Book I, the exponent of which is Baruch the Jewish Kabbalist, is

THE KABBALAH

Its Doctrines, Development, and Literature

By

CHRISTIAN D. GINSBURG Ll.D.

Second Impression

London

GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LIMITED

Broadway House: 68–74 Carter Lane E.C.

1920

TO

PERCY M. DOVE, ESQ., F.I.A., F.S.S., &c.,

I AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBE THIS ESSAY,

AS AN EXPRESSION OF MY HIGH REGARD FOR HIM,

BOTH AS A FRIEND AND A CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN.

CHRISTIAN D. GINSBURG.

THE KABBALAH.

I.

A system of religious philosophy, or more properly of theosophy, which

has not only exercised for hundreds of years an extraordinary influence

on the mental development of so shrewd a people as the Jews, but has

captivated the minds of some of the greatest thinkers of Christendom in

the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, claims the greatest attention

of both the philosopher and the theologian. When it is added that among

its captives were Raymond Lully, the celebrated scholastic,

metaphysician and chemist (died 1315); John Reuchlin, the renowned

scholar and reviver of oriental literature in Europe (born 1455, died

1522); John Picus di Mirandola, the famous philosopher and classical

scholar (1463–1494); Cornelius Henry Agrippa, the distinguished

philosopher, divine and physician (1486–1535); John Baptist von

Helmont, a remarkable chemist and physician (1577–1644); as well as our

own countrymen Robert Fludd, the famous physician and philosopher

(1574–1637), and Dr. Henry More (1614–1687); and that these men, after

restlessly searching for a scientific system which should disclose to

them “the deepest depths” of the Divine nature, and show them the real

tie which binds all things together, found the cravings of their minds

satisfied by this theosophy, the claims of the Kabbalah on the

attention of students in literature and philosophy will readily be

admitted. The claims of the Kabbalah, however, are not restricted to

the literary man and the philosopher: the poet too will find in it

ample materials for the exercise of his lofty genius. How can it be

otherwise with a theosophy which, we are assured, was born of God in

Paradise, was nursed and reared by the choicest of the angelic hosts in

heaven, and only held converse with the holiest of man’s children upon

earth. Listen to the story of its birth, growth and maturity, as told

by its followers.

The Kabbalah was first taught by God himself to a select company of

angels, who formed a theosophic school in Paradise. After the fall the

angels most graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the

disobedient child of earth, to furnish the protoplasts with the means

of returning to their pristine nobility and felicity. From Adam it

passed over to Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God, who

emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch allowed a portion of

this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the

Egyptians obtained some knowledge of it, and the other Eastern nations

could introduce it into their philosophical systems. Moses, who was

learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated into it in the

land of his birth, but became most proficient in it during his

wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the

leisure hours of the whole forty years, but received lessons in it from

one of the angels. By the aid of this mysterious science the lawgiver

was enabled to solve the difficulties which arose during his management

of the Israelites, in spite of the pilgrimages, wars and the frequent

miseries of the nation. He covertly laid down the principles of this

secret doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld

them from Deuteronomy. This constitutes the former the man, and the

latter the woman. Moses also initiated the seventy elders into the

secrets of this doctrine, and they again transmitted them from hand to

hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition, David and

Solomon were most initiated into the Kabbalah. No one, however, dared

to write it down, till Simon ben Jochai, who lived at the time of the

destruction of the second Temple. Having been condemned to death by

Titus, Rabbi Simon managed to escape with his son and concealed himself

in a cavern where he remained for twelve years. Here, in this

subterranean abode, he occupied himself entirely with the contemplation

of the sublime Kabbalah, and was constantly visited by the Prophet

Elias, who disclosed to him some of its secrets which were still

concealed from the theosophical Rabbi. Here, too, his disciples

resorted to be initiated by their master into these divine mysteries;

and here, Simon ben Jochai expired with this heavenly doctrine in his

mouth, whilst discoursing on it to his disciples. Scarcely had his

spirit departed, when a dazzling light filled the cavern, so that no

one could look at the Rabbi; whilst a burning fire appeared outside,

forming as it were a sentinel at the entrance of the cave, and denying

admittance to the neighbours. It was not till the light inside, and the

fire outside, had disappeared, that the disciples perceived that the

lamp of Israel was extinguished. As they were preparing for his

obsequies, a voice was heard from heaven, saying, “Come ye to the

marriage of Simon b. Jochai, he is entering into peace, and shall rest

in his chamber!” A flame preceded the coffin, which seemed enveloped

by, and burning like fire. And when the remains were deposited in the

tomb, another voice was heard from heaven, saying, “This is he who

caused the earth to quake, and the kingdoms to shake!” His son, R.

Eliezer, and his secretary, R. Abba, as well as his disciples, then

collated R. Simon b. Jochai’s treatises, and out of these composed the

celebrated work called Sohar (‏זהר‎) i.e., Splendour, which is the

grand storehouse of Kabbalism.

From what has been said, it will be seen that the followers of this

secret doctrine claim for it a pre-Adamite existence, and maintain

that, ever since the creation of the first man, it has been received

uninterruptedly from the hands of the patriarchs, the prophets, &c. It

is for this reason that it is called Kabbalah (‏קבלה‎ from ‏קבל‎ to

receive) which primarily denotes reception, and then a doctrine

received by oral tradition. The Kabbalah is also called by some Secret

Wisdom. (‏חכמה נסתרה‎), because it was only handed down by tradition

through the initiated, and is indicated in the Hebrew Scriptures by

signs which are hidden and unintelligible to those who have not been

instructed in its mysteries. From the initial letters of this name,

this theosophic system is also denominated Grace (‏ח״ן‎ = ‏חכמה

נסתרה‎). Vague and indefinite as this name may seem to the uninitiated,

inasmuch as it conveys no idea whatever of the peculiar doctrines of

the system, but simply indicates the manner in which they have been

transmitted, it is nevertheless the classical and acknowledged

appellation of this theosophy. The difference between the word Kabbalah

(‏קבלה‎ receptio) and the cognate term Massorah (‏מסורה‎ traditio, from

‏מסר‎ to transmit)—which denotes the traditionally transmitted various

readings of the Hebrew Scriptures—is, that the former expresses the act

of receiving, which in this technical sense could only be on the part

of one who has reached a certain period of life, as well as a certain

state of sanctity, implying also a degree of secrecy; whilst the latter

signifies the act of giving over, surrendering, without premising any

peculiar age, stage of holiness, or degree of secrecy. The name,

therefore, tells us no more than that this theosophy has been received

traditionally. To ascertain its tenets we must analyze the system

itself or the books which propound it; and to this task we now betake

ourselves.

The cardinal doctrines of the Kabbalah are mainly designed to solve the

grand problems about (I) The nature of the Supreme Being, (II) The

cosmogony, (III) The creation of angels and man, (IV) The destiny of

man and the universe, and (V) To point out the import of the Revealed

Law. Assenting and consenting to the declarations of the Hebrew

Scriptures about the unity of God (Exod. xx, 3; Deut. iv, 35, 39; vi,

4; xxxii, 39), his incorporeity (Exod. xx, 4; Deut. iv, 15; Ps. xiv,

18), eternity (Exod. iii, 14; Deut. xxxii, 40; Isa. xli, 4; xliii, 10;

xliv, 6; xlviii, 12), immutability (Mal. iii, 6), perfection (Deut.

xxxii, 4; 2 Sam. xxii, 31; Job xxxviii, 16; Ps. xviii, 31), infinite

goodness (Exod. xxxiv, 6; Ps. xxv, 10; xxxiii, 5; c, 5; cxlv, 9), the

creation of the world in time according to God’s free will (Gen. i, 1),

the moral government of the universe and special providence, and to the

creation of man in the image of God (Gen. i. 27), the Kabbalah seeks to

explain the transition from the infinite to the finite; the procedure

of multifariousness from an absolute unity, and of matter from a pure

intelligence; the operation of pure intelligence upon matter, in spite

of the infinite gulf between them; the relationship of the Creator to

the creature, so as to be able to exercise supervision and providence.

It, moreover, endeavours to show how it is that the Bible gives names

and assigns attributes and a form to so spiritual a Being; how the

existence of evil is compatible with the infinite goodness of God, and

what is the Divine intention about this creation.

In our analysis of the Kabbalistic doctrines on these grand problems,

we shall follow the order in which they have been enumerated, and

accordingly begin with the lucubrations on the Supreme Being and the

Emanations.

I. The Supreme Being and the doctrine and classification of the

Emanations, or Sephiroth.

Being boundless in his nature—which necessarily implies that he is an

absolute unity and inscrutable, and that there is nothing without him,

or that the τὸ πᾶν is in him, [1]—God is called En Soph (‏אין סוף‎) =

ἄπειρος Endless, Boundless. [2] In this boundlessness, or as the En

Soph, he cannot 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 (‏אַיִן‎), because, as

far as our minds are concerned, that which is perfectly

incomprehensible does not exist. [3] To make his existence perceptible,

and to render himself comprehensible, the En Soph, or the Boundless,

had to become active and creative. But the En Soph cannot be the direct

creator, for he has neither will, intention, desire, thought, language,

nor action, as these properties imply limit and belong to finite

beings, whereas the En Soph is boundless. Besides, the imperfect and

circumscribed nature of the creation precludes the idea that the world

was created or even designed by him, who can have no will nor produce

anything but what is like himself, boundless and perfect. On the other

hand, again, the beautiful design displayed in the mechanism, the

regular order manifested in the preservation, destruction, and renewal

of things, forbid us to regard this world as the offspring of chance,

and constrain us to recognize therein an intelligent design. [4] We

are, therefore, compelled to view the En Soph as the creator of the

world in an indirect manner.

Now, the medium by which the En Soph made his existence known in the

creation of the world are ten Sephiroth [5] (‏ספירות‎) or

intelligences, which emanated from the Boundless One (‏אין סוף‎) in the

following manner:—At first the En Soph, or the Aged of the Aged (‏עתיקא

דעתיקין‎) or the Holy Aged (‏עתיקא קדישא‎), as he is alternately

called, sent forth from his infinite light one spiritual substance or

intelligence. This first Sephira, which existed in the En Soph from all

eternity, and became a reality by a mere act, has no less than seven

appellations. It is called—I, the Crown (‏כתר‎), because it occupies

the highest position; II, the Aged (‏עתיקא‎), because it is the oldest

or the first emanation—and this name must not be confounded with the

Aged of the Aged, which, as we have seen, is the appellation of the En

Soph; III, the Primordial Point (‏נקודה ראשונה‎), or the Smooth Point

(‏נקודה פשוטה‎), because, as the Sohar tells us, “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;” (Sohar, i, 15 a).

IV, the White Head (‏רישא הוורה‎); V, the Long Face, Macroprosopon

(‏אריך אנפין‎), because the whole ten Sephiroth represent the

Primordial or the Heavenly Man (‏אדם עילאה‎), of which the first

Sephira is the head; VI, The Inscrutable Height (‏רום מעלה‎), because

it is the highest of all the Sephiroth proceeding immediately from the

En Soph. Hence, on the passage “Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and

behold the King of Peace [6] with the Crown!” (Song of Solomon iii, 2)

the Sohar remarks, “But who can behold the King of Peace, seeing that

He is incomprehensible, even to the heavenly hosts? But he who sees the

Crown sees the glory of the King of Peace.” (Sohar ii. 100 b.) And,

VII, it is expressed in the Bible by the Divine name Ehejeh, or I Am

(‏אהיה‎ Exod. iii, 4), because it is absolute being, representing the

Infinite as distinguished from the finite, and in the angelic order, by

the celestial beasts of Ezekiel, called Chajoth (‏חיות‎). The first

Sephira contained the other nine Sephiroth, and gave rise to them in

the following order:—At first a masculine or active potency, designated

Wisdom (‏חכמה‎), proceeded from it. This Sephira, which among the

divine names is represented by Jah (‏יה‎ Isa. xxvi, 4), and among the

angelic hosts by Oplianim (‏אפנים‎ Wheels), sent forth an opposite,

i.e. a feminine or passive, potency, denominated Intelligence (‏בינה‎),

which is represented by the divine name Jehovah (‏יהוה‎), and angelic

name Arelim (‏אראלים‎), and it is from a union of these two Sephiroth,

which are also called Father (‏אבא‎) and Mother (‏אמא‎), that the

remaining seven Sephiroth proceeded. Or, as the Sohar (iii, 290 a)

expresses it, “When the Holy Aged, the Concealed of all Concealed,

assumed a form, he produced everything in the form of male and female,

as the things could not continue in any other form. Hence Wisdom, which

is the beginning of development, when it proceeded from the Holy Aged,

emanated in male and female, for Wisdom expanded, and Intelligence

proceeded from it, and thus obtained male and female—viz., Wisdom, the

father, and Intelligence, the mother, from whose union the other pairs

of Sephiroth successively emanated.” These two opposite potencies—viz.,

Wisdom (‏חכמה‎) and Intelligence (‏בינה‎)—are joined together by the

first potency, the Crown (‏כתר‎); thus yielding the first triad of the

Sephiroth.

From the junction of the foregoing opposites emanated again the

masculine or active potency, denominated Mercy or Love, (‏חסד‎), also

called Greatness (‏גדולה‎), the fourth Sephira, which among the divine

names is represented by El (‏אל‎), and among the angelic hosts by

Chashmalim (‏חשמלים‎, Comp. Ezek. i, 4). From this again emanated the

feminine or passive potency, Justice (‏דין‎), also called Judicial

Power (‏גבורה‎), the fifth Sephira, which is represented by the divine

name Eloha (‏אלה‎), and among the angels by Seraphim (‏שרפים‎, Isa. vi,

6); and from this again the uniting potency, Beauty or Mildness

(‏תפארת‎), the sixth Sephira, represented by the divine name Elohim

(‏אלהים‎), and among the angels by Shinanim (‏שנאנים‎, Ps. lxviii, 18).

Since without this union the existence of things would not be possible,

inasmuch as mercy not tempered with justice, and justice not tempered

with mercy would be unendurable: and thus the second trinity of the

Sephiroth is obtained.

The medium of union of the second trinity, i.e. Beauty (‏תפארת‎), the

sixth Sephira, beamed forth the masculine or active potency, Firmness

(‏נצח‎), the seventh Sephira, corresponding to the divine name Jehovah

Sabaoth (‏יהוה צבאות‎), and among the angels to Tarshishim (‏תרשישים‎,

Dan. x, 6); this again gave rise to the feminine or passive potency,

Splendour (‏הוד‎), the eighth Sephira, to which answer the divine name

Elohim Sabaoth (‏אלהים צבאות‎), and among the angels Benei Elohim (‏בני

אלהים‎, Gen. vi, 4); and from it again, emanated Foundation or the

Basis (‏יסוד‎), the ninth Sephira, represented by the divine name El

Chai (‏אל חי‎), and among the angelic hosts by Ishim (‏אישים‎, Ps. civ,

4), which is the uniting point between these two opposites—thus

yielding the third trinity of Sephiroth. From the ninth Sephira, the

Basis (‏יסוד‎) of all, emanated the tenth, called Kingdom (‏מלכות‎),

and Shechinah (‏שכינה‎), which is represented by the divine name Adonai

(‏אדוני‎), and among the angelic hosts by Cherubim (‏כרובים‎). The

table on the opposite page exhibits the different names of the

Sephiroth, together with the several names of God and the angels, which

correspond to them.

From this representation of each triad, as consisting of a threefold

principle, viz., the two opposites, masculine and feminine, and the

uniting principle, the development of the Sephiroth, and of life

generally, is symbolically called the Balance (‏מתקלא‎), because the

two opposite sexes, are compared with the two opposite scales, and the

uniting Sephira is compared with the beam which joins the scales, and

indicates its equipoise.

Before we enter into further particulars about the nature, operation,

and classification of these Sephiroth, we shall give the Sohar’s

speculations about the Supreme Being, and its account of the origin of

the Sephiroth, and their relationship to the Deity.

THE TEN THE TEN THE TEN THE TEN

SEPHIROTH. CORRESPONDING CORRESPONDING CORRESPONDING

NAMES OF THE CLASSES OF MEMBERS OF THE

OF THE DEITY. ANGELS. HUMAN BODY.

/ 1. כתר‎, Crown. \

| 2. ‏עתיקא‎, the Aged. |

| 3. ‏נקודה ראשונה‎, |

| Primordial Point. |

| 4. ‏נקודה פשוטה‎, |

| Smooth Point. |

i. < 5. ‏רישא הוורה‎, White > ‏אהיה‎, I am ‏חיות‎, ζῶον. Head.

| Head. | (Exod. iii. 4).

| 6. ‏אריך אנפין‎, |

| Macroprosopon. |

| 7. ‏אדם עילאה‎, |

| Heavenly Man. |

| 8. ‏רום מעלה‎, |

\ Inscrutable Height. /

ii. ‏חכמה‎, σοφία, ‏יה‎, Jah (Isa. ‏אופנים‎, κίνησις. Brains.

Wisdom. xxvi. 4).

iii. ‏בינה‎, νοῦς, ‏יהוה‎, Jehovah. ‏אראלים‎, Arelim Heart.

Intelligence. (Isa. xxiii. 7).

/ 1. ‏חסד‎, χάρις, \ ‏אל‎, the Mighty ‏חשמלים‎, Right Arm.

iv.< Love. > One. Chasheralim

\ 2. ‏גדולה‎, Greatness. / (Ezek. i. 4).

/ 1. ‏דין‎, Judgment. \ ‏אלה‎, the ‏שרפים‎, Seraphim Left Arm.

v. < 2. ‏פחד‎, Justice. > Almighty. (Isa. vi. 7).

\ 3. ‏גבורה‎, Strength. /

vi. ‏תפארת‎, Beauty. ‏אלהים‎, God. ‏שנאנים‎, Shinanim Chest.

(Ps. lxviii. 18).

vii. ‏נצח‎, Firmness. ‏יהוה צבאות‎, ‏תרשישים‎ Right Leg.

Jehovah Sabaoth. Tarshishim

(Dan. x. 6).

viii. ‏הוד‎, Splendour. ‏אלהים צבאות‎, ‏בני אלהים‎, the Left Leg.

God Sabaoth. Sons of God (Gen.

vi. 4).

ix. ‏יסוד‎, ‏אל חי‎, Mighty ‏אשים‎, Ishim (Ps. Genital

Foundation. Living One. civ. 4). Organs.

/ 1. βασιλεία sc. τῶν \

x. < οὐρανῶν, Kingdom. > ‏אדני‎, the Lord. ‏כרובים‎, Cherubim. Union of the

\ 2. ‏שכינה‎, Shechinah. / Whole Body.

The prophet Elias having learned in the heavenly college the profound

mystery and true import of the words in Isa. xl, 25, 26, “To whom will

ye liken me, and shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your

eyes on high, and behold who (‏מי‎) hath created these things (‏אלה‎),”

revealed to R. Simon b. Jochai that God in his absolute nature is

unknown and incomprehensible, and hence, in a certain sense,

non-existent; that this Who (‏אלה‎ unknown subject) had to become

active and creative, to demonstrate his existence, and that it is only

by these (‏אלה‎) works of creation that he made himself known to us. It

is therefore the combination of the unknown Who (‏מי‎) with these

visible (‏אלה‎) works that showed him to be God (‏אלהים‎ which is

produced by ‏מי‎ transposed, i.e. ‏יﬦ‎, and united with ‏אלה‎). Or, as

it is in the language of the Kabbalah;—

“Before he gave any shape to this world, before he produced any form,

he was alone, without a form and resemblance to anything else. Who then

can comprehend him how he was before the creation, since he was

formless? Hence it is forbidden to represent him by any form,

similitude, or even by his sacred name, by a single letter or a single

point; and to this the words ‘Ye saw no manner of similitude on the day

that the Lord spake unto you’ (Deut. iv, 15)—i.e. ye have not seen

anything which you could represent by any form or likeness—refer. But

after he created the form of the Heavenly Man (‏אדם עלאה‎), he used it

as a chariot (‏מרכבה‎) wherein to descend, and wishes to be called by

this form, which is the sacred name Jehovah. He wishes to be known by

his attributes, and each attribute separately; and therefore had

himself called the God of Mercy, the God of Justice, Almighty, God of

Sabaoth, and the Being. He wishes thereby to make known his nature, and

that we should see how his mercy and compassion extend both to the

world and to all operations. For if he had not poured out his light

upon all his creatures, how could we ever have known him? How could the

words be fulfilled, ‘The whole earth is full of his glory’ (Isa. vi,

3)? Woe be to him who compares him with his own attributes! or still

worse with the son of man whose foundation is in the dust, who vanishes

and is no more! Hence, the form in which we delineate him simply

describes each time his dominion over a certain attribute, or over the

creatures generally. We cannot understand more of his nature than the

attribute expresses. Hence, when he is divested of all these things, he

has neither any attribute nor any similitude or form. The form in which

he is generally depicted is to be compared to a very expansive sea; for

the waters of the sea are in themselves without a limit or form, and it

is only when they spread themselves upon the earth that they assume a

form (‏דמיון‎). We can now make the following calculation: the source

of the sea’s water and the water stream proceeding therefrom to spread

itself are two. A great reservoir is then formed, just as if a huge

hollow had been dug; this reservoir is called sea, and is the third.

The unfathomable deep divides itself into seven streams, resembling

seven long vessels. The source, the water stream, the sea and the seven

streams make together ten. And when the master breaks the vessels which

he has made, the waters return to the source, and then only remain the

pieces of these vessels, dried up and without any water. It is in this

way that the Cause of Causes gave rise to the ten Sephiroth. The Crown

is the source from which streams forth an infinite light: hence the

name En Soph (‏אין סוף‎) = infinite, by which the highest cause is

designated: for it then had neither form nor shape, and there is

neither any means whereby to comprehend it, nor a way by which to know

it. Hence it is written, ‘Seek not out the things that are too hard for

thee, neither search the things that are above thy strength.’ (Ecclus.

iii, 21.) He then made a vessel, as small as a point, like the letter

‏י‎, which is filled from this source (i.e. the En Soph). This is the

source of wisdom, wisdom itself (‏חכמה‎), after which the Supreme Cause

is called ‘wise God.’ Upon this he made a large vessel like a sea,

which is called Intelligence (‏בינה‎): hence the name ‘intelligent

God.’ It must, however, be remarked that God is wise, and through

himself, for wisdom does not derive its name through itself, but

through the wise one who fills it with the light which flows from him,

just as intelligence is not comprehended through itself, but through

him who is intelligent and fills it with his own substance. God needs

only to withdraw himself and it would be dried up. This is also the

meaning of the words, ‘the waters have disappeared from the sea, and

the bed is dry and parched up.’ (Job xiv, 11.) The sea is finally

divided into seven streams, and the seven costly vessels are produced,

which are called Greatness (‏גדולה‎), Judicial Strength (‏גבורה‎),

Beauty (‏תפארת‎), Firmness (‏נצח‎), Splendour (‏הוד‎), Foundation

(‏יסוד‎), and Kingdom (‏מלכות‎). Therefore is he called the Great or

the Merciful, the Mighty, the Glorious, the God of victory, the

Creator, to whom all praise is due, and the Foundation of all things.

Upon the last attribute all the others are based as well as the world.

Finally, he is also the King of the universe, for everything is in his

power; he can diminish the number of the vessels, and increase in them

the light which streams from them, or reduce it, just as it pleases

him.” (Sohar, i, 42 b, 43 a, section ‏בא‎.)

In another place again the same authority gives the following

description of the Deity and the emanation of the Sephiroth. “The Aged

of the Aged, the Unknown of the Unknown, has a form and yet has no

form. He has a form whereby the universe is preserved, and yet has no

form, because he cannot be comprehended. When he first assumed the form

[of the first Sephira], he caused nine splendid lights to emanate from

it, which, shining through it, diffused a bright light in all

directions. Imagine an elevated light sending forth its rays in all

directions. Now if we approach it to examine the rays, we understand no

more than that they emanate from the said light. So is the Holy Aged an

absolute light, but in himself concealed and incomprehensible. We can

only comprehend him through those luminous emanations (‏ספירות‎) which

again are partly visible and partly concealed. These constitute the

sacred name of God.” (Idra Suta, Sohar, iii, 288 a.)

Four things must be borne in mind with regard to the Sephiroth. I. That

they were not created by, but emanated (‏נאצל‎) from, the En Soph; the

difference between creation and emanation being, that in the former a

diminution of strength takes place, whilst in the latter this is not

the case. [7] II. That they form among themselves, and with the En

Soph, a strict unity, and simply represent different aspects of one and

the same being, just as the different rays which proceed from the

light, and which appear different things to the eye, form only

different manifestations of one and the same light. III. That since

they simply differ from each other as the different colours of the same

light, all the ten emanations alike partake of the perfections of the

En Soph; and IV, that, as emanations from the Infinite, the Sephiroth

are infinite and perfect like the En Soph, and yet constitute the first

finite things. [8] They are infinite and perfect when the En Soph

imparts his fulness to them, and finite and imperfect when the fulness

is withdrawn from them, so that in this respect these ten Sephiroth

exactly correspond to the double nature of Christ,—his finite and

imperfect human nature and his infinite and perfect divine nature.

