 
 fables; a sensible man will not listen to them, 
 much less believe in them." 5 
 
 A new stage in the development of the Cabala 
 commences with the publication of The Book of 
 Creation or Jezirah, which is the first work that 
 comprises the philosophical speculations of the 
 age in one systematic whole. Scholars are now 
 agreed that the Book of Jezirah belongs to the 
 eighth or ninth centuries, and that it has nothing 
 to do with the Jezirah-Book mentioned in the 
 Talmud, where we are told that "Rabbis Hanina 
 and Oshaya studied it every Friday, whereby 
 they produced a calf three years old and ate it" 
 (Sanhedrin, fol. 65, col. 2), and whereby Rabbi 
 Joshua ben Hananya declared he could take fruit 
 and instantly produce the trees which belong to 
 them (Jerusalem Sanhedrin, chapt. VII towards 
 the end). 6 
 
 5 More, Nebuchim I. 61. Wiinsche thinks that the 
 treatise De Judaicis siipcrstitionibiis by Agobard, bishop 
 of Lyons (died 840), was directed against this mystic 
 tendency. 
 
 L. Goldschmidt, Das Buck der Schopfang, Frank- 
 furt a. M., 1894, p. 10, remarks: "I am inclined to put 
 the time of the composition of the Book Jezirah into 
 the second century B. C, and assert that it is the same 
 book of the Creation which is mentioned in the Talmud." 
 He is also inclined to make Palestine the place of its 
 composition. 
 
 20 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 The Sepher Jezirah as we now have it, is 
 properly a monologue on the part of Abraham, 
 in which, by the contemplation of all that is 
 around him, he ultimately arrived at the convic- 
 tion of the Unity of God. Hence the remark of 
 the philosopher Jehudah Halevi (born about 
 1086) — "the Book of the Creation, which belongs 
 to our father Abraham demon- 
 strates the existence of the Deity and the Divine 
 Unity, by things which are on the one hand man- 
 ifold and multifarious, whilst on the other hand 
 they converge and harmonize; and this harmony 
 can only proceed from One who originated it" 
 (Khozari, IV, 25). 
 
 Referring the reader to the literature on the 
 Sepher Jezirah to Goldschmidt's book, pp. 35-46, 7 
 we will state that the Book of Creation consists 
 of six Perakim or chapters, subdivided into 
 thirty-three very brief Mishnahs or sections, as 
 follows : the first chapter has twelve sections, the 
 second has five, the third five, the fourth 
 four, the fifth three, and the sixth four sections. 
 The doctrines which the book propounds are de- 
 livered in the style of aphorisms or theorems, 
 and, pretending to be the dicta of Abraham, are 
 laid down very dogmatically, in a manner be- 
 coming the authority of this patriarch, who, ac- 
 
 7 We may add the English translation of the book 
 by Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Mes- 
 siah, Vol. II (1883), pp. 690-695. 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 cording to Artapanus instructed King Phare- 
 thothes of Egypt in astrology (Eusebius, Pracp. 
 evang., IX, 18) ; fulfilled the whole law, before 
 it was given (Apoc. Baruch, chap. 57; Kiddu- 
 shin, IV, 14 fin.), and victoriously overcame ten 
 temptations 8 (Pirke Aboth, V, 3). 
 
 Theosophical Arithmetic. — The book opens 
 with the statement that "by thirty-two paths of 
 secret wisdom, the Eternal, the Lord of Hosts, the 
 God of Israel the living God, the King of the Uni- 
 verse, the Merciful and Gracious, the High and 
 Exalted God, He who inhabits eternity, Glorious 
 and Holy is His name, hath created the world by 
 means of number, word and writing (or number, 
 numberer, numbered)" I. 1. — The book shows 
 why there are just thirty-two of these. By an 
 analysis of this number it seeks to exhibit, in a 
 peculiar method of theosophical arithmetic, on 
 the assumption that they are the signs of exist- 
 ence and thought, the doctrine that God produced 
 all, and is over all, the universe being a develop- 
 ment of original entity, and existence being but 
 thought become concrete; "in short, that instead 
 of the heathenish or popular Jewish conception 
 of the world as outward, or co-existent with De- 
 
 8 Comp. in general Beer, Leben Abraham's nach 
 Auffassung der judlschen Sage, Leipsic, 1859; Grun- 
 baum, N cue Beitrage zur semitischen Sagcnkunde ; 
 1S93, pp. 89-132; Bonwetsch, Die Apokalypse Abrahams, 
 1897, pp. 41-55. 
 
 22 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 ity, it is co-equal in birth, having been brought 
 out of nothing by God, thus establishing a Pan- 
 theistic system of emanation, of which, princi- 
 pally because it is not anywhere designated by 
 name, one would think the writer was not himself 
 quite conscious." 
 
 The following will illustrate the curious proof 
 of this argumentation : the number 32 is the sum 
 of 10, the number of the ten fingers (I, 3), and 
 22, the number of the Hebrew alphabet, this lat- 
 ter being afterwards further resolved into 
 3+7+12 (1,2). The first chapter (I, 2-8 treats 
 of the decade and its elements, which are called 
 figures in contradistinction from the 22 letters. 
 This decade is the sign-manual of the universe. 
 In the details of this hypothesis the existence of 
 divinity in the abstract is really ignored, though 
 not formally denied. Thus the number one is 
 its spirit as an active principle, in which all 
 worlds and beings are yet enclosed. "One is the 
 spirit of the living God, blessed and again blessed 
 be the Name of Him, Who liveth for ever — 
 Voice and Spirit and Word, and this is the Holy 
 Ghost" (1,9). 
 
 Two is the spirit from this spirit, i. e., the ac- 
 tive principle in so far as it has beforehand de- 
 cided on creating; "in it He engraved the twenty- 
 two letters" (I, 10). 
 
 Three is water; four is fire; "in it He hewed 
 
 23 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 the throne of glory, the Ophanim 9 and Seraphim, 
 the sacred living creatures, and the angels of 
 service, and of these three He founded His 
 dwelling place, as it is said, He maketh His an- 
 gels breaths, and His ministers a flaming fire (I, 
 11, 12). The six remaining figures, 5-10, are re- 
 garded severally as the sign-manual of height, 
 depth, east, west, north and south, forming the 
 six sides of a cube, and representing the idea of 
 form in its geometrical perfection (I, 13). 
 
 In the words of the Book of Creation the hex- 
 ade is thus described : ''Five : Three letters 
 from out the simple ones ; He sealed spirit on the 
 three, and fastened them in His great Name J 
 H V. 10 And He sealed with them six outgoings 
 (ends, terminations) ; He turned upwards, and 
 He sealed it with J H V. Six : He sealed below, 
 turned downwards, and sealed it with J V H. 
 Seven : He sealed eastward, He turned in front 
 of Him, and sealed it with H J V. Eight: He 
 sealed westward and turned behind, and sealed 
 it with H V J. Nine : He sealed southward, and 
 turned to His right, and sealed it with V J H. 
 Ten: He sealed northward, and turned to His 
 left, and sealed it with V H J. These are the 
 Sephiroth: (1) Spirit of the living God, and (2) 
 
 9 Ophanim (D^aitf, plural of 1D1K), translated 
 "wheels" in the English version (Ezek. i. 20), is taken 
 by the Jewish Rabbis to denote "a distinct order of 
 angels," just as Cherubim and Seraphim. Hence the 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 wind [air or spirit?] 11 (3) water, and (4) fire; 
 and (5) height above and (6) below, (7) east 
 and (8) west, (9) north and (10) south." 
 
 [Scphiroth is the plural of the word Sephirah. 
 Azariel derives the word from saphar, "to num- 
 ber" ; later Cabalists derive it either from saphir, 
 "Saphir," or from the Greek "spheres," 12 and are 
 not at all certain whether to regard the Sephiroth 
 as "principles," 13 or as "substances," 14 or as "po- 
 tencies, powers," 15 or as "intelligent worlds," 16 or 
 as "attributes," or as "entities," 17 or as "organs of 
 the Deity" (Kelim). We might fairly well trans- 
 late the word Sephiroth by "emanations."] 
 
 We see, however, that this alone establishes 
 
 Talmudic explanation of Exod. xx, 20, by "Thou shalt 
 not make the likeness of those ministering servants who 
 serve before me in heaven, viz.. Ophanim, Seraphim, 
 sacred Chajoth and missive angels," (Rosh ha-Shana, 
 fol. 24, clo. 2). Ophan, the prince of this order, is 
 regarded by the ancient sages as identical with the angel 
 Sandalphon, flD^JD = <rwa8e\<po$, co-brother or fellow- 
 companion of the angel Metabron. 
 
 10 These three letters mean Jahu, or Yahveh, now 
 pronounced Jehovah, of which they are the abbreviation ; 
 what follows shows how the permutation of these three 
 letters marks the varied relationship of God to creation 
 in time and space, and at the same time, so to speak, the 
 immanence of His manifestation in it. 
 
 The word ruach means all these. 
 12 <70cupcu. 
 
 dpxal. 
 
 vTrocTTaaeis. 
 5 8vvd/x€is % 
 
 KOa/XOL V07]TlK0l % 
 
 Azamoth. 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 nothing real, but merely expounds the idea of 
 possibility or actuality, at the same time estab- 
 lishing that which is virtualiter as really existing 
 in God, the foundation of all things, from which 
 the whole universe proceeded. The actual enti- 
 ties are therefore introduced in the subsequent 
 chapters under the twenty-two letters. The 
 connection between the two series is evidently 
 the Word, which in the first Sephira (number) 
 is yet identical in voice and action with the 
 spirit (I, 9) ; but afterwards these elements, 
 separating as creator and substance, together 
 produce the world, the materials of which are 
 represented by the letters, severally divided into 
 gutturals, labials, palatals, linguals and dentals 
 (II, 3), since these by their manifold manifesta- 
 tions, name and describe all that exists. 
 
 These twenty-two letters of the alphabet are 
 then divided into three groups, consisting re- 
 spectively of : 
 
 1. The three mothers or fundamental letters 
 (ch. Ill) ; 
 
 2. Seven double (ch. IV), and 
 
 3. Twelve simple consonants (ch. V). 
 
 First are subtracted from the twenty-two let- 
 ters the three mothers (Aleph, Mem, Shin), i. 
 e., the universal relations of (1) principle, (2) 
 contrary principle, and (3) balance (i. e., the in- 
 termediate). 
 In the world, we have air, water, fire. This 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 means, the heavens are from tire, 
 the earth from water, and the air 
 indicates the intermediate be- 
 tween the lire and the water. 
 In the year. . there is fire, and water, and wind. 
 The heat comes from fire, cold 
 from water, and moderation from 
 wind (air) that is intermediate 
 between them. 
 
 In man there is fire, water and wind. The 
 
 head is from fire, the belly from 
 water, and the body from wind 
 that is intermediate between 
 them. 
 The three mothers or fundamental letters are 
 followed by the seven duplicate letters — Beth, 
 Gimel, Daleth, Caph, Pe, Resh, Tau 18 — dupli- 
 cate, because they are opposite as life and death ; 
 peace and evil; wisdom and folly; riches and 
 poverty ; grace and ugliness ; fertility and desola- 
 tion; rule and servitude (IV, 1): These seven 
 duplicate letters correspond to the seven outgo- 
 ings: above and below, east and west, north and 
 south, and the holy Temple in the middle, and it 
 upbears the whole (IV, 2). From them God 
 created: 
 
 "These letters of the Hebrew Alphabet are called 
 double because they have a double pronunciation, being 
 sometimes aspirated and sometimes not, according to 
 their being with or without the dagcsh (i. e., a point in 
 the middle). 
 
 27 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 In the world. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Ve- 
 nus, Mercury, Moon. 
 
 In man Wisdom, Riches, Dominion, Life, 
 
 Favor, Progeny, Peace. 
 In the year. . Sabbath, Thursday, Tuesday, 
 Sunday, Friday, Wednesday, 
 Monday. 
 With these seven letters God also formed the 
 seven heavens, the seven earths or countries, and 
 the seven weeks from the feast of Passover to 
 Pentecost (IV, 3, 4). These letters also repre- 
 sent the seven gates of issue in the soul ; two 
 eyes, two ears, and a mouth, and the two nostrils. 
 Turning finally to the twelve single letters (ch. 
 V), they show the relations of things so far as 
 they can be apprehended in a universal category. 
 By means of these twelve letters God created the 
 twelve signs of the zodiac, viz. : 
 In the world. Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, 
 Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagit- 
 tarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, 
 Pisces. 
 3n the year., the twelve months, viz.: Nisan, 
 Ijar, Sivan, Tamus, Ab, Elul, 
 Tishri, Cheshvan or Marchesh- 
 van, Kislev, Tebet, Shebat, Adar. 
 
 In man the organs of sight, hearing, 
 
 smelling, talking, taste, copulat- 
 ing, dealing, walking, thinking, 
 
 :■ 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 anger, laughter, sleeping (oh. V, 
 
 They are so organized by God as to form at 
 once a province, and yet be ready for battle, i. 
 e., they are as well fitted for harmonious as for 
 dissentious action. "God has placed in all things 
 one to oppose the other; good to oppose evil, 
 good to proceed from good, and evil from evil; 
 good to purify evil, and evil to purify good ; the 
 good is in store for the good, and the evil is re- 
 served for the evil" (VI, 2). "The twelve are ar- 
 ranged against each other in battle array; three 
 serve love, three hatred ; three engender life, and 
 three death. The three loving ones are the heart, 
 the ears and the mouth; the three hating ones: 
 the liver, the gall, and the tongue; but God the 
 faithful King, rules over all three systems. One 
 (i. e., God) is over the three; the three are over 
 the seven ; the seven are over the twelve, and all 
 are joined together, the one with the other" (VI, 
 3).' 
 
 We also learn that the twenty-two letters, 
 though a small number, by their power of "com- 
 bination" and "transposition," yield an endless 
 number of words and figures, and thus become 
 the types of all the varied phenomena in the cre- 
 ation. "Just as the twenty-two letters yield two 
 hundred and thirty-one types by combining 
 Aleph (i. e., the first letter) with all the letters, 
 
 29 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 and all the letters with Beth (i e., the second let- 
 ter), so all the formations and all that is spoken 
 proceed from one name" (ch. II, 4). To illus- 
 trate how these different types are obtained we 
 will state that by counting the first letter with 
 the second, the first letter with the third and so 
 on with all the rest of the alphabet, we obtain 21 
 types; by combining the second letter with the 
 third, fourth, etc., we get 20 types ; the third let- 
 ter combined with the fourth, etc., yields 19 
 types; finally the twenty-first combined with the 
 last letter yields 1 type. In this way we get as 
 the Hebrew table shows: 21+20+19+18+17 
 + 16 + 15 + 14 + 13+ 12 + 11 + 10+9+8+7 
 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1=231; or 
 
 ab ag ad ah av az a c h at ai ak al am an as etc. 
 bg bd bh bv bz b c h bt bi bk bl bm bn bs etc. 
 gd gh gv gz g c h gt gi gk gl gm gn gs etc. 
 dh dv dz d c h dt di dk dl dm dn ds etc. 
 hv hz h c h ht hi hk hi hm hn hs etc. 
 
 The infinite variety in creation is still more 
 strikingly exhibited by permutations, of which 
 the Hebrew alphabet is capable, and through 
 which an infinite variety of types is obtained. 
 Hence the remark: ''Two letters form two 
 houses, three letters build six houses, four build 
 twenty-four, five build a hundred and twenty 
 houses, six build seven hundred and twenty 
 
 30 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 houses; 19 and from thenceforward go out and 
 think what the mouth cannot utter and the ear 
 cannot hear" (IV, 4). A few examples may 
 serve as illustration. Two letters form two 
 houses, by using the first two letters of the He- 
 brew alphabet, a b, zo in the following manner: 
 
 1 = ab 
 
 2 = ba 
 
 Three letters, a, b, g, 21 build six houses, namely: 
 
 1 = abg; 2 = agb; 3 = bag; 4 = bga; 
 5 — gab; 6 = gba. 
 
 Four letters, a, b, g, d," build twenty- four houses, 
 viz.: 
 
 1 = abgd 13 = gabd 
 
 2 — abdg 14 = gad b 
 
 3 = agbd 15 = gbad 
 
 4 = agdb 16 ±=*gbda 
 
 5 = adbg 17 = gdab 
 
 6 = adgb 18 = gdba 
 
 7 = bagd 19 = dabg 
 
 8 = badg 20 = dagb 
 
 9 = bga d 2 1 = d b ag 
 
 19 In order to ascertain how often a certain number 
 of letters can be transposed, the product of the pre- 
 ceding number must be multiplied with it. thus : 
 
 Letter 2X1=2 5 X 24 = 120 
 3X2=6 6 X 120 = 720 
 4 X 6 = 24 7 X 720 = 5040 and so on. 
 
