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KABBALAH (late Hebrew kabbalah, gabba...

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KABBALAH (See also:late See also:Hebrew kabbalah, gabbalah) , the technical name for the See also:system of Jewish See also:theosophy which played an important See also:part in the See also:Christian See also:Church in the See also:middle ages. The See also:term primarily denotes " reception " and then " doctrines received by tradition." In the older Jewish literature the name is applied to the whole See also:body of received religious See also:doctrine with the exception of the See also:Pentateuch, thus including the Prophets and Hagiographa as well as the oral traditions ultimately embodied in the Mishnah.' It is only since the 11th or 12th. See also:century that Kabbalah has become the exclusive appellation for the renowned system of theosophy which claims to have been transmitted uninterruptedly by the mouths of the patriarchs and prophets ever since the creation of the first See also:man. The See also:cardinal doctrines of the Kabbalah embrace the nature of the Deity, the Divine emanations or Sephiroth, the See also:cosmogony, the creation of angels and man, their destiny, and the import of the revealed See also:law. According to this See also:esoteric doctrine, See also:God, who is boundless. and above everything, even above being and thinking, is called En Soph (iretpos); He is the space of the universe containing rd wav, but the universe is not his space. In this boundlessness He could not be comprehended by the See also:intellect or described in words, and as such the En Soph was in a certain sense Ayln, non-existent (Zohar, iii. 283)? To make his existence known and comprehensible, the En SOph had to become active and creative.. As creation involves intention, See also:desire, thought and See also:work, and as these are properties which imply limit and belong to a finite being, and moreover as the imperfect and circumscribed nature of this creation precludes the See also:idea of its being the See also:direct work of the See also:infinite and perfect, the En Soph had to become creative, through the See also:medium of ten Sephiroth or intelligences, which emanated from him like rays proceeding from a luminary. Now the wish to become See also:manifest and known, and hence the idea of creation, is co-eternal with the inscrutable Deity, and the first manifestation of this primordial will is called the first Sephirah or See also:emanation. This first Sephirah, this spiritual sub-stance which existed in the En Soph from all eternity, contained nine other intelligences or Sephiroth. These again emanated one from the other, the second from the first, the third from the second, and so on up to ten. 'C.

See also:

Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (1897), pp. to6 sqq., 175 seq.; W. See also:Becher, See also:Jew. Quart. Rev. xx. S72 sqq. (1908). 2 On the Zohar, " the See also:Bible of the Kabbalists," see below. pairs of Sephiroth successively emanated" (Zohar, iii. 290). These two opposite potencies, viz, the masculine See also:Wisdom or Sephirah No. 2 and the feminine Intelligence or Sephirah No. 3 are joined together by the first potency, the See also:Crown or Sephirah No.

I ; they yield the first triad of the Sephiric See also:

decade, and constitute the divine See also:head of the archetypal man. From the junction of Sephiroth Nos. 2 and 3 emanated the masculine potency Love or See also:Mercy (4) and the feminine potency See also:Justice (5), and from the junction of the latter two emanated again the uniting potency Beauty (6). Beauty, the See also:sixth Sephirah, constitutes the See also:chest in the archetypal man, and unites Love (4) and Justice (5), which constitute the divine arms, thus yielding the second triad of the Sephiric decade. From this second See also:conjunction emanated again the masculine potency Firmness (7) and the feminine potency Splendour (8), which constitute the divine legs of the archetypal man; and these sent forth See also:Foundation (9), which is the genital See also:organ and medium of See also:union between them, thus yielding the third triad in the Sephiric decade. See also:Kingdom (le), which emanated from the ninth Sephirah, encircles all the other nine, inasmuch as it is the Shechinah, the divine See also:halo, which encompasses the whole by its all-glorious presence. In their totality and unity the ten Sephiroth are not only denominated the See also:World of Sephiroth, or the World of Emanations, but, owing to the above See also:representation, are called the primordial or archetypal man (=irpwrbyovos) and the heavenly man. It is this See also:form which, as we are assured, the See also:prophet See also:Ezekiel saw in the mysterious See also:chariot (Ezek. 1-28), and of which the earthly man is a faint copy. As the three triads respectively represent intellectual, moral and See also:physical qualities, the first is called the Intellectual, the second the Moral or Sensuous, and the third the Material World. According to this theory of the archetypal man the three Sephiroth on the right-See also:hand See also:side are masculine and represent the principle of rigour, the three on the See also:left are feminine and represent the principle of mercy, and the four central or uniting Sephiroth represent the principle of mildness. Hence the right is called " the See also:Pillar of See also:Judgment," the left " the Pillar of Mercy," and the centre " the Middle Pillar." The middle Sephiroth are synecdochically used to represent the worlds or triads of which they are the uniting potencies.