In their totality and unity these ten Sephiroth are not only

denominated the world of Sephiroth (‏עולﬦ הספירות‎) and the world of

Emanations (‏עולﬦ אצילות‎), but represent and are called the Primordial

or Archetypal Man (‏אדﬦ קדמון‎ = πρωτόγονος), and the Heavenly Man

(‏אדם עילאה‎). In the figure, the Crown (‏כתר‎) is the head; Wisdom

(‏חכמה‎), the brains; and Intelligence (‏בינה‎), which unites the two

and produces the first triad, is the heart or the understanding—thus

forming the head. The fourth and fifth Sephiroth, i.e., Mercy (‏חסד‎)

and Justice (‏פחד‎), are the two arms of the Lord, the former the right

arm and the latter the left, one distributing life and the other death.

And the sixth Sephira, Beauty (‏תפארת‎), which unites these two

opposites and produces the second triad, is the chest; whilst the

seventh and eighth Sephiroth,—i.e., Firmness (‏נצח‎) and Splendour

(‏הוד‎), of the third triad,—are the two legs; and Foundation (‏יסוד‎),

the ninth Sephira, represents the genital organs, since it denotes the

basis and source of all things. Thus it is said “Every thing will

return to its origin just as it proceeded from it. All marrow, all sap,

and all power are congregated in this spot. Hence all powers which

exist originate through the genital organs.” (Sohar, iii, 296 a.)

Kingdom (‏מלכות‎), the tenth Sephira, represents the harmony of the

whole Archetypal Man. The following is the archetypal figure of the ten

Sephiroth.

It is this form which the prophet Ezekiel saw in the mysterious

chariot, and of which the earthly man is a faint copy. Moreover, these

Sephiroth, as we have already remarked, created the world and all

things therein according to their own archetype or in the likeness and

similitude of the Heavenly Man or the World of Emanations. But, before

we propound the Kabbalistic doctrine of the creation of the world, it

is necessary to describe a second mode in which the trinity of triads

in the Sephiroth is represented, and to mention the appellations and

offices of the respective triads.

‏כתר‎ CROWN

‏חכמה‎ WISDOM

‏בינה‎ INTELLIGENCE

‏תפארת‎ BEAUTY

‏חסד‎ LOVE ‏פחד JUSTICE

‏יסוד‎ FOUNDATION

‏הוד‎ SPLENDOUR ‏נצח‎ FIRMNESS

‏מלכות‎ KINGDOM

Now in looking at the Sephiroth which constitute the first triad, it

will be seen that they represent the intellect; hence this triad is

called the Intellectual World (‏עולם מושכל‎). The second triad, again,

represents moral qualities; hence it is designated the moral or

Sensuous World (‏עולﬦ מורגש‎): whilst the third triad represents power

and stability, and hence is designated the Material World (‏עולﬦ

המוטבע‎). These three aspects in which the En Soph manifested himself

are called the Faces (‏אנפין‎ and ‏פרצופין‎ = πρόσωπον, the two words

are identical, the former being pure Aramaic, and the latter from the

Greek). In the arrangement of this trinity of triads, so as to produce

what is called the Kabbalistic tree, denominated the Tree of Life (‏עץ

חיים‎), or simply the Tree (‏אילן‎), the first triad is placed above,

the second and third are 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 centre, as shown in the

following diagrams:—

I.

‏כתר‎ 1 Crown

3 ‏בינה‎ Intelligence ‏חכמה‎ 2 Wisdom

5 ‏פחד‎ Justice ‏חסד‎ 4 Love

‏תפארת‎ 6 Beauty

8 ‏הוד‎ Splendour ‏נצח‎ 7 Firmness

‏יסוד‎ 9 Foundation

‏מלכות‎ 10 Kingdom

II.

‏און סוף‎ The Endless.

‏כתר‎ Crown 1

‏בינח‎ Intelligence 3 ‏חכמה‎ Wisdom 2

‏פחד‎ Justice 5 ‏חסד‎ Love 4

‏תפארת‎ Beauty 6

‏הוד‎ Splendour 8 ‏נצח‎ Firmness 7

‏יסוד‎ Foundation 9

‏מלכות‎ Kingdom 10

The three Sephiroth on the right, representing the principle of mercy

(‏חסד‎), are called the Pillar of Mercy (‏סטרא ימינא עמודא דחסד‎); the

three on the left, representing the principle of rigour (‏דין‎), are

denominated the Pillar of Judgment (‏סטרא דשמאלא עמודא דדינה‎); whilst

the four Sephiroth in the centre, representing mildness (‏רחמיﬦ‎), are

called the Middle Pillar (‏עמודא דאמצעיתא‎). Each Sephira composing

this trinity of triads is, as it were, a trinity in itself. I, It has

its own absolute character; II, It receives from above; and III, It

communicates to what is below it. Hence the remark, “Just as the Sacred

Aged is represented by the number three, so are all the other lights

(Sephiroth) of a threefold nature.” (Sohar, iii, 288 b.) Within this

trinity in each unit and trinity of triads there is a trinity of units,

which must be explained before we can propound the Kabbalistic view of

the cosmogony.

We have seen that three of the Sephiroth constitute uniting links

between three pairs of opposites, and by this means produce three

triads, respectively denominated the Intellectual World, the Sensuous

or Moral World, and the Material World, and that these three uniting

Sephiroth, together with the one which unites the whole into a common

unity, form what is called the Middle Pillar of the Kabbalistic tree.

Now from the important position they thus occupy, these Sephiroth are

synecdochically used to represent the worlds which by their uniting

potency they respectively yield. Hence the Sephira, Crown (‏כתר‎), from

which the Sephiroth, Wisdom (‏חכמה‎) and Intelligence (‏בינה‎),

emanated, and by which they are also united, thus yielding the

Intellectual World, is by itself used to designate the Intellectual

World (‏עולﬦ המושכל‎). Its own names, however, are not changed in this

capacity, and it still continues to be designated by the several

appellations mentioned in the description of the first Sephira. The

sixth Sephira, called Beauty (‏תפארת‎), which unites Sephiroth IV

(‏הסד‎, Love) and V (‏פחד‎, Justice), thus yielding the Sensuous World,

is by itself used to denote the Sensuous World, and in this capacity is

called the Sacred King (‏מלכא קדישא‎), or simply the King (‏מלכא‎);

whilst the Sephira called Kingdom (‏מלכות‎), which unites the whole

Sephiroth, is here used to represent the Material World, instead of the

ninth Sephira, called Foundation (‏יסוד‎), and is in this capacity

denominated the Queen (‏מלכתא‎) or the Matron (‏מטרוניתא‎). Thus we

obtain within the trinity of triads a higher trinity of units,—viz.,

the Crown (‏כתר‎), Beauty (‏תפארת‎), and Kingdom (‏מלכות‎),—which

represents the potencies of all the Sephiroth.

II. The Creation or the Kabbalistic Cosmogony.

Having arrived at the highest trinity which comprises all the

Sephiroth, and which consists of the Crown, the King, and the Queen, we

shall be able to enter into the cosmogony of the Kabbalah. Now, it is

not the En Soph who created the world, but this trinity, as represented

in the combination of the Sephiroth; or rather the creation has arisen

from the conjunction of the emanations. The world was born from the

union of the crowned King and Queen; or, according to the language of

the Kabbalah, these opposite sexes of royalty, who emanated from the En

Soph, produced the universe in their own image. Worlds, we are told,

were indeed created before ever the King and Queen or the Sephiroth

gave birth to the present state of things, but they could not continue,

and necessarily perished, because the En Soph had not yet assumed this

human form in its completeness, which not only implies a moral and

intellectual nature, but, as conditions of development, procreation,

and continuance, also comprises sexual opposites. This creation, which

aborted and which has been succeeded by the present order of things, is

indicated in Gen. xxxvi, 31–40. The kings of Edom, or the old kings as

they are also denominated, who are here said to have reigned before the

monarchs of Israel, and are mentioned as having died one after the

other, are those primordial worlds which were successively convulsed

and destroyed; whilst the sovereigns of Israel denote the King and

Queen who emanated from the En Soph, and who have given birth to and

perpetuate the present world. Thus we are told:—

“Before the Aged of the Aged, the Concealed of the Concealed, expanded

into the form of King, the Crown of Crowns [i.e. the first Sephira],

there was neither beginning nor end. He hewed and incised forms and

figures into it [i.e. the crown] in the following manner:—He spread

before him a cover, and carved therein kings [i.e. worlds], and marked

out their limits and forms, but they could not preserve themselves.

Therefore it is written, ‘These are the kings that reigned in the land

of Edom before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.’

(Gen. xxxvi, 31.) This refers to the primordial kings and primordial

Israel. All these were imperfect: he therefore removed them and let

them vanish, till he finally descended himself to this cover and

assumed a form.” (Idra Rabba, Sohar, iii, 148 a.)

This important fact that worlds were created and destroyed prior to the

present creation is again and again reiterated in the Sohar. [9] These

worlds are compared with sparks which fly out from a red hot iron

beaten by a hammer, and which are extinguished according to the

distance they are removed from the burning mass. “There were old

worlds,” the Sohar tells us, “which perished as soon as they came into

existence: were formless, and they were called sparks. Thus the smith

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.” (Idra Suta, Sohar,

iii, 292 b.) But since nothing can be annihilated—“Nothing perisheth in

this world, not even the breath which issues from the mouth, for this,

like everything else, has its place and destination, and the Holy One,

blessed be his name! turns it into his service;” (Sohar, ii, 110

b.)—these worlds could not be absolutely destroyed. Hence when the

question is asked—‘Why were these primordial worlds destroyed?’ the

reply is given—“Because the Man, represented by the ten Sephiroth, was

not as yet. The human form contains every thing, and as it did not as

yet exist, the worlds were destroyed.” It is added, “Still when it is

said that they perished, it is only meant thereby that they lacked the

true form, till the human form came into being, in which all things are

comprised, and which also contains all those forms. Hence, though the

Scripture ascribes death (‏וימות‎) to the kings of Edom, it only

denotes a sinking down from their dignity, i.e., the worlds up to that

time did not answer to the Divine idea, since they had not as yet the

perfect form of which they were capable.” (Idra Rabba, Sohar, iii, 135

b.)

It was therefore after the destruction of previous worlds, and after

the En Soph or the Boundless assumed the Sephiric form, that the

present world was created. “The Holy One, blessed be he, created and

destroyed several worlds before the present one was made, and when this

last work was nigh completion, all the things of this world, all the

creatures of the universe, in whatever age they were to exist, before

ever they entered into this world, were present before God in their

true form. Thus are the words of Ecclesiastes to be understood ‘What

was, shall be, and what has been done, shall be done.’” (Sohar, iii, 61

b.) “The lower world is made after the pattern of the upper world;

every thing which exists in the upper world is to be found as it were

in a copy upon earth; still the whole is one.” (Ibid., ii, 20 a.)

This world, however, is not a creation ex nihilo, but is simply an

immanent offspring and the image of the King and Queen, or, in other

words, a farther expansion or evolution of the Sephiroth which are the

emanations of the En Soph. This is expressed in the Sohar in the

following passage—“The indivisible point [the Absolute], who has no

limit, and who cannot be comprehended because of his purity and

brightness, expanded from without, and formed a brightness which served

as a covering to the indivisible point, yet it too could not be viewed

in consequence of its immeasurable light. It too expanded from without,

and this expansion was its garment. Thus everything originated through

a constant upheaving agitation, and thus finally the world originated.”

(Sohar, i, 20 a.) The universe therefore is an immanent emanation from

the Sephiroth, and reveals and makes visible the Boundless and the

Concealed of the Concealed. And though it exhibits the Deity in less

splendour than its parents the Sephiroth, because it is further removed

from the primordial source of light, yet, as it is God manifested, all

the multifarious forms in the world point out the unity which they

represent; and nothing in it can be destroyed, but everything must

return to the source whence it emanated. Hence it is said that “all

things of which this world consists, spirit as well as body, will

return to their principal, and the root from which they proceeded.”

(Sohar, ii, 218 b.) “He is the beginning and end of all the degrees in

the creation. All these degrees are stamped with his seal, and he

cannot be otherwise described than by the unity. He is one,

notwithstanding the innumerable forms which are in him.” (Ibid., i, 21

a.)

Now these Sephiroth, or the World of Emanation (‏עולם אצילות‎), or the

Atzilatic World, gave birth to three worlds in the following

order:—From the conjunction of the King and Queen (i.e., the ten

Sephiroth) proceeded—I. The World of Creation, or the Briatic World

(‏עולם הבריאה‎), also called The Throne (‏כורסיא‎), which is the abode

of pure spirits, and which, like its parents, consists of ten

Sephiroth, or Emanations. The Briatic World, again, gave rise to, II.

The World of Formation, or the Jetziratic World (‏עולﬦ היצירה‎), which

is the habitation of the angels, and also consists of ten Sephiroth;

whilst the Jetziratic World, again, sent forth, III. The World of

Action, or the Assiatic World (‏עולﬦ העשיה‎), also called the World of

Keliphoth (‏עולﬦ הקליפות‎), which contains the Spheres (‏גלגלים‎) and

matter, and is the residence of the Prince of Darkness and his legions.

Or, as the Sohar describes it—“After the Sephiroth, and for their use,

God made the Throne (i.e., the World of Creation), with four legs and

six steps, thus making ten (i.e., the decade of Sephiroth which each

world has).... For this Throne and its service he formed the ten

Angelic hosts (i.e., the World of Formation), Malachim, Arelim,

Chajoth, Ophanim, Chashmalim, Elim, Elohim, Benei Elohim, Ishim, and

Seraphim (‏מלאכיﬦ אראליﬦ חיות אופניﬦ חשמליﬦ אליﬦ אלהיﬦ בני אלהים אישים

שרפים‎), and for their service, again, he made Samaël and his legions

(i.e., the World of Action), who are, as it were, the clouds upon which

the angels ride in their descent on the earth, and serve, as it were,

for their horses. Hence it is written—‘Behold the Lord rideth upon a

swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt.’” (Isa. xix, 1.) (Sohar ii, 43

a.) There are, therefore, four worlds, each of which has a separate

Sephiric system, consisting of a decade of emanations. I. The Atzilatic

World, called alternately the World of Emanations (‏עולם אצילות‎), the

Image (‏דיוקנא‎ = εἰκών with ‏ד‎ prefixed), and the Heavenly Man (‏אדם

עלאה‎), which, by virtue of its being a direct emanation from God and

most intimately allied with the Deity, is perfect and immutable. II.

The Briatic World, called the World of Creation (‏עולם הבריאה‎) and the

Throne (‏כורסיא‎), which is the immediate emanation of the former, and

whose ten Sephiroth, being further removed from the En Soph, are of a

more limited and circumscribed potency, though the substances they

comprise are of the purest nature and without any admixture of matter.

III. The Jetziratic World, called the World of Formation (‏עולם

היצירה‎) and the World of Angels (‏מלאכיא‎), which proceeded from the

former world, and whose ten Sephiroth, though of a still less refined

substance than the former, because further removed from the primordial

source, are still without matter. It is in this angelic world where

those intelligent and uncorporeal beings reside, who are wrapped in a

luminous garment, and who assume a sensuous form when they appear to

man. And IV. The Assiatic World, called the World of Action (‏עולם

העשיה‎) and the World of Matter (‏עולם הקליפות‎) which emanated from

the preceding world, the ten Sephiroth of which are made up of the

grosser elements of all the former three worlds, and which has sunk

down in consequence of its materiality and heaviness. Its substances

consist of matter limited by space and perceptible to the senses in a

multiplicity of forms. It is subject to constant changes, generations,

and corruptions, and is the abode of the Evil Spirit.

Before leaving this doctrine about the creation and the relationship of

the Supreme Being to the universe, we must reiterate two things. I.

Though the trinity of the Sephiroth gave birth to the universe, or, in

other words, is an evolution of the emanations, and is thus a further

expansion of the Deity itself, it must not be supposed that the

Kabbalists believe in a Trinity in our sense of the word. Their view on

this subject will best be understood from the following remark in the

Sohar—“Whoso wishes to have an insight into the sacred unity, let him

consider a flame rising from a burning coal or a burning lamp. He will

see first a twofold light, a bright white and a black or blue light;

the white light is above, and ascends in a direct light, whilst the

blue or dark light is below, and seems as the chair of the former, yet

both are so intimately connected together that they constitute only one

flame. The seat, however, formed by the blue or dark light, is again

connected with the burning matter which is under it again. The white

light never changes its colour, it always remains white; but various

shades are observed in the lower light, whilst the lowest light,

moreover, takes two directions—above it is connected with the white

light, and below with the burning matter. Now this is constantly

consuming itself, and perpetually ascends to the upper light, and thus

everything merges into a single unity (‏וכולא אתקשר ביחודא חד‎ Sohar,

i, 51 a). [10] And II. The creation, or the universe, is simply the

garment of God woven from the Deity’s own substance; or, as Spinoza

expresses it, God is the immanent basis of the universe. For although,

to reveal himself to us, the Concealed of all the Concealed sent forth

the ten emanations called the Form of God, Form of the Heavenly Man,

yet since even this luminous form was too dazzling for our vision, it

had to assume another form, or had to put on another garment which

consists of the universe. The universe, therefore, or the visible

world, is a further expansion of the Divine Substance, and is called in

the Kabbalah “the Garment of God.” Thus we are told, “when the

Concealed of all the Concealed wanted to reveal himself, he first made

a point [i.e. the first Sephira], shaped it into a sacred form [i.e.

the totality of the Sephiroth], and covered it with a rich and splendid

garment that is the world.” (Sohar, i, 2 a).

III. The Creation of Angels and Men.

The different worlds which successively emanated from the En Soph and

from each other, and which sustain the relationship to the Deity of

first, second, third, and fourth generations, are, with the exception

of the first (i.e., the World of Emanations), inhabited by spiritual

beings of various grades. “God animated every part of the firmament

with a separate spirit, and forthwith all the heavenly hosts were

before him. This is meant by the Psalmist, when he says (Ps. xxxiii, 6)

‘By the breath of his mouth were made all their hosts.’ (Sohar, iii, 68

a.) These angels consist of two kinds—good and bad; they have their

respective princes, and occupy the three habitable worlds in the

following order. As has already been remarked, the first world, or the

Archetypal Man, in whose image everything is formed, is occupied by no

one else. The angel Metatron (‏מטטרון‎) occupies the second or the

Briatic World (‏ עולם בריאה‎), which is the first habitable world; he

alone constitutes the world of pure spirits. He is the garment of ‏שדי‎

i.e., the visible manifestation of the Deity; his name is numerically

equivalent to that of the Lord. (Sohar, iii, 231 a.) He governs the

visible world, preserves the unity, harmony, and the revolutions of all

the spheres, planets and heavenly bodies, and is the Captain of the

myriads of the angelic hosts [11] who people the second habitable or

the Jetziratic World (‏עולם היצירה‎), and who are divided into ten

ranks, answering to the ten Sephiroth. Each of these angels is set over

a different part of the universe. One has the control of one sphere,

another of another heavenly body; one angel has charge of the sun,

another of the moon, another of the earth, another of the sea, another

of the fire, another of the wind, another of the light, another of the

seasons, &c. &c.; and these angels derive their names from the heavenly

bodies they respectively guard. Hence one is called Venus (‏נגה‎), one

Mars (‏מאדמים‎), one the substance of Heaven (‏עצם השמים‎), one the

angel of light (‏אוריאל‎), and another the angel of fire (‏נוריאל‎.)

(Comp. Sohar i, 42, &c.) The demons, constituting the second class of

angels, which are the grossest and most deficient of all forms, and are

the shells (‏קליפות‎) of being, inhabit the third habitable or Assiatic

World (‏עולם עשיה‎). They, too, form ten degrees, answering to the

decade of Sephiroth, in which darkness and impurity increase with the

descent of each degree. Thus the two first degrees are nothing more

than the absence of all visible form and organisation, which the Mosaic

cosmology describes in the words ‏תהו ובהו‎ before the hexahemeron, and

which the Septuagint renders by ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος. The third

degree is the abode of the darkness which the book of Genesis describes

as having in the beginning covered the face of the earth. Whereupon

follow seven infernal halls (‏שבע היכלות‎) = Hells, occupied by the

demons, which are the incarnation of all human vices, and which torture

those poor deluded beings who suffered themselves to be led astray in

this world. These seven infernal halls are subdivided into endless

compartments, so as to afford a separate chamber of torture for every

species of sin. The prince of this region of darkness, who is called

Satan in the Bible, is denominated by the Kabbalah, Samaël (‏סמאל‎) =

angel of poison or of death. He is the same evil spirit, Satan, the

serpent, who seduced Eve. [12] He has a wife, called the Harlot or the

Woman of Whoredom (‏אשת זנוניﬦ‎), but they are both generally

represented as united in the one name of the Beast (‏חיוא‎. Comp.

Sohar, ii, 255–259, with i, 35 b.)

The whole universe, however, was incomplete, and did not receive its

finishing stroke till man was formed, who is the acme of the creation,

and the microcosm uniting in himself the totality of beings. “The

Heavenly Adam (i.e., the ten Sephiroth), who emanated from the highest

primordial obscurity (i.e., the En Soph), created the Earthly Adam.”

(Sohar, ii, 70 b.) “Man is both the import and the highest degree of

creation, for which reason he was formed on the sixth day. As soon as

man was created, everything was complete, including the upper and

nether worlds, for everything is comprised in man. He unites in himself

all forms.” (Sohar, iii, 48 a.) [13] Man was created with faculties and

features far transcending those of the angels. The bodies of the

protoplasts were not of that gross matter which constitutes our bodies.

Adam and Eve, before the fall, were wrapped in that luminous ethereal

substance in which the celestial spirits are clad, and which is neither

subject to want nor to sensual desires. They were envied by the angels

of the highest rank. The fall, however, changed it all, as we are told

in the following passage—“When Adam dwelled in the garden of Eden, he

was dressed in the celestial garment, which is a garment of heavenly

light. But when he was expelled from the garden of Eden, and became

subject to the wants of this world, what is written? ‘The Lord God made

coats of skins unto Adam and to his wife, and clothed them’ (Gen. iii,

21); for prior to this they had garments of light—light of that light

which was used in the garden of Eden.” (Sohar, ii, 229 b.) The garments

of skin, therefore, mean our present body, which was given to our first

parents in order to adapt them to the changes which the fall

introduced.

But even in the present form, the righteous are above the angels, [14]

and every man is still the microcosm, and every member of his body

corresponds to a constituent part of the visible universe. “What is

man? Is he simply skin, flesh, bones, and veins? No! That which

constitutes the real man is the soul, and those things which are called

the skin, the flesh, the bones, and the veins, all these are merely a

garment, they are simply the clothes of the man, but not the man

himself. When man departs, he puts off these garments wherewith the son

of man is clothed. Yet are all these bones and sinews formed in the

secret of the highest wisdom, after the heavenly image. The skin

represents the firmament, which extends everywhere, and covers

everything like a garment—as it is written, ‘Who stretchest out the

heavens like a curtain.’ (Ps. clv, 2) ... The flesh represents the

deteriorated part of the world;... the bones and the veins represent

the heavenly chariot, the inner powers, the servants of God.... But

these are the outer garments, for in the inward part is the deep

mystery of the heavenly man. Everything here below, as above, is

mysterious. Therefore it is written—‘God created man in his own image,

in the image of God created he him’ (Gen. i, 27); repeating the word

God twice, one for the man and the other for the woman. The mystery of

the earthly man is after the mystery of the Heavenly Man. And just as

we see in the firmament above, covering all things, different signs

which are formed of the stars and planets, and which contain secret

things and profound mysteries, studied by those who are wise and expert

in these signs; so there are in the skin, which is the cover of the

body of the son of man, and which is like the sky that covers all

things, signs and features which are the stars and planets of the skin,

indicating secret things and profound mysteries, whereby the wise are

attracted, who understand to read the mysteries in the human face.”

(Sohar, ii, 76 a.) He is still the presence of God upon earth (‏שכינתא

תתאה‎), and the very form of the body depicts the Tetragrammaton, the

most sacred name Jehovah (‏יהוה‎). Thus the head is the form of the

‏י‎, the arms and the shoulders are like the ‏ה‎, the breast represents

the form of the ‏ו‎, whilst the two legs with the back represent the

form of the second ‏ה‎. (Sohar, ii, 42 a.) [15]

The souls of all these epitomes of the universe are pre-existent in the

World of Emanations, [16] and are without exception destined to inhabit

human bodies, and pursue their course upon earth for a certain number

of years. Hence we are told that, “When the Holy One, blessed be his

name, wished to create the world, the universe was before him in idea.

He then formed all the souls which are destined for the whole human

race. All were minutely before him in the same form which they were to

assume in the human body. He looked at each one of them; and there were

some among them which would corrupt their way upon the earth.” (Sohar,

i, 96 b). Like the Sephiroth from which it emanates, every soul has ten

potencies, which are subdivided into a trinity of triads, and are

respectively represented by (I) The Spirit, (‏נשמה‎), which is the

highest degree of being, and which both corresponds to and is operated

upon by The Crown (‏כתר‎), representing the highest triad in the

Sephiroth, called the Intellectual World; (II) The Soul (‏רוח‎), which

is the seat of good and evil, as well as the moral qualities, and which

both corresponds to and is operated upon by Beauty (‏תפארת‎),

representing the second triad in the Sephiroth, called the Moral World;

and (III) The Cruder Spirit (‏נפש‎), which is immediately connected

with the body, is the direct cause of its lower functions, instincts,

and animal life, and which both corresponds to and is operated upon by

Foundation (‏יסוד‎), representing the third triad in the Sephiroth,

called the Material World.