 20 X 3 
 » K 3 3 
 ■ « 3 ^ 1 
 
 31 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 10 = bgd a 22 = dbga 
 
 11 = bdag 23 = dgab 
 
 12 = bdga 24 = dgba 
 
 The Book of Creation closes with the state- 
 ment : "And when Abraham our father had be- 
 held, and considered, and seen, and drawn, and 
 hewn, and obtained it, then the Lord of all re- 
 vealed Himself to him, and called him His 
 friend, and made a covenant with him and with 
 his seed; and he believed in Jehovah, and it was 
 computed to him for righteousness. He made 
 with him a covenant between the ten toes, and 
 that is circumcision; between the ten fingers of 
 his hand, and that is the tongue; and He bound 
 two-and-twenty letters on his tongue, and 
 showed him their foundation. He drew them 
 with water, He kindled them with fire, He 
 breathed them with wind (air) ; He burnt them 
 in seven ; He poured them forth in the twelve 
 constellations'' (ch. VI, 4). 
 
 Romantic Cosmology. — The examination of 
 the contents of the Book of Jezirah proves that 
 it has as yet nothing in common with the cardinal 
 doctrines of the Cabala, as exhibited in later 
 works, especially in the Zohar, where specula- 
 tions about the being and nature of the Deity, 
 the En Soph 23 and the Sephiroth, which are the 
 essence of the Cabala, are given. 
 
 32 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 To the period of the Book of Jezirah belongs 
 the remarkable work which in the Amsterdam 
 edition of 1601 is entitled : "This is the book of 
 the first man, which was given to him by the 
 angel Raziel." In this work the angel Raziel ap- 
 pears as the bearer and mediator of astrological 
 and astronomical secrets, and shows the influ- 
 ence of the planets upon the sublunary world. To 
 the same period belongs the Midrash Konen, a 
 kind of romantic cosmology (newly translated 
 into German by Wunsche in Israels Lehrhallen, 
 III, Leipsic, 1909, pp. 170-201). 
 
 With the thirteenth century begins the crystal- 
 lization of the Cabala, and Isaac the Blind ( flour- 
 ished 1190-1210) may be regarded as the orig- 
 inator of this lore. The doctrines of the Seph- 
 iroth 24 taught in the Book Jezirah are further de- 
 veloped by his pupils, especially by Rabbi Aza- 
 riel (died 1238), in his "Commentary on the 
 Ten Sephiroth, by Way of Questions and An- 
 swers," an analysis of which is given in Jelli- 
 nek's Beitragc cur Gcschichte dcr Kabbalah, 
 Leipsic, 1852, Part II, p. 32 f. In this comment- 
 
 23 En Soph, PflD PK = "Tre^os, i. e ., "Endless." 
 "Boundless," is the name of the Deity given in the 
 Zohar, where it is said of God (III, 283b) that he can- 
 not be comprehended by the intellect, nor described in 
 words, for there is nothing which can grasp and depict 
 him to us, and as such he is, in a certain sense, not 
 existent (ftf). 
 24 See above. 
 
 33 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 ary Azariel lays down the following proposi- 
 tions : 
 
 1. The primary cause and governor of the 
 world is the En Soph (i. e., a being infinite, 
 boundless), who is both immanent and trans- 
 cendent. 
 
 2. From the En Soph emanated the Sephiroth 
 which are the medium between the absolute En 
 Soph and the real world. 
 
 3. There are ten intermediate Sephiroth. 
 
 4. They are emanations and not creations. 
 
 5. They are both active and passive. 
 
 6. The first Sephirah is called "Inscrutable 
 Height" (rum maalah) : the second, "Wisdom" 
 (chokma) ; the third, "Intelligence" (binah) ; 
 the fourth, "Love" (chesed) ; the fifth, "Justice" 
 (pa-chad) ; the sixth, "Beauty" (tipheret) ; the 
 seventh, "Firmness" (nezach) ; the eighth, 
 "Splendor" (hod) ; the ninth, "the Righteous in 
 the Foundation of the World" (zadik ye sod 
 olam) ; and the tenth, "Righteousness" (zedaka). 
 
 The first three Sephiroth form the world of 
 thought ; the second three the world of the soul ; 
 and the four last the world of body — thus cor- 
 responding to the intellectual, moral and natural 
 worlds. 
 
 That Isaac the Blind must be regarded as "the 
 Father of the Cabala," is acknowledged by some 
 of the earliest and most intelligent Cabalists 
 
 34 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 themselves. And the author of the cabalistic 
 work entitled Maarechcth haelohuth, said to be 
 a certain Perez of the second part of the thir- 
 teenth century, frankly declares that "the doctrine 
 of the En Soph and the Ten Sephiroth is neither 
 to be found in the Law, Prophets, or Hagio- 
 grapha, nor in the writings of the Rabbins of 
 blessed memory, but rests solely upon signs 
 which are scarcely perceptible." 
 
 Another remarkable book of this period is the 
 Sepher Bahir, or Midrash of Nehunjah ben-ha- 
 Kanah. According to this work, long before the 
 creation God caused a metaphysical matter to 
 proceed, which became a fulness (mclo) of bless- 
 ing and salvation for all forms of existence. The 
 ten divine emanations, which are not yet called 
 Sephiroth, but Maamarim and appear as catego- 
 ries endowed with creative power, are connected 
 with the attributes (middoth) of God as well as 
 with his fingers and other members. 
 
 The doctrine of metempsychosis is already 
 given here in its most important features. The 
 work itself, though ascribed to Nehunjah is of 
 much later date, because it speaks of the Hebrew 
 vowels and accents. Only a part of the Bahir 
 book has been published, first at Amsterdam, 
 1651 ; then again at Berlin, 1706. The greater 
 part is still in manuscript in the libraries at Paris 
 and Leyden. 
 
 35 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 The conversion of the famous Talmudist and 
 scholar Moses Nachmanides 25 (1194-1270) to the 
 newly-born Cabala gave to it an extraordinary 
 importance and rapid spread amongst his numer- 
 ous followers. In the division of the synagogues 
 caused by the writings of Maimonides, Nachman- 
 ides took the part of the latter, probably more on 
 account of the esteem he felt for this great man 
 than for any sympathy with his opinions. Maim- 
 onides intended to give Judaism a character of 
 unity, but he produced the contrary. His aim 
 was to harmonize philosophy and religion, but 
 the result was a schism in the synagogue, which 
 gave birth to this queer kind of philosophy called 
 Cabala, and to this newly-born Cabala Nach- 
 manides became converted, though he was at first 
 decidedly adverse to this system. 
 
 One day the Cabalist who was most zealous to 
 convert him was caught in a house of ill-fame, 
 and condemned to death. He requested Nach- 
 manides to visit him on the Sabbath, the day 
 fixed for his execution. Nachmanides reproved 
 him for his sins, but the Cabalist declared his in- 
 nocence, and that he would partake with him of 
 the Sabbath meal. According to the story, he did 
 as he promised, as by means of the Cabalistic 
 mysteries he effected his escape, and an ass was 
 
 25 See my article s. v. "Nachmanides" in McClintock 
 and Strong's Cyclop. 
 
 36 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 executed in his stead, and he himself was sud- 
 denly transported into Nachmanides's house! 
 From that time Nachmanides became a disciple 
 of the Cabala, and was initiated into its mys- 
 teries, the tenets of which pervade his numerous 
 writings, especially his commentary on the Pen- 
 tateuch. 
 
 To the first half of the twelfth century belongs 
 fhe Masse cheth Asiluth or "the Treatise on the 
 Emanations," supposed to have been written by 
 Rabbi Isaac Nasir. From the analysis given by 
 Jellinek (Auszvahl kabbalistischcr Mystik, Part 
 I, Leipsic, 1853) we learn that the prophet Eli- 
 jah propounded that 
 
 1. "God at first created light and darkness, the 
 one for the pious and the other for the wicked, 
 darkness having come to pass by the divine lim- 
 itation of light. 
 
 2. "God produced and destroyed sundry 
 worlds, which, like ten trees planted upon a nar- 
 row space, contend about the sap of the soil, and 
 finally perish altogether. 
 
 3. "God manifested himself in four worlds, 
 viz., Azila, Beriah, Jezirah and Asian, corres- 
 ponding to the four letters of his name J H V H. 
 In the Azilatic luminous world is the divine Ma- 
 jesty, the Shechinah. In the Beriatic world are 
 the souls of the pious, all the blessings, the throne 
 of God, who sits on it in the form of Achteriel 
 
 37 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 (the crown of God, the first Sephira Kcter), and 
 the seven different luminous and splendid regions. 
 In the Jeziratic world are the sacred animals in 
 the vision of Ezekiel, the ten classes of angels 
 with their princes, who are presided over by- the 
 fiery Metatron, 26 the spirits of men, and the ac- 
 cessory work of the divine chariot. In the Asi- 
 latic world are the Ophanim, the angels who re- 
 ceive the prayers, who are appointed over the 
 will of man, who control the action of mortals, 
 who carry on the struggle against evil, and who 
 are presided over by the angelic prince Syna- 
 delphon. 27 
 
 4. "The world was founded in wisdom and un- 
 derstanding (Prov. iii. 13), and God in his 
 knowledge originated fifty gates of understand- 
 ing. 
 
 5. "God created the world — as the book Jez- 
 irah already teaches — by means of the ten Seph- 
 iroth, which are both the agencies and qualities 
 
 26 The angel who stands behind the throne of God. 
 
 27 This Synadelphon is no doubt the same as "San- 
 dalphon," the theme of Longfellow's poem of that name, 
 which commences thus : 
 
 "Have you read in the Talmud of old, 
 In the Legends the Rabbins have told 
 Of the limitless realms of the air, 
 Have you read it, — the marvelous story 
 Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Glory, 
 Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer?" 
 In a note on page 668 (Boston and New York edi- 
 tion, 1893) it is stated that Longfellow marked certain 
 passages in Stehelin's The Traditions of the Jews, which 
 evidently furnished the material. 
 
 38 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 of the Deity. The ten Sephiroth are called 
 Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence, Mercy, Fear, 
 Beauty, Victory, Majesty and Kingdom; they 
 are merely ideal and stand above the concrete 
 world" (pp.2, 3). 
 
 The conversion of Todros ben Joseph Halevi 
 Abulafia (1234-1304) to the Cabala, gave to this 
 science a great influence, on account of Abula- 
 fia's distinguished position as physician and 
 financier in the court of Sancho IV, King of 
 Castile. The influence of Abulafia, whose works 
 are still in manuscript, can be best seen from the 
 fact that four Cabalists of the first rank ranged 
 themselves under his banner and dedicated their 
 compositions to him. These four Cabalists were 
 Isaac Ibn Latif or Allatif, Abraham Abulafia, 
 Joseph Gikatilla, and Moses de Leon, all Span- 
 iards. 
 
 Mysteries of the Cabala. — Isaac Ibn Latif 
 (about 1220-1290), starting with the thought 
 that a philosophical view of Judaism was 
 not the "right road to the sanctuary," en- 
 deavored to combine philosophy with Ca- 
 bala. "He laid more stress than his predeces- 
 sors on the close connection between the spirit- 
 ual and the material world — between God and 
 his creation. For the Godhead is in all, and all 
 is in it. In soul-inspiring prayers the human 
 
 39 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 spirit is raised to the world-spirit (sechel ha- 
 poel), to which it is united 'in a kiss,' and, so 
 influencing the Deity, it draws down blessings on 
 the sublunar world. But not every mortal is cap- 
 able of such spiritual and efficacious prayer; 
 therefore the prophets, the most perfect men, 
 were obliged to pray for the people, for they 
 alone knew the power of prayer. The unfold- 
 ing and revelation of the Deity in the world of 
 spirits, spheres and bodies Allatif explained by 
 mathematical forms. The mutual relation there- 
 of is the same as "that of the point extending and 
 thickening into a line, the line into the plane, the 
 plane into the expanded body." 
 
 An enthusiastic contemporary of Allatif was 
 Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia 28 (born at Sara- 
 gossa, 1240; died 1291). He was an eccentric 
 personage, full of whims, and fond of adventures. 
 Not satisfied with philosophy, he gave himself to 
 the mysteries of the Cabala in their most fantastic 
 extremes, as the ordinary doctrine of the Seph- 
 iroth did not satisfy him. He sought after some- 
 thing higher, for prophetic inspiration. Through 
 it he discovered a higher Cabala, which offered 
 the means of coming into spiritual communion 
 with the Godhead, and of obtaining prophetic in- 
 sight. To analyze the words of Holy Writ, 
 
 28 See my article s. v. "Abulafia" (he. cit., Vol. XI, 
 p. 18) ; comp. also Giinzburg, Dcr Pseudo-Messias Abra- 
 ham Abulafia, sein Lcben und sein Wirken. Cracow, 
 1904. 
 
 10 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 especially those of the divine name, to use the 
 letters as independent notions (Notaricon), or 
 to transpose the component parts of a word in 
 all possible permutations, so as to form words 
 from them ( Tsiruf) , or finally to employ the let- 
 ters as numbers (Gematria), are indeed means of 
 securing communion with the spirit-world; but 
 this alone is not sufficient. To be worthy of a 
 prophetic revelation, one must lead an ascetic 
 life, retire into a quiet closet, banish all earthly 
 cares, clothe himself in white garments, wrap 
 himself up with Talith (i. e., the fringed gar- 
 ment) and Phylacteries, and devoutly prepare his 
 soul, as if for an interview with the Deity. He 
 must pronounce the letters of God's name at in- 
 tervals, with modulations of the voice, or write 
 them down in a certain order under divers ener- 
 getic movements, turnings and bendings of the 
 body, till the mind becomes dazed and the heart 
 is filled with a glow. When one has gone 
 through these practices and is in such a condi- 
 tion, the fulness of the Godhead is shed abroad 
 in the human soul: the soul then unites itself 
 with the divine soul in a kiss, and prophetic rev- 
 elation follows quite naturally. In this way he 
 laid down his Cabala, in antithesis to the super- 
 ficial or baser Cabala, which occupies itself with 
 the Sephiroth, and, as he gibingly said, erects a 
 sort of "ten unity" instead of the Christian 
 Trinity. 
 
 41 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 Abulafia went to Italy, and in Urbino he pub- 
 lished (1279) prophetic writings, in which he 
 records his conversations with God. In 1281 he 
 undertook to convert the Pope, Martin IV, to 
 Judaism. In Messina he imagined that it was 
 revealed to him that he was the Messiah, and an- 
 nounced that the restoration of Israel would take 
 place in 1296. Many believed in him and pre- 
 pared themselves for returning to the holy land. 
 Others, however, raised such a storm of opposi- 
 tion that Abulafia had to escape to the island of 
 Comino, near Malta (about 1288), where he re- 
 mained for some time, and wrote sundry Cabal- 
 istic works. Of his many works Jellinek pub- 
 lished his Rejoinder to Solomon ben Adereth, 
 who attacked his doctrines and pretensions as 
 Messiah and prophet. 
 
 A disciple of Abulafia was Joseph Gikatilla of 
 Medina-Celi, who died in Penjafiel after 1305. 
 He, too, occupied himself with the mysticism of 
 letters and numbers, and with the transposition 
 of letters. His writings are in reality only an 
 echo of Abulafia's fancies: the same delusion is 
 apparent in both. Gikatilla's system is laid down 
 in his Ginnath egos, i. e., "Garden of Nuts," pub- 
 lished at Hanau, 1615; and Shaare ora, i. e., "the 
 Gate of Light," first published at Mantua, 1561, 
 
 " Auswahl kabbalistischer Mystic, Part I, pp. 20-25 
 (German part). 
 
 •12 
 
PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 in Cracow, 1600, and translated into Latin by 
 Knorr von Rosenroth in the first part of his 
 Kabbala Denudata, Sulzbach, 1677-78. 
 