Hence the Crown, the first Sephirah, which unites Wisdom and Intelligence to constitute the.first triad, is by itself denominated the Intellectual World. So Beauty is by itself described as the Sensuous World, and in this capacity is called the Sacred See also:

King or simply the King, whilst Kingdom, the tenth Sephirah, which unites all the nine Sephiroth, is used to denote the Material World, and as such is denominated the See also:Queen or the Matron. Thus a trinity of See also:units, viz, the Crown, Beauty and Kingdom, is obtained within the trinity of triads. But further, each Sephirah is as it were a trinity in itself. It (I) has its own See also:absolute See also:character, (2) receives from above, and (3) communicates to what is below. " Just as the Sacred Aged is represented by the number three, so are all the other See also:lights (Sephiroth) of a threefold nature " (Zohar, iii. 288). In this all-important doctrine of the Sephiroth, the Kabbalah insists upon the fact that these potencies are not creations of the En Soph, which would be a diminution of strength; that they form among themselves and with the En Soph a strict unity, and simply represent different aspects of the same being, just as the different rays which proceed from the See also:light, and which appear different things to the See also:eye, are only different manifestations of one and the same light; that for this See also:reason they all alike partake of the perfections of the En Soph; and that as emanations from the Infinite, the Sephiroth are infinite and perfect like the En Soph, and yet constitute the first finite things. They are infinite and perfect when the En Soph imparts his fullness to them, and finite and imperfect when that fullness is withdrawn from them. The conjunction of the Sephiroth, or, according to the See also:language of the Kabbalah, the union of the crowned King and Queen, produced the universe in their own See also:image. Worlds The came into existence before the En Soph manifested universe. himself in the human form of emanations, but they could not continue, and necessarily perished because the conditions of development which obtained with the sexual opposites of the Sephiroth did not exist. These worlds which perished are compared to See also:sparks which See also:fly out from a red-hot See also:iron beaten by a See also:hammer, and which are extinguished according to the distance Doctrine of the Sephiroth.

The ten Sephiroth, which form among themselves and with the En Soph a strict unity, and which simply represent different aspects of one and the same being, are respectively denominated (I) the Crown, (2) Wisdom, (3) Intelligence, (4) Love, (5) Justice, (6) Beauty, (7) Firmness, (8) Splendour, (9) Foundation, and (Io) Kingdom. Their See also:

evolution was as follows: " When the See also:Holy Aged, the concealed of all concealed, assumed a form, he produced everything in the form of male and See also:female, as things could not continue in any other form. Hence Wisdom, the second Sephirah, and the beginning of development, when it proceeded from the Holy Aged (another name of the first Sephirah) emanated in male and female, for Wisdom See also:expanded, and Intelligence, the third Sephirah, proceeded from it, and thus were obtained male and female, viz. Wisdom the See also:father and Intelligence the See also:mother, from whose union the other they are removed from the burning See also:mass. Creation is not' ex nihilo; it is simply a further expansion or evolution of the Sephiroth.' The world reveals and makes visible the Boundless. and the concealed of the concealed. And, though it exhibits the Deity in less splendour than its Sephiric parents exhibit the En Soph, because it is farther removed from the primordial source of light than the Sephiroth, still, as it is God manifested, all the multifarious forms in the world point out the unity which they represent. Hence nothing in the whole universe can be annihilated. Everything, spirit as well as body, must return to the source whence it emanated (Zohar, ii. 218). The universe consists of four different worlds, each of which forms a See also:separate Sephiric system of a decade of emanations. They were evolved in the following See also:order. (I) The World of Emanations, also called the Image and the Heavenly or Archetypal Man, is, as we have seen, a direct emanation from the En Soph.