In its original state each soul is androgynous, and is separated into

male and female when it descends on earth to be borne in a human body.

We have seen that the souls of the righteous, in the world of spirits,

are superior in dignity to the heavenly powers and the ministering

angels. It might, therefore, be asked why do these souls leave such an

abode of bliss, and come into this vale of tears to dwell in

tabernacles of clay? The only reply to be given is that these happy

souls have no choice in the matter. Indeed we are told that the soul,

before assuming a human body, addresses God—“Lord of the Universe! I am

happy in this world, and do not wish to go into another world, where I

shall be a bond-maid, and be exposed to all kinds of pollutions.”

(Sohar, ii, 96.) [17] And can you wonder at this pitiful ejaculation?

Should your philanthropic feelings and your convictions that our

heavenly Father ordains all things for the good of his children, impel

you to ask that an explanation of this mystery might graciously be

vouchsafed to you in order to temper your compassion and calm your

faith, then take this parable. “A son was born to a King; he sends him

to the country, there to be nursed and brought up till he is grown up,

and instructed in the ceremonies and usages of the royal palace. When

the King hears that the education of his son is finished, what does his

fatherly love impel him to do? For his son’s sake he sends for the

Queen his mother, conducts him into the palace and makes merry with him

all day. Thus the Holy One, blessed be he, has a son with the Queen:

this is the heavenly and sacred soul. He sends him into the country,

that is into this world, therein to grow up and to learn the customs of

the court. When the King hears that this his son has grown up in the

country, and that it is time to bring him into the palace, what does

his love for his son impel him to do? He sends, for his sake, for the

Queen and conducts him to the palace.” (Sohar, i, 245 b.)

As has already been remarked, the human soul, before it descends into

the world, is androgynous, or in other words, consists of two component

parts, each of which comprises all the elements of our spiritual

nature. Thus the Sohar tells us—“Each soul and spirit, prior to its

entering into this world, consists of a male and female united into one

being. When it descends on this earth the two parts separate and

animate two different bodies. At the time of marriage, the Holy One,

blessed be he, who knows all souls and spirits, unites them again as

they were before, and they again constitute one body and one soul,

forming as it were the right and left of one individual; therefore

‘There is nothing new under the sun.’ (Eccl. i, 9.)... This union,

however, is influenced by the deeds of the man and by the ways in which

he walks. If the man is pure and his conduct is pleasing in the sight

of God, he is united with that female part of his soul which was his

component part prior to his birth.” (Sohar, i, 91 b.) [18] 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.” (Ibid., iii, 61 b.)

Since the form of the body as well as the soul, is made after the image

of the Heavenly Man, a figure of the forthcoming body which is to

clothe the newly descending soul, is sent down from the celestial

regions, to hover over the couch of the husband and wife when they

copulate, in order that the conception may be formed according to this

model. “At connubial intercourse on earth, the Holy One, blessed be he,

sends a human form which bears the impress of the divine stamp. This

form is present at intercourse, and if we were permitted to see it we

should perceive over our heads an image resembling a human face; and it

is in this image that we are formed. As long as this image is not sent

by God and does not descend and hover over our heads, there can be no

conception, for it is written—‘And God created man in his own image.’

(Gen. i, 27.) This image receives us when we enter the world, it

develops itself with us when we grow, and accompanies us when we depart

this life; as it is written—‘Surely, man walked in an image’ (Ps.

xxxvii, 5): and this image is from heaven. When the souls are to leave

their heavenly abode, each soul separately appears before the Holy

King, dressed in a sublime form, with the features in which it is to

appear in this world. It is from this sublime form that the image

proceeds. It is the third after the soul, and precedes it on the earth;

it is present at the conception, and there is no conception in the

world where this image is not present.” (Sohar, iii, 104 a b.) [19]

All human countenances are divisible into the four primordial types of

faces, which appeared at the mysterious chariot throne in the vision of

the prophet Ezekiel, viz., the face of man, of the lion, the ox and the

eagle. Our faces resemble these more or less according to the rank

which our souls occupy in the intellectual or moral dominion. “And

physiognomy does not consist in the external lineaments, but in the

features which are mysteriously drawn in us. The features in the face

change according to the form which is peculiar to the inward face of

the spirit. It is the spirit which produces all those physiognomical

peculiarities known to the wise; and it is only through the spirit that

the features have any meaning. All those spirits and souls which

proceed from Eden (i.e., the highest wisdom) have a peculiar form,

which is reflected in the face.” (Sohar, ii, 73 b.) The face thus

lighted up by the peculiar spirit inhabiting the body, is the mirror of

the soul; and the formation of the head indicates the character and

temper of the man. An arched forehead is a sign of a cheerful and

profound spirit, as well as of a distinguished intellect; a broad but

flat forehead indicates foolishness and silliness; whilst a forehead

which is flat, compressed on the sides and spiral, betokens narrowness

of mind and vanity. (Comp. Sohar, ii, 71 b, 75 a.)

As a necessary condition of free existence and of moral being, the

souls are endowed by the Deity, from the very beginning, with the power

of adhering in close proximity to the primordial source of infinite

light from which they emanated, and of alienating themselves from that

source and pursuing an independent and opposite course. Hence, Simon

ben Jochai said, “If the Holy One, blessed be he, had not put within us

both the good and the evil desire, which are denominated light and

darkness, the created man would have neither virtue nor vice. For this

reason it is written—‘Behold, I have set before thee this day life and

good, and death and evil.’ (Deut. xxx, 15.) To this the disciples

replied, Wherefore is all this? Would it not be better if reward and

punishment had not existed at all, since in that case man would have

been incapable of sinning and of doing evil. He rejoined, It was meet

and right that he should be created as he was created, because the Law

was created for him, wherein are written punishments for the wicked and

rewards for the righteous; and there would not have been any reward for

the righteous and punishment for the wicked but for created man.”

(Sohar, i, 23 a.) So complete is their independence, that souls, even

in their pre-existent state, can and do choose which way they intend to

pursue. “All souls which are not guiltless in this world, have already

alienated themselves in heaven from the Holy One, blessed be he; they

have thrown themselves into an abyss at their very existence, and have

anticipated the time when they are to descend on earth.... Thus were

the souls before they came into this world.” (Ibid., iii, 61 b.)

IV. The Destiny of Man and the Universe.

As the En Soph constituted man the microcosm, and as the Deity is

reflected in this epitome of the universe more than in any component

part of the creation, all things visible and invisible are designed to

aid him in passing through his probationary state here below, in

gathering that experience for which his soul has been sent down, and in

returning in a pure state to that source of light from which his soul

emanated. This destiny of man—i.e., the reunion with the Deity from

which he emanated—is the constant desire both of God and man, and is an

essential principle of the soul, underlying its very essence.

Discarding that blind power from our nature, which governs our animal

life, which never quits this earth, and which therefore plays no part

in our spiritual being, the soul possesses two kinds of powers and two

sorts of feelings. It has the faculty for that extraordinary

prophetical knowledge, which was vouchsafed to Moses in an exceptional

manner, called the Luminous Mirror (‏אספקלריא נהרא‎ = specularia), and

the ordinary knowledge termed the Non-Luminous Mirror (‏אספקלריא דלא

נהרא‎), respectively represented in the earthly Paradise by the Tree of

Life and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil; and it possesses the

higher feeling of love and the lower feeling of fear. [20] Now the full

fruition of that higher knowledge and of that loftier feeling of love

can only be reaped when the soul returns to the Infinite Source of

Light, and is wrapped in that luminous garment which the protoplasts

forfeited through the fall. Thus we are told, “Come and see when the

soul reaches that place which is called the Treasury of Life (‏צרורא

דחיי‎), she enjoys a bright and luminous mirror (‏אספקלריאה דנהרא‎),

which receives its light from the highest heaven. The soul could not

bear this light but for the luminous mantle which she puts on. For just

as the soul, when sent to this earth, puts on an earthly garment to

preserve herself here, so she receives above a shining garment, in

order to be able to look without injury into the mirror whose light

proceeds from the Lord of Light. Moses too could not approach to look

into that higher light which he saw, without putting on such an

ethereal garment; as it is written—‘And Moses went into the midst of

the cloud’ (Exod. xxiv, 18), which is to be translated by means of the

cloud wherewith he wrapped himself as if dressed in a garment. At that

time Moses almost discarded the whole of his earthly nature; as it is

written,—‘And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights’

(ibid.); and he thus approached that dark cloud where God is enthroned.

In this wise the departed spirits of the righteous dress themselves in

the upper regions in luminous garments, to be able to endure that light

which streams from the Lord of Light.” (Sohar, i, 65 b, 66 a.)

The two feelings of love and fear are designed to aid the soul in

achieving her high destiny, when she shall no more look through the

dark glass, but see face to face in the presence of the Luminous

Mirror, by permeating all acts of obedience and divine worship. And

though perfect love, which is serving God purely out of love, like that

higher knowledge, is to be man’s destiny in heaven, yet the soul may

attain some of it on earth, and endeavour to serve God out of love and

not from fear, as thereby she will have an antepast on earth of its

union with the Deity, which is to be so rapturous and indissoluble in

heaven. “Yet is the service which arises from fear not to be

depreciated, for fear leads to love. It is true that he who obeys God

out of love has attained to the highest degree, and already belongs to

the saints of the world to come, but it must not be supposed that to

worship God out of fear is no worship. Such a service has also its

merit, though in this case the union of the soul with the Deity is

slight. There is only one degree which is higher than fear: it is love.

In love is the mystery of the divine unity. It is love which unites the

higher and lower degrees together; it elevates everything to that

position where everything must be one. This is also the mystery of the

words, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one God.’” (Sohar, ii, 216

a.)

Hence it is that these two principles play so important a part in the

devotions and contemplations of the Kabbalists; Love is made to

correspond to Mercy, the fourth Sephira, whilst Fear is made to answer

to Rigour, the fifth Sephira; and it is asserted that when these two

principles are thoroughly combined by the righteous in their divine

worship and acts of obedience, the name Jehovah, which comprises these

two principles, and which is now rent in twain by the preponderance of

sin and disobedience, will be re-united. Then, and then only, will all

the souls return to the bosom of the Father of our spirits; then will

the restitution of all things take place, and the earth shall be

covered with the knowledge of God even as the waters cover the sea.

This is the reason why the Kabbalists utter the following prayer prior

to the performance of any of the commandments: “For the re-union of the

Holy One, blessed be his name, and his Shechinah, I do this in love and

fear, in fear and love, for the union of the name ‏יה‎ with ‏וה‎ into a

perfect harmony! I pronounce this in the name of all Israel!” [21] In

order to represent this union to the senses the words Fear ‏יראה‎ and

Love ‏אהבה‎, are divided, and so placed above each other that they may

be read either across or down, as follows:—

‏יר‎ ‏אה‎

‏אה‎ ‏בה‎

When thus fulfilling the commandments the pious not only enjoy a

prelibation of that sublime light which shines in heaven, and which

will serve them as a garment when they enter into the other world and

appear before the Holy One (Sohar, ii, 299 b), but become on earth

already the habitation of the Sephiroth, and each saint has that

Sephira incarnate in him which corresponds to the virtue he most

cultivates, or to the feature most predominant in his character. Among

the patriarchs, therefore, who were the most exalted in piety, we find

that Love, the fourth Sephira, was incarnate in Abraham; Rigour, the

fifth Sephira, in Isaac; Mildness, the sixth Sephira, in Jacob;

Firmness, the seventh Sephira, in Moses; Splendour, the eighth Sephira,

in Aaron; Foundation, the ninth Sephira, in Joseph; and Kingdom, the

tenth Sephira, was incarnate in David. Hence all the righteous who

constitute the emanations, of the ten Sephiroth are divided into three

classes corresponding to the three principles or Pillars exhibited in

the Kabbalistic Tree, viz.:—I. The Pillar of Mercy (‏חסד‎), represented

by the Patriarch Abraham (comp. ‏חסד לאברהם‎ Micah, vii, 20;) II. The

Pillar of Justice (‏פחד‎), represented by Isaac (comp. ‏פחד יצחק‎ Gen.

xxxi, 42); and III. The Middle Pillar, represented by Jacob (comp. ‏אמת

ליעקב‎ Micah vii, 20), which is the connecting or uniting principle.

(Sohar, i, 146 a; 148 b.) It is for this reason that the patriarchs are

denominated the Chariot-throne of the Lord.

Following the paths of righteousness, the saints on earth enjoy the

protection of heaven in an especial manner, by virtue of the divine

wisdom inherent in them, for they are able to decipher the signs which

God has put in the firmament to shield them from accidents. “In heaven

above, that surrounds the universe, are signs in which the deepest

mysteries are concealed. These signs are constellations and stars,

which are studied and deciphered by the wise.” (Sohar, ii, 76 a.) Hence

the admonition—“He who has to start on a journey very early, should

rise at daybreak, look carefully towards the east, and he will perceive

certain signs resembling letters which pierce through the sky and

appear above the horizon. These shining forms are those of the letters

wherewith God created heaven and earth. Now, if man knows the secret

meaning of the sacred name, consisting of forty-two letters, and

meditates on it with becoming devotion and enthusiasm, he will perceive

six Jods (‏יוד״ין‎) in the pure sky, three to the right and three to

the left, as well as three Vavs (‏וו״ין‎), which hover about in the

heavenly arch. These are the letters of the priestly benediction (‏ברכת

כהנים‎).... In the bright morning he will perceive a pillar towards the

west, hanging perpendicularly over the earthly paradise, and another

pillar hanging over the centre of paradise. This luminous pillar has

the three colours of a purple web: three birds stand on it, singing in

the following manner. The first sings, ‘Hallelujah! Praise, O ye

servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord’ (Ps. cxiii, 1); the

second, ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for

evermore’ (ibid., v. 2); and the third, ‘From the rising of the sun

unto the going down of the same, the Lord’s name is to be praised’

(ibid., v. 3). This is the time when the pious traveller is to offer up

his morning prayer, in order that he may secure heaven’s blessings and

the sublime and divine mercy as his sure guide.” (Sohar, ii, 130 b.)

Now since it is an absolute condition of the soul to return to the

Infinite Source from which it emanated, after developing all those

perfections, the germs of which are eternally implanted in it; and

since some souls do not at once develope these fruits of righteousness,

which precludes their immediate reunion with their Primordial Source,

another term of life is vouchsafed to them, so that they may be able to

cultivate those virtues which they stifled in their former bodily life,

and without which it is impossible for them to return to their heavenly

home. Hence, if the soul, in its first assuming a human body and

sojourn on earth, fails to acquire that experience for which it

descends from heaven, and becomes contaminated by that which is

polluting, it must re-inhabit a body again and again till it is able to

ascend in a purified state through repeated trials. Thus we are told

that [22] “All souls are subject to transmigration (‏עאין בגלגולא‎),

and men do not know the ways of the Holy One, blessed be he; they do

not know that they are brought before the tribunal, both before they

enter into this world and after they quit it, they are ignorant of the

many transmigrations and secret probations which they have to undergo,

and of the number of souls and spirits which enter into this world, and

do not return to the palace of the Heavenly King. Men do not know how

the souls revolve like a stone which is thrown from a sling; as it is

written—‘And the souls of thine enemies them shall he sling out, as out

of the middle of a sling.’ (1 Sam., xxv, 29.) But the time is at hand

when these mysteries will be disclosed.” (Sohar, ii, 99 b.)

The transmigration of the soul into another body, however, 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

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, however, happens that

it is the singleness and isolation of the soul which is the source of

her weakness, and she requires help to pass through her probation. In

that case she 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 (‏עיבור‎), because the

stronger soul gives as it were life and substance to the weaker

companion. [23]

As the world, like all other living beings, is a further expansion of

the Deity’s own substance, it too must ultimately share that

blessedness which it enjoyed in its first evolution. This is indicated

in the letter ‏ב‎ with which the history of the creation begins (i.e.

‏ב״ראשית‎), and which is also the first letter in the word blessing

(‏ב״רכה‎). [24] Even the archangel of wickedness, or the venomous beast

(‏חוייא בישא‎), or Samäel (‏סמאל‎), as he is called, will be restored

to his angelic nature and name, inasmuch as he too, like all other

beings, proceeded from the same infinite source of all things. The

first part of his name (‏סﬦ‎), which signifies venom, will then be

dropped, and he will retain the second part (‏אל‎), which is the common

name of all the angels. This, however, will only take place at the

advent of Messiah. But his coming is retarded by the very few new souls

which enter into the world; as many of the old souls which have already

inhabited bodies have to reenter those bodies which are now born, in

consequence of having polluted themselves in their previous bodily

existence, and the soul of the Messiah, which, like other souls, has

its pre-existence in the world of the Sephiroth, cannot be born till

all human souls have passed through their period of probation on this

earth, because it is to be the last born one at the end of days. Then

the great Jubilee year will commence, when the whole pleroma of souls

(‏אוצר הנשמות‎), cleaned and purified shall return into the bosom of

the Infinite Source; and they shall be in “the Palace which is situate

in the secret and most elevated part of heaven, and which is called the

Palace of Love (‏היכל אהבה‎). There the profoundest mysteries are;

there dwells the Heavenly King, blessed be he, with the holy souls, and

is united with them by a loving kiss. (Sohar, ii, 97 a.) “This kiss is

the union of the soul with the substance from which it emanated.”

(Ibid., i, 168 a.) Then hell shall disappear; there shall be no more

punishment, nor temptation, nor sin: life will be an everlasting feast,

a Sabbath without end. Then all souls will be united with the Highest

Soul, and supplement each other in the Holy of Holies of the Seven

Halls (‏שבע היכלות‎). Everything will then return to unity and

perfection—everything will be united into one idea, which shall be

over, and fill the whole universe. The basis of this idea, however

(i.e., the light which is concealed in it), will never be fathomed or

comprehended; only the idea itself which emanates from it shall be

comprehended. In that state the creature will not be distinguished from

the Creator, the same idea will illuminate both. Then the soul will

rule the universe like God, and what she shall command he will execute.

(Sohar, i, 45 a and b.)

V. The Kabbalistic view of the Old Testament, and its relation to

Christianity.

We have already seen that the Kabbalah claims a pre-Adamite existence,

and asserts that its mysteries are covertly conveyed in the first four

books of the Pentateuch. Those of us who read the Books of Moses, and

cannot discover in them any of the above-mentioned doctrines, will

naturally ask for the principles of exegesis whereby these secrets are

deduced from or rather introduced into the text. These principles are

laid down in the following declaration:—“If the Law simply consisted of

ordinary expressions and narratives, e. gr., the words of Esau, Hagar,

Laban, the ass of Balaam, or of Balaam himself, why should it be called

the Law of truth, the perfect Law, the true witness of God? Each word

contains a sublime source, each narrative points not only to the single

instance in question, but also to generals.” (Sohar, iii, 149 b.) “Woe

be to the son of man who says that the Tora (Pentateuch) contains

common sayings and ordinary narratives. [25] For, if this were the

case, we might in the present day compose a code of doctrines from

profane writings which should excite greater respect. If the Law

contains ordinary matter, then there are nobler sentiments in profane

codes. Let us go and make a selection from them, and we shall be able

to compile a far superior code. [26] But every word of the Law has a

sublime sense and a heavenly mystery.... Now the spiritual angels had

to put on an earthly garment when they descended to this earth; and if

they had not put on such a garment, they could neither have remained

nor be understood on the earth. And just as it was with the angels so

it is with the Law. When it descended on earth, the Law had to put on

an earthly garment to be understood by us, and the narratives are its

garment. There are some who think that this garment is the real Law,

and not the spirit which it clothed, but these have no portion in the

world to come; and it is for this reason that David prayed, ‘Open thou

mine eyes that I may behold the wondrous things out of the Law.’ (Ps.

cxix, 18.) What is under the garment of the Law? There is the garment

which every one can see; and there are foolish people who, when they

see a well-dressed man, think of nothing more worthy than this

beautiful garment, and take it for the body, whilst the worth of the

body itself consists in the soul. The Law too has a body: this is the

commandments, which are called the body of the Law. This body is

clothed in garments, which are the ordinary narratives. The fools of

this world look at nothing else but this garment, which consists of the

narratives in the Law; they do not know any more, and do not understand

what is beneath this garment. But those who have more understanding do

not look at the garment but at the body beneath it (i.e., the moral);

whilst the wisest, the servants of the Heavenly King, those who dwell

at Mount Sinai, look at nothing else but the soul (i.e., the secret

doctrine), which is the root of all the real Law, and these are

destined in the world to come to behold the Soul of this Soul (i.e.,

the Deity), which breathes in the Law.” (Sohar, iii, 152 a.)

The opinion that the mysteries of the Kabbalah are to be found in the

garment of the Pentateuch is still more systematically propounded in

the following parable. “Like a beautiful woman, concealed in the

interior of her palace, who when her friend and beloved passes by,

opens for a moment a secret window and is seen by him alone, and then

withdraws herself immediately and disappears for a long time, so the

doctrine only shows herself to the chosen (i.e., to him who is devoted

to her with body and soul); and even to him not always in the same

manner. At first she simply beckons at the passer-by with her hand, and

it generally depends upon his understanding this gentle hint. This is

the interpretation known by the name ‏רמז‎. Afterwards she approaches

him a little closer, lisps him a few words, but her form is still

covered with a thick veil, which his looks cannot penetrate. This is

the so called ‏דרוש‎. She then converses with him with her face covered

by a thin veil; this is the enigmatic language of the ‏הגדה‎. After

having thus become accustomed to her society, she at last shows herself

face to face and entrusts him with the innermost secrets of her heart.

This is the secret of the Law, ‏סוד‎. [27] He who is thus far initiated

in the mysteries of the Tora will understand that all those profound

secrets are based upon the simply literal sense, and are in harmony

with it; and from this literal sense not a single iota is to be taken

and nothing to be added to it.” (Sohar, ii, 99.)

This fourfold sense is gradually disclosed to the initiated in the

mysteries of the Kabbalah by the application of definite hermeneutical

rules, which chiefly affect the letters composing the words. The most

prominent of these canons are—

I. Every letter of a word is reduced to its numerical value, and the

word is explained by another of the same quantity. Thus from the words

“Lo! three men stood by him” (Gen. xviii, 2), it is deduced that these

three angels were Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, because ‏והנה שלשה‎

and lo! three men, and ‏אלו מיכאל גבריאל ורפאל‎ these are Michael,

Gabriel, and Raphael, are of the same numerical value, as will be seen

from the following reduction to their numerical value of both these

phrases.

‏ה‎ ‏ש‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ש‎ ‏ה‎ ‏נ‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ו‎

5 + 300 + 30 + 300 + 5 + 50 + 5 + 6 = 701

‏ל‎ ‏א‎ ‏כ‎ ‏י‎ ‏מ‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ל‎ ‏א‎

+ 30 + 1 + 20 + 10 + 40 + 6 + 30 + 1

‏ל‎ ‏א‎ ‏י‎ ‏ר‎ ‏ב‎ ‏ג‎

+ 30 + 1 + 10 + 200 + 2 + 3

‏ל‎ ‏א‎ ‏פ‎ ‏ר‎ ‏ו‎

30 + 1 + 80 + 200 + 6 = 701

This rule in called ‏גמטריא‎ = ‏גרמטיא‎ which is a metathesis of the

Greek word γράμμα, γραμμεία, or γραμματεία in the sense of numbers as

represented by letters.

2. Every letter of a word is taken as an initial or abbreviation of a

word. Thus every letter of the word ‏בראשית‎, the first word in

Genesis, is made the initial of a word, and we obtain ‏בראשית ראה אלהים

שיקבלו ישראל תורה‎ in the beginning God saw that Israel would accept

the Law. This rule is denominated ‏נוטריקון‎ = notaricun, from

notarius, a shorthand writer, one who among the Romans belonged to that

class of writers who abbreviated and used single letters to signify

whole words.

3. The initial and final letters of several words are respectively

formed into separate words. Thus from the beginnings and ends of the

words ‏מי יעלה לנו השמימה‎ who shall go up for us to heaven? (Deut.

xxx, 12) are obtained ‏מילה‎ circumcision and ‏יהוה‎ Jehovah, and

inferred that God ordained circumcision as the way to heaven.

4. Two words occurring in the same verse are joined together and made

into one. Thus ‏מי‎ who and ‏אלה‎ these are made into ‏אלהיﬦ‎ God by

transposing the ‏י‎ and ‏מ‎. Vide supra, p. 94. [28]

5. The words of those verses which are regarded as containing a

peculiar recondite meaning are ranged in squares in such a manner as to

be read either vertically or boustrophedonally, 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

Exod. xiv, (viz., 19–21), which are believed to contain the three

Pillars of the Sephiroth, and the Divine Name of seventy-two words. The

following tables will illustrate this principle of interpretation. The

first of these three verses ‏ויסע מלאך האלהים ההלך לפני מחנה ישראל וילך

מאחריהם ויסע עמוד הענן מפניהם ויעמד מאחריהם‎, and the angel of God,

which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and

the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind

them (Exod. xiv, 19), is read boustrophedonally, as follows:—

I.