 But far more influential and more pernicious 
 than Allatif, Abulafia and Gikatilla was Moses 
 de Leon (born in Leon about 1250, died in Are- 
 valo, 1305), the author of a book which gave the 
 Cabala a firm foundation and wide circulation, — 
 in brief, raised it to the zenith of its power. This 
 book is known by the name of Zohar or Splendor. 
 At first he published his productions under his 
 own name (about 1285). But as his writings 
 were not sufficiently noticed, and brought him 
 but little fame and money, he hit upon a much 
 more effective means and commenced the com- 
 position of books under feigned but honored 
 names. If he put the doctrines of the Cabala 
 into the mouth of an older, highly venerated au- 
 thority, he was sure to be successful in every 
 respect. And he selected for this purpose the 
 Tanaite Simon ben Jochai, 30 who according to 
 tradition spent thirteen years in a cave, solitary 
 and buried in profound reflection, and whom an- 
 cient mysticism represented as receiving revela- 
 tions from the prophet Elijah. Simon ben Jochai 
 was assuredly the right authority for the Cabala. 
 But he must not write or speak Hebrew, but 
 Chaldee, a language peculiarly fit for secrets, and 
 
 80 See my article s. v. in McClintock and Strong's 
 Cyclop., Vol. IX, p. 757. 
 
 43 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 sounding as if from another world. And thus 
 there came into the world a book, the "Zohar," 
 which for many centuries was held by the Jews 
 as a heavenly revelation, and was studied even 
 by Christians. 
 
 44 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 THE ZOHAR. 
 
 The Book of Splendor.— The titles of the 
 Zohar vary. It is called "Midrash of Rabbi 
 Simon ben Jochai," from its reputed author: 
 " Midrash, Let there be Light," from the words 
 in Gen. i. 4 ; more commonly "Sepher ha-Zohar," 
 from Dan. xii. 3, where the word Zohar is used 
 for "the brightness of the firmament." The title 
 in full is : Sepher ha-Zohar al ha-Torah, me-ish 
 Elohim Kodesh, hu more meod ha-tana R. Simon 
 ben Jochai, etc., i. e., "The Book of Splendor on 
 the Law, by the very holy and venerable man of 
 God, the Tanaite rabbi Simon ben Jochai, of 
 blessed memory." 
 
 The editio princeps is the one of Mantua (3 
 vols., 1558-1560) and has often been reprinted. 
 The best edition of the book of Zohar is that by 
 Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, with Jewish 
 commentaries (Sulzbach, 1684, fol.) to which 
 his rare Kabbala Denudata (1677-1684) forms 
 an ample introduction. This edition was re- 
 
 45 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 printed with an additional index (Amsterdam, 
 1714, 1728, 1772, 1805, 3 vols.). Recent editions 
 of the Zohar were published at Breslau (1866, 3 
 vols.), Livorno (1877-78, in 7 parts), and Wilna 
 (1882, 3 vols.; 1882-83 in 10 parts, containing 
 many commentaries and additions). 
 
 The body of the work takes the form of a com- 
 mentary of a highly mystic and allegorical char- 
 acter extending over the entire Pentateuch; but 
 the Zohar is not considered complete without the 
 addition of certain appendices attributed to the 
 same author or to some of his personal or suc- 
 cessional disciples. 
 
 These supplementary portions are : 
 1. Siphra di Tseniutha, i. e., "The Book of 
 Secrets" or "Mysteries," contained in Vol. II, 
 176-178. It contains five chapters and is chiefly 
 occupied with discussing the questions involved 
 in the creation. In the second and third chapters 
 the prophet Elijah communicates the secret 
 which he learned in the heavenly school, that be- 
 fore the creation of the world God was unknown 
 to man, but made known his essence after the 
 creation of the world. The history of the crea- 
 tion is represented under the figure of a scale, 
 which adjusts the opposite aspects of God before 
 and after the creation. This portion has been 
 translated into Latin by Rosenroth in the second 
 volume of his Kabbala Denudata (Frankfort-on- 
 
 46 
 
THE ZOHAR 
 
 the-Main, 1684; Englished by Mathers, loc, cit., 
 pp. 43-108). 
 
 2. Iddera Rabba, i. e., "The Great Assembly," 
 referring to the community or college of Simon's 
 disciples in their conferences for cabalistic dis- 
 cussion. These discussions are chiefly occupied 
 with a description of the form and various mem- 
 bers of the Deity; a disquisition on the revela- 
 tion of the Deity, in his two aspects of the 
 "Aged" and the "Young," to the creation and 
 the universe; as well as on the diverse gigantic 
 members of the Deity, such as the head, the 
 beard, the eyes, the nose, etc., etc.; a dissertion 
 on pneumatology, demonology, etc., etc. This 
 part is generally found in Vol. Ill, pp. 127b-l4Sa, 
 and has been translated into Latin by Rosenroth, 
 loc. cit, and Englished by Mathers, pp. 109-257. 
 
 3. Iddera Zuta, i. e., "The Small Assembly," 
 referring to the few disciples who still assembled 
 for cabalistic discussion towards the end of their 
 master's life or after his decease. It is to a 
 great extent a recapitulation of the Iddera Rabba, 
 and concludes with recording the death of Simon 
 ben Jochai, the Sacred Light and the medium 
 through whom God revealed the contents of the 
 Zohar. This part is found in Vol. Ill, 287b- 
 296b, and from the Latin of Rosenroth (Vol. II 
 of the Kabbala Denudata) it has been Englished 
 by Mathers, pp. 259-341. 
 
 47 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 To these three larger appendices are added fif- 
 teen other minor fragments, viz. : 
 
 4. Saba, i. e., 'The Aged Man," also called 
 "Saba demishpatim" or "The Discourse of the 
 Aged in Mishpatim," given in II, 94a-114a. "The 
 Aged" is the prophet Elijah who holds converse 
 with Rabbi Simon about the doctrine of metem- 
 psychosis, and the discussion is attached to the 
 Sabbatic section called "Mishpatim," i. e., Exod* 
 xxi, 1-xxiv. 18. 
 
 5. Midrash Ruth, a fragment. 
 
 6. Sepher hab-bahir, i. e., "The Book of Clear 
 Light." 
 
 7 and 8. Tosephta and Mattanitan, i. e., "Small 
 Additional Pieces," which are found in the three 
 volumes. 
 
 9. Rata mehemna, i. e., "The Faithful Shep- 
 herd," found in the second and third volumes. 
 The faithful shepherd is Moses who holds a dia- 
 logue with Rabbi Simon, at which not only the 
 prophet Elijah is present, but Abraham, Isaac, 
 Jacob, Aaron, David, Solomon, and even God 
 himself make their appearance. 
 
 10. Hekaloth, i. e., "The palaces," found in 
 the first and second volumes, treats of the topo- 
 graphical structure of paradise and hell. 
 
 11. Sithre Torah, i. e., "The Secrets of the 
 Law." 
 
 12. Midrash han-neelam, i. e., "The Concealed 
 
 48 
 
THE ZOHAR 
 
 Treatise," in which passages of Scripture are ex- 
 plained mystically. Thus Lot's two daughters 
 are the two proclivities in man, good and evil 
 (I, 110). It also discourses on the properties 
 and destiny of the soul. 
 
 13. Raze de Razin, i. e., "Mysteries of Mys- 
 teries," contained in II, 70a-75a, is especially de- 
 voted to the physiognomy of the Cabala, and the 
 connection of the soul with the body. 
 
 14. Mid rash Chazith, on the Song of Songs. 
 
 15. Maamar to Chazi, a discourse, so entitled 
 from the first words, "Come and see." 
 
 16. Yanuka, i. e., "The Youth," given in III, 
 \86a-192a, records the discourses delivered by a 
 young man who according to R. Simon was of 
 superhuman origin. 
 
 17. Pekuda, i. e., "Illustrations of the Law." 
 
 18. Chibbura Kadmaah, i. e., "The Early 
 Work." 
 
 The body of the work is sometimes called Zo- 
 har Gadol, "The Great Zohar." 
 
 Authorship of the Zohar. — Who is the au- 
 thor of this remarkable book, which has contin- 
 ued to be a text-book up to the present day, for 
 all those who have espoused the doctrines of the 
 Cabala? We have anticipated the answer, but let 
 us see which reasons were adduced by modern 
 scholarship to prove that the Zohar is a forgery 
 of the thirteenth century. 
 49 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 Now the Zohar pretends to be a revelation 
 from God communicated through Rabbi Simon 
 ben Jochai* to his select disciples, according to 
 the Iddera Zuta (Zohar III, 287b). This decla- 
 ration and the repeated representation of Rabbi 
 Simon ben Jochai, as speaking and teaching 
 throughout the production fixed the authorship 
 upon Rabbi Simon, an opinion maintained 
 not only by Jews for centuries, but even 
 by distinguished Christian scholars. On 
 the other hand it has been clearly dem- 
 onstrated by such Jewish scholars as Zunz, 
 Geiger, Jellinek, Graetz, Steinschneider, and a 
 host of others, that the Zohar is not the produc- 
 tion of Rabbi Simon, but of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, by Moses de Leon ( 1250-1305). 1 Simon 
 ben Jochai was a pupil of Rabbi Akiba ; but the 
 earliest mention of the book's existence occurs in 
 the year 1290, and the anachronisms of its style 
 and in the facts referred to, together with the 
 circumstance that it speaks of the vowel-points 
 and other Masoretic inventions which are clearly 
 
 ■ See my article s. v. in McClintock and Strong Pro- 
 fessor Strack, who is entitled to a hearing in matters of 
 Rabbinic literature, says: "He [Rabbi Simon] has 
 long been regarded as the author of the Zohar; but this 
 mam work of the Cabala was in reality composed in 
 Spain by Moses ben Shem Tob de Leon in the second 
 ri.ll °i t G th "' t « ent 1 h century, as has been proved espe- 
 ?7*& by J a , co - b Emden < in Mrtpahath Sepharim, Altona, 
 93 ~ Emleitni,g m dcn Talmud, 4th ed., Leipsic, 1908^ 
 
 50 
 
THE ZOHAR 
 
 posterior to the Talmud, justify J. Morinus (al- 
 though too often extravagant in his wilful at- 
 tempts to depreciate the antiquity of the latter 
 Jewish writings) in asserting that the author 
 could not have lived much before the year 1000 
 of the Christian era (Exercitationes Biblicae, pp. 
 358-369). This later view of the authorship is 
 sustained by the following reasons : 
 
 1. The Zohar most fulsomely praises its own 
 author, calls him the Sacred Light, and exalts 
 him above Moses, "the faithful Shepherd" (Zo- 
 har III, 1326; 144a), while the disciples deify 
 Rabbi Simon, before whom all men must appear 
 (II, 38a). 
 
 2. The Zohar quotes and mystically explains 
 the Hebrew vowel-points (I, \6b, 24b; II, 116a; 
 III, 65a), which were introduced later. 2 
 
 3. The Zohar (II, 32a) mentions the Crusades, 
 the temporary taking of Jerusalem by the Cru- 
 saders from the Infidels, and the retaking of it 
 by the Saracens. 
 
 4. The Zohar (III, 2126) records events which 
 transpired A. D. 1264. 
 
 5. The doctrine of En-Soph and the Sephiroth, 
 as well as the metempsychosian retribution, were 
 not known before the thirteenth century. 
 
 6. The very existence of the Zohar, according 
 to the stanch Cabalist Jehudah Chayoth (about 
 
 2 See my article "Vowel-Points" in McClintock and 
 Strong. 
 
 51 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 1500), was unknown to such distinguished Cabal- 
 ists as Nachmanides and Ben-Adereth (1235- 
 1310) ; the first who mentions it is Todros Abu- 
 lafia (1234-1306). 
 
 7. Isaac of Akko (about 1290) affirms that 
 "The Zohar was put into the world from the 
 head of a Spaniard." 
 
 8. The Zohar contains passages which Moses 
 de Leon translated into Aramaic from his works, 
 e. g., the Sepher ha-Rlmmon, as Jellinek has dem- 
 onstrated in his Moses de Leon und sein Verhalt- 
 niss sum Sohar," Leipsic, 1851, p. 21-36; (see 
 also Graetz, Geschichte der Judcn, VII, 498; 2d 
 ed., 1873, p. 477 et seq.). 
 
 These are some of the reasons why the Zohar 
 is now regarded as a pseudograph of the thir- 
 teenth century, and that Moses de Leon should 
 have palmed the Zohar upon Simon ben Jocha'i 
 was nothing remarkable, since this rabbi is re- 
 garded by tradition as the embodiment of mysti- 
 cism. There was also a financial reason, for from 
 the Book Juchasin (pp. 88, 89, 95, ed. Filipowski, 
 London, 1857) we learn that when his wife asked 
 him why he published the production of his own 
 intellect under another man's name, Moses de 
 Leon replied "that if he were to publish it under 
 his own name nobody would buy it, whereas un- 
 der the name of Rabbi Simon ben Jochai it 
 yielded him a large revenue." 
 
 52 
 
THE ZOHAR 
 
 With the appearance of the Zohar we find also 
 a Zohar School, which is a combination and ab- 
 sorption of the different features and doctrines of 
 all the former methods, without any plan or 
 method ; and we must not be surprised at the wild 
 speculations which we so often find in the writ- 
 ings of the post-Zohar period. In Spain espe- 
 cially the study of the Zohar took deep root, and 
 found its way to Italy, Palestine and Poland. 
 
 53 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CABALA IN THE POST-ZOHAR 
 PERIOD. 
 
 Visionary Teachings. — The new text-book 
 of religion which was introduced into Judaism 
 by stealth, "placed the Kabbala, which a century 
 before had been unknown, on the same level as 
 the Bible and the Talmud, and to a certain extent 
 on a still higher level. The Zohar undoubtedly 
 produced good, in so far as it opposed enthusiasm 
 to the legal dry-as-dust manner of the study of 
 the Talmud, stimulated the imagination and the 
 feelings, and cultivated a disposition that re- 
 strained the reasoning faculty. But the ills which 
 it has brought on Judaism outweigh the good by 
 far. The Zohar confirmed and propagated a 
 gloomy superstition, and strengthened in people's 
 minds the belief in the Kingdom of Satan, in 
 evil spirits and ghosts. Through its constant use 
 of coarse expression, often verging on the sens- 
 ual, in contradistinction to the chaste, pure spirit 
 pervading Jewish literature, the Zohar sowed the 
 
 54 
 
POST-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 seeds of unclean desires, and later on produced 
 a sect that laid aside all regard for decency. 
 Finally, the Zohar blunted the sense for the sim- 
 ple and the true, and created a visionary world in 
 which the souls of those who zealously occupied 
 themselves with it were lulled into a sort of half- 
 sleep and lost the faculty of distinguishing be- 
 tween right and wrong. Its quibbling interpreta- 
 tions of Holy Writ, adopted by the Kabbalists 
 and others infected with this mannerism, per- 
 verted the verses and words of the Holy Book, 
 and made the Bible the wrestling-ground of the 
 most curious insane notions." 
 
 During the thirteenth century the Cabala was 
 represented in Italy by Menahem di Recanati who 
 wrote a commentary on the Pentateuch which is 
 little else than a commentary on the Zohar. This 
 work was translated into Latin by Pico della 
 Mirandola. 
 
 At the beginning of the fourteenth century 
 Joseph ben Abraham ibn Wakkar (1290-1340) 
 endeavored to reconcile the Cabala with phil- 
 osophy, and to this end wrote a treatise on the 
 cardinal doctrines of the Cabala. An analysis of 
 this treatise, which is still in manuscript in the 
 Bodleian library (cod. Laud. 119; described by 
 Uri No. 384) is given by Steinschneider in Ersch 
 und Gruber's Allgemeine Encyclopadie, Part II, 
 Vol. XXXI, p. 100 f. 
 
 55 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 
 the Cabala was especially cultivated in Spain. In 
 unmeasured terms the Zoharites denounced their 
 co-religionists who could not see the advantages 
 of the Cabala. Prominent among the Zoharites 
 was Abraham of Granada, who composed (be- 
 tween 1391 and 1409) a cabalistic work Berith 
 menuchat, "The Covenant of Peace," (Amster- 
 dam, 1648), a farrago of strange names of the 
 Deity and the angels, of transposed letters, and 
 jugglery with vowels and accents. "He had the 
 hardihood," says Graetz, "to teach that those who 
 could not apprehend God by Cabalistic methods 
 belonged to the weak in faith, were ignorant sin- 
 ners, and like the depraved and the apostate were 
 overlooked by God, and not found worthy of 
 His special providence. He thought that the re- 
 linquishment of their religion by cultured Jews 
 was explained by their fatal application to scien- 
 tific study, and their contempt for the Cabala. 
 On the other hand he professed to see in the per- 
 secutions of 1391, and in the conversion of so 
 many prominent Jews to Christianity, the tokens 
 of the Messianic age, the suffering that must pre- 
 cede it, and the approach of the redemption." 
 Another such writer was Shem Tob ben Joseph 
 ibn Shem Tob (died 1430), author of Emunoth, 
 i. e., "Faithfulness" (Ferrara, 1557), in which 
 he attacks Jewish thinkers and philosophers as 
 
 56 
 
POST-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 heretics, and maintains that the salvation of Is- 
 rael depends upon the Cabala. The third writer 
 was Moses Botarel (or Botarelo), also a Span- 
 iard, who claimed to be a thaumaturge and 
 prophet, and even announced himself as the Mes- 
 siah. He prophesied that in the spring of 1393 
 the Messianic age would be ushered in. As the 
 Cabala penetrated all branches of life and litera- 
 ture, voices were also raised against the Zohar. 
 The first among the Jews who opposed its author- 
 ity was Elias del Medigo, who in his Bechinath 
 ha-daath (i. e., ''Examination of the Law," writ- 
 ten in December, 1491) openly expressed his 
 opinion that the Zohar was the production of a 
 forger, and that the Cabala was made Up of the 
 rags and tatters of the neo-Platonic school. But 
 his voice and that of others had no power to 
 check the rapid progress of the Cabala, which 
 had now found its way from Spain and Italy into 
 Palestine and Poland. 
 