Hence it is most intimately allied to the Deity, and is perfect and immutable. From the conjunction of the King and Queen (i.e. these ten Sephiroth) is produced (2) the World of Creation, or the Briatic world, also called "the See also:

Throne." Its ten Sephiroth, being farther 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 See also:matter. The See also:angel Metatron inhabits this world. He alone constitutes the world of pure spirit, and is the garment of Shaddai, i.e. the visible manifestation of the Deity. His name is numerically See also:equivalent to that of the See also:Lord (Zohar, iii. 231). He governs the visible world, preserves the See also:harmony and guides the revolutions of all the See also:spheres, and is the See also:captain of all the myriads of angelic beings. This Briatic world again gave rise to (3) the World of Formation, or Yetziratic World. Its ten Sephiroth, being still farther removed from the Primordial Source, are of a less refined substance. Still they are yet without matter. It is the See also:abode of the angels, who are wrapped in luminous garments, and who assume a sensuous form when they appear to men. The myriads of the angelic hosts who See also:people this world are divided into ten ranks, answering to the ten Sephiroth, and each one of these numerous angels is set over a different part of the universe, and derives his name from the heavenly body or See also:element which he See also:guards (Zohar, i.

42). From this world finally emanated (4) the World of See also:

Action, also called the World of Matter. Its ten Sephiroth are made up of the grosser elements of the former three worlds; they consist of material substance limited by space and perceptible to the senses in a multiplicity of forms. This world is subject to See also:constant changes and corruption, and is the dwelling of the evil See also:spirits. These, the grossest and most deficient of all forms, are also divided into ten degrees, each See also:lower than the other. The first two are nothing more than the See also:absence of all visible form and organization; the third degree is the abode of darkness; whilst the remaining seven are " the seven infernal halls," occupied by the demons, who are the incarnation of all human vices. These seven hells are subdivided into innumerable compartments corresponding to every See also:species of See also:sin, where the demons See also:torture the poor deluded human beings who have suffered themselves to be led astray whilst on See also:earth. The See also:prince of this region of darkness is Samael, the evil spirit, the See also:serpent who seduced See also:Eve. His wife is the Harlot or the Woman of Whoredom. The two are treated as one See also:person, and are called " the Beast " (Zohar, ii. 255-259, with i. 35).

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

finishing stroke till man was formed, who is the Doctrine See also:acme of the creation and the See also:microcosm. " The of Man. heavenly See also:Adam (i.e. the ten Sephiroth) who emanated from the highest primordial obscurity (i.e. the En Soph) created the earthly Adam " (Zohar, ii. 70). " Man is both the import and the highest degree of creation, for which reason he was formed on the sixth See also:day. As soon as man was created everything was See also:complete, including the upper and nether worlds, for everything is comprised in man. He unites in himself all forms " (Zohar, iii. 48). Each member of his body corresponds to a part of the visible universe. " Just as we see in the See also:firmament above, covering all things, different signs which are formed of the stars and the See also:planets, and which contain See also:secret things and profound mysteries studied by those who are See also:wise and See also:expert in these things; so there are in the skin, which is the See also:cover of the body of the son of man, and which is like the See also:sky that covers all things above, 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 the See also:reading of ' The view of a mediate creation, in the See also:place of immediate creation out of nothing, and that the mediate beings were emanations, was much influenced by See also:Solomon See also:ibn Gabirol (1021-1070)..the mysteries in the human See also:face" (Zohar, ii. 76). The human form is shaped after the four letters which constitute the Jewish See also:Tetragrammaton (q.v.; see also See also:JEHOVAH). The head is in the shape of ', the arms and the shoulders are like ;, the See also:breast like ', and the two legs with the back again resemble (Zohar, ii.