‏ו‎ ‏א‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ש‎ ‏א‎ ‏ע‎ ‏מ‎ ‏מ‎

‏י‎ ‏ל‎ ‏פ‎ ‏ר‎ ‏ח‎ ‏ע‎ ‏פ‎ ‏ד‎

‏ס‎ ‏ח‎ ‏נ‎ ‏א‎ ‏ר‎ ‏מ‎ ‏נ‎ ‏מ‎

‏ע‎ ‏י‎ ‏י‎ ‏ל‎ ‏י‎ ‏ו‎ ‏י‎ ‏א‎

‏מ‎ ‏ם‎ ‏מ‎ ‏י‎ ‏ח‎ ‏ד‎ ‏ח‎ ‏ח‎

‏ל‎ ‏ח‎ ‏ח‎ ‏י‎ ‏ם‎ ‏ח‎ ‏ם‎ ‏ר‎

‏א‎ ‏ח‎ ‏נ‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ע‎ ‏ו‎ ‏י‎

‏ך‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ח‎ ‏ך‎ ‏י‎ ‏נ‎ ‏ח‎

‏ה‎ ‏ך‎ ‏י‎ ‏מ‎ ‏ס‎ ‏י‎ ‏ע‎ ‏ם‎

The second of these three verses ‏ויבא בין מחנה מצרים נבין מהנה ישראל

ויהי העגן והחשך ויאר את הלילה ולא קרב זה אל זה כל הלילה‎, and it came

between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a

cloud and darkness to them, but gave light by night to these, so that

the one came not near the other all the night (Exod. xiv, 20), is in

the first place divided, and read from right to left, beginning at the

top, as exhibited in the following diagram.

II.

‏ו‎ ‏י‎ ‏ב‎ ‏א‎ ‏ב‎ ‏י‎ ‏ן‎ ‏מ‎ ‏ח‎

‏נ‎ ‏ה‎ ‏מ‎ ‏צ‎ ‏ר‎ ‏י‎ ‏ם‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ב‎*

‏י‎ ‏ן‎ ‏מ‎ ‏ח‎ ‏נ‎ ‏ה‎ ‏י‎ ‏ש‎ ‏ר‎

‏א‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ו‎ ‏י‎ ‏ה‎ ‏י‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ע‎ ‏נ‎

‏ן‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ח‎ ‏ש‎ ‏ך‎ ‏ו‎ ‏י‎ ‏א‎

‏ר‎ ‏א‎ ‏ת‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ל‎ ‏י‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ו‎

‏ל‎ ‏א‎ ‏ק‎ ‏ר‎ ‏ב‎ ‏ז‎ ‏ה‎ ‏א‎ ‏ל‎

‏ז‎ ‏ה‎ ‏כ‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ל‎ ‏י‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ה‎

It is then divided in the following manner, and read from left to

right, beginning at the bottom.

III.

‏ה‎ ‏ל‎ ‏י‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ל‎ ‏כ‎ ‏ה‎

‏ז‎ ‏ל‎* ‏א‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ז‎ ‏ב‎ ‏ר‎ ‏ק‎

‏א‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ל‎ ‏י‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ה‎

‏ת‎ ‏א‎ ‏ר‎ ‏א‎ ‏י‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ך‎ ‏ש‎

‏ח‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ן‎ ‏נ‎ ‏ע‎ ‏ה‎ ‏י‎

‏ה‎ ‏י‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ל‎ ‏א‎ ‏ר‎ ‏ש‎ ‏י‎

‏ה‎ ‏נ‎ ‏ח‎ ‏מ‎ ‏ן‎ ‏י‎ ‏ב‎ ‏ו‎

‏ם‎ ‏י‎ ‏ר‎ ‏צ‎ ‏מ‎ ‏ה‎ ‏נ‎ ‏ח‎

‏מ‎ ‏ן‎ ‏י‎ ‏ב‎ ‏א‎ ‏ב‎ ‏י‎ ‏ו‎

Whilst the third of these three verses ‏ויט משה את ידו על הים ויולך

יהוה את הים ברוח קדים עזה כל הלילה וישם את הים לחרבה ויבקעו המים‎, and

Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea

to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry

land, and the waters were divided (Exod. xiv. 21), is divided as

follows, and read from the right, beginning at the bottom.

IV.

‏י‎ ‏ב‎ ‏ק‎ ‏ע‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ה‎ ‏מ‎ ‏י‎ ‏ם‎

‏ה‎ ‏י‎ ‏ם‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ח‎ ‏ר‎ ‏ב‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ו‎

‏י‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ו‎ ‏י‎ ‏ש‎ ‏ם‎ ‏א‎ ‏ת‎

‏י‎ ‏ם‎ ‏ע‎ ‏ז‎ ‏ה‎ ‏כ‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ל‎

‏ה‎ ‏י‎ ‏ם‎ ‏ב‎ ‏ר‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ח‎ ‏ק‎ ‏ד‎

‏ו‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ך‎ ‏י‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ה‎ ‏א‎ ‏ת‎

‏ד‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ע‎ ‏ל‎ ‏ה‎ ‏י‎ ‏ם‎ ‏ו‎ ‏י‎

‏ו‎ ‏י‎ ‏ט‎ ‏מ‎ ‏ש‎ ‏ה‎ ‏א‎ ‏ת‎ ‏י‎

The three verses which have thus yielded the three Pillars of the

Sephiroth, are then joined together in groups of three letters in the

order in which they are read in diagrams ii, iii, and iv, and they then

yield the seventy-two divine names which the Kabbalah assigns to the

Deity, [29] as follows:—

‏כהת‎ ‏אכא‎ ‏ללה‎ ‏מהש‎ ‏עלם‎ ‏סיט‎ ‏ילי‎ ‏והו‎

Adorandus. Longanimis. Annunciatus. Quæsitus. Salus. ‏‎ Spes. ‏‎ Auxiliator. Exaltator.

‏הקם‎ ‏הרי‎ ‏מבה‎ ‏יזל‎ ‏ההע‎ ‏לאו‎ ‏אלד‎ ‏הוי‎

Advocatus. Ens. Sublevator. Decantatus. Opportunus. ‏‎ Exultabundus. ‏‎ Recordabilis.

‏חהו‎ ‏מלה‎ ‏ייי‎ ‏נלך‎ ‏פהל‎ ‏לוו‎ ‏כלי‎ ‏לאו‎

Expetendus. Custos. Dexter. Fortis. Ervens. ‏‎ Exauditor. ‏‎ Justitin. Dominator.

‏ושר‎ ‏לכב‎ ‏אום‎ ‏ריי‎ ‏שאה‎ ‏ירת‎ ‏האא‎ ‏נתה‎

Rector. Solus. Adolescentia. Sanator. Festinus. ‏‎ Salvator. ‏‎ Invocandus. Mirabilis.

‏ייז‎ ‏רהע‎ ‏חעם‎ ‏אני‎ ‏מנד‎ ‏כוק‎ ‏להח‎ ‏יחו‎

Propulsator. Adivtor. Refugium. Facies. Gloria. ‏‎ Deprecatio. ‏‎ Expectatio. Cogitabundus.

‏מיה‎ ‏עשל‎ ‏ערי‎ ‏סאל‎ ‏ילה‎ ‏וול‎ ‏מיך‎ ‏ההה‎

Revelator. Magnificus. Operator. Compatiens. Doctor. ‏‎ Matutinus. ‏‎ Custos. Liberator.

‏פוי‎ ‏מבח‎ ‏נית‎ ‏ננא‎ ‏עמם‎ ‏החש‎ ‏דני‎ ‏והו‎

Erector. Aeternum. Regnator. Verus. Altissimus. ‏‎ Lætabundus. ‏‎ Clemens. Maximus.

‏מחי‎ ‏ענו‎ ‏יהה‎ ‏ומב‎ ‏מצר‎ ‏הרח‎ ‏ייל‎ ‏נמם‎

Mercator. Laudabilis. Amabilis. Benedictus. Justus. ‏‎ Oriens. ‏‎ Animus. Protector.

‏מום‎ ‏חיי‎ ‏יבם‎ ‏ראה‎ ‏חבו‎ ‏איע‎ ‏מנק‎ ‏דמב‎

Requies. Multus. Deus. Præmium. Bonus. ‏‎ Dator. ‏‎ Assisteus. Deprecabilis.

6. The letters of words are changed by way of anagram and new words are

obtained. This canon is called ‏תמורה‎ or ‏חילוף אותיות‎, permutation,

and the commutation is effected according to fixed rules. Thus the

alphabet is bent exactly in the middle, and one half is put over the

other, and by changing alternately the first letter or the first two

letters at the beginning of the second line, twenty-two commutations

are produced ex. gr.:—

11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

[ ‏כ‎ ‏י‎ ‏ט‎ ‏ח‎ ‏ז‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ד‎ ‏ג‎ ‏ב‎ ‏א‎ ]

[ ‏מ‎ ‏נ‎ ‏ס‎ ‏ע‎ ‏פ‎ ‏צ‎ ‏ק‎ ‏ר‎ ‏ש‎ ‏ת‎ ‏ל‎ ]

[ ‏ל‎ ‏כ‎ ‏י‎ ‏ט‎ ‏ח‎ ‏ז‎ ‏ו‎ ‏ה‎ ‏ד‎ ‏ג‎ ‏א‎ ] or

[ ‏מ‎ ‏נ‎ ‏ס‎ ‏ע‎ ‏פ‎ ‏צ‎ ‏ק‎ ‏ר‎ ‏ש‎ ‏ת‎ ‏ב‎ ]

These anagramic alphabets obtain their respective names from the first

two specimen pairs of letter which indicate the interchange. Thus, for

instance, the first is called Albath ‏אל״בת‎ from the first words, the

second Abgath ‏אב״גת‎, and so on. The following table exhibits the

established rules of the alphabetical permutations.

‏כם‎ ינ‎ ‏טס‎ ‏חע‎ ‏זפ‎ ‏וצ‎ ‏הק‎ ‏דר‎ ‏גש‎ ‏בת‎ ‏אל‎ 1. Albath.

‏לם‎ כנ‎ ‏יס‎ ‏טע‎ ‏חפ‎ ‏זצ‎ ‏וק‎ ‏הר‎ ‏דש‎ ‏גת‎ ‏אב‎ 2. Abgath.

‏במ‎ לנ‎ ‏כס‎ ‏יע‎ ‏טפ‎ ‏חצ‎ ‏זק‎ ‏ור‎ ‏הש‎ ‏דת‎ ‏אג‎ 3. Agdath.

‏נמ‎ לס‎ ‏כע‎ ‏יפ‎ ‏טצ‎ ‏חק‎ ‏זר‎ ‏וש‎ ‏הת‎ ‏בג‎ ‏אד‎ 4. Adbag.

‏גנ‎ מס‎ ‏לע‎ ‏כפ‎ ‏יצ‎ ‏טק‎ ‏חר‎ ‏זש‎ ‏ות‎ ‏בד‎ ‏אה‎ 5. Ahbad.

‏נס‎ מע‎ ‏לפ‎ ‏כצ‎ ‏יק‎ ‏טר‎ ‏חש‎ ‏זת‎ ‏גד‎ ‏בה‎ ‏או‎ 6. Avba.

‏דס‎ נע‎ ‏מפ‎ ‏לצ‎ ‏כק‎ ‏יר‎ ‏טש‎ ‏חת‎ ‏גה‎ ‏בו‎ ‏אז‎ 7. Azbav.

‏סע‎ נפ‎ ‏מצ‎ ‏לק‎ ‏כר‎ ‏יש‎ ‏טת‎ ‏דה‎ ‏גו‎ ‏בז‎ ‏אח‎ 8. Achbaz.

‏הע‎ ספ‎ ‏נצ‎ ‏מק‎ ‏לר‎ ‏כש‎ ‏ית‎ ‏דו‎ ‏גז‎ ‏בח‎ ‏אט‎ 9. Atbach.

‏עפ‎ סצ‎ ‏נק‎ ‏מר‎ ‏לש‎ ‏כת‎ ‏הו‎ ‏דז‎ ‏גח‎ ‏בט‎ ‏אי‎ 10. Aibat.

‏ופ‎ עצ‎ ‏סק‎ ‏נר‎ ‏מש‎ ‏לת‎ ‏הז‎ ‏דח‎ ‏גט‎ ‏בי‎ ‏אכ‎ 11. Achbi.

‏פצ‎ עק‎ ‏סר‎ ‏נש‎ ‏מת‎ ‏וז‎ ‏הח‎ ‏דט‎ ‏גי‎ ‏בכ‎ ‏אל‎ 12. Albach.

‏וצ‎ פק‎ ‏ער‎ ‏סש‎ ‏נת‎ ‏וח‎ ‏הט‎ ‏די‎ ‏גכ‎ ‏בל‎ ‏אמ‎ 13. Ambal.

‏צק‎ פר‎ ‏עש‎ ‏סת‎ ‏זח‎ ‏וט‎ ‏הי‎ ‏דכ‎ ‏גל‎ ‏במ‎ ‏אנ‎ 14. Anbam.

‏חק‎ צר‎ ‏פש‎ ‏עת‎ ‏זט‎ ‏וי‎ ‏הכ‎ ‏דל‎ ‏גם‎ ‏בנ‎ ‏אס‎ 15. Asban.

‏קר‎ צש‎ ‏פת‎ ‏חט‎ ‏זי‎ ‏וכ‎ ‏הל‎ ‏דמ‎ ‏גנ‎ ‏בס‎ ‏אע‎ 16. Aabas.

‏טר‎ קש‎ ‏טת‎ ‏חי‎ ‏זכ‎ ‏ול‎ ‏המ‎ ‏דנ‎ ‏גס‎ ‏בע‎ ‏אפ‎ 17. Afba.

‏רש‎ קת‎ ‏טי‎ ‏חכ‎ ‏זל‎ ‏ומ‎ ‏הנ‎ ‏דס‎ ‏גע‎ ‏בפ‎ ‏אצ‎ 18. Azbaf.

‏יש‎ רת‎ ‏טכ‎ ‏חל‎ ‏זמ‎ ‏ונ‎ ‏הס‎ ‏דע‎ ‏גפ‎ ‏בצ‎ ‏אק‎ 19. Akbaz.

‏שת‎ יכ‎ ‏טל‎ ‏חמ‎ ‏זנ‎ ‏וס‎ ‏הע‎ ‏דפ‎ ‏גצ‎ ‏בק‎ ‏אר‎ 20. Arbak.

‏כת‎ יל‎ ‏טמ‎ ‏חנ‎ ‏זס‎ ‏וע‎ ‏הפ‎ ‏דצ‎ ‏גכ‎ ‏בר‎ ‏אש‎ 21. Ashbar.

‏כל‎ ימ‎ ‏טנ‎ ‏חס‎ ‏זע‎ ‏ופ‎ ‏הצ‎ ‏דק‎ ‏גר‎ ‏בש‎ ‏את‎ 22. Athbash.

To this list is to be added—

‏שת‎ ‏קר‎ ‏פצ‎ ‏סע‎ ‏מנ‎ ‏כל‎ ‏טי‎ ‏זח‎ ‏הו‎ ‏גד‎ ‏אב‎ 23. Abgad.

‏כת‎ ‏יש‎ ‏טר‎ ‏חק‎ ‏זצ‎ ‏ופ‎ ‏הע‎ ‏דס‎ ‏גנ‎ ‏בם‎ ‏אל‎ 24. Albam.

Besides these canons the Kabbalah also sees a recondite sense in the

form of the letters, as well as in the ornaments which adorn them.

As to the relation of the Kabbalah to Christianity, it is maintained

that this theosophy propounds the doctrine of the trinity and the

sufferings of Messiah. How far this is true may be ascertained from the

following passages. [30] “We have already remarked in several places

that the daily liturgical declaration about the divine unity is that

which is indicated in the Bible (Deut. vi, 43), where Jehovah occurs

first, then Elohenu, and then again Jehovah, which three together

constitute a unity, and for this reason he [i.e., Jehovah] is in the

said place called one (‏אחד‎), But there are three names, and how can

they be one? And although we read one (‏אחד‎), are they really one? Now

this is revealed by the vision of the Holy Ghost, and when the eyes are

closed we get to know that the three are only one. This is also the

mystery of the voice. The voice is only one, find yet it consists of

three elements, fire [i.e., warmth], air [i.e., breath], and water

[i.e., humidity], yet are all these one in the mystery of the voice,

and can only be one. Thus also Jehovah, Elohenu, and Jehovah constitute

one—three forms which are one. And this is indicated by the voice which

man raises [i.e., at prayer], thereby to comprehend spiritually the

most perfect unity of the En Soph for the finite, since all the three

[i.e., Jehovah, Elohenu, Jehovah] are rend with the same loud voice,

which comprises in itself a trinity. And this is the daily confession

of the divine unity which, as a mystery, is revealed by the Holy Ghost.

This unity has been explained in different ways, yet he who understands

it in this way is right, and he who understands it in another way is

also right. The idea of unity, however formed by us here below, from

the mystery of the audible voice which is one, explains the thing.”

(Sohar, ii, 43 b.)

On another occasion we are informed that R. Eleazar, whilst sitting

with his father R. Simeon, was anxious to know how the two names,

Jehovah and Elohim, can be interchanged, seeing that the one denotes

mercy and the other judgment. Before giving the discussion between the

father and the son, it is necessary to remark that whenever the two

divine names, Adonai (‏אדוני‎) and Jehovah (‏יהוה‎), immediately follow

each other, Jehovah is pointed and read (‏יְהֹוִה‎) Elohim. The reason of

this, as it is generally supposed, is to avoid the repetition of

Adonai, Adonai, since the Tetragrammaton is otherwise always pointed

and read (‏יְהֹוָה‎). The Kabbalah, however, as we shall see, discovers in

it a recondite meaning, [31] “R. Eleazar, when sitting before his

father R. Simeon, said to him, we have been taught that whenever Elohim

(‏אלהיﬦ‎) occurs, it denotes Justice. Now how can Elohim sometimes be

put for Jehovah, as is the case in those passages wherein Adonai

(‏אדוני‎) and Jehovah (‏יהוה‎) stand together (Comp. Gen. xv, 8; Ezek.

ii, 4, &c.), seeing that the latter denotes mercy in all the passages

in which it occurs? To which he replied, Thus it is said in the

Scripture, ‘Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart,

that Jehovah is Elohim’ (Deut. iv, 19); and again it is written

‘Jehovah is Elohim.’ (Ibid., ver. 35.) Whereupon he [i.e., the son]

said, I know this forsooth, that justice is sometimes tempered with

mercy and mercy with justice. Quoth he [i.e., the father], Come and see

that it is so; Jehovah indeed does signify mercy whenever it occurs,

but when through sin mercy is changed into justice, then it is written

Jehovah (‏יהוה‎), but read Elohim (‏אלהיﬦ‎). Now come and see the

mystery of the word [i.e., Jehovah]. There are three degrees, and each

degree exists by itself [i.e., in the Deity], although the three

together constitute one, they are closely united into one and are

inseparable from each other.” (Sohar, iii, 65 a.)

We shall only give one more passage bearing on the subject of the

Trinity. [32] “He who reads the word (‏אחד‎) One [i.e., in the

declaration of the divine unity ‏שמע‎] must pronounce the Aleph (‏א‎)

quickly, shorten its sound a little, and not pause at all by this

letter, and he who obeys this, his life will be lengthened. Whereupon

they [i.e., the disciples] said to him [i.e., to R. Ilai], he [i.e., R.

Simeon] has said, There are two, and one is connected with them, and

they are three; but in being three they are one. He said to them, those

two names, Jehovah Jehovah, are in the declaration ‘Hear O Israel’

(Deut. vi, 4), and Elohenu (‏אלהנו‎), between them, is united with them

as the third, and this is the conclusion which is sealed with the

impression of Truth (‏אמת‎). But when these three are combined into a

unity, they are one in a single unity.” (Sohar, iii, 262 a.) Indeed one

Codex of the Sohar had the following remark on the words “Holy, holy,

holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. iv, 3); ‏קדוש זה אב קדוש זה בן קדוש זה

רוח הקדש‎, the first holy refers to the Holy Father; the second to the

Holy Son; and the third to the Holy Ghost. [33] This passage, however,

is omitted from the present recensions of the Sohar. Some Jewish

writers have felt these passages to be so favourable to the doctrine of

the Trinity, that they insist upon their being interpolations into the

Sohar, whilst others have tried to explain them as referring to the

Sephiroth. [34]

As to the atonement of the Messiah for the sins of the people, this is

not only propounded in the Sohar, but is given as the explanation of

the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. [35] “When the righteous are visited

with sufferings and afflictions to atone for the sins of the world, it

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 one of 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.’ (Isa. liii, 5.) ‘With his stripes,’ i.e., healed, as by the

wound of bleeding an arm, and with this wound we are healed, i.e., it

was a healing to each one of us as members of the body.” (Sohar, iii,

218 a.) To the same effect is the following passage. [36] “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 sinners

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.’ (Isa. liii, 5.) Whereupon those souls

return and take their place. In the garden of Eden there is one palace

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 punishment for transgressing the Law; as

it is written—‘Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our

sorrows,’ &c. (Isa. 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.” (Sohar, ii, 212 b.)

That these opinions favour, to a certain extent, the doctrines of the

Trinity and the Atonement, though not in the orthodox sense, is not

only admitted by many of the Jewish literati who are adverse to the

Kabbalah, but by some of its friends. Indeed, the very fact that so

large a number of Kabbalists have from time to time embraced the

Christian faith would of itself show that there must be some sort of

affinity between the tenets of the respective systems. Some of these

converts occupied the highest position in the Synagogue, both as pious

Jews and literary men. We need only specify Paul Ricci, physician to

the Emperor Maximilian I; Julius Conrad Otto, author of The Unveiled

Secrets (‏גלא רזיא‎), consisting of extracts from the Talmud and the

Sohar, to prove the validity of the Christian doctrine (Nürenberg,

1805); John Stephen Rittengal, grandson of the celebrated Don Isaac

Abravanel, and translator of The Book Jetzira, or of Creation (‏ספר

יצירה‎), into Latin (Amsterdam, 1642); and Jacob Frank, the great

apostle of the Kabbalah in the eighteenth century, whose example in

professing Christianity was followed by several thousands of his

disciples. [37] The testimony of these distinguished Kabbalists, which

they give in their elaborate works, about the affinity of some of the

doctrines of this theosophy with those of Christianity, is by no means

to be slighted; and this is fully corroborated by the celebrated Leo di

Modena, who, as an orthodox Jew, went so far as to question whether God

will ever forgive those who printed the Kabbalistic works. [38]

The use made by some well-meaning Christians of the above-named

Kabbalistic canons of interpretation, in controversies with Jews, to

prove that the doctrines of Christianity are concealed under the letter

of the Old Testament, will now be deprecated by every one who has any

regard for the laws of language. As a literary curiosity, however, we

shall give one or two specimens. No less a person than the celebrated

Reuchlin 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 ‏ברא‎,

which is translated created, be examined, and if each of the three

letters composing this word be taken as the initial of a separate word,

we obtain the expressions ‏בן רוח אב‎ Son, Spirit, Father, according to

Rule 2 (p. 131). Upon the same principle this erudite scholar deduces

the first two persons in the Trinity from the words—“the stone which

the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner” (Ps.

cxviii, 22), by dividing the three letters composing the word ‏אבן‎

stone, into ‏אב בן‎ Father, Son (Comp. De Verbo Mirifico, Basel, 1494).

In more recent times we find it maintained that the ‘righteousness’

spoken of in Daniel ix, 24, means the Anointed of Jehovah, because the

original phrase, ‏צדק עלמים‎ is by Gematria, = numerical value, (which

is Rule 1, given above, p. 131), the same as ‏משיח יהוה‎. So pleased is

the author with this discovery, that he takes great care to remark—“It

is a proof which I believe has hitherto escaped the notice of

interpreters.” Such proofs, however, of the Messiaship of Christ bring

no honour to our religion; and in the present day argue badly both

against him who adduces them and against him who is convinced by them.

II.

We now proceed to trace the date and origin of the Kabbalah. Taking the

ex parte statement for what it is worth, viz., that this secret

doctrine is of a pre-Adamite date, and that God himself propounded it

to the angels in Paradise, we shall have to examine the age of the

oldest documents which embody its tenets, and compare these doctrines

with other systems, in order to ascertain the real date and origin of

this theosophy. But before this is done, it will be necessary to

summarize, as briefly as possible, those doctrines which are peculiar

to the Kabbalah, or which it expounds and elaborates in an especial

manner, and which constitute it a separate system within the precincts

of Judaism. The doctrines are as follow:—

1. God is boundless in his nature. He has neither will, intention,

desire, thought, language, nor action. He cannot be grasped and

depicted; and, for this reason, is called En Soph, and as such he is in

a certain sense not existent.

2. He is not the direct creator of the universe, since he could not

will the creation; and since a creation proceeding directly from him

would have to be as boundless and as perfect as he is himself.

3. He at first sent forth ten emanations, or Sephiroth, which are

begotten, not made, and which are both infinite and finite.

4. From these Sephiroth, which are the Archetypal Man, the different

worlds gradually and successively evolved. These evolutionary worlds

are the brightness and the express image of their progenitors, the

Sephiroth, which uphold all things.

5. These emanations, or Sephiroth, gave rise to or created in their own

image all human souls. These souls are pre-existent, they occupy a

special hall in the upper world of spirits, and there already decide

whether they will pursue a good or bad course in their temporary

sojourn in the human body, which is also fashioned according to the

Archetypal image.