 Wonder Workers and Prophets. — Passing 
 over some minor advocates and teachers of the 
 Cabala, we must mention two scholars in Pales- 
 tine, who distinguished themselves as masters of 
 the Cabala, Moses Cordovero 1 and Isaac Luria. 
 The former (1522-1570) was a pupil of Solomon 
 Alkabez 2 and wrote many works on the Cabala. 
 His principal work is the Pardes Rim-monim, i. 
 
 1 See my article s. v. "Moses Cordovero," loc. cit. 
 57 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 e., "The Garden of Pomegranates." (Cracow, 
 1591), excerpts of which have been translated 
 into Latin by Bartolocci in Bibliotheca Magna 
 Rabbinicia, Vol. IV, p. 231 f., and by Knorr von 
 RosenrotTi, "Tractatus de Anima ex libro Pardes 
 Rimonim" in his Kabbala Denudata, Sulzbach, 
 1677. Cordovero is chiefly occupied with the sci- 
 entific speculations of the Cabala, or the specula- 
 tive Cabala, in contradistinction to the wonder- 
 working Cabala, which was represented by Isaac 
 Luria (born in Jerusalem in 1534, and died 
 1572). He claimed to have constant interviews 
 with the prophet Elijah, who communicated to 
 him sublime doctrines. He visited the sepulchers 
 of ancient teachers, and there, by prostrations and 
 prayers, obtained from their spirits all manner of 
 revelations. He was convinced that he was the 
 Messiah, the son of Joseph, and that he was able 
 to perform all sorts of miracles. He imagined 
 a complete system of transmigration and combi- 
 nation of souls. He saw spirits everywhere; he 
 saw how the souls were set free from the body 
 at death, how they hovered in the air, or rose out 
 of their graves. On the Sabbath he dressed in 
 white, and wore a fourfold garment to symbolize 
 the four letters of the name of God. His senti- 
 ments he delivered orally and his disciples treas- 
 
 2 He is the author of a hymn "Lecha dodi," i. e., 
 "Come my beloved," which is found in all Jewish 
 prayer-books, and used in the service for Sabbath eve. 
 
 58 
 
POST-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 ured up his marvelous sayings, whereby they 
 performed miracles and converted thousands to 
 the doctrines of this theosophy. 
 
 His disciples were divided into two classes, the 
 "initiated" and the "novices," who boastfully 
 called themselves "gure ari" i. e., "the lion's 
 whelps." They systematically circulated the most 
 absurd stories about Luria's miracles, and thus 
 it came about that his cabalistic doctrines caused 
 inexpressible harm in Jewish circles. Through 
 Luria's influence a Judaism of the Zohar and the 
 Cabala was formed side by side with the Judaism 
 of the Talmud and the rabbis ; for it was due to 
 him that the spurious Zohar was placed upon a 
 level with, indeed higher than, the Holy Scrip- 
 tures and the Talmud. 
 
 The real exponent of Luria's cabalistic system 
 was Chayim Vital Calabrese 3 (1543-1620). After 
 his master's death he diligently collected all the 
 manuscript notes of the lectures delivered by 
 Luria, which together with his own jottings Vital 
 published under the title of Ez chayim, i. e., "The 
 Tree of Life,"* having spent over thirty years 
 upon their preparation. The work consists of 
 six parts ; that portion which treats of the doc- 
 trine of metempsychosis (Hagilgulim), is found 
 
 8 See my article s. v. "Vital" in McClintock and 
 Strong. 
 
 * For a description of the component parts of this 
 work, see Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, III, pp. 479-481. 
 
 59 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 in a Latin translation in Knorr von Rosenroth's 
 work. 
 
 The Luria-Vital system found many adherents 
 everywhere. Abraham de Herera (died 1639) 
 wrote in Spanish two cabalistic works, the 
 "House of God" {beth Elohim) and the "Gate 
 of Heaven" (shaar ha-shemayim), which the 
 Amsterdam preacher Isaac Aboab translated into 
 Hebrew. Both are given in a Latin translation 
 in Knorr von Rosenroth's work, together with 
 a translation of "The Valley of the King" (emek 
 ha-melech) by Naphtali Frankfurter. Besides 
 these we may mention Isaiah Horwitz (died at 
 Tiberias in 1629), author of Sh'ne luchoth hab- 
 erith (abbreviated Shela), i. e., "The Two Ta- 
 bles of the Covenant," a kind of Real-Encyclo- 
 pedia of Judaism on a cabalistic basis. This 
 work has been often reprinted and enjoys a 
 great reputation among the Jews. Abridgments 
 of it were frequently published (Amsterdam, 
 1683; Venice, 1705; Warsaw, 1879). 
 
 There were not wanting those who opposed the 
 Cabala. Of the numerous opponents which the 
 Zohar and Luria-Vital's works called forth, none 
 was so daring, so outspoken and powerful as 
 Leon de Modena of Venice (1571-1648). He is 
 best known as the author of Hist or ia dei Riti 
 Hebraici ed observanza degli Hebrei di quesii 
 tempi, or the "History of the Rites, Customs and 
 
 60 
 
POST-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 Manner of Life of the Jews" (Padua, 1640), and 
 translated into Latin, French, Dutch, English. 5 
 But besides this and other works, he also wrote 
 a polemical treatise against the Cabalists, whom 
 he despised and derided, entitled Ari noham, i. 
 e., "Roaring Lion," published by Julius Furst, 
 Leipsic, 1840. In this treatise he shows that the 
 cabalistic works, "which are palmed upon ancient 
 authorities, are pseudonymous ; that the doctrines 
 themselves are mischievous ; and that the follow- 
 ers of this system are inflated with proud no- 
 tions, pretending to know the nature of God bet- 
 ter than any one else, and to possess the nearest 
 and best way of approaching the Deity." He 
 even went so far as to question whether God will 
 ever forgive those who printed the cabalistic 
 works (comp. Furst, p. 7), and this no doubt, 
 because so many Cabalists joined the Church. 
 
 But no opposition could stem the tide of the 
 Cabala. Its wonder-working branch had now 
 largely laid hold on the minds and fancies of the 
 Jews, and was producing among them the most 
 mournful and calamitous effects. The chief ac- 
 tor in this tragedy was the cabalist Sabbatai Zebi, 6 
 
 'The English translation is found in Picard's Cere- 
 monies and Religious Customs of the Various Nations 
 of the Known World, Vol. I, London, 1733. 
 
 6 See my article s. v. "Sabbatai Zebi" in McClintock 
 and Strong; see also Geschichte des Sabbatai-Zebi, sein 
 Leben und Treiben, Warsaw, 1883; and Der Erzbe- 
 triiger Sabbatai Sevi, der letzte falsche Messias der 
 Juden, etc., Halle, 1760; Berlin, 1908. 
 
 61 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 born at Smyrna, July, 1641. When fifteen years 
 of age he rapidly mastered the mysteries of the 
 Cabala, which he expounded before crowded aud- 
 iences at the age of eighteen. When twenty-four 
 years of age, he revealed to his disciples that he 
 was the Messiah, the son of David, the true Re- 
 deemer, and that he was to redeem and deliver 
 Israel from their captivity. At the same time he 
 publicly pronounced the Tetragrammaton, 7 which 
 the high priest was only permitted to do on the 
 day of atonement. As he would not desist, he 
 was excommunicated by the Jewish sages at 
 Smyrna. He went to Salonica, Athens, Morea 
 and Jerusalem, teaching his doctrines, proclaim- 
 ing himself the Messiah, anointing prophets and 
 converting thousands upon thousands. As his 
 followers prepared to be led back by him to Jeru- 
 salem, they wound up their affairs, and in many 
 places trade was entirely stopped. By the order 
 of the Sultan, Mohammed IV, Sabbathai Zevi 
 was arrested and taken before him at Adrian- 
 ople. The Sultan said to him: "I am going to 
 test thy Messiahship. Three poisoned arrows 
 shall be shot into thee, and if they do not kill 
 thee, I too will believe that thou art the Messiah." 
 He saved himself by embracing Islamism in the 
 presence of the Sultan, who gave him the name 
 Effendi, and appointed him Kapidji-Bashi. Sab- 
 
 7 Called by the Jews shem-hammephorash, on which 
 see my article s. v. in McClintock and Strong. 
 62 
 
POST-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 bathai died Sept. 10, 1676, after having ruined 
 thousands upon thousands of Jewish families. In 
 spite of this fiasco the number of Sabbathai's fol- 
 lowers was not diminished. 
 
 Famous as a champion of orthodoxy was Jacob 
 Israel Emden (1696-1776) rabbi of Altona. 
 During his rabbinate there, the famous Jonathan 
 Eybenschutz 8 (born in Cracow in 1690) was 
 called to Altona in 1750, since the German and 
 Polish Jews were divided in that place. As every 
 rabbi was regarded as a sort of magician, the 
 new-comer was expected to stop the epidemic 
 raging at that time in the city. Eybenschutz pre- 
 pared amulets, which he distributed among the 
 people. For curiosity's sake one was opered, 
 and lo ! in it was written : "O thou God of Israel, 
 who dwellest in the beauty of thy power, send 
 down salvation to this person through the merit 
 of thy servant Sabbathai Zevi, in order that thy 
 name, and the name of the Messiah Sabbathai 
 Zevi, may be hallowed in the w r orld." This am- 
 ulet came into the hands of Emden. Eyben- 
 schutz denied all connection with the adherents 
 of Sabbathai, and as he had already gained a 
 great influence, he was believed ; at least, almost 
 everybody kept quiet. But Emden was not quiet, 
 and finally the ban was pronounced against Ey- 
 benschutz. Even the King Frederic V of Den- 
 
 8 See mv article s. v. "Eybenschutz" in loc. cit., Vol. 
 XII, p. 367. 
 
 63 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 mark sided with Emden, and Eybenschiitz lost 
 his position. Being forsaken by his friends, Ey- 
 benschiitz went to his former pupil, Moses Ger- 
 son Kohen, who after baptism took the name of 
 Karl Anton. Anton wrote an apology in behalf 
 of his. teacher, which he dedicated to the King of 
 Denmark. This and other influences had the 
 effect that the whole affair was dropped and Ey- 
 benschiitz was elected anew as rabbi of the con- 
 gregation. Eybenschiitz died in 1764 and was 
 followed twelve years later by his opponent Em- 
 den. Both are buried in the Jewish cemetery of 
 Altona. 
 
 Another Zoharite was Jacob Frank 9 (Jankiew 
 Lebowicz), the founder of the Jewish sect of the 
 Frankists, born in Poland in 1712. He acquired 
 a great reputation as a Cabalist, and settled in 
 Podolia, where he preached a new doctrine, the 
 fundamental principles of which he had borrowed 
 from the teachings of Sabbathai Zevi. He was 
 arrested through the influence of the rabbis, but 
 was liberated through the intervention of the Ro- 
 man Catholic clergy, and authorized by the King 
 to profess freely his tenets. His followers then, 
 under the name of Zoharites and Anti-Talmud- 
 ists oppressed their former adversaries in turn. 
 As the papal nuncio at Warsaw declared against 
 them, Frank and most of his adherents embraced 
 
 Cotnp. Gractz, Frank und die Frankisten, Berlin, 
 1868. 
 
 64 
 
POST-ZOHAR PERIOD 
 
 Christianity. Frank continued to make prose- 
 lytes and his sect increased in Poland and Bo- 
 hemia. He lived in princely style on means furn- 
 ished him by his followers, and died at Offen- 
 bach, in Hesse, December 10, 1791. 
 
 The Cabalists of the eighteenth century, with 
 the exception of Moses Chayim Luzzatto (born 
 1707, died 1747), are of little importance. Mod- 
 ern influences gradually put a stop to the author- 
 ity of the Cabala, and modern Judaism sees in the 
 Cabala in general only an historical curiosity or 
 an object of literary historical disquisitions. 
 
 65 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCTRINES OF 
 THE CABALA. 
 
 God arid Creation. — After having become ac- 
 quainted in previous chapters with the principal 
 actors in the cabalistic drama we are now pre- 
 pared to examine the tenets of the Cabala. 
 
 Different from the system as exhibited in the 
 Book of Creation or Jezirah is that of the Zohar, 
 because the more difficult, since it embraces not 
 merely the origin of the world, but likewise 
 speculates on the essence of God and the proper- 
 ties of man ; in other words it treats of theology, 
 cosmology and anthropology. 
 
 Starting from the idea of the Supreme Being 
 as boundless in his nature — which necessarily im- 
 plies that he is an absolute unity and inscrutable, 
 and that there is nothing without him — God is 
 called En Soph, i. e., "endless," "boundless." In 
 this boundlessness God cannot be comprehended 
 by the intellect, nor described in words ; for there 
 is nothing which can grasp him and depict him 
 
 66 
 
ITS DOCTRINES 
 
 to us, 1 and as such he is in a certain sense not 
 existent (ay in) ; since, as far as our mind is con- 
 cerned, that which is incomprehensible does not 
 exist. 
 
 The En Soph, not being an object of cognition, 
 made his existence known in the creation of the 
 world by means of attributes or mediums, the ten 
 Sephiroth, or intelligences, radiations, emanations, 
 emanating from the En Soph, and which in their 
 totality represent and are called the Adam Kad~ 
 mon, the "Primordial or Archetypal Man." 
 
 The first Sephirah is called Kether, "Crown" ; 
 the second Chochma, "Wisdom" ; the third Bina, 
 "Intelligence"; the fourth Chesed, "Mercy"; the 
 fifth Din, "Judgment" ; the sixth Tiphereth, 
 "Beauty"; the seventh Nczach, "Splendor"; the 
 eighth Hod, "Majesty"; the ninth Jesod, "Foun- 
 dation" ; the tenth Malchuth, "Kingdom." 
 
 Now the first Sephirah, which is called the 
 Crown, the Aged, 2 the Primordial or the Smooth 
 Point, 3 the White Head, the Long Face, Macro- 
 
 1 Rabbi Azariel in his commentary on the ten Seph- 
 iroth tells us that "the En Soph can neither be com- 
 prehended by the intellect, nor described in words ; for 
 there is no letter or word which can grasp him." With 
 this compare what Proclus, the neo-Platonist, says in 
 his Theology of Plato, II, 6: "Although the Divinity 
 is generally called the unity (to eV) or the first, it would 
 be better if no name were given him ; for there is no 
 word which can depict his nature — he is the inexpress- 
 ible (<w>/™c), the unknown (dyvcoaros) . Isaac ibn 
 Latif (1220-1290) even says "God is in all, and every- 
 thing is in God." 
 
 67 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 prosopon, the Inscrutable Height, 4 contained the 
 other nine Sephiroth and gave rise to them in 
 the following order : from the first Sephirah pro- 
 ceeded a masculine or active potency designated 
 (2) Chochma, "Wisdom," and an opposite, i. e., 
 a feminine or passive potency, called (3) Bina> 
 "Intelligence." These two opposite potencies are 
 joined together by the first potency, and thus 
 yield the first triad of the Sephiroth. From the 
 junction of the foregoing opposites, which are 
 also called "Father" (abba) and "Mother" (im~ 
 ma) emanated again the masculine or active po- 
 tency called (4) Chesed, "Mercy or Love," also 
 Gedulah, "Greatness," and from this again ema- 
 nated the feminine or passive potency called (5) 
 Din, "Judgment," also Geburah, "Judical Power." 
 From this again emanated the uniting potency 
 (6) Tiphereth, "Beauty." We have thus the sec- 
 ond trinity of the Sephiroth. Now Beauty 
 beamed forth the masculine or active potency (7) 
 Nezach, "Splendor," and this again gave rise to 
 (8) the feminine or passive potency Hod, "Maj- 
 esty"; from it again emanated (9) Jesod, "Foun- 
 
 2 This must not be confounded with "the Aged of 
 the Aged" as the En Soph is called. 
 
 3 When the Concealed of the Concealed wished to 
 reveal himself, he first made a single point; the Infinite 
 was entirely unknown, and diffused no light before this 
 luminous point violently broke through into vision." 
 (Zohar, I, 15a.) 
 