72). The souls of the whole human See also:

race pre-exist in the World of Emanations, and are all destined to inhabit human bodies. Like the Sephiroth from which it emanates, every soul has ten potencies, consisting of a trinity of triads. (1) The Spirit (neshamah), which is the highest degree of being, corresponds to and is operated upon by the Crown, which is the highest triad in the Sephiroth, and is called the Intellectual World; (2) the Soul (ru0h), which is the seat of the moral qualities, corresponds to and is operated upon by Beauty, which is the second triad in the Sephiroth, and is called the Moral World; and (3) the Cruder Soul (nephesh), which is imme-. diately connected with the body, and is the cause of its lower instincts and the See also:animal See also:life, corresponds to and is operated+ upon by Foundation, the third triad in the Sephiroth, called the Material World. Each soul See also:prior to its entering into this world consists of male and female See also:united into one being. When it descends on this earth the two parts are separated and animate two different bodies. " At the See also:time of See also: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 the left of the individual. .. 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 the soul which was his component part prior to his See also:birth " (Zohar, i. 91). The soul's destiny upon earth is to develop those perfections the germs of which are eternally implanted in it, and it ultimately must return to the infinite source from which it emanated.

Hence, if, after assuming a body and sojourning upon earth, it becomes polluted by sin and fails to acquire the experience for which it descends from See also:

heaven, it must three times reinhabit a body, till it is able to ascend in a purified See also:state through repeated trials. If, after its third. See also:residence in a human body, it is still too weak to withstand the contamination of sin, it is united with another soul, in order that by their combined efforts it may resist the pollution which by itself it was unable to conquer. When the whole pleroma of pre-existent souls in the world of the Sephiroth shall have descended and occupied human bodies and have passed their See also:period of See also:probation and have returned purified to the bosom of the infinite Source, then the soul of See also:Messiah will descend from the region of souls; then the See also:great See also:Jubilee will commence. There shall be no more sin, no more temptation. no more suffering. Universal restoration will take place. Satan himself, " the venomous Beast," will be restored to his angelic nature. Life will be an See also:everlasting feast, a See also:Sabbath without end. All souls will be united with the Highest Soul, and will supplement each other in the Holy of Holies of the Seven Halls (Zohar, i. 45, 168; ii. 97). According to the Kabbalah all these esoteric doctrines are contained in the Hebrew Scriptures. The uninitiated cannot perceive them; but they are plainly revealed to the Antiquity spiritually minded, who discern the profound import and infiu of this theosophy beneath the See also:surface of the letters ence of and words of Holy See also:Writ.

" If the law simply See also:

con- Kabbaiab. sists of See also:ordinary expressions and narratives, such as the words of See also:Esau, Hagar, Laban, the See also:ass of See also:Balaam or. Balaam himself, why should it be called the law of truth, the perfect law, the true See also:witness of God? Each word contains a See also:sublime source, each narrative points not only to the single instance in question, but also to generals " (Zohar, iii. 149, cf. 152). To obtain these heavenly mysteries, which alone make the Torah See also:superior to profane codes, definite hermeneutical rules are employed, of which the following are the most important. (I) The words of several verses in the Hebrew Scriptures which are regarded as containing a recondite sense are placed over each other, and the letters are formed into new words by reading them vertically. (2) The words of the See also:text are ranged in squares in such a manner as to be read either vertically or boustrophedon. (3) The words are KABBALAH and the evil effects of See also:nervous degeneration find a more See also:recent See also:illustration in the See also:mysticism of the Chasidim (JIltsidim, " See also:saints "), a Jewish See also:sect in eastern See also:Europe which started from a See also:movement in the 18th century against the exaggerated See also:casuistry of con-temporary rabbis, and combined much that was spiritual and beautiful with extreme emotionalism and degradation.' The See also:appearance of the Kabbalah and of other forms of mysticism in Judaism may seem contrary to ordinary and narrow conceptions of orthodox Jewish legalism. Its See also:interest lies, not in its doctrines, which have often been absurdly over-estimated (particularly among Christians), but in its contribution to the study of human thought. It supplied a want which has always been See also:felt by certain types, and it became a movement which had mischievous effects upon See also:ill-balanced minds. As usual, the excessive self-See also:introspection was not checked by a rational See also:criticism; the individual was guided by his own reason, the limitations of which he did not realize; and in becoming a law unto himself he ignored the accumulated experiences of civilized humanity.?