6. No one has seen the En Soph at any time. It is the Sephiroth, in

whom the En Soph is incarnate, who have revealed themselves to us, and

to whom the anthropomorphisms of Scripture and the Hagada refer. Thus

when it is said, “God spake, descended upon earth, ascended into

heaven, smelled the sweet smell of sacrifices, repented in his heart,

was angry,” &c, &c, or when the Hagadic works describe the body and the

mansions of the Deity, &c., all this does not refer to the En Soph, but

to these intermediate beings.

7. It is an absolute condition of the soul to return to the Infinite

Source whence it emanated, after developing all those perfections the

germs of which are indelibly inherent in it. If it fails to develope

these germs, it must migrate into another body, and in case it is still

too weak to acquire the virtues for which it is sent to this earth, it

is united to another and a stronger soul, which, occupying the same

human body with it, aids its weaker companion in obtaining the object

for which it came down from the world of spirits.

8. When all the pre-existent souls shall have passed their probationary

period here below, the restitution of all things will take place; Satan

will be restored to an angel of light, hell will disappear, and all

souls will return into the bosom of the Deity whence they emanated. The

creature shall not then be distinguished from the Creator. Like God,

the soul will rule the universe: she shall command, and God obey.

With these cardinal doctrines before us we shall now be able to examine

the validity of the Kabbalists’ claims to the books which, according to

them, propound their doctrines and determine the origin of this

theosophy. Their works are I. The Book of Creation; II. The Sohar; and

III. The Commentary of the Ten Sephiroth. As the Book of Creation is

acknowledged by all parties to be the Oldest, we shall examine it

first.

I. The Book of Creation or Jetzira.

This marvellous and famous document pretends to be a monologue of the

patriarch Abraham, and premises that the contemplations it contains are

those which led the father of the Hebrews to abandon the worship of the

stars and to embrace the faith of the true God. Hence the remark of the

celebrated philosopher, R. Jehudah Ha-Levi (born about 1086)—“The Book

of the Creation, which belongs to our father Abraham, ... demonstrates

the existence of the Deity and the Divine Unity, by things which are on

the one hand manifold and multifarious, whilst on the other hand they

converge and harmonize; and this harmony can only proceed from One who

originated it.” [39] (Khozari, iv. 25.) The whole Treatise consists of

six Perakim (‏פרקיﬦ‎) or chapters, subdivided into thirty-three very

brief Mishnas (‏משנות‎) 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 it

propounds are delivered in the style of aphorisms or theorems, and,

pretending to be the dicta of Abraham, are laid down very dogmatically,

in a manner becoming the authority of this patriarch.

As has already been intimated, the design of this treatise is to

exhibit a system whereby the universe may be viewed methodically in

connection with the truths given in the Bible, thus shewing, from the

gradual and systematic development of the creation, and from the

harmony which prevails in all its multitudinous component parts, that

One God produced it all, and that He is over all. The order in which

God gave rise to this creation out of nothing (‏יצר ממש מתוהו‎), and

the harmony which pervades all the constituent parts of the universe

are shown by the analogy which subsists between the visible things and

the signs of thought, or the means whereby wisdom is expressed and

perpetuated among men. Since the letters have no absolute value, nor

can they be used as mere forms, but serve as the medium between essence

and form, and like words, assume the relation of form to the real

essence, and of essence to the embryo and unexpressed thought, great

value is attached to these letters, and to the combinations and

analogies of which they are capable. The patriarch Abraham, therefore,

employs the double value of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew

alphabet; [40] he uses them, both in their phonetic nature and in their

sacred character, as expressing the divine truths of the Scriptures.

But, since the Hebrew alphabet is also used as numerals, which are

represented by the fundamental number ten, and since the vowels of the

language are also ten in number, this decade is added to the twenty-two

letters, and these two kinds of signs—i.e., the twenty-two letters of

the alphabet and the ten fundamental numbers—are designated the

thirty-two ways of secret wisdom; and the treatise opens with the

declaration [41]—“By thirty-two paths of secret wisdom, the Eternal,

the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, the living God, the King of the

Universe, the Merciful and Gracious, the High and Exalted God, He who

inhabiteth eternity, Glorious and Holy is His name, hath created the

world by means of (‏ספר‎) numbers, (‏ספור‎) phonetic language, and

writing (‏ספר‎).” (Sepher Jetzira, chapter i; Mishna i.)

First of all comes the fundamental number ten. This decade is divided

into a tetrade and hexade, and thereby is shown the gradual development

of the world out of nothing. At first there existed nothing except the

Divine Substance, with the creative idea and the articulate creative

word as the Spirit or the Holy Spirit, which is one with the Divine

Substance and indivisible. Hence, the Spirit of the living God (‏רוח

אלהים חיים‎) stands at the head of all things and is represented by the

number one. “One is the spirit of the living God, blessed be His name,

who liveth for ever! voice, spirit, and word, this is the Holy Ghost.”

[42] (Chapter i, Mishna ix). From this Spirit the whole universe

proceeded in gradual and successive emanations, in the following order.

The creative air, represented by number two, emanated from the Spirit

(‏רוח מרוח‎). “In it He engraved the twenty-two letters.” The water

again, represented by the number three, proceeded from the air (‏מים

מרוח‎). “In it He engraved darkness and emptiness, slime and dung.”

Whilst the ether or fire, represented by the number four, emanated from

the water (‏אש ממים‎). “In it He engraved the throne of His glory, the

Ophanim, the Seraphim, the sacred animals, and the ministering angels,

and from these three he formed His habitation; as it is written—‘He

maketh the wind his messengers, flaming fire his servants’” [43] (Cap.

i. Mish. ix, x.) These intermediate members between the Creator and the

created world sustain a passive and created relationship to God, and an

acting and creating relationship to the world; so that God is neither

in immediate connection with the created and material universe, nor is

His creative fiat hindered by matter.

Then comes the hexade, each unit of which represents space in the six

directions (‏שש קצוות‎), or the four corners of the world, east, west,

north, and south, as well as height and depth which emanated from the

ether, and in the centre of which is the Holy Temple supporting the

whole (‏והיכל הקודש מכוון באמצע‎). The position of the decade is

therefore as follows—

1

Spirit.

3 2

Water. Air.

4

Ether or Fire.

5

Height.

7 6

West. North.

+-------+

| HOLY |

|TEMPLE.|

+-------+

9 8

South. East.

10

Depth.

These constitute the primordial ten, from which the whole universe

proceeded.

And lastly follow “the twenty-two letters, by means of which God,

having drawn, hewn, and weighed them, and having variously changed and

put them together, formed the souls of everything that has been made,

and that shall be made.” [44] (Chapter ii, Mishna ii.) These twenty-two

letters of the alphabet are then divided into three groups, consisting

respectively of, 1, the three mothers, or fundamental letters (‏שלש

אמות‎), 2, seven double (‏שבע כפולות‎) and 3, twelve simple consonants

(‏שניﬦ עשר פשוטות‎), to deduce therefrom a triad of elements, a heptade

of opposites, and a duodecimo of simple things, in the following

manner.

1. Three Mothers, Aleph, Mem, Shin. ‏שלש אמות אמ״ש‎

The above-named three primordial elements, viz., ether, water and air,

which were as yet partially ideal and ethereal, became more concrete

and palpable in the course of emanation. Thus the fire developed itself

into the visible heaven, the elementary water thickened into the earth,

embracing sea and land, whilst the elementary air became the

atmospheric air. These constitute the three fundamental types of the

universe (‏שלש אמות בעולם‎). The three primordial elements also

thickened still more in another direction, and gave birth to a new

order of creatures, which constitute the course of the year and the

temperatures. From the ether developed itself heat, from the water

emanated cold, and from the air proceeded the mild temperature which

shows itself in the rain or wet. These constitute the fundamental

points of the year (‏שלש אמות בשנה‎). Whereupon the three primordial

elements developed themselves in another direction again, and gave rise

to the human organism. The ether sent forth the human head, which is

the seat of intelligence; the water gave rise to the body, or the

abdominal system; whilst the air, which is the central element,

developed itself into the genital organ. These three domains, viz., the

macrocosm, the revolution of time, and the microcosm, which proceeded

from the three primordial elements, are exhibited by the three letters

Aleph (‏א‎), Mem (‏מ‎) and Shin (‏ש‎.) Hence it is said that by means

of these three letters—which, both in their phonetic and sacred

character, represent the elements, inasmuch as ‏א‎, as a gentle

aspirate, and as the initial of ‏אויר‎ air, symbolises THE AIR; ‏מ‎, as

a labial or mute, and as the initial of ‏מיﬦ‎ water, represents THE

WATER; whilst ‏ש‎, as a sibilant, and as the last letter of ‏אש‎ fire,

typifies THE FIRE (Chapter iii, Mishna iii)—God created

In the World—The Fire, Water, Air.

In Man—The Head, Body, Breast.

In the Year—Heat, Cold, Wet.

2. Seven double consonants—Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Caph, Pe, Resh, Tav

‏שבע כפולות בגדכפרת‎

The three dominions proceeding from the triad of the primordial

elements which emanated from the unity continued to develope themselves

still further. In the macrocosm were developed the seven planets, in

time the seven days, and in the microcosm the seven sensuous faculties.

These are represented by the seven double consonants of the alphabet.

Hence it is said that by means of these seven letters, which are called

double because they have a double pronunciation, being sometimes

aspirated and sometimes not, according to their being with or without

the Dagesh, God created—

In the World—Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon.

In Man—Wisdom, Riches, Dominion, Life, Favour, Progeny, Peace.

In the Year—Sabbath, Thursday, Tuesday, Sunday, Friday, Wednesday,

Monday.

Owing to the opposite = double pronunciation of these seven letters,

being hard and soft, they are also the symbols of the seven opposites

(‏תמורות‎) in which human life moves, viz., wisdom and ignorance,

riches and poverty, fruitfulness and barrenness, life and death,

liberty and bondage, peace and war, beauty and deformity. Moreover,

they correspond to the seven ends (‏שבע קצוות‎), above and below, east

and west, north and south, and the Holy Place in the centre, which

supports them; and with them God formed the seven heavens, the seven

earths or countries, the seven weeks from the feast of Passover to

Pentecost. (Chapter iii, Mishna, i–v; cap. iv, Mishna, i–iii.)

3. Twelve simple consonants ‏שתיﬦ עשר פשוטות.‎

The three dominions then respectively developed themselves into twelve

parts, the macrocosm into the twelve signs of the Zodiac, time into

twelve months, and the microcosm into twelve active organs. This is

shown by the twelve simple consonants of the alphabet. Thus it is

declared, that by means of the twelve letters, which are ‏הוז חטי לן

סעצק‎, God created the twelve signs of the Zodiac, viz.:—

In the World—Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra,

Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces.

In Man—The organs of Sight, Hearing, Smelling, Talking, Taste,

Copulating, Dealing, Walking, Thinking, Anger, Laughter, Sleeping.

In the Year—The twelve months, viz., Nisan, Jiar, Sivan, Tamus, Ab,

Elul, Tishri, Cheshvan, Kislev, Tebet, Shebat, Adar. (Comp. chapter

v, Mishna i.)

The three dominions continued gradually to develope into that infinite

variety of objects which is perceptible in each. This infinite variety,

proceeding from the combination of a few, is propounded by means of the

great diversity of combinations and permutations of which the whole

alphabet is capable. These letters, small in number, being only

twenty-two, by their power of combination and transposition, yield an

endless number of words and figures, and thus become the types of all

the varied phenomena in the creation. [45] “Just as the twenty-two

letters yield two hundred and thirty-one types by combining Aleph (‏א‎)

with all the letters, and all the letters with Aleph; Beth (‏ב‎), with

all the letters, and all the letters with Beth, so all the formations

and all that is spoken proceed from one name.” (Chapter ii, Mishna,

iv.). The table on the opposite page will shew how the two hundred and

thirty-one types are obtained by the combination of the twenty-two

letters.

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

[46]—“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 houses; and from thenceforward go out and

think what the mouth cannot utter and the ear cannot hear.” (Chapter

iv, Mishna iv.) The following table will show how the letters, by

permutation, will yield an infinite variety.

a. Two letters b. Three letters c. Four letters

‏אב‎ 1. ‏אבג‎ 1. ‏דאבג‎ 19. גאבד‎ 13. באגד‎ 7. אבגד‎ 1.

‏בא‎ 2. ‏אגב‎ 2. ‏דאגב‎ 20. גאדב‎ 14. באדג‎ 8. אבדג‎ 2.

‏באג‎ 3. ‏דבאג‎ 21. גבאד‎ 15. בגאד‎ 9. אגבד‎ 3.

‏בגא‎ 4. ‏דבגא‎ 22. גבדא‎ 16. בגדא‎ 10. אגדב‎ 4.

‏גאב‎ 5. ‏דגאב‎ 23. גדאב‎ 17. בדאג‎ 11. אדבג‎ 5.

‏גבא‎ 6. ‏דגבא‎ 24. גדבא‎ 18. בדגא‎ 12. אדגב‎ 6.

form two. build six. build twenty-four.

‏שת‎ ‏רש‎ ‏קר‎ ‏צק‎ ‏פצ‎ ‏עפ‎ ‏סע‎ ‏נס‎ ‏מנ‎ ‏למ‎ ‏כל‎ ‏יכ‎ ‏טי‎ ‏חט‎ ‏זח‎ ‏וז‎ ‏הו‎ ‏דה‎ ‏גד‎ ‏בג‎ ‏אב‎

.. ‏רת‎ ‏קש‎ ‏צר‎ ‏פק‎ ‏עצ‎ ‏ספ‎ ‏נע‎ ‏מס‎ ‏לנ‎ ‏כמ‎ ‏יל‎ ‏טכ‎ ‏חי‎ ‏זט‎ ‏וח‎ ‏הז‎ ‏דו‎ ‏גה‎ ‏בד‎ ‏אג‎

.. .. ‏קת‎ ‏צש‎ ‏פר‎ ‏עק‎ ‏סצ‎ ‏נפ‎ ‏מע‎ ‏לס‎ ‏כנ‎ ‏ימ‎ ‏טל‎ ‏חכ‎ ‏זי‎ ‏וט‎ ‏הח‎ ‏דז‎ ‏גו‎ ‏בה‎ ‏אד‎

.. .. .. ‏צת‎ ‏פש‎ ‏ער‎ ‏סק‎ ‏נצ‎ ‏מפ‎ ‏לע‎ ‏כס‎ ‏ינ‎ ‏טמ‎ ‏חל‎ ‏זכ‎ ‏וי‎ ‏הט‎ ‏דח‎ ‏גז‎ ‏בו‎ ‏אה‎

.. .. .. .. ‏פת‎ ‏עש‎ ‏סר‎ ‏נק‎ ‏מצ‎ ‏לפ‎ ‏כע‎ ‏יס‎ ‏טנ‎ ‏חמ‎ ‏זל‎ ‏וכ‎ ‏הי‎ ‏דט‎ ‏גח‎ ‏בז‎ ‏או‎

.. .. .. .. .. ‏עת‎ ‏סש‎ ‏נר‎ ‏מק‎ ‏לצ‎ ‏כפ‎ ‏יע‎ ‏טס‎ ‏חנ‎ ‏זמ‎ ‏ול‎ ‏הכ‎ ‏די‎ ‏גט‎ ‏בח‎ ‏אז‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. ‏סת‎ ‏נש‎ ‏מר‎ ‏לק‎ ‏כצ‎ ‏יפ‎ ‏טע‎ ‏חס‎ ‏זנ‎ ‏ומ‎ ‏הל‎ ‏דכ‎ ‏גי‎ ‏בט‎ ‏אח‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏נת‎ ‏מש‎ ‏לר‎ ‏כק‎ ‏יצ‎ ‏טפ‎ ‏חע‎ ‏זס‎ ‏ונ‎ ‏המ‎ ‏דל‎ ‏גכ‎ ‏בי‎ ‏אט‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏מת‎ ‏לש‎ ‏כר‎ ‏יק‎ ‏טצ‎ ‏חפ‎ ‏זע‎ ‏וס‎ ‏הנ‎ ‏דמ‎ ‏גל‎ ‏בכ‎ ‏אי‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏לת‎ ‏כש‎ ‏יר‎ ‏טק‎ ‏חצ‎ ‏זפ‎ ‏וע‎ ‏הס‎ ‏דנ‎ ‏גמ‎ ‏בל‎ ‏אכ‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏כת‎ ‏יש‎ ‏טר‎ ‏חק‎ ‏זצ‎ ‏ופ‎ ‏הע‎ ‏דס‎ ‏גנ‎ ‏במ‎ ‏אל‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏ית‎ ‏טש‎ ‏חר‎ ‏זק‎ ‏וצ‎ ‏הפ‎ ‏דע‎ ‏גס‎ ‏בנ‎ ‏אמ‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏טת‎ ‏חש‎ ‏זר‎ ‏וק‎ ‏הצ‎ ‏דפ‎ ‏גע‎ ‏בס‎ ‏אנ‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏חת‎ ‏זש‎ ‏ור‎ ‏הק‎ ‏דצ‎ ‏גפ‎ ‏בע‎ ‏אס‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏זת‎ ‏וש‎ ‏הר‎ ‏דק‎ ‏גצ‎ ‏בפ‎ ‏אע‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏ות‎ ‏הש‎ ‏דר‎ ‏גק‎ ‏בצ‎ ‏אפ‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏הת‎ ‏דש‎ ‏גר‎ ‏בק‎ ‏אצ‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏דת‎ ‏גש‎ ‏בר‎ ‏אק‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏גת‎ ‏בש‎ ‏אר‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏בת‎ ‏אש‎

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ‏את‎

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 + 17 + 18 + 19 + 20 + 21 = 231

In order to ascertain how often a certain number of letters can be

transposed, the product of the preceding number must be multiplied with

it. Thus—

Letter 2 × 1 = 2

3 × 2 = 6

4 × 6 = 24

5 × 24 = 120

6 × 120 = 720

7 × 720 = 5040 and so on.

Accordingly, the material form of the spirit, represented by the

twenty-two letters of the alphabet, is the form of all existing beings.

Apart from the three dominions, the macrocosm, time, and microcosm, it

is only the Infinite who can be perceived, and of whom this triad

testifies; for which reason it is denominated “the three true

witnesses.” [47] Each of this triad, notwithstanding its

multifariousness, constitutes a system, having its own centre and

dominion. [48] Just as God is the centre of the universe, the heavenly

dragon is the centre of the macrocosm; the foundation of the year is

the revolution of the Zodiac; whilst the centre of the microcosm is the

heart. [49] The first is like a king on his throne, the second is like

a king living among his subjects, and the third is like a king in war.

The reason why the heart of man is like a monarch in the midst of war

is, that the twelve principal organs of the human body [50] “are

arrayed against each other in battle array; three serve love, three

hatred, three engender life, and three death. The three engendering

love are the heart, the ears and the mouth; the three for enmity are

the liver, the gall and the tongue; but God, the faithful King, rules

over all the three systems. One [i.e., God] is over the three, the

three are over the seven, the seven over the twelve, and all are

internally connected with each other.” (Chapter vi, Mishna iii.) Thus

the whole creation is one connected whole; it is like a pyramid pointed

at the top, which was its beginning, and exceedingly broad in its

basis, which is its fullest development in all its multitudinous

component parts. Throughout the whole are perceptible two opposites,

with a reconciling medium. Thus, in the macrocosm, “the ethereal fire

is above, the water below, and the air is between these hostile

elements to reconcile them.” (Chapter vi, Mishna i.) The same is the

case in the heaven, earth and the atmosphere, as well as in the

microcosm. But all the opposites in the cosmic, telluric and organic

spheres, as well as in the moral world, are designed to balance each

other. “God has placed in all things one to oppose the other; good to

oppose evil, good proceeding from good, and evil from evil; good

purifies evil, and evil purifies good; good is in store for the good,

and evil is reserved for the evil.” (Chapter vi, Mishna ii.)

From this analysis of its contents it will be seen that the Book

Jetzira, which the Kabbalists claim as their oldest document, has

really nothing in common with the cardinal doctrines of the Kabbalah.

There is not a single word in it bearing on the En Soph, the Archetypal

Man, the speculations about the being and nature of the Deity, and the

Sephiroth, which constitute the essence of the Kabbalah. Even its

treatment of the ten digits, as part of the thirty-two ways of wisdom

whereby God created the universe, which has undoubtedly suggested to

the authors of the Kabbalah the idea of the ten Sephiroth, is quite

different from the mode in which the Kabbalistic Sephiroth are

depicted, as may be seen from a most cursory comparison of the

respective diagrams which we have given to illustrate the plans of the

two systems.

Besides the language of the Book Jetzira and the train of ideas therein

enunciated, as the erudite Zunz rightly remarks, shew that this

treatise belongs to the Geonim period, i.e., about the ninth century of

the Christian era, when it first became known. [51] The fabrication of

this pseudograph was evidently suggested by the fact that the Talmud

mentions some treatises on the Creation, denominated ‏הלכות יצריה‎ and

‏ספר יצירה‎ (Sanhedrim 65 b; 67 b) which “R. Chanina and R. Oshaja

studied every Friday, whereby they produced a calf three years old and

ate it;” [52] and whereby R. Joshua ben Chananja declared he could take

fruit and instantly produce the trees which belong to them. (Jerusalem

Sanhedrim, cap. vii. ad finem. [53]) Indeed Dr. Chwolson of Petersburg

has shown in his treatise “on the Remnants of the ancient Babylonian

Literature in Arabic translations,” that the ancient Babylonians laid

it down as a maxim that if a man were minutely and carefully to observe

the process of nature, he would be able to imitate nature and produce

sundry creatures. He would not only be able to create plants and

metals, but even living beings. These artificial productions the

Babylonians call ‏תולידאת‎ productions or ‏אבונאת‎ formations. Gutami,

the author of the Agricultura Nabat, who lived about 1400 B.C., devoted

a long chapter to the doctrine of artificial productions. The ancient

sorcerer Ankebuta declares, in his work on artificial productions, that

he created a man, and shows how he did it; but he confesses that the

human being was without language and reason, that he could not eat, but

simply opened and closed his eyes. This and many other fragments adds

R—, from whose communication we quote, show that there were many works

in Babylon which treated on the artificial productions of plants,

metals, and living beings, and that the Book Jetzira, mentioned in the

Talmud, was most probably such a Babylonian document. [54]

As the document on creation, mentioned in the Talmud, was lost in the

course of time, the author of the Treatise which we have analysed tried

to supply the loss, and hence not only called his production by the

ancient name ‏ספר יצירה‎ the Book of Creation, but ascribed it to the

patriarch Abraham. The perusal, however, of a single page of this book

will convince any impartial reader that it has as little in common with

the magic work mentioned in the Talmud or with the ancient Babylonian

works which treat of human creations, as with the speculations about

the being and nature of the Deity, the En Soph and the Sephiroth, which

are the essence of the Kabbalah. [55]

Having shown that the Book Jetzira, claimed by the Kabbalists as their

first and oldest code of doctrines, has no affinity with the real

tenets of the Kabbalah, we have now to examine:—

II. The Book Sohar.

Before we enter into an examination concerning the date and authorship

of this renowned code of the Kabbalistic doctrines, it will be

necessary to describe the component parts of the Sohar. It seems that

the proper Sohar, which is a commentary on the five Books of Moses,

according to the division into Sabbatic sections, was originally called

‏מדרש יהי אור‎ the Midrash or Exposition, Let there be Light, from the

words in Gen. i, 4; because the real Midrash begins with the exposition

of this verse. The name Sohar (‏זוהר‎), i.e. Light, Splendour, was

given to it afterwards, either because this document begins with the

theme light, or because the word Sohar frequently occurs on the first

page. It is referred to by the name of the Book Sohar (‏ספר הזוהר‎) in

the component parts of the treatise itself. (Comp. The Faithful

Shepherd, Sohar, iii, 153 b.) The Sohar is also called Midrash of R.

Simon b. Jochai (‏מדרש של ר׳ שמעון בן יוחאי‎), because this Rabbi is

its reputed author. [56] Interspersed throughout the Sohar, either as

parts of the text with special titles, or in separate columns with

distinct superscriptions, are the following dissertations, which we

detail according to the order of the pages on which they respectively

commence.

1. Tosephta and Mathanithan (‏מתניתן‎ and ‏תוספתא‎), or Small

Additional Pieces which are given in vol. i, 31 b; 32 b; 37 a; 54 b; 59

a; 60 b; 62; 98 b; 121 a; 122; 128 b; 147; 151 a; 152 a; 232; 233 b;

234 a; vol. ii, 4, 27 b; 28 a; 68 b; 135 b; vol. iii, 29 b; 30 a; 54 b;

55. They briefly discuss, by way of supplement, the various topics of

the Kabbalah, such as the Sephiroth, the emanation of the primordial

light, &c., &c., and address themselves in apostrophes to the initiated

in these mysteries, calling their attention to some doctrine or

explanation.

2. Hechaloth (‏היכלות‎) or The Mansions and Abodes forming part of the

text, vol. i, 38 a–45 b; vol. ii, 245 a–269 a. This portion of the

Sohar describes the topographical structure of Paradise and Hell. The

mansions or palaces, which are seven in number, were at first the

habitation of the earthly Adam, but, after the fall of the protoplasts,

were rearranged to be the abode of the beatified saints, who for this

reason have the enjoyment both of this world and the world to come. The

seven words in Gen. i, 2 are explained to describe these seven

mansions. Sohar, i, 45 a, describes the seven Hells. In some Codices,

however, this description of the Infernal Regions is given vol. ii, 202

b.