 4 So called by Rabbi Azariel. 
 
 68 
 
ITS DOCTRINES 
 
 dation," which yields the third trinity. From 
 Jesod, finally emanated (10) Malchiith, "King- 
 dom," also called Schechinah. 
 
 The Cabalists delight in representing the ten 
 Sephiroth under different forms; now as Adam 
 Kadmon, "Primordial or Archetypal Man," now 
 as the cabalistic tree or the Ilan, in which the 
 crown is represented by the first Sephirah and 
 the root by the last. 
 
 The Divine Man.- — As to the Adam Kadmon 
 which is shown in the following figure, the Crown 
 represents the head; Wisdom, the brains; Intel- 
 ligence which unites the two and produces the 
 first triad, the heart or the understanding. The 
 fourth and fifth Sephiroth, i. e., Love and Jus- 
 tice are the two arms, the former the right arm 
 and the latter the left; one distributing life and 
 the other death. The sixth Sephirah, Beauty, 
 uniting these two opposites and producing the 
 second triad, is the chest. Firmness and Splen- 
 dor of the third triad represent the two legs, 
 whereas Foundation, the ninth Sephirah, repre- 
 sents the genital organs, since it denotes the basis 
 and source of all things. Finally Kingdom, the 
 tenth Sephirah, represents the harmony of the 
 whole Archetypal Man. 
 
 Now in looking at the Sephiroth which con- 
 stitute the first triad, it will be seen that they 
 
 69 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 represent the intellect; hence this triad is called 
 by Azariel the ''intellectual world" (olam muskal 
 
 Fig. 1. ADAM KADMON, THE ARCHETYPAL MAN. 
 
 or olam ha-sechel). The second triad which rep- 
 70 
 
ITS DOCTRINES 
 
 resents moral qualities, is called the "moral" or 
 "sensuous world" (olam murgash, also olam ha- 
 
 , Crown 1 
 
 2 Intelligence 
 
 5 Justice 
 
 Wisdom 2 
 
 Love 4 
 
 Beauty 6 
 
 Foundation 9 
 
 Firmness 7 
 
 Kingdom 10 
 
 Fig. 2. THE CABALISTIC TREE. 
 
 i 
 
 nephesh) ; and the third, representing power and 
 Stability, is called the "material world" (olam 
 
 71 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 mutba or olam ha-teba) . 
 
 As concerns the cabalistic tree (the ildn ha-ca- 
 
 Crown 1 
 
 Kingdom 10 
 Fig. 3. THE PILLAR ARRANGEMENT. 
 
 bala), the Sephiroth are so arranged that the first 
 triad is placed above, the second and third are 
 
 72 
 
ITS DOCTRINES 
 
 placed below, in such a manner that the three 
 masculine Sephiroth are on the right, the three 
 feminine on the left, whilst the four uniting 
 Sephiroth occupy the center, as shown in Fig 2. 
 
 According to another arrangement the Seph- 
 iroth are so ordered that they form three pillars, 
 a right one {sitra dimina, also amuda de-chesed, 
 i. e., the pillar of mercy) ; a left one {sitra dis- 
 mola, also amuda de-dina, i. e., the pillar of judg- 
 ment), and a middle one {amuda de-emza'ita) . In 
 the right pillar to which belong the Sephiroth 
 Wisdom, Love and Firmness, is life; in the left 
 with the Sephiroth Intelligence, Judgment, Splen- 
 dor, is Death. The middle pillar comprises 
 Crown, Beauty, Foundation. The basis of all 
 three pillars is the Kingdom. Fig. 3 illustrates 
 this. 
 
 So far as the Sephiroth represent the first man- 
 ifestation of God they form a world for them- 
 selves, an ideal world which has nothing to do 
 with the real, material world. As such it is now 
 called the primordial, the Archetypal Man 
 (Adam Kadmon), now the Heavenly Man 
 {Adam Hat). As for the Adam Kadmon, dif- 
 ferent views exist in the cabalistic writings. He 
 is sometimes taken as the totality of the Seph- 
 iroth, and he appears as a pre-Sephirotic first 
 emanation and superior to them, by which God 
 manifested himself as creator and ruler of the 
 
 73 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 world, as it were a prototype (macrocosm) of 
 the entire creation. In this case it would seem as 
 if the Adam Kadmon were a first manifestation, 
 inserted between God and the world, so to say a 
 second God 5 or the divine Word. 6 
 
 According to a later theorem four worlds pro- 
 ceed by an emanation in different gradations. 
 This is expressed by Ibn Latif thus : As the 
 point extends and thickens into a line, the line 
 into the plane, the plane into the expanded body, 
 thus God's self-manifestation unfolds itself in 
 the different worlds. 
 
 In each of these four worlds the ten Sephiroth 
 recur. The first Sephirah gave birth to the Olam 
 azila or "world of emanation," containing the 
 powers of the divine plan of the world. Its be- 
 ings have the same nature as that belonging to 
 the world of the Sephiroth or to the Adam Kad- 
 mon. This world which is also called the olam 
 ha-sephiroth, i. e., "the world of the Sephiroth," 
 is the seat of the Shechinah. From the olam 
 azila proceeded the olam beria or "world of cre- 
 ation," in which according to Rabbi Isaac Nasir 7 
 are the souls of the saints, all the blessings, the 
 
 6 devrepos debs. 
 6 X670S. 
 
 7 He flourished in the first half of the twelfth cen- 
 tury and is the author of a treatise on the Emanations 
 (Massecheth Aziluth) reprinted by Jellinek in his 
 Auswahl Kabbalistischer Mystik, Part I. Leipsic, 1853. 
 
 74 
 
ITS DOCTRINES 
 
 throne of the Deity, and the palaces of all spirit- 
 ual and moral perfection. The olam beria gave 
 birth to the olam jezirah or "world of forma- 
 tion," in which dwell the holy angels, whose 
 prince is Metatron. 8 But there are also the de- 
 mons, which on account of their grossly sensual 
 nature are called Keliphoth, "shells," and inhabit 
 the planets and other heavenly bodies or the 
 realm of the ether. 
 
 The fourth world is called olam assiya, the 
 "world of action." Its substances consist of mat- 
 ter limited by space and perceptible to the senses 
 in a multiplicity of forms. It is subject to con- 
 stant changes, generations, and corruptions, and 
 is the abode of the Evil Spirit. 
 
 Like the Talmud and the Midrash, the Zohar 
 represents the optimistic view, that the present 
 world is the best. Thus we read (Zohar, III, 
 292b : "There were old worlds, which perished 
 as soon as they came into existence; they were 
 formless, and were called sparks. Thus the smith 
 
 8 Graetz, Gnosticismus und Judentum, 1846, p. 44, de- 
 rives the word from Atera Opovov, because this angel is 
 immediately under the divine throne. Cassel (Ersch 
 and Gruber's Encyklop'ddie, section II, vol. XXVII, s. v. 
 "Juden," p .40, note 84) derives it from metator, i. e., 
 "messenger, outrider, pathfinder." Wunsche also con- 
 nects it with ticT&rwp. According to the Zohar, I, 126&, 
 Metatron is the first creature of God ; the middle pillar 
 (in the essence of God) or the uniting link in the 
 midst, comprising all grades, from top downwards, and 
 from the bottom upwards (ibid.. Ill, 127a) ; the visibly 
 manifested Deity (ibid., Ill, 231a). 
 
 75 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 when hammering the iron, lets the sparks fly in 
 all directions. These sparks are the primordial 
 worlds, which could not continue, because the 
 Sacred Aged had not as yet assumed his form 
 (of opposite sexes — the King and Queen), and 
 the Master was not yet at his work." And again 
 we read (III, 61&) : "The Holy One, blessed be 
 he, created and destroyed several worlds before 
 the present one was made, and when this last 
 work was nigh completed, all the things of this 
 world, all the creatures of the universe, in what- 
 ever age they were to exist, before they entered 
 into this world, were present before God in their 
 true form. Thus are the words of Ecclesiastes 
 to be understood. 'The thing that hath been, it 
 is that which shall be; and that which is done is 
 that which shall be done.' " 
 
 Since the Cabalists viewed all things from the 
 anthropological point of view, they also trans- 
 formed to the world of the Sephiroth the differ- 
 ence of sex. The male principle, called Abba, is 
 white and of an active nature, appearing espe- 
 cially in the Sephirah Love, but also at the bottom 
 of the three Sephiroth on the right side. The 
 female principle, on the other hand, which owes 
 its origin to the male principle, is red and of a 
 receptive nature. It is mainly visible in the 
 Sephira Justice, but is also at the bottom of the 
 three Sephiroth on the left. The sign of the male 
 
 76 
 
ITS DOCTRINES 
 
 principle is the "Y," that of the female the "H" 
 in the divine name YHVH. What we learn is 
 this: the Sephiroth teach that everything which 
 exists is imperishable and like God. As nothing 
 perishes in the world or is fully annihilated, thus 
 the stamp and seal of divinity is stamped on all 
 beings. God as the Invisible and Endless (En 
 Soph) became visible and intelligible by the 
 Sephiroth ; the human mind can come to him, can 
 know and conceive him. 
 
 The Realm of Evil. — Besides the heavenly 
 realm of the Sephiroth of light or of the good, 
 there is also a realm of the Sephiroth of dark- 
 ness or of evil. Over against the supreme ema- 
 nation of light, the Adam Kadmon, stands as op- 
 ponent the Adam Belial. The same is the case 
 with every light-sephirah, it is opposed by a 
 Sephirah of darkness. Thus both are related to 
 one another as the right side to the left ; the light- 
 Sephiroth form the right side, the darkness- 
 Sephiroth the left side (sitra achra). The realm 
 of darkness is figuratively called also the king- 
 dom of Cain, Esau and Pharaoh (Zohar, I, 55a). 
 Like the kingdom of light that of darkness has 
 ten degrees. As the kingdom of light is inhabited 
 by good spirits, so the kingdom of darkness is in- 
 habited by evil spirits (demons, shells). Their 
 prince is called Samael (angel of poison or of 
 
 77 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 death) ; his wife is called the Harlot or the 
 Woman of Whoredom. Both are thought of as 
 having intercourse with each other just as in the 
 realm of light God as king has intercourse with 
 Malchuth as queen. Through the influence of 
 the evil powers the creation is continually dis- 
 turbed. Men are seduced to apostasy from God, 
 and thus the kingdom of the evil grows and the 
 Keliphoth or shells increase. In the figurative 
 language of the Zohar this disturbance of the 
 creation is described as if the king and queen 
 kept aloof from each other and could not work 
 together for the welfare of the world. But this 
 discord is finally harmonized by repentance, self- 
 mortification, prayer and strict observance of the 
 prescribed ceremonies, and the original harmony 
 of things is again restored. It must be observed 
 however that the teaching about the opposition of 
 the two kingdoms belongs to the later doctrines 
 of the Cabala and its development belongs to the 
 thirteenth century. 
 
 Closely connected with the doctrine about evil 
 is that of the Messiah. His coming takes place 
 when the kingdom of the Keliphoth is overcome 
 through the pious and virtuous life of men here 
 on earth ; then also takes place the restoration of 
 the original state of affairs (tikkun). Since un- 
 der his rule everything turns to the divine light, 
 all idolatry ceases, because the Keliphoth no 
 
 78 
 
ITS DOCTRINES 
 
 longer seduce men to apostasy. Cabala as mis- 
 tress, rules then over the slave philosophy. In 
 the upper world, too, great changes take place at 
 the coming of the Messiah. The king again has 
 intercourse with the queen. Through their cop- 
 ulation the divinity regains the destroyed unity. 
 But Wunsche says that cabalistic literature, 
 especially the Zohar, often describes this union 
 of the king and the queen in terms bordering on 
 shamelessness and shocking to decency and 
 morals. 
 
 The whole universe, however, was not com- 
 plete, and did not receive its finishing stroke till 
 man was formed, who is the acme of creation, 
 and the microcosm uniting in himself the totality 
 of beings. 9 The lower man is a type of the heav- 
 enly Adam Kadmon. 10 Man consists of body and 
 soul. Though the body is only the raimant or 
 the covering of the soul, yet it represents the 
 Merkaba (the heavenly throne-chariot). All 
 members have their symbolic meaning. Greater 
 than the body is the soul, because it emanates 
 from the En Soph and has the power to influence 
 the intelligible world by means of channels (sin- 
 noroth) and to bring blessings upon the nether 
 world. The soul is called nephesh, "life," ruach, 
 "soul," and neshama, "spirit." As ncshama, 
 
 •Zohar, III, 48a. 
 19 Zohar, II, 70/;. 
 
 79 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 which is the highest degree of being, it has the 
 power to come into connection with God and the 
 realm of light ; as ruach it is the seat of good and 
 evil ; as nephcsh it is immediately connected with 
 the body and is the direct cause of its lower func- 
 tions, instincts, and animal life. 
 
 Psychology. — Like Plato, Origen, etc., the 
 Cabala teaches a pre-existence of the soul. 11 All 
 souls destined to enter into human bodies existed 
 from the beginning. Clad in a spiritual garb 
 they dwell in their heavenly abode and enjoy the 
 view of the divine splendor of the Shechinah. 
 With great reluctance the soul enters into the 
 body, for as Zohar, II, 96b, tells us, the soul, be- 
 fore assuming a human body, addresses God: 
 "Lord of the Universe ! Happy am I in this world, 
 and do not wish to go into another where I shall 
 be a bondmaid, and be exposed to all kinds of 
 pollutions." Llere, too, we notice again the in- 
 fluence of Platonic and Philonian doctrines. In 
 its original state each soul is androgynous, and is 
 separated into male and female when it descends 
 on earth to be born in a human body. At the 
 time of marriage both parts are united again as 
 they were before, and again constitute one sou! 
 
 "Compare Book of Wisdom, VIII, 20; Josephus, 
 Bell. Jud., II, 12, speaks of the Essenes as believing in 
 a pre-existence of the soul. Philo's views are given in 
 his De somniis, I, 642; De gigaiitibus, I, 263 f. 
 
 80 
 
ITS DOCTRTNES 
 
 (Zohar, I, 9lb). This doctrine reminds us of 
 Plato and Philo no less than that other (viz. of 
 <W/xi'?7<m) that the soul carries her knowledge 
 with her to the earth, so that "every thing which 
 she learns here below she knew already, before 
 she entered into this world" (Zohar, III, 61b), 
 Of great interest is the metempsychosis of the 
 Cabala. How this doctrine, already espoused by 
 the Egyptians, Pythagoreans and Plato, came into 
 Jewish mysticism, is not yet fully explained. 12 
 But it is interesting to learn of the destiny of man 
 and the universe according to the Cabalists. 
 
 It is an absolute condition of the soul to return 
 to the Infinite Source from which it emanated, 
 after developing on earth the perfections, the 
 germs of which are implanted in it. If the soul, 
 after assuming a human body, fails during its 
 first sojourn on earth to acquire that experience 
 for which it descends from heaven, and becomes 
 contaminated by sin, it must re-inhabit a body 
 again and again, till it is able to ascend in a pur- 
 ified state. This transmigration or gilgul, how- 
 ever, is restricted to three times. "And if two 
 souls in their third residence in human bodies are 
 still too weak to resist all earthly trammels and to 
 
 "According to Josephus (Antiq., XVIII, 13; Bell. 
 Jud., II, 8, 14) it would seem as if the Pharisees held 
 the doctrine of the metempsychosis, but see Schurer, 
 Geschichte des judischen Volkes, vol. II (3d ed., 1898) 
 p. 391; on Philo's view, see ibid., vol. Ill, p. 561. 
 
 81 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 acquire the necessary experience, they are both 
 united and sent into one body, so that they may 
 be able conjointly to learn that which they were 
 too feeble to do separately. It sometimes happens,, 
 however, that it is the singleness and isolation of 
 the soul which is the source of the weakness, and 
 it requires help to pass through its probation. In 
 that case it chooses for a companion a soul which 
 has more strength and better fortune. The 
 stronger of the two then becomes as it were the 
 mother ; she carries the sickly one in her bosom, 
 and nurses her from her own substance, just as 
 a woman nurses her child. Such an association is 
 therefore called pregnancy (ibbur), because the 
 stronger soul gives as it were life and substance 
 to the weaker companion." 
 