A feature of greater interest is the extraordinary part which this theosophy played in the Christian Church, especially at the time of the See also:

Renaissance. We have already seen that the Sephiric decade or the archetypal man, like See also:Christ, is considered to be of a See also:double nature, both infinite and finite, perfect and imperfect. More distinct, however, is the doctrine of the Trinity. In Deut. vi. 43, where Yahweh occurs first, then tlohenu, and then again Yahweh, we are told " The See also:voice though one, consists of three elements, See also:fire (i.e. warmth), See also:air (i.e. breath), and See also:water (i.e. humidity), yet all three are one in the See also:mystery of the voice and can only be one. Thus also Yahweh, Elohenu, Yahweh, constitute one—three forms which are one " (Zohar, ii. 43; compare iii. 65). Discussing the thrice holy in See also:Isaiah vi. 3, one codex of the Zohar had the following remark: " The first holy denotes the Holy Father, the second the Holy Son, and the third the Holy See also:Ghost " (cf. Galatinus, De arcanis cathol. See also:lib. ii. c. 3, p.

31; See also:

Wolf, Bibliotheca hebraica, i. 1136). Still more distinct is the doctrine of the See also:atonement. " The Messiah invokes all the sufferings, See also:pain, and afflictions of See also:Israel to 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 their See also:punishment for transgressing the law; as it is written (Isa.4), Surely He See also:bath See also:borne our griefs and carried our sorrows " (Zohar, ii. 12). These and similar statements favouring the doctrines of the New Testament made many Kabbalists of the highest position in the See also:synagogue embrace the Christian faith and write elaborate books to win their Jewish brethren over to Christ. As See also:early as 1450 a See also:company of Jewish converts in See also:Spain, at the head of which were See also:Paul de See also:Heredia, Vidal de See also:Saragossa de See also:Aragon, and See also:Davila, published compilations of Kabbalistic See also:treatises to prove from them the doctrines of See also:Christianity. They were followed by Paul Rici, See also:professor at See also:Pavia, and physi-. cian to the See also:emperor See also:Maximilian I. Among the best-known non-Jewish exponents of the Kabbalah were the See also:Italian See also:count See also:Pico di See also:Mirandola (1463-1494), the renowned Johann See also:Reuchlin (1455-1522), Heinrich See also:Cornelius See also:Agrippa of Nettesheim (1487-- 1535), See also:Theophrastus See also:Paracelsus (1493-1541), and, later, the Englishman See also:Robert See also:Fludd (1574-1637). Prominent among the " nine See also:hundred theses " which Mirandola had placarded in See also:Rome, and which he undertook to defend in the presence of all See also:European scholars, whom he invited to the Eternal See also:City, promising to defray their travelling expenses, was the following: " No See also:science yields greater See also:proof of the divinity of Christ than magic and the Kabbalah." Mirandola so convinced See also:Pope See also:Sixtus of the See also:paramount importance of the Kabbalah as an See also:auxiliary to Christianity that his holiness exerted himself to have Kabbalistic writings translated into Latin for the use of divinity students. With equal zeal did Reuchlin See also:act as the ' See the instructive See also:article by S.