3. Sithre Tora (‏סתרי תורה‎), or The Mysteries of the Pentateuch, given

in separate columns, and at the bottom of pages as follows. Vol. i, 74

b; 75 a; 76 b–77 a; 78 a–81 b; 97 a–102 a; 107 b–111 a; 146 b–149 b;

151 a; 152 b; 154 b–157 b; 161 b–162 b; 165; vol. ii, 146 a. It

discusses the divers topics of the Kabbalah, such as the evolution of

the Sephiroth, the emanation of the primordial light, &c., &c.

4. Midrash Ha-Neelam (‏מדרש הנעלם‎), or The Hidden Midrash, occupies

parallel columns with the text in vol. i, 97 a–140 a, and endeavours

more to explain passages of Scripture mystically, by way of Remasim

(‏רמזים‎) and Gematrias (‏גמטריאות‎), and allegorically, than to

propound the doctrines of the Kabbalah. Thus Abraham’s prayer for Sodom

and Gomorrah is explained as an intercession by the congregated souls

of the saints in behalf of the sinners about to be punished. (Sohar, i,

104 b.) Lot’s two daughters are the two proclivities in man, good and

evil. (Ibid. 110.) Besides this mystical interpretation wherein the

Kabbalistic rules of exegesis are largely applied, the distinguishing

feature of this portion of the Sohar is its discussion on the

properties and destiny of the soul, which constitute an essential

doctrine of the Kabbalah.

5. Raja Mehemna (‏רעיא מהמנא‎), or the Faithful Shepherd. This portion

of the Sohar is given in the second and third volumes, in parallel

columns with the text; and when it is too disproportioned for columns,

is given at the bottom or in separate pages, as follows. Vol. ii, 25,

40, 59 b; 91 b–93 a; 134 b, 157 b–159 a; 187 b–188 a; vol. iii, 3 a–4

b; 20 a, 24 b, 27, 28 a–29 a; 33 a–34 a; 42 a, 44 a; 63; 67 b–68 a; 81

b–83 b; 85 b–86 a; 88 b–90 a; 92 b–93 a; 97 a–101 a; 103 b–104 a; 108

b–111 b; 121 b–126 a; 145 a–146 b; 152 b–153 b; 174 a–175 a; 178 b–179

b; 180 a, 215 a–239 a; 242 a–258 a; 263 a–264 a; 270 b–283 a. It

derives its name from the fact that it records the discussions which

Moses the Faithful Shepherd held in conference with the prophet Elias,

and with R. Simon b. Jochai, the celebrated master of the Kabbalistic

school, who is called the Sacred Light (‏בוצינא קדישא‎). The chief

object of this portion is to show the profound and allegorical import

of the Mosaic commandments and prohibitions, as well as of the Rabbinic

injunctions and religious practices which obtained in the course of

time. At the dialogue which Moses the lawgiver holds with R. Simon b.

Jochai the Kabbalistic lawgiver, not only is the prophet Elias present,

but Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Aaron, David, Solomon, and God himself make

their appearance; the disciples of R. Simon are frequently in ecstacies

when they hold converse with these illustrious patriarchs and kings of

bygone days.

6. Raze Derazin (‏רזי דרזין‎), or the Secret of Secrets, Original

Secrets, is given in vol. ii, 70 a–75 a, and is especially devoted to

the physiognomy of the Kabbalah, and the connection of the soul with

the body, based upon the advice of Jethro to his son-in-law Moses

(‏ואתה תחזה‎) and thou shalt look into the face. (Exod. xviii, 21.)

7. Saba Demishpatim (‏סבא דמשפטים‎), or the Discourse of the Aged in

Mishpatim, given in vol. ii, 94 a–114 a. The Aged is the prophet Elias,

who holds converse with R. Simon b. Jochai about the doctrine of

metempsychosis, and the discussion is attached to the Sabbatic section

called ‏משפטים‎, i.e., Exod. xxi, 1–xxiv, 18, because the Kabbalah

takes this word to signify punishments of souls (‏דינין‎), and finds

its psychology in this section. So enraptured were the disciples when

their master, the Sacred Light, discoursed with Moses on this subject,

that they knew not whether it was day or night, or whether they were in

the body or out of the body. (Sohar, ii, 105 b.)

8. Siphra Detzniutha (‏ספרא דצניעותא‎), or the Book of Secrets or

Mysteries, given in vol. ii, 176 b–178 b. It is divided into five

sections (‏פרקים‎), and is chiefly occupied with discussing the

questions involved in the creation, e. gr. the transition from the

infinite to the finite, from absolute unity to multifariousness, from

pure intelligence to matter, the double principle of masculine and

feminine (‏אבא ואמא‎), expressed in the Tetragrammaton, the androgynous

protoplast, the Demonology concealed in the letters of Scripture, as

seen in Gen. vi, 2; Josh. ii, 1; 1 Kings, viii, 3, 16; the mysteries

contained in Isa. i, 4, and the doctrine of the Sephiroth concealed in

Gen. i; &c., as well as with showing the import of the letters ‏יהו״ה‎

composing the Tetragrammaton which were the principal agents in the

creation. This portion of the Sohar has been translated into Latin by

Rosenroth in the second volume of his Kabbala Denudata,

Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 1684.

9. Idra Rabba (‏אדרא רבא‎), or the Great Assembly is given in vol. iii,

127 b–145 a, and derives its name from the fact that it purports to

give the discourses which R. Simon b. Jochai delivered to his disciples

who congregated around him in large numbers. Upon the summons of the

Sacred Light, his disciples assembled to listen to the secrets and

enigmas contained in the Book of Mysteries. Hence it is chiefly

occupied with a description of the form and various members of the

Deity, a disquisition on the relation of the Deity, in his two aspects

of the Aged (‏עתיק‎) and the Young (‏זעיר‎), 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, &c., &c.; a dissertation on

pneumatology, demonology, &c., &c. It concludes with telling us that

three of the disciples died during these discussions. This portion too

is given in a Latin translation in the second volume of Rosenroth’s

Kabbala Denudata.

10. Januka (‏ינוקא‎), or the Discourse of the Young Man, is given in

vol. iii, 186 a–192 a, and forms part of the text of the Sohar on the

Sabbatic section called Balak, i.e. Numb. xxii, 2–xxv, 9. It derives

its name from the fact that the discourses therein recorded were

delivered by a young man, under the following circumstances:—R. Isaac

and R. Jehudah, two of R. Simon b. Jochai’s disciples, when on a

journey, and passing through the village where the widow of R. Hamnuna

Saba resided, visited this venerable woman. She asked her son, the

young hero of this discourse, who had just returned from school, to go

to these two Rabbins to receive their benediction; but the youth would

not approach them because he recognised, from the smell of their

garments, that they had omitted reciting on that day the prescribed

declaration about the unity of the Deity (‏שמע‎). When at meals this

wonderful Januka gave them sundry discourses on the mysterious import

of the washing of hands, based on Exod. xxx, 20, on the grace recited

at meals, on the Shechinah, on the angel who redeemed Jacob (Gen.

xlviii, 16), &c., &c., which elicited the declaration from the Rabbins

that “this youth is not the child of human parents” (‏האי ינוקא לאו ב״נ

הוא‎); and when hearing all this, R. Simon b. Jochai coincided in the

opinion, that “this youth is of superhuman origin.”

11. Idra Suta (‏אדרא זוטא‎) or the Small Assembly, is given in vol.

iii, 287 b–296 b, and derives its name from the fact that many of the

disciples of R. Simon b. Jochai had died during the course of these

Kabbalistic revelations, and that this portion of the Sohar contains

the discourses which the Sacred Light delivered before his death to the

small assembly of six pupils, who still survived and congregated to

listen to the profound mysteries. It is to a great extent a

recapitulation of the Idra Rabba, occupying itself with speculations

about the Sephiroth, the Deity in his three aspects (‏שלת רישין‎), or

principles which successively developed themselves from each other,

viz.—the En Soph (‏אין סוף‎), or the Boundless in his absolute nature,

the Macroprosopon (‏אריך אנפין‎), or the Boundless as manifested in the

first emanation, and the Microprosopon (‏זעיר אנפין‎), the other nine

emanations; the abortive creations, &c., and concludes with recording

the death of Simon b. Jochai, the Sacred Light and the medium through

whom God revealed the contents of the Sohar. The Idra Suta has been

translated into Latin by Rosenroth in the second volume of his Kabbala

Denudata.

From this brief analysis of its component parts and contents, it will

be seen that the Sohar does not propound a regular Kabbalistic system,

but promiscuously and reiteratedly dilates upon the diverse doctrines

of this theosophy, as indicated in the forms and ornaments of the

Hebrew alphabet, in the vowel points and accents, in the Divine names

and the letters of which they are composed, in the narratives of the

Bible, and in the traditional and national stories. Hence the Sohar is

more a collection of homilies or rhapsodies on Kabbalistic subjects

than treatises on the Kabbalah. It is for this very reason that it

became the treasury of the Kabbalah to the followers of this theosophy.

Its diversity became its charm. The long conversations between its

reputed author, R. Simon b. Jochai, and Moses, the great lawgiver and

true shepherd, which it records; the short and pathetic prayers

inserted therein; the religious anecdotes; the attractive spiritual

explanations of scripture passages, appealing to the hearts and wants

of men; the description of the Deity and of the Sephiroth under tender

forms of human relationships, comprehensible to the finite, mind, such

as father, mother, primeval man, matron, bride, white head, the great

and small face, the luminous mirror, the higher heaven, the higher

earth, &c, which it gives on every page, made the Sohar a welcome

text-book for the students of the Kabbalah, who, by its vivid

descriptions of divine love, could lose themselves in rapturous

embraces with the Deity.

Now, the Sohar pretends to be a revelation from God, communicated

through R. Simon b. Jochai, who flourished about A.D. 70–110, to his

select disciples. We are told that “when they assembled to compose the

Sohar, permission was granted to the prophet Elias, to all the members

of the celestial college, to all angels, spirits, and superior souls,

to assist them; and the ten spiritual substances [i.e., Sephiroth] were

charged to disclose to them their profound mysteries, which were

reserved for the days of the Messiah.” On the approach of death, R.

Simon b. Jochai assembled the small number of his disciples and

friends, amongst whom was his son, R. Eleazar, to communicate to them

his last doctrines, [57] “when he ordered as follows—R. Aba shall

write, R. Eleazar, my son, propound, and let my other associates

quietly think about it.” (Idra Suta, Sohar, iii, 287 b.) It is upon the

strength of these declarations, as well as upon the repeated

representation of R. Simon b. Jochai as speaking and teaching

throughout this production, that the Sohar is ascribed to this Rabbi on

its very title-page, and that not only Jews, for centuries, but such

distinguished Christian scholars as Lightfoot, Gill, Bartolocci,

Pfeifer, Knorr von Rosenroth, Molitor, &c., have maintained this

opinion. A careful examination, however, of the following internal and

external evidence will show that this Thesaurus of the Kabbalah is the

production of the thirteenth century.

1. The Sohar most fulsomely praises its own author, calls him the

Sacred Light (‏בוצניא קדישא‎), and exalts him above Moses, “the true

Shepherd.” [58] “I testify by the sacred heavens and the sacred earth,”

declares R. Simon b. Jochai, “that I now see what no son of man has

seen since Moses ascended the second time on Mount Sinai, for I see my

face shining as brilliantly as the light of the sun when it descends as

a healing for the world; as it is written, ‘to you who fear my name

shall shine the Sun of Righteousness with a healing in his wings.’

(Malachi, [iii, 20] iv, 2.) Yea, more, I know that my face is shining,

but Moses did not know it nor understand it; for it is written (Exod.

xxxiv, 29), ‘Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone.’” (Sohar,

iii, 132 b; 144 a.) The disciples deify R. Simon in the Sohar,

declaring that the verse, “all thy males shall appear before the Lord

God” (Exod. xxiii, 17), refers to R. Simon b. Jochai, who is the Lord,

and before whom all men must appear. (Sohar, ii, 38 a.) [59]

2. The Sohar quotes and mystically explains the Hebrew vowel points (i,

16 b; 24 b; ii, 116 a; iii, 65 a), which were introduced for the first

time by R. Mocha of Palestine, A.D. 570, to facilitate the reading of

the Scriptures for his students. [60]

3. The Sohar (‏רעיא מהימנה‎ Faithful Shepherd, on section ‏קדושים‎ iii,

82 b), has literally borrowed two verses from the celebrated Hymn of

Ibn Gebirol, who was born about A.D. 1021 and died in 1070. This Hymn

which is entitled ‏כתר מלכות‎ the Royal Diadem, is a beautiful and

pathetic composition, embodying the cosmic views of Aristotle, and

forms part of the Jewish service for the evening preceding the Great

Day of Atonement to the present day. The quotation in the Sohar from

this Hymn is beyond the shadow of a doubt, as will be seen from the

following comparison—

Sohar. Ibn Gebirol.

‏ואשתארו [סיהרא ושמשא] כגופא בלא נשמתא‎ ‏אבל יש אדון עליהם‎

‏דאית אדון עליהם מחשיך מאוריהם‎ ‏מחשיך מאוריהם‎

It must be borne in mind that, though the Sohar is written in Aramaic,

yet this quotation is in Hebrew, and in the rhyme of Ibn Gebirol. [61]

4. The Sohar (i, 18 b; 23 a) quotes and explains the interchange, on

the outside of the Mezuza, [62] of the words (‏יהוה אלהינו יהוה‎)

Jehovah our God is Jehovah for (‏כוזו במוכסז כוזו‎) Kuzu Bemuchzaz

Kuzu, by substituting for each letter its immediate predecessor in the

alphabet, which was transplanted from France into Spain in the

thirteenth century. [63]

5. The Sohar (iii, 232 b) uses the expression Esnoga, which is a

Portuguese corruption of synagogue, and explains it in a Kabbalistic

manner as a compound of two Hebrew words, i.e., Es = ‏אש‎ and Noga =

‏נוגה‎ brilliant light. [64]

6. The Sohar (ii, 32 a) mentions the Crusades, the momentary taking of

Jerusalem by the Crusaders from the Infidels, and the retaking of it by

the Saracens. [65] “Woe to the time,” it says, “wherein Ishmael saw the

world, and received the sign of circumcision! What did the Holy One,

blessed be his name? He excluded the descendants of Ishmael, i.e., the

Mahommedans, from the congregation in heaven, but gave them a portion

on earth in the Holy Land, because of the sign of the covenant which

they possess. The Mahommedans are, therefore, destined to rule for a

time over the Holy Land; and they will prevent the Israelites from

returning to it, till the merit of the Mahommedans is accomplished. At

that time the descendants of Ishmael will be the occasion of terrible

wars in the world, and the children of Edom, i.e., the Christians, will

gather together against them and do battle with them, some at sea and

some on land, and some in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and the

victory will now be on the one side and then on the other, but the Holy

Land will not remain in the hands of the Christians.”

7. The Sohar records events which transpired A.D. 1264. Thus on Numb.

xxiv, 17, which the Sohar explains as referring to the time preceding

the advent of Messiah, it remarks, [66] “the Holy One, blessed be he,

is prepared to rebuild Jerusalem. Previous to the rebuilding thereof he

will cause to appear, a wonderful and splendid star, which will shine

seventy days. It will first be seen on Friday, Elul = July 25th, and

disappear on Saturday or Friday evening at the end of seventy days. On

the day preceding [its disappearance, i.e. October 2nd] when it will

still be seen in the city of Rome, on that self-same day three high

walls of that city of Rome and the great palace will fall, and the

pontiff ruler of the city will die.” (Sohar iii, 212 b.) Now the comet

here spoken of appeared in Rome, July 25th, 1264, and was visible till

October 2nd, which are literally the seventy days mentioned in the

Sohar. Moreover, July 25th, when the comet first appeared, actually

happened on a Friday; on the day of its disappearance, October 2nd, the

sovereign pontiff of Rome, Urban IV, died at Perugia, when it was

believed that the appearance of the comet was the omen of his death,

and the great and strong palace (‏היכלא רברבא‎) Vincimento, fell on the

self-same day, October 2nd, into the hands of the insurrectionists.

[67]

8. The Sohar, in assigning a reason why its contents were not revealed

before, says that the “time in which R. Simon ben Jochai lived was

peculiarly worthy and glorious, and that it is near the advent of the

Messiah,” for which cause this revelation was reserved till the days of

R. Simon, to be communicated through him. Yet, speaking elsewhere of

the advent of the Messiah, the Sohar, instead of placing it in the

second century when this Rabbi lived, forgets itself and says

[68]—“When the sixtieth or the sixty-sixth year shall have passed over

the threshold of the sixth millenium [A.M. 5060–66 = A.D. 1300–1306]

the Messiah will appear” (Sohar i, 116 a, 117 b, Comp. also iii, 252

a); thus showing that the author lived in the thirteenth century of the

Christian era. In perfect harmony with this is the fact that:—

9. The doctrine of the En Soph, and the Sephiroth, as well as the

metempsychosisian retribution were not known before the thirteenth

century.

10. The very existence of the Sohar, according to the confession of the

staunch Kabbalist, Jehudah Chajoth (flourished 1500), was unknown to

such distinguished Kabbalists as Nachmanides (1195–1270) and

Ben-Adereth (1235–1310); the first who mentions it is Todros Abulafia

(1234–1306).

11. Isaac of Akko (flourished 1290) fully confirms all that we have

hitherto adduced from the import of this book, by his testimony that

“the Sohar was put into the world from the head of a Spaniard.” To the

same effect is the testimony of Joseph Ibn Wakkar, who in speaking of

later books which may be relied upon, recommends only those of Moses

Nachmanides and Todros Abulafia; “but,” he adds, “the Sohar is full of

errors, and one must take care not to be misled by them.” Upon which,

the erudite Steinschneider rightly remarks, [69] “this is an impartial

and indirect testimony that the Sohar was recognised scarcely fifty

years after its appearing as one of the later works, and was not

attributed to Simon ben Jochai.”

12. That Moses de Leon, who first published and sold the Sohar, as the

production of R. Simon b. Jochai, was himself the author of it, was

admitted by his own wife and daughter, as will be seen from the

following account in the Book Juchassin, (p.p. 88, 89, 95, ed.

Filipowski, London, 1857), which we give in an abridged form. [70] When

Isaac of Akko, who escaped the massacre after the capture of this city

(A.D. 1291), came to Spain and there saw the Sohar, he was anxious to

ascertain whether it was genuine, since it pretended to be a Palestine

production, and he, though born and brought up in the Holy Land, in

constant intercourse with the disciples of the celebrated Kabbalist,

Nachmanides, had never heard a syllable about this marvellous work.

Now, Moses de Leon, whom he met in Valladolid, declared to him on a

most solemn oath that he had at Avila an ancient exemplar, which was

the very autograph of R. Simon ben Jochai, and offered to submit it to

him to be tested. In the meantime, however, Moses de Leon was taken ill

on his journey home, and died at Arevolo, A.D. 1305. But two

distinguished men of Avila, David Rafen and Joseph de Avila, who were

determined to sift the matter, ascertained the falsehood of this story

from the widow and daughter of Moses de Leon. Being a rich man and

knowing that Moses de Leon left his family without means, Joseph de

Avila promised, that if she would give him the original MS. of the

Sohar from which her husband made the copies, his son should marry her

daughter, and that he would give them a handsome dowry. Whereupon the

widow and daughter declared, that they did not possess any such MS.,

that Moses de Leon never had it, but that he composed the Sohar from

his own head, and wrote it with his own hand. Moreover, the widow

candidly confessed that she had frequently asked her husband why he

published the production of his own intellect under another man’s name,

and that he told her that if he were to publish it under his own name

nobody would buy it, whereas under the name of R. Simon b. Jochai it

yielded him a large revenue. This account is confirmed in a most

remarkable manner by the fact that—

13. The Sohar contains whole passages which Moses de Leon translated

into Aramaic, from his other works, as the learned Jellinek has

demonstratively proved. To transfer these passages here would occupy

too much of our space. We must, therefore, refer the reader to the

monograph itself, [71] and shall only give one example, which the

erudite historian, Dr. Graetz, [72] has pointed out. In his Sephar

Ha-Rimon (‏ספר הרימון‎), which he composed A.D. 1827, and which is a

Kabbalistic explanation of the Mosaic precepts, Moses de Leon

endeavours to account for the non-occurrence of the Tetragrammaton in

the history of the hexahemeron, whilst it does occur immediately

afterwards, by submitting that as the earthly world is finite and

perishable, this divine name, which denotes eternity, could not be used

at the creation thereof; for if it had been created under its

influence, the world would have been as imperishable as this name. In

corroboration of this, Moses de Leon quotes the passage (‏לכו חזו

מפעלות אלהים אשר שם שמות בארץ‎) Come, behold the works of Elohim, what

perishableness he made in the earth (Ps. xlvi, 8), showing that ‏שמות‎

destruction, perishableness, is consonant with the name ‏אלהים‎. In

looking at the original, it will be seen that the text has ‏יהוה‎ and

not ‏אלהים‎, and that Moses de Leon, by a slip of memory, confounded

this passage with ‏לכו וראו מפעלות אלהים‎ Come and see the works of

Elohim (Ps. xlvi, 5). Now, the whole explanation and the same blunder

are transferred into the Sohar. The commentators on this treasury of

the Kabbalah, not knowing the cause of this blunder, express their

great surprise that the Sohar should explain a mis-quotation. We

subjoin the two passages in parallel columns.

Sohar, i, 58 a.

ר׳ יהודה פתח לכו חזו מפעלות אלהים אשר שם שמות וגו׳ האי קרא אוקמוה

ואתמרּּּּ שמות ודאי והא שמא גרים לכלא (לשון שמשון) דאלו הוו מפעלות. י׳ ה

׳ ו׳ ה׳ שם קיום בארץ אבל בגין דהוון מפעלות שמא דאלהים שם שמות בארץ:

אמר ליה ר׳ חייא וגו׳

Moses de Leon, ii, No. 133, p. 25.

אמנם כי יש פירוש אחר כהיות שם המיוחד נזכר כאחוזנה לקיים על ההויות אמרו

חז״ל לכו ראו מפעלות וכו׳ מפני שהיו מפעלות אלהים שם שמותּּּּ שאלמלא ה

יו מפעלות י׳ ה׳ ו׳ ה׳ שם קיום בארץ: והענין בזה על כל המפעלות זה העולם

השפל כלם נפסדים מפני שכל הוויותי בשם זה שאלמלא יהיו בשם המיוחד כלם יה

יו קימים בקיומם וכו׳

It is for these and many other reasons that the Sohar is now regarded

by Steinschneider, Beer, Jellinek, Graetz, &c., as a pseudograph of the

thirteenth century. That Moses de Leon should have palmed the Sohar

upon Simon b. Jochai was nothing remarkable, since this Rabbi is

regarded by tradition as the embodiment of mysticism. No better hero

could be selected for the Sohar than R. Simon, of whom the Talmud gives

us the following account: “Once upon a time, R. Jehudah, R. Jose, and

R. Simon sat together, and R. Jehudah b. Gerim sat by them. R. Jehudah

then began and said—How beautiful are the works of this nation (i.e.,

the Romans)! they have erected market-places, they have erected

bridges, and they have erected baths! R. Jose was quiet, but R. Simon

b. Jochai answered and said: what they have built they have built for

no one except for their own use, they made markets to allure

prostitutes, they made baths to gratify themselves therein, and bridges

to get tolls by them. Jehudah b. Gerim repeated this, and the emperor’s

government got to hear it, who passed the following decree: Jehudah,

who exalted, is to be exalted; Jose, who was silent, is to be banished

to Zipporis; and Simon, who spoke evil, is to be killed. He (i.e., R.

Simon) at once concealed himself with his son, in the place of study,

whither his wife daily brought them a loaf and a flask of water; but as

the rigour of the decree increased, he said to his son: women are

weak-minded—if she is tortured she may betray us. Hence, they left, and

betook themselves into a deep cavern, where by a miracle a crab-tree

and a well were created for their subsistence. He and his son sat in

the sand up to their necks all the day studying the Law. They spent

twelve long years in this cavern; when Elias the prophet came and stood

at the entrance of the cavern, and called out—Who will inform the son

of Jochai that the emperor is dead, and that the decree is commuted?

They came out and saw the people tilling and sowing.” (Sabbath, 33 a.

Comp. also, Jerusalem Shebiith, ix, 1; Bereshith Rabba, cap. lxxix;

Midrash Koheleth, x, 8; Midrash Esther, i, 9.) This is the secret why

the story that R. Simon b. Jochai composed the Sohar during his twelve

years’ residence in the cavern obtained credence among the followers of

the Kabbalah.

III. The Commentary on the Ten Sephiroth.

It is this commentary to which we must look, as the most ancient

document embodying the doctrines of the Kabbalah. The author of this

commentary, R. Azariel b. Menachem, was born in Valladolid, about 1160.

He distinguished himself as a philosopher, Kabbalist, Talmudist, and

commentator, as his works indicate; he was a pupil of Isaac the Blind,

who is regarded as the originator of the Kabbalah, and master of the

celebrated R. Moses Nachmanides, who is also a distinguished pillar of

Kabbalism. R. Azariel died A.D. 1238, at the advanced age of

seventy-eight years. “The Commentary on the Ten Sephiroth” is in

questions and answers, [73] and the following is the lucid analysis of

it as given by the erudite Jellinek, according to Spinoza’s form of

Ethics.