 This doctrine of the Superfoetatio was espe- 
 cially taught by Isaac Loria or Luria. It is obvi- 
 ous that this doctrine of the Ibbur naturally led 
 to wild superstition and fraudulent thaumaturgy. 
 Loria himself claimed to have the soul of the 
 Messiah ben Joseph. Connected with Loria's 
 system is the doctrine of the Kawana, by which 
 is meant the absorbed state of the soul in its di- 
 rection towards God when performing the cere- 
 monies, in prayer, self-mortification, in the pro- 
 nunciation of the divine name and reading of the 
 Zohar, whereby the bounds are broken and the 
 fulness of blessing from the upper world is 
 
 82 
 
ITS DOCTRINES 
 
 brought down upon the lower. 
 
 The world, being an expansion of the Deity's 
 own substance, must also share ultimately that 
 blessedness which it enjoyed in its first evolution. 
 Even Satan himself, the archangel of wickedness, 
 will be restored to his angelic nature, since he, 
 too, proceeded from the Infinite Source of all 
 things. When the last human soul has passed 
 through probation, then the Messiah will appear 
 and the great jubilee year will commence, when 
 the whole pleroma of souls (otzar ha-nesha- 
 moth), cleansed and purified shall return to the 
 bosom of the Infinite Source and rest in the "Pal- 
 ace of Love" (Zohar, II, 97a). 
 
 Mystic Interpretation. — The exegetical in- 
 genuity of the Cabala is interesting to the theo- 
 logian. The principle of the mystic interpreta- 
 tion is universal and not peculiar to one or an- 
 other school, as every one will perceive in eccle- 
 siastical history, and even in the history of Greek 
 literature. We find it in Philo, in the New Tes- 
 tament, in the writings of the fathers, in the Tal- 
 mud, and in the Zohar ; and the more such an in- 
 terpretation departed from the spirit of the sacred 
 text, the more necessary was it to bring the scrip- 
 tures to its support by distortions of their mean- 
 ings. 13 
 
 13 For a strange interpretation of scripture in modern 
 times, the reader is referred to Canon Wordsworth's 
 83 
 
ITS DOCTRINES 
 
 Passing over all manner of subtleties of the 
 pre-Zoharic times, we will consider the masterly 
 performances of the Cabalists. According to 
 them the letters, words and names of the scrip- 
 tures contain divine mysteries of wondrous, mys- 
 tical thoughts and ideas, of significant symbols 
 and riddles, on which depends the continuance 
 of the world. (Zohar, II, 99a). "Is it conceiv- 
 able," the Zohar makes one of Simon ben Jochai's 
 circle exclaim, "that God had no holier matters 
 to communicate than these common things about 
 Esau and Hagar, Laban and Jacob, Balaam's ass, 
 Balak's jealousy of Israel, and Zimri's lewdness? 
 Does a collection of such tales, taken in their or- 
 dinary sense, deserve the name of Torah? And 
 can it be said of such a revelation that it utters 
 the pure truth? If that is all the Torah contains, 
 we can produce in our time a book as good as 
 this, aye, perhaps better. No, no! the higher, 
 mystical sense of the Torah is its true sense. The 
 biblical narratives resemble a beautiful dress 
 which enraptures fools so that they do not look 
 beneath it. This robe, however, covers a body, 
 i. e., the precepts of the Law, and this again a 
 soul, the higher soul. Woe to the guilty, who as- 
 sert that the Torah contains only simple stories, 
 and therefore look only upon the dress. Blessed 
 are the righteous, who seek the real sense of the 
 
 Commentary on Genesis and Exodus, London, 1864, 
 p. 52. 
 
 84 
 
ITS DOCTRINES 
 
 Law. The jar is not the wine, so stories do not 
 make up the Torah" (ibid., Ill, 152a). Thus 
 the Cabalists attached little importance to the lit- 
 eral sense; yet not a single iota was to be taken 
 from it and nothing was to be added to it (ibid.j 
 II, 99). 
 
 In order to elicit the mysteries from the scrip- 
 tures, the Cabalists employed certain herme- 
 neutical canons, 14 viz. : 
 
 1. Gematria, 15 i. e., the art of discovering the 
 hidden sense of the text by means of the nu- 
 merical equivalents of the letters. Thus from the 
 Hebrew words nB>?B> rum (vehineh sheloshah) 
 translated "lo! three (men stood by him)" in 
 Gen. xviii, 2, it is deduced that these three were 
 the angels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, because 
 the letters yield the numerical value of 701, viz, 
 
 V=6+ ,1 = 5+ : =50+ n = 5 + E = 3°o+ ?= 3°+E = 
 300 -j-n =5 = 701 ; and the same number yield the 
 words 7KD11 'wnM '1X2*12 VW, viz. X = i-f '? — 3°~h 
 1=6+73—404. 1 — io+d = 2o+n=i + '-5 =30-1- ; = 
 
 3 + D=2-fn = 20o-j-^-io-fX = i-fb=3°4-1= 6 
 + 1 = 200 -f. 2 = 80 -j- x = 1 + '■> = 30 = 70 1 . 
 
 A like figuring we find in the Epistle of Bar- 
 nabas, ch, ix, with reference to the 318 servants 
 
 14 On the interpretation of the scriptures among the 
 Jews in general, see my article s. v. "Scripture, Inter- 
 pretation of, Jewish," in McClintock and Strong. 
 
 15 The word is not like yeufxerpia, as Levy, Neuhebr. 
 tVorterbuch, I, 324, thinks, but is derived from ypafi- 
 
 fiarela or ypa/i/ma. 
 
 85 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 of Abraham, mentioned in Gen. xiv. 14. The 
 author lays stress upon the fact that in the He- 
 brew the "eighteen" are mentioned first, and the 
 "three hundred" afterwards. In the eighteen ex- 
 pressed by the Greek letters I = 10 and H = 8 
 he sees Jesus (IH50Y5), and in the three hun- 
 dred he sees by the letter T — 300, the cross. 
 
 With this canon may be compared the "num- 
 ber-oracle," by means of which one can tell from 
 the number of the letters of the name and the 
 dates of the birth important years and days in the 
 life of a man. Thus, for instance, Emperor Wil- 
 liam I, was born March 22, 1797 ; 3 + 22 + 1797 
 + 7 (number of the letters of the name= 1829, 
 the year of marriage ; 1829 +1+8 + 2 + 9 = 
 1849, campaign to Baden ; 1849 + 1 + 8 + 4 + 
 9= 1871, coronation as emperor; 1871 + 1 +8 
 + 7 + 1 = 1888, year of death. Napoleon III, 
 born 4, 20, 1808; 4 + 20+1808 + 8 (number 
 of the letters of the name) = 1840, the coup at 
 Boulogne ; 1840+1+8 + 4 + 0= 1853, first 
 year as emperor ; 1853 + 1+8 + 5 + 3 = 
 1870; end of his rule. 16 
 
 2. Notarikon (from the Latin notarius, a 
 short-hand writer, one who among the Romans 
 belonged to that class of writers who abbreviated 
 and used single letters to signify whole words), 
 
 16 For a somewhat different mode compare The Open 
 Court, Feb. 1909, p. 88. 
 
 86 
 
ITS DOCTRINES 
 
 is employed when every letter of a word is taken 
 as an initial or abbreviation of a w r ord. Thus, 
 for instance, every letter of the Hebrew first 
 word in Genesis, 17 is made the initial of a word, 
 and from "in the beginning" we obtain "in the 
 beginning God saw that Israel should accept the 
 law"; or the word "Adam" (ADM) is made 
 "Adam, David, Messiah." Sometimes very 
 curious and ingenious combinations are derived 
 from this system. For instance the word passim 19 
 used in the passage "And he made a coat of 
 (passim) many colors" (Gen. xxxvii. 3) is made 
 to indicate the misfortunes which Joseph ex- 
 perienced in being sold by his brethren to Pot- 
 iphar, Merchants, Ishmaelites, Midianites. 19 
 
 It appears that the Christian fathers sometimes 
 made use of the same rule ; as for instance Christ 
 has been called by them IX0Y2, "fish," because 
 these letters are the initials of the Greek words 
 "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour." 20 
 Thus St. Augustine tells us {Be civ. Dei, XVIII, 
 23) that when they were speaking about Christ, 
 Flaccianus, a very famous man, of most ready 
 eloquence, and much learning, produced a Greek 
 manuscript, saying that it was the prophecies of 
 
 17 rrwna 
 
 19 D=Potiphar, D=Sochrim (merchants), ^Ishmaelites, 
 E= Midianites. 
 
 20 'lrjaovs Xpiaros, Qeov Ttos, wwr^p. 
 
 87 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 the Erythrian sibyl. In this he pointed out a cer- 
 tain passage that had the initial letters of the 
 lines so arranged that those words could be read 
 in them. Then he went on and gave these verses, 
 of which the initial letters yield that meaning, and 
 says, "But if you join the initial letters of these 
 five Greek words, they will make the word 
 ichthus, 21 that is 'fish,' in which word Christ is 
 mystically understood, because he was able to live, 
 that is, to exist, without sin in the abyss of this 
 mortality as in the depth of waters." It is worthy 
 of notice that Augustine only gives twenty-seven 
 lines 22 of the thirty-four, as contained in the 
 Oracula Sibyllina, VIII, 217 ff., where the acros- 
 tic reads: Jesus Christ, Son of God (the) Sav- 
 iour, (the) Cross. 23 In its full form it is also 
 given by Eusebius in the Life of the Blessed Em- 
 peror Constantine. For the benefit of the reader 
 we subjoin Neale's translation of the acrostic as 
 given in the Christian Remembrancer, October, 
 1861, p. 287: 
 
 "Judgment at hand, the earth shall sweat with 
 
 fear. 
 Eternal king, the Judge shall come on high; 
 Shall doom all flesh; shall bid the world appear 
 
 21 ixM*. 
 
 "English translation by M. Dodd, City of God, Edin- 
 burgh, 1871, where the Greek letters at the beginning of ; 
 the lines are retained. 
 
 23 aravpos. 
 
MYSTIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 Unveiled before his Throne. Him every eye 
 Shall, just or unjust, see in majesty. 
 
 "Consummate time shall view the Saints assemble 
 His own assessors, and the souls of men 
 Round the great judgment seat shall wait and 
 
 tremble 
 In fear of sentence, and the green earth then 
 Shall turn to desert. They that see that day 
 To moles and bats their gods shall cast away. 
 
 "Sea, earth, and heaven, and hell's dread gates 
 
 shall burn; 
 Obedient to their call, the dead return; 
 Nor shall the judge unfitting doom discern. 
 
 "Of chains and darkness to each wicked soul : 
 For them that have been good, the starry pole. 
 
 "Gnashing of teeth, and woe, and fierce despair 
 Of such as hear the righteous Judge declare 
 Deeds long forgot, which that last day shall bare. 
 
 "Then when each darkened breast He brings to 
 
 sight, 
 Heaven's stars shall fall, and day be changed to 
 
 night ; 
 Effaced the sun-ray, and the moon's pale light. 
 
 89 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 "Surely the valleys He on high shall raise; 
 
 All hills shall cease, all mountains turn to plain; 
 
 Vessels shall no more pass the watery ways ; 
 
 In the dread lightning parching earth shall blaze, 
 
 Ogygian rivers seek to flow in vain. 
 
 Unutterable woe the trumpet blast, 
 
 Re-echoing through the ether, shall forecast. 
 
 "Then Tartarus shall wrap the world in gloom, 
 High chiefs and princes shall receive their doom, 
 Eternal fire and brimstone for their tomb. 
 
 "Crown of the world, sweet wood, salvation's 
 
 horn, 
 Rearing its beauty, shall for man be born, 
 O wood, that Saints adore, and sinners scorn! 
 So from twelve fountains shall its light be 
 
 poured ; 
 Staff of the Shepherd, and victorious sword." 
 
 We may also state that words of those verses 
 which are regarded as containing a peculiar re- 
 condite meaning are ranged in squares in such a 
 manner as to be read either vertically or boustro- 
 phedonally beginning at the right or left hand. 
 Again the words of several verses are placed over 
 each other, and the letters which stand under each 
 other are formed into new words. This is 
 especially seen in the treatment of three verses in 
 
 90 
 
MYSTIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 Exod. xiv. 19-21 (each containing 72 letters), 
 which are believed to contain the three Pillars of 
 the Sephiroth and the Divine Name of seventy- 
 two words. Now, if these three verses be writ- 
 ten out one above the other, the first from right 
 to left, the second from left to right, and the 
 third from right to left, they will give 12 col- 
 umns of three letters each. Then each column 
 will be a word of three letters, and as there are 
 72 columns, there will be 72 words of three let- 
 ters, each of which will be the 72 names of the 
 Deity. By writing the verses all from right to 
 left, instead of boustrophedonally, there will be 
 other sets of 72 names obtainable. The reader 
 who is interested in these niceties will find ample 
 information in Bartolocci, Bibliotheca Magna 
 Rabbinicia, IV, pp. 230 ff. 
 
 3. Temurah or permutation. — According to 
 certain rules, one letter is substituted for another 
 letter preceding or following it in the alphabet, 
 and thus from one word another word of totally 
 different orthography may be formed. Thus the 
 alphabet is bent exactly in the middle, and one 
 half is put over the other; and then by changing 
 alternately the first letter or the first two letters 
 at the beginning of the second line, twenty-two 
 permutations are produced. These are called the 
 "Table of the Combinations of Tziruph." 
 
 For example's sake we give the method called 
 Albath, thus : 
 
 91 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 A B G D H V Z Ch T Y K 
 L Th Sh R Q Tz P Ay S N M 
 The method abgath is thus exemplified: 
 
 A G D H V Z Ch T Y K L 
 B Th Sh R Q Tz P Ay S N M 
 
 The names of the twenty-two permutations 
 are: Albath, Abgath, Agdath, Adbag, Ahbad, 
 Avba, Azbav, Achbaz, Atbach, Aibat, Achbi, Al- 
 bach, Ambal, Anbam, Asban, Aaybas, Afba, Az- 
 baf, Akbaz, Arbak, Ashbar, Athbash. To these 
 must be added as (23) Abgad; (24) Albam. 
 
 I will only remark that by the system called 
 Athbash, it is found that the word Sheshhach in 
 Jer. xxv. 26 is the same as Babel, and that Jerome 
 is said to have confidently applied this system. 24 
 
 Besides these canons the Cabala also sees a 
 recondite sense in the form of the letters, as well 
 as in the ornaments which adorn them. The 
 more multifarious these trifles, the easier it is to 
 arrive in every given case at a result, and the less 
 wit or thought is required. 
 
 Although the canons mentioned above are al- 
 ready applied in the Talmud and Midrash, the 
 Cabalists made a more copious use of them. The 
 names of God became a special object of their 
 fancy. With them they imagined they could ac- 
 complish everything and perform miracles, heal 
 
 24 Hottinger possessed an entire Pentateuch ex- 
 plained on the principle of Athbash. 
 
 92 
 
MYSTIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 the sick, extinguish the fire, etc. The most mir- 
 aculous effects were ascribed to the Tetragram- 
 maton. Whoever was in possession of the true 
 pronunciation of that name could enter in rela- 
 tion with the upper world and receive revela- 
 tions. Each letter of the sacred name was con- 
 sidered as something mysterious. The letter Y 
 (of YHVH) referred to the father as creator 
 (abba) and H to the mother (imma). Because 
 the letter H occurred twice, they distinguished 
 an upper and a lower mother. The permutation 
 of the letters of the Tetragrammaton brought 
 about a multitude of new divine names which, 
 either spoken or written, influenced the course 
 and laws of nature. As was the case with the 
 name of God consisting of four letters, so it was 
 with that consisting of twelve, twenty-two, for- 
 ty-two and seventy-two letters. All were believed 
 to contain great mysteries. 25 The names of an- 
 gels were treated in like manner. Thus the Ca- 
 balists greatly misused the Old Testament, espe- 
 cially the Thora. And, as says Professor 
 Wiinsche, by making the Bible a text-book to 
 elicit deeper ideas, the greatest nonsense and 
 rubbish came to light. The so-called hidden mys- 
 teries and revelations were nothing but fancies 
 whirling in the heads of the Cabalists. The exe- 
 
 25 Compare what we stated above in connection with 
 Abulafia. 
 
 93 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 getical literature of the Cabala clearly proves that 
 its representatives had completely lost the sense 
 for a suitable understanding of the words of 
 scripture. 28 
 
 26 A somewhat different view on the cabalistic treat- 
 ment of scripture is given by the late Jewish scholar 
 Zunz (died 1886) in his Gottesdienstliche Vortrdge 
 (Berlin, 1832), p. 403: For the passage in English see 
 my article "Scripture Interpretation" in McClintock and 
 Strong, vol. IX, p. 480. 
 