1. Definition.—By the Being who is the cause and governor of all

things, I understand the En Soph, i.e., a Being infinite, boundless,

absolutely identical with itself, united in itself, without attributes,

will, intention, desire, thought, word or deed. (Answers 2 and 4.)

2. Definition.—By Sephiroth I understand the potencies which emanated

from the absolute En Soph, all entities limited by quantity, which like

the will, without changing its nature, wills diverse objects that are

the possibilities of multifarious things. (Answers 3 and 9.)

i. Proposition.—The primary cause and governor of the world is the En

Soph, who is both immanent and transcendent. (Answer 1.)

(a) Proof.—Each effect has a cause, and every thing which has order and

design has a governor. (Answer 1.)

(b) Proof.—Every thing visible has a limit, what is limited is finite,

what is finite is not absolutely identical; the primary cause of the

world is invisible, therefore unlimited, infinite, absolutely

identical, i.e., he is the En Soph. (Answer 2.)

(c) Proof.—As the primary cause of the world is infinite, nothing can

exist without (EXTRA) him; hence he is immanent. (Ibid.)

Scholion.—As the En Soph is invisible and exalted, it is the root of

both faith and unbelief. (Ibid.)

ii. Proposition.—The Sephiroth are the medium between the absolute En

Soph and the real world.

Proof.—As the real world is limited and not perfect, it cannot directly

proceed from the En Soph, still the En Soph must exercise his influence

over it, or his perfection would cease. Hence the Sephiroth, which, in

their intimate connection with the En Soph, are perfect, and in their

severance are imperfect, must be the medium. (Answer 3.)

Scholion.—Since all existing things originated by means of the

Sephiroth, there are a higher, a middle, and a lower degree of the real

world. (Vide infra, Proposition 6.)

iii. Proposition.—There are ten intermediate Sephiroth.

Proof.—All bodies have three dimensions, each of which repeats the

other (3 × 3); and by adding thereunto space generally, we obtain the

number ten. As the Sephiroth are the potencies of all that is limited

they must be ten. (Answer 4).

(a) Scholion.—The number ten does not contradict the absolute unity of

the En Soph, as one is the basis of all numbers, plurality proceeds

from unity, the germs contain the development, just as fire, flame,

sparks and colour have one basis, though they differ from one another.

(Answer 6.)

(b) Scholion.—Just as cogitation or thought, and even the mind as a

cogitated object, is limited, becomes concrete and has a measure,

although pure thought proceeds from the En Soph; so limit, measure, and

concretion are the attributes of the Sephiroth. (Answer 7.)

4. Proposition.—The Sephiroth are emanations and not creations.

1. Proof.—As the absolute En Soph is perfect, the Sephiroth proceeding

therefrom must also be perfect; hence they are not created. (Answer 5.)

2. Proof.—All created objects diminish by abstraction; the Sephiroth do

not lessen, as their activity never ceases; hence they cannot be

created. (Ibid.)

Scholion.—The first Sephira was in the En Soph as a power before it

became a reality; then the second Sephira emanated as a potency for the

intellectual world, and afterwards the other Sephiroth emanated for the

sensuous and material world. This, however, does not imply a prius and

posterius or a gradation in the En Soph, but just as a light whose

kindled lights which shine sooner and later and variously, so it

embraces all in a unity. (Answer 8.)

5. Proposition.—The Sephiroth are both active and passive (‏מקביל

ומתקבל‎).

Proof.—As the Sephiroth do not set aside the unity of the En Soph, each

one of them must receive from its predecessor, and impart to its

successor—i.e., be receptive and imparting. (Answer 9.)

6. Proposition.—The first Sephira is called Inscrutable Height (‏רום

מעלה‎); the second, Wisdom (‏חכמה‎); the third, Intelligence (‏בינה‎);

the fourth, Love (‏חסד‎); the fifth, Justice (‏פחד‎); the sixth, Beauty

(‏תפארת‎); the seventh, Firmness (‏נצח‎); the eighth, Splendour

(‏הוד‎); the ninth, the Righteous is the Foundation of the World (‏צדיק

יסוד עולם‎); and the tenth, Righteousness (‏צדק‎).

(a) Scholion.—The first three Sephiroth form the world of thought; the

second three the world of soul; and the four last the world of

body—thus corresponding to the intellectual, moral, and material

worlds. (Answer 10.)

(b) Scholion.—The first Sephira stands in relation to the soul,

inasmuch as it is called a unity (‏יחידה‎); the second, inasmuch as it

is denominated living (‏חיה‎); the third, inasmuch as it is termed

spirit (‏רוח‎); the fourth, inasmuch as it is called vital principle

(‏גפש‎); the fifth, inasmuch as it is denominated soul (‏נשמה‎); the

sixth operates on the blood, the seventh on the bones, the eighth on

the veins, the ninth on the flesh, and the tenth on the skin. (Ibid.)

(c) Scholion.—The first Sephira is like the concealed light, the second

like sky-blue, the third like yellow, the fourth like white, the fifth

like red, the sixth like white-red, the seventh like whitish-red, the

eighth like reddish-white, the ninth like

white-red-whitish-red-reddish-white, and the tenth is like the light

reflecting all colours. [74]

The gradation of the Sephiroth is as follows—

i

‏רום מעלה‎

/ \

/ \

iii ii

‏בינה‎ ‏חכמה‎

| |

| |

v vi iv

‏פחד‎ ‏תפארת‎ ‏חסד‎

| | |

| | |

viii ix vii

‏הוד‎ ‏יסוד עולם‎ ‏נצח‎

|

|

x

‏צדק‎

For this date of the Kabbalah (i.e., 1150–1190) we have the testimony

of some of the earliest and most intelligent Kabbalists themselves.

Thus R. Joseph b. Abraham Gikatilla (born about 1247, and died 1307)

most distinctly tells us that R. Isaac the Blind, of Posquiers (flour.

circa 1190–1210), the teacher of R. Azariel, was the first who taught

the doctrines of this theosophy. [75] R. Bechja b. Asher, another

Kabbalist who lived soon after this system was made known, in his

commentary on the Pentateuch, which he composed A.D. 1291, styles R.

Isaac the Blind, as the Father of the Kabbalah. [76] Shem Tob b.

Abraham Ibn Gaon (born 1283), another ancient Kabbalist, in attempting

to trace a Kabbalistic explanation of a passage in the Bible to its

fountain head, goes back to R. Isaac as the primary source, and

connects him immediately with the prophet Elias, who is said to have

revealed the mysteries of this theosophy to this corypheus of the

Kabbalah. [77] Whilst the author of the Kabbalistic work entitled

‏מערכת אלהות‎ the contemporary of R. Solomon b. Abraham b. Adereth

(flour. A.D. 1260), frankly declares that “the doctrine of the En Soph

and the ten Sephiroth is neither to be found in the Law, Prophets, or

Hagiographa, nor in the writings of the Rabbins of blessed memory, but

rests solely upon signs which are scarcely perceptible.” [78]

It has indeed been supposed that covert allusions to the Sephiroth are

to be found in the Talmud. If this could be proved, the date of the

Kabbalah would have to be altered from the twelfth to the second or

third century after Christ. An examination, however, of the passage in

question, upon which this opinion is based, will show how thoroughly

fanciful it is. The passage is as follows—“The Rabbins propound, at

first the name of twelve letters was communicated to every one, but

when the profane multiplied, it was only communicated to the most pious

of the priests, and these pre-eminently pious priests absorbed it from

their fellow priests in the chant. It is recorded that R. Tarphon said,

I once went up the orchestra in the Temple after my maternal uncle,

and, bending forward my ear to a priest, I heard how he absorbed it

from his fellow priests in the chant. R. Jehudah said in the name of

Rab, the divine name of forty-two letters is only communicated to such

as are pious, not easily provoked, not given to drinking, and are not

self opinionated. He who knows this name and preserves it in purity, is

beloved above, cherished below, respected by every creature, and is

heir of both worlds—the world that now is, and the world to come.”

(Babylon Kiddushin, 71 a.) Upon this the celebrated Maimonides (born

1135, died 1204) remarks—“Now everyone who has any intelligence knows

that the forty-two letters cannot possibly make one word, and that they

must therefore have composed several words. There is no doubt that

these words conveyed certain ideas, which were designed to bring man

nearer to the true conception of the Divine essence, through the

process we have already described. These words, composed of numerous

letters, have been designated as a single name, because like all

accidental proper names they indicate one single object; and to make

the object more intelligible several words are employed, as many words

are sometimes used to express one single thing. This must be well

understood, that they taught the ideas indicated by these names, and

not the simple pronunciation of the meaningless letters. Neither the

divine name composed of twelve letters, nor the one of forty-two

letters, ever obtained the title of Shem Ha-Mephorash—this being the

designation of the particular name, or the Tetragrammaton, as we have

already propounded. As to the two former names, they assuredly convey a

certain metaphysical lesson, and there is proof that one of them

contained a lesson of this kind; for the Rabbins say in the Talmud with

regard to it: ‘The name of forty-two letters is very holy, and is only

communicated to such as are pious, &c., &c., &c.’ Thus far the Talmud.

But how remote from the meaning of their author is the sense attached

to these words! Forsooth most people believe that it is simply by the

pronunciation of the mere letters, without any idea being attached to

them, that the sublime things are to be obtained, and that it is for

them that those moral qualifications and that great preparation are

requisite. But it is evident that the design of all this is to convey

certain metaphysical ideas which constitute the mysteries of the divine

Law as we have already explained. It is shewn in the metaphysical

Treatises that it is impossible to forget science—I speak of the

perception of the active intellect—and this is the meaning of the

remark in the Talmud, ‘he [to whom the divine name of forty-two letters

is communicated] retains what he learns.’” [79]

It is this passage, as well as Maimonides’ comment upon it, which led

the erudite Franck to the conclusion that the mysteries of the Kabbalah

were known to the doctors of the Talmud, and that the forty-two letters

composing the divine name are the ten Sephiroth, which, by supplying

the Vav conjunctive before the last Sephira, consist exactly of

forty-two letters, as follows:—

5 + 5 + 3 + 3 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 4 + 4 + 3 = 42

‏ויסוד‎ ‏מלכות‎ ‏הוד‎ ‏נצח‎ ‏תפארת‎ ‏גבורה‎ ‏נדולה‎ ‏בינה‎ ‏חכמה‎ ‏כתר‎

But Franck, like many other writers, confounds mysticism with Kabbalah.

That the Jews had an extensive mysticism, embracing theosophy with its

collateral angelology and uranology, as well as christology and magic,

long before the development of the Kabbalah, and that there were a

certain class of people who specially devoted themselves to the study

of this mysticism, and who styled themselves “Men of Faith” (‏בעלי

אמונות‎), is evident from a most cursory glance at the Jewish

literature. Based upon the remark—“The secret of the Lord is with them

that fear him, and he will show them his covenant,” (Ps. xxv, 14,) some

of the most distinguished Jewish doctors in the days of Christ, and

afterwards, claimed an attainment of superhuman knowledge, communicated

to them either by a voice from heaven (‏בת קול‎) or by Elias the

prophet (Baba Mezia, 59 b; Sabbath, 77 b; Chagiga, 3 b, 10 a;

Sanhedrin, 48 b; Nidda, 20 b; Joma, 9 b). The sages had also secret

doctrines about the hexahemeron (‏מעשה בראשית‎) and the Vision of

Ezekiel = Theosophy (‏מעשה מרכבה‎), “which were only communicated to

presidents of courts of justice and those who were of a careful heart”

(Chagiga, 12 a–16 a). Coeven with this are the mysteries connected with

the different letters of the several divine names (Kiddushin, 71 a).

Those who were deemed worthy to be admitted into these secrets could at

any moment call into existence new creations either in the animal or

vegetable kingdom (Sanhedrin, 65 b, 67 b; Jerusalem Sanhedrin, vii);

they could fly in the air, heal the sick, drive out evil spirits, and

suspend the laws of nature, by sundry mystical transpositions and

commutations of the letters composing the divine names, which they

wrote down on slips of vellum or pieces of paper and called “amulets”

(‏קמיעות‎). This mysticism and the literature embodying it began to

develop themselves more fully and to spread more extensively from the

end of the eighth and the commencement of the ninth centuries. Towards

the close of the eighth century came into existence

1. The celebrated mystical work entitled the Alphabet of Rabbi Akiba,

which alternately treats each letter of the Hebrew Alphabet as

representing an idea as an abbreviation for a word (‏נוטריקון‎), and as

the symbol of some sentiment, according to its peculiar form, in order

to attach to those letters moral, theoanthropic, angelogical and

mystical notions. This work has recently been reprinted in two

recensions in Jellinek’s Beth Ha-Midrash, vol. iii, p. 12–64, Leipzig,

1855.

2. The Book of Enoch which describes the glorification of Enoch and his

transformation into the angel Metatron, regarding him as ‏ידו״ד הקטון‎

the Minor Deity, in contradistinction to ‏ידו״ד הגדול‎ the Great God

and which was originally a constituent part of the Alphabet of R.

Akiba. It is reprinted in Jellinek’s Beth Ha-Midrash, vol. ii, pp.

114–117. Leipzig, 1853.

3. Shiur Koma (‏שיעור קומה‎), or the Dimensions of the Deity, which

claims to be a revelation from the angel Metatron to R. Ishmael, and

describes the size of the body and the sundry members of the Deity. It

is given in the Book Raziel (‏ספר רזיאל‎) of Eleazer b. Jehudah of

Worms, printed at Amsterdam, 1701, and at Warsaw, 1812.

4. The Palaces (‏היכלות‎). This mystical document opens with an

exaltation of those who are worthy to see the chariot throne (‏צפיית

המרכבה‎), declaring that they know whatever happens and whatever is

about to happen in the world; that he who offends them will be severely

punished; and that they are so highly distinguished as not to be

required to rise before any one except a king, a high priest, and the

Sanhedrim. It then celebrates the praises of Almighty God and his

chariot throne; describes the dangers connected with seeing this

chariot throne (‏מרכבה‎); gives an episode from the history of the

martyrs and the Roman emperor Lupinus, a description of the angels, and

of the sundry formulæ wherewith they are adjured. Whereupon follows a

description of the seven heavenly palaces, each of which is guarded by

eight angels, and into which the student of the mysterious chariot

throne may transpose himself in order to learn all mysteries, a

description of the formulæ by virtue of which these angelic guards are

obliged to grant admission into the celestial palaces, and of the

peculiar qualifications of those who desire to enter into them. The

document then concludes with detailing some hymns of praise, a

conversation between God, Israel, and the angels about those mysteries,

a knowledge of which makes man suddenly learned without any trouble,

and with a description of this mystery, which consists in certain

prayers and charms. This mystical production has also been reprinted in

Jellinek’s valuable Beth Ha-Midrash, vol. iii, pp. 83–108.

These mystical treatises constitute the centre around which cluster all

the productions of this school, which gradually came into existence in

the course of time. So numerous became the disciples of mysticism in

the twelfth century, and so general became the belief in their power of

performing miraculous cures, driving out evil spirits, &c., &c., by

virtue of charms consisting of the letters composing the divers divine

names transposed and commuted in mystical forms, that the celebrated

Maimonides found it necessary to denounce the system. “We have one

divine name only,” says he, “which is not derived from His attributes,

viz., the Tetragrammaton, for which reason it is called Shem

Ha-Mephorash (‏שם המפורש‎). Believe nothing else, and give no credence

to the nonsense of the writers of charms and amulets (‏כותבי הקמיעות‎),

to what they tell you or to what you find in their foolish writings

about the divine names, which they invent without any sense, calling

them appellations of the Deity (‏שמות‎), and affirming that they

require holiness and purity and perform miracles. All these things are

fables: a sensible man will not listen to them, much less believe in

them.” (More Nebuchim, i, 61.)

But this mysticism, with its thaumaturgy, though espoused by later

Kabbalists and incorporated into their writings, is perfectly distinct

from the Kabbalah in its first and pure form, and is to be

distinguished by the fact that it has no system, knows nothing of the

speculations of the En Soph, the ten Sephiroth, the doctrine of

emanations, and the four worlds, which are the essential and peculiar

elements of the Kabbalah. As to Franck’s ingenious hypothesis, based

upon the same number of letters constituting a divine name, mentioned

in the Talmud, and the ten Sephiroth, we can only say that the

Kabbalists themselves never claimed this far-fetched identity, and that

Ignatz Stern has shown (Ben Chananja, iii, p. 261), that the Sohar

itself takes the ten divine names mentioned in the Bible, which it

enumerated in vol. iii, 11 a, and which it makes to correspond to the

ten Sephiroth, to be the sacred name composed of forty-two letters,

viz.:—

4 + 2 + 2 + 5 + 4 + 5 + 2 + 5 + 2 + 4 + 3 + 4 = 42

‏אדני‎ ‏חי‎ ‏אל‎ ‏צבאות‎ ‏ידוד‎ ‏אלדים‎ ‏אל‎ ‏ידויד‎ ‏יה‎ ‏אהיה‎ ‏אשר‎ ‏אהיה‎

Having ascertained its date, we now come to the origin of the Kabbalah.

Nothing can be more evident than that the cardinal and distinctive

tenets of the Kabbalah in its original form, as stated at the beginning

of the second part of this Essay, are derived from Neo-Platonism. Any

doubt upon this subject must be relinquished when the two systems are

compared. The very expression En Soph (‏אין סוף‎) which the Kabbalah

uses to designate the Incomprehensible One, is foreign, and is

evidently an imitation of the Greek ἄπειρος. The speculations about the

En Soph, that he is superior to actual being, thinking and knowing, are

thoroughly Neo-Platonic (ἐπέκεινα οὐσίας, ἐνεργίας, νοῦ καὶ νοήσεως);

and R. Azariel, whose work, as we have seen, is the first Kabbalistic

production, candidly tells us that in viewing the Deity as purely

negative, and divesting him of all attributes, he followed the opinion

of the philosophers. [80] When R. Azariel moreover tells us that “the

En Soph can neither be comprehended by the intellect, nor described in

words; for there is no letter or word which can grasp him,” we have

here almost the very words of Proclus, who tells us that, “although he

is generally called the unity (τὸ ἕν) 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 (ἄῤῥητος, ἄγνωστος), the inexpressible, the unknown.”

(Theol. Plat. ii, 6.)

The Kabbalah propounds that the En Soph, not being an object of

cognition, made his existence known in the creation of the world by the

Sephiroth, or Emanations, or Intelligences. So Neo-Platonism. The

Sephiroth are divided in the Kabbalah into a trinity of triads

respectively denominated ‏עולם השכל‎ the Intellectual World, ‏עולם

הנפש‎ the Sensuous World, and ‏עולם הטבע‎ the Material World, which

exactly corresponds to the three triads of Neo-Platonism νοῦς, ψύχη,

and φύσις. The Kabbalah teaches that these Sephiroth are both infinite

and perfect, and finite and imperfect, in so far as the source from

which they emanate imparts or withholds his fulness from them.

Neo-Platonism also teaches that “every emanation, though less perfect

than that from which it emanates, has yet a similarity with it, and, so

far as this similarity goes, remains in it, departing from it so far as

it is unlike, but as far as possible being one with it and remaining in

it.” [81] Even the comparison between the emanation of the Sephiroth

from the En Soph, and the rays proceeding from light to describe the

immanency and perfect unity of the two, is the same as the Neo-Platonic

figure employed to illustrate the emanations from one principium (οἷον

ἐκ φωτὸς τὴν ἐξ αὐτοῦ περίλαμψιν).

III.

It now remains for us to describe the development of the Kabbalah, to

point out the different schools into which its followers are divided,

and to detail the literature which this theosophy called into existence

in the course of time. The limits of this Essay demand that this should

be done as briefly as possible.

The great land mark in the development of the Kabbalah is the birth of

the Sohar, which divides the history of this theosophy into two

periods, viz., the pre-Sohar period and the post-Sohar period. During

these two periods different schools developed themselves, which are

classified by the erudite historian, Dr. Graetz, as follows:— [82]

I.—THE SCHOOL OF GERONA, so called from the fact that the founders of

it were born in this place and established the school in it. To this

school, which is the cradle of the Kabbalah, belong

1. Isaac the Blind (flour. 1190–1210), denominated the Father of the

Kabbalah. His productions have become a prey to time, and only a few

fragments have survived as quotations in other theosophic works. From

these we learn that he espoused the despised doctrine of metempsychosis

as an article of creed, and that from looking into a man’s face, he

could tell whether the individual possessed a new soul from the

celestial world of spirits, or whether he had an old soul which has

been migrating from body to body and has still to accomplish its purity

before its return to rest in its heavenly home.

2. Azariel and Ezra, disciples of Isaac the Blind. The former of these

is the author of the celebrated Commentary on the Ten Sephiroth, which

is the first Kabbalistic production, and of which we have given an

analysis in the second part of this Essay (vide supra, p. 176). Of Ezra

next to nothing is known beyond the fact that his great intimacy with

Azariel led some writers to identify the two names.

3. Jehudah b. Jakar, a contemporary of the foregoing Kabbalists. No

works of his have survived, and he is only known as the teacher of the

celebrated Nachmanides and from being quoted as a Kabbalistic

authority.

4. Moses Nachmanides, born in Gerona about 1195, the pupil of Azariel,

Ezra, and Jehudah Ibn Jakar. It was the conversion of this remarkable

and famous Talmudist to this newly-born Kabbalah which gave to it an

extraordinary importance and rapid spread amongst the numerous

followers of Nachmanides. It is related that, notwithstanding all the

efforts of his teachers, Nachmanides at first was decidedly adverse to

this system; and that one day the Kabbalist who most exerted himself to

convert him was caught in a house of ill fame and condemned to death.

He requested Nachmanides to visit him on the Sabbath, being the day

fixed for his execution; and when Nachmanides reproved him for his

sins, the Kabbalist declared that he was innocent, and that he would

appear at his house on this very day, after the execution, and partake

with him the Sabbath meal. He proved true to his promise, as by means

of the Kabbalistic mysteries he effected that, and an ass was executed

in his stead, and he himself was suddenly transposed into Nachmanides’

house. From that time Nachmanides avowed himself a disciple of the

Kabbalah, and was initiated into its mysteries. [83] His numerous

writings, an account of which will be found in Alexander’s edition of

Kitto’s Cyclopædia, under Nachmanides, are pervaded with the tenets of

this system. In the Introduction to his Commentary on the Pentateuch he

remarks—“We possess a faithful tradition that the whole Pentateuch

consists of names of the Holy One, blessed be he; for the words may be

divided into sacred names in another sense, so that it is to be taken

as an allegory. Thus the words—‏בראשית ברא אלהים‎ in Gen. i, 1, may be

redivided into other words, ex. gr. ‏בראש יתברא אלהים‎. In like manner

is the whole Pentateuch, which consists of nothing but transpositions

and numerals of divine names.” [84]

5. The Treatise on the Emanations (‏מסכת אצילות‎), supposed to have

been written by R. Isaac Nasir in the first half of the twelfth

century. The following is an analysis of this production. Based upon

the passage—“Jaresiah and Eliah and Zichri, the sons of Jeroham” (1

Chron. viii, 27), which names the Midrash assigns to the prophet Eliah

(Shemoth Rabba, cap. xl), this prophet is introduced as speaking and

teaching under the four names of Eliah b. Josep, Jaresiah b. Joseph,

Zechariah b. Joseph and Jeroham b. Joseph. Having stated that the

secret and profounder views of the Deity are only to be communicated to

the God-fearing, and that none but the pre-eminently pious can enter

into the temple of this higher gnosis, the prophet Elias propounds the

system of this secret doctrine, which consists in the following

maxims—“I. 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 limitation of light. II. God produced and destroyed sundry

worlds, which, like ten trees planted upon a narrow space, contend

about the sap of the soil, and finally perish altogether. III. God

manifested himself in four worlds, viz.—Atzilah, Beriah, Jetzira and

Asiah, corresponding to the Tetragrammaton ‏יהוה‎. In the Atzilatic

luminous world is the divine majesty, the Shechinah. In the Briatic

world are the souls of the saints, all the blessings, the throne of the

Deity, he who sits on it in the form of Achtenal (the crown of God, the

first Sephira), and the seven different luminous and splendid regions.

In the Jetziratic world are the sacred animals from the vision of

Ezekiel, the ten classes of angels with their princes, who are presided

over by the fiery Metatron, the spirits of men, and the accessory work

of the divine chariot. In the Assiatic world are the Ophanim, the

angels who receive 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 Synandelphon. IV.

The world was founded in wisdom and understanding (Prov. iii, 19), and

God in his knowledge originated fifty gates of understanding. V. God

created the world by means of the ten Sephiroth, which are both the

agencies and qualities of the Deity. The ten Sephiroth are called

Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence, Mercy, Fear, Beauty, Victory, Majesty and

Kingdom: they are ideal and stand above the concrete world.” [85]

6. Jacob ben Sheshet of Gerona (flour. 1243). He wrote a Kabbalistic

Treatise in rhymed prose, entitled ‏שער השמים‎ the Gate of Heaven,

after Gen. xxviii, 17. It was first published by Gabriel Warshawer in

his collection of eight Kabbalistic Essays, called ‏ספר לקוטימ בקבלה‎.

Warsaw, 1798. It forms the third Essay in this collection, and is

erroneously entitled ‏לקוטי שם טוב‎ the Collection of Shem Tob. It has

now been published under its proper title, from a codex by Mordecai

Mortera, in the Hebrew Essays and Reviews, entitled Ozar Nechmad (‏אוצר

נחמד‎) vol. iii, p. 153, &c. Vienna, 1860.

The characteristic feature of this school, which is the creative

school, is that it for the first time established and developed the

doctrine of the En Soph (‏אין סוף‎), the Sephiroth (‏ספירות‎) or

Emanations, metempsychosis (‏סוד העבור‎) with the doctrine of

retribution (‏סוד הגמול‎) belonging thereto, and a peculiar

christology, whilst the Kabbalistic mode of exegesis is still

subordinate in it.

II.—THE SCHOOL OF SEGOVIA, so called because it was founded by Jacob of

Segovia, and its disciples were either natives of this place or lived

in it. The chief representatives of this school are—

1, Isaac, and 2, Jacob, junior, the two sons of Jacob Segovia, and 3,

Moses b. Simon of Burgos, who are only known by sundry fragments

preserved in Kabbalistic writings.

4. Todras b. Joseph Ha-Levi Abulafia, born 1234, died circa 1305. This

celebrated Kabbalist occupied a distinguished position as physician and

financier in the court of Sancho IV, King of Castile, and was a great

favourite of Queen Maria de Moline; he formed one of the cortége when

this royal pair met Philip IV, the Fair, King of France in Bayonne

(1290), and his advocacy of this theosophy secured for the doctrines of

the Kabbalah a kindly reception. His works on the Kabbalah are—(a) An

Exposition of the Talmudic Hagadoth, entitled ‏אוצר הכבוד‎, (b) A

Commentary on Ps. xix, and (c) A Commentary on the Pentateuch, in which

he propounds the tenets of the Kabbalah. These works, however, have not

as yet been printed. [86]

5. Shem Tob b. Abraham Ibn Gaon, born 1283, died circa 1332, who wrote

many Kabbalistic works.

6. Isaac of Akko (flour. 1290) author of the Kabbalistic Commentary on

the Pentateuch, entitled ‏מאירת עינים‎ not yet printed, with the

exception of an extract published by Jellinek. [87]

The characteristic of this school is that it is devoted to exegesis,

and its disciples endeavoured to interpret the Bible and the Hagada in

accordance with the doctrines of the Kabbalah.

III.—THE QUASI-PHILOSOPHIC SCHOOL of Isaac b. Abraham Ibn-Latif, or

Allatif. He was born about 1270 and died about 1390. Believing that to

view Judaism from an exclusively philosophical stand-point does not

shew “the right way to the sanctuary,” he endeavoured to combine

philosophy with Kabbalah. “He laid greater stress than his predecessors

on the close connection and intimate union between the spiritual and

material world, between the Creator and the creation—God is in all and

everything is in him. The human soul rises to the world-soul in earnest

prayer, and unites itself therewith ‘in a kiss,’ operates upon the

Deity and brings down a divine blessing upon the nether world. But as

every mortal is not able to offer such a spiritual and divinely

operative prayer, the prophets, who were the most perfect men, had to

pray for the people, for they alone knew the power of prayer. Isaac

Allatif illustrated the unfolding and self-revelation of the Deity in

the world of spirits by mathematical forms. The mutual relation thereof

is the same as that of the point extending and thickening into a line,

the line into the flat, the flat into the expanded body. Henceforth the

Kabbalists used points and lines in their mystical diagrams as much as

they employed the numerals and letters of the alphabet. [88]

IV. THE SCHOOL OF ABULAFIA, founded by Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia, is

represented by—

1. Abulafia, the founder of it, who was born at Saragossa in 1240, and

died circa 1292. For thirty years he devoted himself to the study of

the Bible, the Talmud, philology, philosophy, and medicine, making

himself master of the philosophical writings of Saadia, Bachja b.

Joseph, Maimonides, and Antoli, as well as of the Kabbalistic works

which were then in existence. Finding no comfort in philosophy, he gave

himself entirely to the mysteries of the Kabbalah in their most

fantastic extremes, as the ordinary doctrine of the Sephiroth did not

satisfy him. The ordinary doctrine of the Sephiroth he simply regarded

as a ten unity instead of the Christian three unity. Through divine

inspiration, he discovered a higher Kabbalah, by means of which the

soul can not only hold the most intimate communion with the world-soul,

but obtain the prophetic faculty. The simple intercourse with the world

of spirits, which is effected by separating the words of Holy Writ, and

especially those of the divine name, into letters, and by regarding

each letter as a distinct word (‏נוטריקון‎), or by transposing the

component parts of words in every possible way to obtain thereby

peculiar expressions (‏צירוף‎), or by taking the letters of each word

as numerals (‏גמטריא‎), is not sufficient. To have the prophetic

faculty and to see visions ought to be the chief aim, and these are

secured by leading an ascetic life, by banishing all worldly feelings,

by retiring into a quiet closet, by dressing oneself in white apparel,

by putting on the fringed garment and the phylacteries; by sanctifying

the soul so as to be fit to hold converse with the Deity; by

pronouncing the letters composing the divine name with certain

modulations of the voice and divine pauses; by exhibiting the divine

names in various diagrams under divers energetic movements, turnings,

and bendings of the body, till the voice gets confused and the heart is

filled with fervour. When one has gone through these practices and is

in such a condition, 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 revelations follow as a matter of course.

He went to Italy, published, in Urbino (1279), a prophecy, in which he

records his conversations with the Deity, calling himself Raziel and

Zechariah, because these names are numerically the same as his own

name, Abraham, [89] and preached the doctrines of the Kabbalah. In 1281

he had a call from God to convert the Pope, Martin IV, to Judaism, for

which he was thrown into prison, and narrowly escaped a martyr’s death

by fire. Seeing that his Holiness refused to embrace the Jewish

religion, Abulafia went to Sicily, accompanied by several of his

disciples. In Messina another revelation from God was vouchsafed to

him, announcing to him that he was the Messiah, which he published

1284. This apocalypse also announced that the restoration of Israel

would take place in 1296; and so great was the faith which the people

reposed in it, that thousands prepared themselves for returning to

Palestine. Those, however, who did not believe in the Messiahship and

in the Kabbalah of Abulafia, raised such a violent storm of opposition

against him, that he had to escape to the island of Comino, near Malta

(circa 1288), where he remained for some time, and wrote sundry

Kabbalistic works.

His Kabbalistic system may be gathered from the following analysis of

his Rejoinder to R. Solomon ben Abraham ben Adereth, who attacked his

doctrines and Messianic as well as prophetic pretensions. “There are,”

says Abulafia, “four sources of knowledge—I, The five senses, or

experimental maxims; II, Abstract numbers or à priori maxims; III, The

generally acknowledged maxims, or consensus communis; and IV,

Transmitted doctrines or traditional maxims. The Kabbalistic tradition,

which goes back to Moses, is divisible into two parts, the first of

which is superior to the second in value, but subordinate to it in the

order of study. The first part is occupied with the knowledge of the

Deity, obtained by means of the doctrine of the Sephiroth, as

propounded in the Book Jetzira. The followers of this part are related

to those philosophers who strive to know God from his works, and the

Deity stands before them objectively as a light beaming into their

understanding. These, moreover, give to the Sephiroth sundry names to

serve as signs for recognition; and some of this class differ but

little from Christians, inasmuch as they substitute a decade for the

triad, which they identify with God, and which they learned in the

school of Isaac the Blind.

“The second and more important part strives to know God by means of the

twenty-two letters of the alphabet, from which, together with the vowel

points and accents, those sundry divine names are combined, which

elevate the Kabbalists to the degree of prophecy, drawing out their

spirit, and causing it to be united with God and to become one with the

Deity. This is gradually effected in the following manner. The ten

Sephiroth sublimate gradually to the upper Sephira, called thought,

crown, or primordial air, which is the root of all the other Sephiroth,

and reposes in the creative En Soph. In the same manner all the

numerals are to be traced back to one, and all the trees, together with

their roots and branches, are converted into their original earth as

soon as they are thrown into the fire. To the ten Sephiroth, consisting

of upper, middle and lower, correspond the letters of the alphabet,

which are divided into three rows of ten letters each, the final

letters inclusive, beginning and ending with Aleph; as well as the

human body, with its head, the two arms, loins, testicles, liver,

heart, brain, all of which unite into a higher unity and become one in

the active νοῦς, which in its turn again unites itself with God, as the

unity to which everything must return.

“The ten Sephiroth are after a higher conception, to be traced to a

higher triad, which correspond to the letters Aleph, Beth, Gimmel, and

the three principles combined in man, the vital in the heart, the

vegetable in the liver, and the pleasurable in the brain, and also form

themselves in a higher unity. It is in this way that the Kabbalist who

is initiated into the prophetic Kabbalah may gradually concentrate all

his powers direct to one point to God, and unite himself with the

Deity, for which purpose the ideas developed in unbroken sequence, from

the permutations of numbers and letters, will serve him as steps upon

which to ascend to God.” [90]

Abulafia wrote no less than twenty-six grammatical, exegetical,

mystical and Kabbalistic works, and twenty-two prophetic treatises. And

though these productions are of great importance to the history of the

literature and development of the Kabbalah, yet only two of them, viz.,

the above-named Epistle to R. Solomon and the Epistle to R. Abraham,

entitled the Seven Paths of the Law (‏סוע נתיבות התורה‎), have as yet

been published.

2. Joseph Gikatilla b. Abraham (flour. 1260), disciple of Abulafia. He

wrote in the interests and defence of this school the following

works:—i. A Kabbalistic work entitled the Garden of Nuts (‏גנת אגוז‎),

consisting of three parts, and treating respectively on the import of

the divine names, on the mysteries of the Hebrew letters, and on the

vowel points. It was published at Hanau, 1615. ii. The import of the

vowel points entitled the Book on Vowels (‏ספר הניקוד‎), or the Gate to

the Points (‏שער הניקוד‎), published in the collection of seven

treatises, called the Cedars of Lebanon (‏ארזי לבנון‎), Venice, 1601,

and Cracow, 1648, of which it is the third treatise. iii. The Mystery

of the Shining Metal (‏סוד החשמל‎), being a Kabbalistic exposition of

the first chapter of Ezekiel, also published in the preceding seven

treatises, of which it is the fourth. iv. The Gate of Light (‏שער

אורה‎), being a treatise on the names of the Deity and the ten

Sephiroth, first published in Mantua, 1561; then Riva de Trento, 1561;

Cracow, 1600. A Latin version of it by Knorr von Rosenroth is given in

the first part of the Kabbala Denudata, Sulzbach, 1677–78. v. The Gates

of Righteousness (‏שערי צדק‎), on the ten divine names answering to the

ten Sephiroth, published at Riva de Trento, 1561. vi. Mysteries

(‏סודות‎) connected with sundry Pentateuchal ordinances, published by

Jechiel Ashkenazi in his Temple of the Lord (‏היכל יהוה‎), Venice and

Dantzic, 1596–1606. [91]

From the above description it will be seen that the characteristic

features of this school are the stress which its followers lay on the

extensive use of the exegetical rules called Gematria (‏גמטריא‎),

Notaricon (‏נוטריקון‎), and Ziruph (‏צירוף‎), in the exposition of the

divine names and Holy Writ, as well as in the claim to prophetic gifts.

It must, however, be remarked that in this employment of commutations,

permutations and reduction of each letter in every word to its

numerical value, Abulafia and his followers are not original.

V. THE SOHAR SCHOOL, which is a combination and absorption of the

different features and doctrines of all the previous schools, without

any plan or method.

1236–1315. Less than a century after its birth the Kabbalah became

known among Christians through the restless efforts of Raymond Lully,

the celebrated scholastic metaphysician and experimental chemist. This

Doctor illuminatus, as he was styled, in consequence of his great

learning and piety, was born about 1236 at Palma, in the island of

Majorca. He relinquished the military service and writing erotic poetry

when about thirty, and devoted himself to the study of theology. Being

inspired with an ardent zeal for the conversion of the Mohammedans and

the Jews to Christianity, he acquired a knowledge of Arabic and Hebrew

for this purpose. In pursuing his Hebrew studies Lully became

acquainted with the mysteries of the Kabbalah, and, instead of

converting his Kabbalistic teachers, he embraced the doctrine of “the

identity of the Deity and nature;” [92] and there is very little doubt

that the Kabbalistic method of palming their notions on the text of

Scripture, by means of the Gematria, Notaricon and Ziruph, suggested to

him the invention of the Great Art (Ars Magna). It is therefore not to

be wondered at that he had the loftiest conception of the Kabbalah,

that he regarded it as a divine science and as a genuine revelation

whose light is revealed to a rational soul. [93] It cannot be said that

Lully derived as much benefit from the Mohammedans, for after making

three perilous journeys to Africa to bring the sons of Ishmael to the

truth of Christianity, he was stoned to death by them, June 30, 1315.

The new era in the development of the Kabbalah, created by the

appearance of the Sohar, has continued to the present day, for nearly

all those who have since espoused the doctrines of this theosophy have

made the Sohar their text-book, and the principal writers have

contented themselves more or less with writing commentaries on this

gigantic pseudonym.

1290–1350. Foremost among these is Menahem di Recanti, who was born in

Recanti (Latin Recinetum) about 1290. He wrote, when about forty years

of age (1330), a commentary on the Pentateuch, which is little else

than a commentary on the Sohar. This commentary—which was first

published by Jacob b. Chajim in Bomberg’s celebrated printing

establishment, Venice, 1523, then again, ibid., 1545, and in Lublin,

1595—has been translated into Latin by the famous Pico della Mirandola.

[94]

1320. At the beginning of the fourteenth century Joseph b. Abraham Ibn

Wakkar (flour. 1290–1340) endeavoured to reconcile this theosophy with

philosophy, and to this end wrote a Treatise on the cardinal doctrines

of the Kabbalah, which is regarded as one of the best if not the best

introductory compendium. This production, which is unpublished, and a

MS. of which exists in the Bodleian Library (Codex Land. 119; described

by Uri No. 384), consists of four parts or Gates, subdivided into

chapters, as follows:—

Gate I, which is entitled, On the views of the Kabbalists respecting

the Primary Cause, blessed be he, and the Sephiroth, as well as their

names and order, consists of eight chapters, treating respectively on

the fundamental doctrines of the emanations of the Sephiroth from the

First Cause, as transmitted from Abraham and indicated in the Bible and

the Rabbinic writings in Gematrias (cap. i); on the unity of the

Sephiroth (cap. ii); the relation of the Sephiroth to each other, the

First Cause itself being a trinity consisting of a threefold light, the

number of the Sephiroth being from 10, 20, 30 and so on up to 310,

stating that there is a difference of opinion amongst the Kabbalists

whether the Primary Cause is within or without the Sephiroth (cap.

iii); on the three worlds of the Sephiroth (cap. iv); on the

beginninglessness of the first and necessary first Emanation,

investigating the question as to how many Sephiroth this property

extends (cap. v); on the subordination and order of the Sephiroth and

the diagrams, mentioning, in addition to the three known ones, the

figure of bridegroom and bride under the nuptial canopy (cap. vi); on

the names of the Deity and the angels derived from the Sephiroth (cap.

vii); on the unclean (demon) Sephiroth or Hells (‏קליפות‎) and their

relation to the pure ones (cap. viii).

Gate II, which is entitled, On the influence of the Sephiroth on the

government of the world (Providence), consists of six chapters,

treating respectively on the relation of the Sephiroth to the

fundamental characteristics of Providence, such as mercy, justice, &c.

(cap. i); on the corresponding relations of the unclean Sephiroth (cap.

ii); on the influence of the Sephiroth on men, especially on the Hebrew

race, and their vicissitudes (caps. iii and iv); on the possibility of

the Sephiroth withholding this influence (cap. v); and on the relation

of the Sephiroth to the days of the week (cap. vi).

Gate III, which is entitled, On the names of the Sephiroth among the

Kabbalists, and which is the most extensive part of the work, consists

of seven chapters, treating respectively on the names of the Deity,

giving the sundry explanations of ‏אהיה אשר אהיה‎ current among the

Jewish philosophers (cap. i); on the names of the Sephiroth, stating

that there is no uniform principle among the Kabbalists; that the

appellations are derived from the Bible, the Talmud and later literati;

that the greatest difference of opinion prevails among the Kabbalists

as to the mode in which these ancient sources are to be interpreted,

recommending the following works as reliable guides: the Talmud,

Midrash Rabboth, Siphra, Siphri, Bahir, Perakim of R. Eliezer, the

opinions of Nachmanides and Todros Ha-Levi Abulafia of honoured memory,

but guarding against the Sohar, because “many blunders occur therein”

(cap. ii); on the import of the names of the Sephiroth, with examples

of interpretation of the Bible and Talmud to serve as aids for the

student who is to prosecute the work according to these examples,

mentioning three explanations of the word Sephira (cap. iii); on the

divine names occurring in the Pentateuch (cap. iv); on the masculine

and feminine nature of the Sephiroth (cap. v); this is followed (cap.

vi) by an alphabetical dictionary of the names of the Sephiroth, giving

under each letter the Biblical and the corresponding Talmudic

appellation appropriated by the Kabbalists to the Sephiroth; and (cap.

vii) by an index of the names of each Sephira in alphabetical order

without any explanation.

Gate IV, which is entitled On the positive proofs of the existence of

the Kabbalah, describes the author’s own views of the Kabbalistic

system, and submits that the Kabbalist has a preference over the

philosopher and astronomer by virtue of the acknowledged maxim that he

has a thorough knowledge of a thing who knows most details about it.

Now the Kabbalists build their system upon the distinction of words,

letters, &c., &c., in the sacred writings; and they also explain

certain formularies among the Rabbins, which have undoubtedly a

recondite sense. [95]

1370–1500. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Kabbalah

took deep root in Spain. Its followers, who were chiefly occupied with

the study of the Sohar, with editing some older works, and with writing

Kabbalistic commentaries on the Bible, became more and more aggressive,

denouncing in unmeasured terms their co-religionists who could not see

the advantages of this secret doctrine. Thus Abraham b. Isaac of

Granada—who wrote (1391–1409) a Kabbalistic work entitled The Covenant

of Peace, discussing the mysteries of the names of God and the angels,

of permutations, commutations, the vowel points and accents—declares

that he who does not acknowledge God in the manner of the Kabbalah sins

unwittingly, is not regarded by God, has not his special providence,

and, like the abandoned and the wicked, is left to fate. [96]

Similar in import and tone are the writings of Shem Tob Ibn Shem Tob

(died 1430). In his Treatise, entitled the Book of Faithfulness, which

is an attack on the Jewish philosophers Ibn Ezra, Maimonides, Levi b.

Gershon, &c., and a defence of the Kabbalah, Shem Tob denounces the

students of philosophy as heretics, and maintains that the salvation of

Israel depends upon the Kabbalah. He also wrote Homilies on the

Pentateuch, the Feasts and Fasts, &c., in which the Kabbalistic

doctrines are fully propounded. [97]

Moses Botarel or Botarelo, also a Spaniard, wrote at this time (1409)

his commentary on the famous Book Jetzira, an analysis of which is

given in the foregoing part of this Essay (vide supra, p. 147, &c.)

Unlike Abraham of Granada and Shem Tob, his two contemporary champions

of the Kabbalah, he praises philosophy, speaks of Aristotle as of a

prophet, and maintains that philosophy and the Kabbalah propound

exactly the some doctrines, and that they only differ in language and

in technical terms. In this commentary, which he wrote to instruct the

Christian scholar Maestro Juan in the Kabbalah, Botarel shows how, by

fasting, ablutions, prayer, invocation of divine and angelic names, a

man may have such dreams as shall disclose to him the secrets of the

future. In confirmation of his opinions he quotes such ancient

authorities as Rab Ashi, Saadia Gaon, Hai Gaon, &c., whom the Kabbalah

claims as its great pillars. [98] It is almost needless to remark that

these men lived long before the birth of the Kabbalah, and that this

mode of palming comparatively modern opinions upon great men of remote

ages, has also been adopted by advocates of other systems who were

anxious to invest their views with the halo of antiquity.

As countrymen of the foregoing writers, and as exponents of the

opinions of older Kabbalists, are to be mentioned—(i) Jehudah Chajath

who was among the large number of Jews expelled from Spain in 1493, and

who wrote a commentary on the Kabbalistic work, entitled The Divine

Order; [99] and (ii) Abraham Ibn Sabba, who was banished with thousands

of his brethren from Lisbon, 1499, and who is the author of a very

extensive commentary on the Pentateuch, entitled The Bundle of Myrrh,

in which he largely avails himself of the Sohar and other earlier

Kabbalistic works. [100]

1463–1494. The Kabbalah, which soon after its birth became partially

known to Christians through Raymond Lully, was now accessible to

Christian scholars through the exertions and influence of the famous

Count John Pico di Mirandola (born in 1463). This celebrated

philosopher determined to fathom the mysteries of the Kabbalah, and for

this purpose put himself under the tuition of a Jew, R. Jochanan

Aleman, who came to Italy from Constantinople. His extraordinary

intellectual powers soon enabled Mirandola to overcome the difficulties

and to unravel the secrets of this theosophy. His labours were greatly

rewarded; for, according to his shewing, he found that [101] there is

more Christianity in the Kabbalah than Judaism; he discovered in it

proof for the doctrine of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the divinity of

Christ, original sin, the expiation thereof by Christ, the heavenly

Jerusalem, the fall of the angels, the order of the angels, purgatory

and hell-fire; in fact the same Gospel which we find in St. Paul,

Dionysius, St. Jerome and St. Augustine. As the result of his

Kabbalistic studies Mirandola published, in 1486, when only twenty-four

years of age, nine hundred Theses, which were placarded in Rome, and

which he undertook to defend in the presence of all European scholars,

whom he invited to the eternal city, promising to defray their

travelling expenses. Among these Theses was the following, “No science

yields greater proof of the divinity of Christ than magic and the

Kabbalah.” [102] Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484) was so delighted with it

that he greatly exerted himself to have Kabbalistic writings translated

into Latin for the use of divinity students. [103] Mirandola

accordingly translated the following three works: 1, Menahem di

Recanti’s Commentary on the Pentateuch, erroneously called R. Levi de

Recineto (Wolf, ibid., p. 10); 2, Eliezer of Worms’ ‏חכמת הנפש‎ de

Scientia animae; and 3, Shem Tob Falaquera’s ‏ספר המעלות‎

1455–1522. Not only did Mirandola make the Kabbalah known to the

Christians in Italy, but he was the means of introducing it into

Germany through John Reuchlin, the father of the German Reformation.

This eminent scholar,—who is also called by the Greek name Capnion

(καπνίον), or Capnio, which is a translation of his German name

Reuchlin, i.e. smoke, in accordance with the fashion of the time; just

as Gerard, signifying amiable, assumed the name of Desiderius Erasmus,

and Schwartzerth, denoting black earth, took the name of

Melanchthon,—was born at Phorzheim December 28, 1455. At the age of

seventeen he was called to the court of Baden, and received among the

court singers in consequence of his beautiful voice. His brilliant

attainments soon attracted notice, and he was sent (1473) with the

young Margrave Frederick, eldest son of Charles II, afterwards bishop

of Utrecht, to the celebrated high school of Paris. Here he acquired,

from Hermonymus of Sparta and other fugitive Greek literati, who went

to Paris after the taking of Constantinople (1453), that remarkable

knowledge of Greek which enabled him so largely to amass the Attic lore

and rendered him so famous through Europe. He went to Basle in 1474,

delivered lectures on the Latin language and the classics, and had

among his hearers nobles of high rank both from France and Germany. He

went to Tübingen in 1481, where his fame secured for him the friendship

of Eberhard the Bearded, who made him his private secretary and privy

councillor, and as such this prince took Reuchlin with him to Rome in

1482, where he made that splendid Latin oration before the Pope and the

cardinals, which elicited from his Holiness the declaration that

Reuchlin deserved to be placed among the best orators of France and

Italy. From Rome Eberhard took him to Florence, and it was here that

Reuchlin became acquainted with the celebrated Mirandola and with the

Kabbalah. But as he was appointed licentiate and assessor of the

supreme court in Stuttgard, the new residence of Eberhard, on his

return in 1484, and as the order of Dominicans elected him as their

proctor in the whole of Germany, Reuchlin had not time to enter at once

upon the study of Hebrew and Aramaic, which are the key to the

Kabbalah, and he had reluctantly to wait till 1492, when he accompanied

Eberhard to the imperial court at Ling. Here he became acquainted with

R. Jacob b. Jechiel Loanz, a learned Hebrew, and court physician of

Frederick III, from whom he learned Hebrew. [104] Whereupon Reuchlin at

once betook himself to the study of the Kabbalah, and within two years

of his beginning to learn the language in which it is written, his

first Kabbalistic treatise, entitled De Verbo Mirifico (Basle, 1494),

appeared. This treatise is of the greatest rarity, and the following

analysis of it is given by Franck. It is in the form of a dialogue

between an Epicurean philosopher named Sidonius, a Jew named Baruch,

and the author, who is introduced by his Greek name Capnio, and

consists of three books, according to the number of speakers.

Book I, the exponent of which is Baruch the Jewish Kabbalist, is

occupied with a refutation of the Epicurean doctrines; and simply

reproduces the arguments generally urged against this system, for which

reason we omit any further description of it.