 94 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CABALA IN RELATION TO JUDA- 
 ISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Judaism. — It must be acknowledged that the 
 Cabala intended to oppose philosophy and to in- 
 tensify religion. But by introducing heathenish 
 ideas it grafted on Judaism a conception of the 
 world which was foreign to it and produced the 
 most pernicious results. In place of the mono- 
 theistic biblical idea of God, according to which 
 God is the creator, preserver and ruler of the 
 world, the confused, pantheistically colored 
 heathenish doctrine of emanation was substituted. 
 The belief in the unity of God was replaced by 
 the decade of the ten Sephiroth which were con- 
 sidered as divine substances. By no longer ad- 
 dressing prayers directly to god, but to the Seph- 
 iroth, a real Sephiroth-cult originated. The le- 
 gal discussions of the Talmud were of no ac- 
 count; the Cabalists despised the Talmud, yea, 
 they considered it as a canker of Judaism, which 
 must be cut out if Judaism were to recover. Ac- 
 
 95 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 cording to the Zohar, I, 27b; III, 275a; 279fr, 
 the Talmud is only a bondmaid, but the Cabala a 
 controlling mistress. 
 
 The Cabalists compared the Talmud to a hard; 
 unfruitful rock, which when smitten yields only 
 scanty drops that in the end become a cause of 
 controversy; whereas the study of the Cabala is 
 like a fresh gushing spring, which one needs only 
 to address to cause it to pour out its refreshing 
 contents. 1 
 
 And as the Cabalists treated the Talmud, they 
 likewise treated philosophy, which defined relig- 
 ious ideas and vindicated religious precepts be- 
 fore the forum of reason. Most Cabalists op- 
 posed philosophy. She was the Hagar that must 
 be driven from the house of Abraham, whereas 
 the Cabala was the Sarah, the real mistress. At 
 the time of the Messiah the mistress will rule 
 over the bondmaid. 
 
 But the study of the Bible was also neglected, 
 Scripture was no longer studied for its own sake, 
 but for the sake of finding the so-called higher 
 sense by means of mystical hermeneutical rules. 
 
 Even the rituals were variously changed and 
 recast. The putting on of the phylacteries and 
 
 1 A collection of passages abusing the Talmud is 
 given by Landauer in the Orient, 1845, pp. 571-574; see 
 also Rubin, Heidenthum und Kabbah, Vienna, 1893, pp. 
 13 f. ; also his Kabbala und Agada, ibid., 1895, p. 5, where 
 we read that according to Abulafia the Cabalists only 
 were genuine men, and the Talmudists monkeys. 
 
 96 
 
JUDATSM 
 
 prayer-mantle (talith) was accompanied by the 
 recitation of cabalistic formulas and sentences ; 
 special prayers were also addressed to the Seph- 
 iroth. Connected with all this was an extrava- 
 gant, intoxicating superstition. To enable the 
 soul to connect itself with the realm of light and 
 its spirits, or to be transplanted after death into 
 its heavenly abode, one underwent all manner of 
 austere ascetical exercises. With the mysterious 
 name of God they believed themselves enabled 
 to heal the sick, to deliver demoniacs and to ex- 
 tinguish conflagrations. By application of the 
 right formulas of prayer, man was to have power 
 and influence on both the kingdoms of light and 
 darkness. When the Cabalist prays, God shakes 
 his head, changes at once his decrees, and abol- 
 ishes heavy judgments. The magical names of 
 God can even deliver the condemned and free 
 them from their torments in their place of pun- 
 ishment. In this respect we even meet with the 
 doctrine of the Catholic mass for the souls. 2 
 The Book of Psalms with its songs and prayers 
 was especially considered as a means of produc- 
 ing all manner of miracles and magic, as may be 
 seen from the Sepher Shimmush Thehillim (lit- 
 
 2 Wiinsche, whom we have followed, evidently refers 
 to the prayer called Kaddish, for which see my article 
 s. v. in McClintock and Strong, vol. XII. A very in- 
 teresting article on "Judische Seelenmesse und Totenan- 
 rufung" is given by Dalman in Saat auf Hoffnung 
 (Leipsic, 1890), pp. 169-225. 
 
 97 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 erally, "the Book of the Cabalistic Application of 
 the Psalms"), a fragment of the practical Cabala, 
 translated by Gottfried Selig, Berlin, 1788. 
 
 This sketch of Professor Wunsche is by no 
 me^ans exaggerated. 3 Mutatis mutandis we find 
 the cabalistic notions among the Chasidim, a sect 
 founded in 1740 by a certain Rabbi Israel ben 
 Eliezer Baalshem, 4 also called Besht. Baal-Shem 
 made his public appearance about 1740 in Tlusti, 
 in the district of Czartkow, from whence he sub- 
 sequently removed to Medziboze, in Podolia. The 
 miraculous cures and prophecies attracted atten- 
 tion in large circles; his mode of life, consisting 
 of contemplation, study of the Zohar and fre- 
 quent washings in rivers, soon spread a halo 
 around him. Added to this were the many mir- 
 aculous reports circulated by his disciples; for 
 instance, that his father had been visited by the 
 prophet Elijah to predict his birth, and that his 
 mother was a hundred years old when she was 
 delivered of him ; that, when a youth, he had vic- 
 toriously struggled with evil spirits, etc. — all of 
 
 3 Orelli in his article "Zauberei" in Realencyklopadie 
 fur protest. Theologie und Kirche, vol. XXI, 1908, p„ 
 618, remarks : "The Jewish Cabala has promoted the 
 magic degeneration of the religion • to a great extent 
 it furnished profound expressions and formulas for 
 the exercise of superstitious arts." 
 
 4 "Lord of the name" == Oeovpyos, a man who by words 
 of conjuration and other formulas knows how to exer- 
 cise a power over the visible and invisible world. 
 
 98 
 
JUDAISM 
 
 which may be found in the Book Shibche ha- 
 Besht, published in 1815 by the grandson of Baal- 
 Shem, Rabbi Bar Linz. Baal-Shem 5 and his sue* 
 cessors received the name Tsaddik, "Saint," and 
 his fame attracted multitudes of Jews from all 
 parts of Poland, who submitted themselves to his 
 guidance. As long as he lived, the sect formed 
 one great whole, of which he was the head. Aft- 
 er his death, which took place in 1780, it was 
 divided into separate congregations, each of 
 which had its own Rabbi or Tsaddik or Saint, 
 unreserved devotion to whom is the most import- 
 ant of all the principles of the sect. In a word, 
 before Pius IX was declared infallible, the Chas- 
 idim 6 already had their infallible popes, whose 
 number is still very large in Poland, Wallachia, 
 Moldavia, Galicia, and Palestine. Of these popes 
 of the Chasidim, a modern Jewish writer, the 
 late David Cassel (died 1893), says: "To the 
 disgrace of Judaism and modern culture the 
 Tsaddikim still go on with their disgraceful busi- 
 ness, and are thus the most essential hindrances 
 to the dissemination of literary progress in Gal- 
 icia and Russia. There are still thousands who 
 
 5 Compare Kahana, Rabbi Israel Baal Schem-Tob, 
 sein Lcben, kabbalistisches System und VVirken, Sitomir, 
 1900. 
 
 a Compare Perl, Megalleh temirin, or Die enthullten 
 Geheimnisse der Chassidim, Lemberg, 1879; Ch. Bograt- 
 schoff, Entstehung, Entwicklung und Prinsipien des 
 Chassidismus, Berlin, 1908. 
 
 99 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 behold in the Tsaddik the worker of miracles, the 
 prophet, one who is in close communion with 
 God and angels, and who present him with rich 
 gifts and promulgate the wonders which they 
 have seen. Covetousness on the one hand and 
 spiritual narrowness on the other are the chan- 
 nels through which the evil is fed anew." 
 
 Christianity. — As soon as the Cabala became 
 better known, Christians betook themselves to its 
 study and paid it the greatest attention because of 
 the supposed agreement of its teachings with the 
 dogmas of the Christian church. It was thought 
 that the Cabala was the connecting link between 
 Judaism and Christianity. The dogmas of the 
 Trinity, of the Messiah as the Son of God and 
 his atonement, were the salient points which espe- 
 cially attracted attention. The first to be drawn 
 to the Cabala was Raymond Lully, the "Doctor 
 Illuminatus" (1236-1315). He regarded the Ca- 
 bala as a divine science and as a genuine revela- 
 tion whose light is revealed to a rational soul. 
 
 The progress of Christianity towards the Ca- 
 bala was greatly helped by the conversion of a 
 large number of Jews to Christianity, "in which 
 they recognized a closer relation to their gnostic 
 views, and also by the Christians perceiving that 
 gnosticism could become a powerful instrument 
 for the conversion of the Jews." Among the 
 
 100 
 
CHRISTIANITY 
 
 converted Jews we notice Paulus de Heredia of 
 Aragon (about 1480), author of Iggcret ha-So~ 
 dot or Epistola Sccretorum, treating of the di- 
 vinity, death, and resurrection of the Messiah, 
 which has been ascribed to a certain Nechunjah 
 ben-ha-Kanah, who lived towards the end of the 
 second Temple. Another convert was Paul 
 Ricci, 7 of the sixteenth century, the friend of 
 Erasmus, and physician to the Emperor Max- 
 imilian I ; Julius Conrad Otto, author of the "Un- 
 veiled Secrets," consisting of extracts from the 
 Talmud and the Zohar, to prove the validity of 
 the Christian doctrine (Nuremberg, 1805) ; John 
 Stephen Rittengel, grandson of the celebrated 
 Isaac Abravanel, the translator of the Book Jez- 
 irah into Latin (Amsterdam, 1642). Among 
 Christians we may mention Count John Pico di 
 Mirandola (born in 1463), author of LXXII 
 conclusiones cabbalisticae, Rome, 1486; more 
 especially John Reuchlin (Capnio), 1455-1522. 
 Reuchlin, the first German scholar who studied 
 the Cabala, wrote two cabalistic treaties, entitled 
 De Verbo Mirifico (Basel, 1494), and De Arte 
 cabbalistica (Hagenau, 1516). 8 
 
 The first treatise is written in the form of a 
 
 7 See my article s. v. in McClintock arid Strong. 
 
 These and some other treatises of the same kind 
 are collected by Pistorius in a collection entitled Artis 
 cabbalisticae scriptores, Basel, 1587. 
 
 101 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 dialogue between an Epicurean philosopher 
 named Sidonius, a Jew named Baruch, and the 
 author, who is introduced by the Greek name 
 Capnio. Capnio would have it that the doctrine 
 of the Trinity is to be found in the first verse of 
 Genesis. He submits, if the Hebrew word bra 
 (bara), which is translated "created," be exam- 
 ined, and if each of the three letters composing 
 this word be taken as the initial of a separate 
 word, we obtain the expression ben, ruach, ab, 
 i. e., Son, Spirit, Father. Upon the same prin- 
 ciple we find the two persons of the Trinity in the 
 word abn (eben), "stone," occurring in Ps. cxviiL 
 22 — "the stone which the builders rejected is be- 
 come the head of the corner," by dividing the 
 three letters composing the word abn into ab ben> 
 i. e., Father, Son. 
 
 The second treatise is also in the form of a 
 dialogue between a Mohammedan, a Pythagor- 
 ean philosopher and a Jew. The dialogue is held 
 at Frankfort where the Jew lives to whom the 
 others come to be initiated into the mysteries of 
 the Cabala. The whole is a more matured expo- 
 sition and elaboration of the ideas hinted at in the 
 first treatise. 
 
 How the truths of Christianity can be derived 
 from the Talmud and the Cabala, the Franciscan 
 Pietro Galatino endeavored to prove in his treat- 
 ise De Arcanis Catholicae Veritatis contra ob~ 
 
 102 
 
CHRISTIANITY 
 
 stinatissimam Judaecorum nostrae tempestatis 
 perfidiam (Ortona di Mare, 1518). 
 
 Much as Lully, Mirandola, Reuchlin, and oth- 
 ers had already done to acquaint the Christian 
 world with the secrets of the Cabala, none of 
 these scholars had given translations of any por- 
 tions of the Zohar. To this task Knorr Baron 
 von Rosenroth betook himself by publishing the 
 celebrated work Kabbala Demidata ("the Cabala 
 Unveiled"), in two large volumes, the first of 
 which was printed in Sulzbach, 1677-78, the sec- 
 ond at Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1864, giving a 
 Latin translation of the Introduction to and the 
 following portion of the Sohar: the Book of 
 Mysteries; the Great Assembly; the Small As- 
 sembly ; 9 Joseph Gikatilla's Gate of Light (shaar 
 orah) ; Vital's Doctrine of Metempsychosis (ha- 
 gilgidim), and the Tree of Life {etz chayim) ; 
 Cordovero's Garden of Pomegranates (pardes 
 rim-monim) ; Abraham Herera's Gate of Heaven 
 (sha-ar ha shamayim) ; Naphtali ben Jacob's 
 Valley of the King (emeq ha bacha) ; Naphtali 
 Cohen's Vision of the Priest {mare Kohen) etc., 
 etc., with elaborate annotations, glossaries and in- 
 dices. Knorr von Rosenroth has also collected 
 all the passages of the New Testament which 
 contain similar doctrines to those propounded by 
 the Cabala. In spite of its many drawbacks 10 the 
 
 "These three parts are Englished by Mathers. 
 i 10 Buddeus in Iiitroductio in Historiam Philosopliiae 
 103 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 work has been made use of by later scholars, 
 especially by Chr. Schottgen in his Horae hebrai- 
 cae et talmudicae (Dresden, 1733) and Theologia 
 Judacorum de Messia (ibid., 1742.) 
 
 The powerful preponderance of the religious 
 and ecclesiastical interests, as well as those of 
 practical politics which became perceptible in the 
 first quarter of the sixteenth century, giving to 
 the mind a positive impulse, and to the studies a 
 substantial foundation, arrested the further de- 
 velopment of the Cabala; and thus it came about 
 that in the course of time the zeal for cabalistic 
 studies among Christians has cooled. It has be- 
 come generally understood that the Cabala and 
 Christianity are two different things. The idea 
 of God according to the writings of the Old and 
 New Testaments is entirely different. The same 
 is the case with the notion of creation. When 
 the first triad of the Sephiroth (Crown, Wisdom 
 and Intelligence) is referred to the three persons 
 of the Deity, their inner immanent relation is 
 not thereby fully expressed, as Christianity 
 teaches it. The three Sephiroth only represent 
 three potencies of God or three forms of his 
 emanation, the other Sephiroth are also such di- 
 
 Hebraeorum (Halle 1702) calls Knorr von Rosenroth's 
 work "confusum et obscurum opus, in quo necessaria 
 cum non necessariis utilia cum inutilibus, confusa sunt, 
 et in unam velut chaos conjecta." Knorr von Rosenroth 
 has also written a number of hymns. 
 
 104 
 
CHRISTIANITY 
 
 vine powers and forms. One can therefore 
 rightly say that the Cabala teaches not the Trin- 
 ity, but the Ten-Unity of God. Also the other 
 characteristics, when e. g. the Zohar ascribes to 
 God three heads; or when it speaks of a God- 
 Father (abba) of a God-Mother (imma) and of 
 a God-Son; or when we are told (Zohar, III, 
 262a ; comp. 67a) that "there are two, and one is 
 connected with them, and they are three; but in 
 being three, they are one," this does not coincide 
 in the least with the Christian doctrine of the 
 Trinity. 11 
 
 In one codex of the Zohar we read on the 
 words "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts" 
 (Is. vi. 3) : "the first 'holy' refers to the Holy 
 Father; the second to the Holy Son; and the 
 third to the Holy Ghost" ; but this passage is now 
 omitted from the present recensions of the Zo- 
 har, and has been regarded by some Jewish writ- 
 ers as an interpolation. 12 
 
 As to the doctrine of Christ, the God incarnate 
 — it cannot be paralleled with the confused doc- 
 trine of Adam Kadmon, the primordial man. Ac- 
 
 "Compare also Bischoff, Die Kabbalah, p. 26. 
 
 12 Compare Joel, Die Religionsphilosophie des Sohar, 
 Leipsic, 1849, pp. 240 ff. — The Zoharic passages referring 
 to the Trinity are given in the original with a German 
 translation in Ansziige ans dent Buche Sohar (by Tho- 
 luck; revised by Biesenthal), Berlin, 1857; 4th ed., 1876; 
 also by Pauli, The Great Mystery; or How Can Three 
 Be One, London, 1863. 
 
 105 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 cording to the Christian notion the reconciliation 
 is effected only through Christ, the Son of God ; 
 according to the Cabala man can redeem himself 
 by means of a strict observance of the law, by as- 
 ceticism and other means whereby he influences 
 God and the world of light in a mystical manner. 
 For the benefit of the reader we give the follow- 
 ing passages which speak of the atonement of the 
 Messiah for the sins of people, passages which 
 are given as the explanation of the fifty-third 
 chapter of Isaiah. "When the righteous are vis- 
 ited with sufferings, and afflictions to atone for 
 the sins of the world,* is that they might atone for 
 all the sins of this generation. How is this 
 proved ? By all the members of the body. When 
 all members suffer, one member is afflicted in 
 order that all may recover. And which of them ? 
 The arm. The arm is beaten, the blood is taken 
 from it, and then the recovery of all the members 
 of the body is secured. So it is with the children 
 of the world; they are members of one another. 
 When the Holy One, blessed be he, wishes the 
 recovery of the world, he afflicts one righteous 
 from their midst, and for his sake all are healed. 
 How is this shown? It is written — 'He was 
 wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised 
 for our iniquities. . . .and with his stripes 
 we are healed' (Is. iii. 5)." Zohar, III, 218a. 
 To the same effect is the following passage: 
 
 106 
 
CHRISTIANITY 
 
 "Those souls which tarry in the nether garden of 
 Eden hover about the world, and when they see 
 suffering or patient martyrs and those who suffer 
 for the unity of God, they return and mention it 
 to the Messiah. When they tell the Messiah of 
 the afflictions of Israel in exile, and that the sin- 
 ners among them do not reflect in order to know 
 their Lord, he raises his voice and weeps because 
 of those sinners, as it is written, 'he is wounded 
 for our transgressions' (Is. liii. 5). Whereupon 
 those souls return and take their place. In the 
 garden of Eden there is one place which is called 
 the palace of the sick. The Messiah goes into 
 this palace and invokes all the sufferings, pain and 
 afflictions of Israel to come upon him, and they 
 all come upon him. Now if he did not remove 
 them thus and take them upon himself, no man 
 could endure the sufferings of Israel, due as pun- 
 ishment for transgressing the Law ; as it is writ- 
 ten — 'Surely he hath borne our griefs and car- 
 ried our sorrows,' etc. (Is. liii, 4 with Rom. xii. 
 3, 4). When the children of Israel were in the 
 Holy Land they removed all those sufferings and 
 afflictions from the world by their prayers and 
 sacrifices, but now the Messiah removes them 
 from the world." (Zohar, II, 212b). With ref- 
 erence to these passages 13 which speak of the 
 
 13 A collection of the passages referring to the aton- 
 ing work of the Messiah is given in Ausziige aus dem 
 
 107 
 
THE CABALA 
 
 atonement of the Messiah for the sins of the peo- 
 ple, which are given in the Zohar as the explana- 
 tion of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, Professor 
 Dalman 14 remarks that the Jews reject and ob- 
 ject to cabalistic statements as something foreign 
 to genuine Judaism. The theosophic speculations 
 of the Cabala are at least just as Jewish as the 
 religious philosophical statements of Bachja or 
 Maimonides ; yes, it seems to us that the God of 
 revelation and of scripture is more honestly re- 
 tained in the former than in the latter, where he 
 becomes a mathematical One without attribute 
 and thereby may satisfy a superficial reason, but 
 leaves the heart empty. That these Jewish think- 
 ers, influenced by Aristotle, had no inclination to 
 find in Is. liii an expiating mediator, is only too 
 inexplicable. He, who by his own strength can 
 soar into the sphere of "intelligences" and thus 
 bring his soul to immortality, needs no mediator. 
 But we are concerned here not with a philosoph- 
 ical or theosophical thought-complex, but the 
 simple question whether the prophet speaks in 
 Is. liii of a suffering mediator of salvation. The 
 
 Buche Sohar, pp. 35 f ., more especially in Wiinsche, Die 
 Leiden des Messias, Leipsic, 1870, pp. 95-105; and by 
 Dalman, "Das Kommen des Messias nach dem Sohar" 
 (in Saat auf Hoffnung), Leipsic, 1888, pp. 148-160. 
 
 "In his Jesaja 53, das Prophetenwort von Siihnlcidcn 
 des Heilandes unit besonderer Berucksichtigung dcr 
 synagogalen Literatar, Leipsic, 1890. 
 
 108 
 
CHRISTIANITY 
 
 answer of the Cabalists at any rate agrees with 
 the testimony of many of them. 
 
 What are we to think of the Cabala? That 
 there is a relationship between it and neo-Platon- 
 ism is obvious. Erich Bischoff 15 thinks that the 
 Cabala represents a peculiar monism, which in 
 some degree has influenced modern philosophy. 
 In ethical respects it contains many fruitful and 
 sublime thoughts, often indeed in fanciful word- 
 ing. But as magic it has been of great influence 
 on all kinds of superstitions and even on occult- 
 istic tendencies. It offers a highly interesting ob- 
 ject of study whose closer investigation is ren- 
 dered more difficult on account of the abtruse 
 manner of representation and the many magic 
 and mystic accessories. But that which is valu- 
 able is sufficient to insure for it a lasting interest. 
 
 L 'The author of Die Kabbalah. Einfuhrung in die 
 jiidische Mystik und Geheimwissenschaft, Leipsic, 1903. 
 
 109 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The following references are given for the 
 sake of those who may be sufficiently interested 
 in the subject to enter further into its details: 
 
 Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebraea, Vol. II, pp. 1191- 
 1247, Hamburg, 1728. 
 
 Furst, Bibliotheca Judaica, Vol. Ill, pp. 320- 
 325, Leipsic, 1863. 
 
 Brucker, Kurtze Fragen aus der philosophi- 
 ischen Historic, Vol. IV., Ulm, 1733. 
 
 Kleaker, Ueber die Natur und den Ursprung 
 der Emanationslehre bei den Kabbalisten, Riga, 
 1786. 
 
 Beer, Geschichte und Meinungen aller be- 
 standenen und noch bestehenden Sekten der Ju- 
 den und der Geheimlehre oder Kabbalah, 2 Vols., 
 Brunn, 1823. 
 
 Molitor, Philosophie der Geschichte oder iiber 
 die Tradition, 4 Vols., Minister, 1827-1853; 2d. 
 ed., 1857. 
 
 Freystadt, Philosophia cabbalistica; Ex fonti- 
 bus primariis adumbravit atque inter se compar- 
 avit, Konigsberg, 1832; Kabbalismus und Pan- 
 theismus, ibid. 1832. 
 
 Tholuck, Be ortu Cabbalae, Hamburg, 1837. 
 
 Hamberger, die hohe Bedeutung der alt- 
 
jiidischen Tradition oder dcr sogenannten Kab- 
 balah, Sulzbach, 1844 (a review of Molitor's 
 work). 
 
 Lutterbeck, die neutestamcntlichcn Lchrbe- 
 griffe, Vol. 1., 1853. 
 
 Misses, Zaphnath Pan-each, Darstellung und 
 Kritsche Beleuchtung der jiidischen Geheim- 
 lehrc, 2 parts. Cracow, 1862-63. 
 
 Lichtenberger, Enclypedie des' sciences reli- 
 gieuses, art. '"Cabale," Vol. II, pp. 497 ff., Paris, 
 1878. 
 
 Bloch, Geschichte der Entwickelung der Kab- 
 bah, Trier, 1894. 
 
 Ehrenpreis, Kabbalistische Studien, Part 1., 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1895. 
 
 Vacant, Dictionaire de thcologie catholique, 
 Paris, 1899, ff., art. "Cabale," Vol. II, 1271-91. 
 
 Wiinsche, art. "Kabbala" in Hcrzog-Hauck 
 Realencyklopddie fur Protcstantische Theologie 
 und Kirche, Vol. IX, Leipsic, 1901. 
 
 Bischoff, die Kabbalah; Einfiihrung in die 
 jiidische Mystik und Geheimzvissenschaft, Leip- 
 sic, 1903 (treats the subject in a catechetical man- 
 ner). 
 
 Schiilein, art. "Kabbala" in Kirchlichcs Hand- 
 lexikon, Miinchen, 1907, ff. Vol. II, 255-257. 
 
 We have purposely refrained from referring 
 to the historical handbooks of D. Cassel, S. Back, 
 G. Karpeles, etc., because they offer nothing new 
 from a critical point of view ; and for obvious 
 reasons we make no mention of articles on the 
 Cabala in English Cyclopaedias. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abraham, p. 21. 
 
 Abulafia, Abraham, 40; tries 
 
 to convert Pope Martin IV, 
 
 42 ; imagines himself the 
 
 Messiah, 42. 
 Abulafia, Todros, 39. 
 Adam, book of, 33. 
 Agobard, 20. 
 Akiba, alphabet of, 18. 
 Allen, 4. 
 Arithmetic, theosophical, 22 et 
 
 seq. 
 Augustine, 87. 
 Azariel, 33, 67. 
 
 Baal-shem, 98. 
 
 Bahir-book, teaches metem- 
 psychosis, 35. 
 Barnabas, 85. 
 Bartolocci, 15, 58, 91. 
 Basnage, 3. 
 Beer, 22. 
 Biesenthal, 105. 
 Bischoff, 105, 109. 
 Bodenschatz, 18. 
 Boehme, 3. 
 Bogratschoff, 99. 
 Bonwetsch, 22. 
 Buddeus, 104. 
 
 Cabala, name, 9 ; origin, 12 ; 
 development, 16 ; most im- 
 portant doctrines concerning 
 men and creation, 66 ; the 
 realm of evil, 77 ; psychol- 
 ogy, 80; metempsychosis, 
 
 81 ; mystical interpretation, 
 83 ; hermeneutical canons, 
 85 ; its relation to Judaism, 
 95; to Christianity, 100; 
 does not teach the Trinity. 
 105 ; nor the Christ of the 
 Christians, 106. 
 
 Cassel, D., 99. 
 
 Cassel, P., 75. 
 
 Chasidim, a Jewish sect, 98. 
 
 Christ called Ichthys, 88. 
 
 Cordovero, 57. 
 
 Cyclop, of McClintock and 
 Strong, 13, 36, 40, 50, 51, 
 57, 59, 61, 62, 63, 85, 94, 97, 
 101. 
 
 Dalman, 97, 108. 
 Dodd, 88. 
 
 Edersheim, 21. 
 
 Elisha ben-Abuja, 12. 
 
 En Soph, 34. 
 
 Emanations, treatise on the, 
 
 37. 
 Enoch, Book of, 19. 
 Etheridge, 4. 
 Eusebius, 22, 88. 
 Eybenschiitz, 64. 
 
 Fludd, 3. 
 Franck, 5. 
 Frank, Jacob, 64. 
 
 Galatino, 102. 
 Geiger, 6. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Gematria, 85. 
 
 Gikatilla, 42. 
 
 Gill, 4. 
 
 Ginsburg, 7. 
 
 God, His body described, 18 ; 
 is endless according to the 
 Cabala, 66 ; makes Himself 
 known in the creation by 
 means of ten Sephiroth or 
 emanations, 67, 77 ; which 
 are divided into groups and 
 in this way yield three dif- 
 ferent forms as the dia- 
 grams show, 67 ; the emana- 
 tions, representing the first 
 manifestation of God form 
 an ideal world ; from which 
 proceed by an emanation in 
 different gradations four 
 worlds, 74. 
 
 Goldschmidt, 21. 
 
 Graetz, 7, 52, 75. 
 
 Griinbaum, 22. 
 
 Gunsburg, 40. 
 
 Helmont, 3. 
 Heredia, 101. 
 Horwitz, 60. 
 Hottinger, 92. 
 
 Interpretation, mystical, 83. 
 Isaac the Blind, 33; father of 
 
 the Cabala, 34. 
 Ishmael ben Elisa, 13. 
 
 Jehudah Halevi, 21. 
 
 Jellinek, 5, 6, 7, 17, 18, 19, 33, 
 
 37, 52. 
 Jezirah, book of, 20; time and 
 
 place of composition, 20; 
 
 contents, 21; theosophical 
 
 arithmetic, 22. 
 Joel, 6, 105. 
 Josephus, 80. 
 Jost, 7. 
 Juchasin, 52. 
 
 Kahana, 99. 
 
 Kawana, doctrine of, 82. 
 
 Kircher, 18. 
 
 Landauer, 6, 96. 
 
 Latif Ibn, 39, 74. 
 
 Leon de Modena, 60, 61. 
 
 Letters, combination of, 30. 
 
 Longfellow, 38. 
 
 Lully, 3, 100. 
 
 Luria, 57, 58. 
 
 Luzzatto, 65. 
 
 Maasey Merkaba and Bereshit, 
 17. 
 
 Maimonides, 14 ; denounces 
 
 mysticism, 19. 
 Man the acme of creation, 79. 
 Mathers, 8. 
 Medigo, Elias del, calls the 
 
 Zohar a forgery, 57. 
 Messiah, His coming, 78; 
 
 atonement of, 106. 
 Messiahship, 58; teaches super- 
 
 foetatio, 82. 
 Metatron, 25, 38, 75. 
 Metempsychosis, 81. 
 Midrash Konen, 33. 
 Milman, 4. 
 
 Mirandola, 3, 55, 101. 
 More, 3. 
 Morinus, 51. 
 Moses de Leon, 5 ; author of 
 
 the Zohar, 43. 
 
 Nachmanides, 36. 
 
 Nasir, 37, 74. 
 
 Neale, 88. 
 
 Nechunjah Ben-Ha-Kanah, 13, 
 
 35. 
 Nettesheim, 3. 
 Notarikon, 86. 
 Number, oracle, 86. 
 
 Ophanim, 24, 38. 
 Oracula Sibyllina, 88. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Orelli, 98. 
 Origen, 80. 
 Otto, 101. 
 
 Paracelsus, 3. 
 Pauli, 105. 
 Perl, 99. 
 Philo, 80, 81. 
 Picard, 61. 
 Pistorius, 101. 
 Plato, 80, 81. 
 Proclus, 67. 
 
 Reuchlin, 3, 101. 
 
 Ricci, 101. 
 
 Rittengel, 101. 
 
 Rosenroth, Knorr von, 43, 45, 
 
 58, 103. 
 Rubin, 96. 
 
 Sabbatai, Zebil, 61 ; proclaims 
 himself the Messiah, em- 
 braces Islamism, 62 ; ruins 
 thousands of Jewish fami- 
 lies, 63. 
 
 Sachs, 6. 
 
 Samael, prince of darkness, 
 77 ; his wife called the har- 
 lot, 78. 
 
 Sandalphon, 25, 38. 
 
 Schottgen, 104. 
 
 Schurer, 81. 
 
 Scripture references : 
 
 Genesis XIV, 14, 86 
 
 XXXVII, 3, 87. 
 Exodus, XIV, 19-21, 91 
 
 XX, 20, 25. 
 Ps. XXXIV, 18, 18 
 
 CXVIII, 22 102. 
 Prov. Ill, 13, 38. 
 Isa. VI, 2, 18; 3, 105 
 LIII, 4, 107; 5, 106, 107 
 Jer. XXV, 26, 91. 
 
 Ezek. I, 20, 24. 
 
 Rom. XII, 3, 4, 107. 
 Selig, 98. 
 Sephiroth, 25, 34, 38; opposed 
 
 by a Sephirah of darkness, 
 
 77. 
 Seraphim, 24. 
 Simon ben Jochai, 4, 5 ; pre- 
 
 existence of soul, 80. 
 Steinschneider, 6. 
 Stern, 7. 
 Strack, 50. 
 
 Superfoetatio, doctrine of, 82. 
 Sandolphon, 38. 
 
 Temurah, 91. 
 Tetra grammaton, 93. 
 Tholuck, 105. 
 Tziruph, 91. 
 
 Vital, continues work of Luria, 
 59 ; has many adherents, 60. 
 
 Wakkar, endeavors to recon- 
 cile the Cabala with philos- 
 ophy, 55. 
 
 Westcott, 6. 
 
 Wordsworth, 84. 
 
 World, the present, the best, 
 75. 
 
 Wunsche, 20, 33, 93, 108. 
 
 Zohar, written by Moses de 
 Leon, 43 ; its supplementary 
 portions, 46 ; the late au- 
 thorship proven from the 
 reference to the Crusades 
 and other events, 51 ; be- 
 comes the text-book of the 
 Cabala, 54 ; its followers de- 
 nounce the anti-Cabalists, 
 56. 
 
 Zunz, 6, 94. 
 
Date Due 
 
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