Schechter, Studies in Judaism (See also:

London, 1896), pp. 1-55. ' See the discriminating estimates by S. A. See also:Hirsch, Jew. Quart. Rev. xx. 50-73; I. Abrahams, Jew. Lit. (1906), ch. xvii.: Judaism (1907), ch. vi. joined together and redivided.

(4) The See also:

initials and final letters of several words are formed into separate words. (5) Every See also:letter of a word is reduced to its numerical value, and the word is explained by another of the same quantity. (6) Every letter of a word is taken to be the initial or See also:abbreviation of a word. (7) The twenty-two letters of the See also:alphabet are divided into two halves; one See also:half is placed above the other; and the two letters which thus become associated are interchanged. By this permutation, Aleph, the first letter of the alphabet, becomes Lamed, the twelfth letter; Beth becomes Mem, and so on. This See also:cipher alphabet is called Albam, from the first interchangeable pairs. (8) The See also:commutation of the twenty-two letters is effected by the last letter of the alphabet taking the place of the first, the last but one the place of the second, and so forth. This cipher is called Atbash These hermeneutical canons are much older than the Kabbalah. They obtained in the synagogue from time immemorial, and were used by the Christian fathers in the See also:interpretation of Scripture.' Thus See also:Canon V., according to which a word is reduced to its numerical value and interpreted by another word of the same value, is recognized in the New Testament (cf. Rev. xiii. 18). Canon VI. is adopted by See also:Irenaeus, who tells us that, according to the learned among the See also:Hebrews, the name Jesus contains two letters and a half, and signifies that Lord who contains heaven and earth [ire• =rH1 ^•am mm] (Against Heresies, ii. See also:xxiv., i.

205, ed. See also:

Clark). The cipher Atbash (Canon VIII.) is used in See also:Jeremiah See also:xxv. 26, li. 41, where Sheshach is written for See also:Babel. In Jer. li. 1, •ap Leb-Kamai (" the See also:heart of them that rise up against me "), is written for o'iw , Chaldea, by the same See also:rule. Exegesis of this sort is not the characteristic of any single circle, people or century; unscientific methods of biblical interpretation have prevailed from See also:Philo's treatment of the Pentateuch to See also:modern apologetic interpretations of See also:Genesis, ch. i 3 The Kabbalah itself is but an extreme and remarkable development of certain forms of thought which had never been absent from Judaism; it is See also:bound up with earlier tendencies to mysticism, with man's inherent striving to enter into communion with the Deity. To seek its See also:sources would be futile. The See also:Pythagorean theory of See also:numbers, Neoplatonic ideas of emanation, the See also:Logos, the personified Wisdom, See also:Gnosticism—these and many other features combine to show the antiquity of tendencies which, clad in other shapes, are already found in the old pre-Christian See also:Oriental religions.' In its more mature form the Kabbalah belongs to the period when See also:medieval Christian mysticism was beginning to manifest itself (viz. in See also:Eckhart, towards end of r3th century); it is an See also:age which also produced the See also:rationalism of See also:Maimonides (q.v.). Although some of its foremost exponents were famous Talmudists, it was a protest against excessive intellectualism and Aristotelian See also:scholasticism. It laid stress, not on See also:external authority, as did the Jewish law, but on individual experience and inward meditation.

" The mystics accorded the first place to See also:

prayer, which was considered as a mystical progress towards God, demanding a state of See also:ecstasy."4 As a result, some of the finest specimens of Jewish devotional literature and some of the best types of Jewish individual character have been Kabbalists On the other hand, the Kabbalah has been condemned, arid nowhere more strongly than among the See also:Jews themselves. Jewish orthodoxy found itself attacked by the more revolutionary aspects of mysticism and its tendencies to alter established customs. While the medieval scholasticism denied the possibility of knowing anything unattainable by reason, the spirit of the Kabbalah held that the Deity could be realized, and it sought to See also:bridge the gulf. Thus it encouraged an unrestrained emotionalism, See also:rank superstition, an unhealthy See also:asceticism, and the employment of artificial means to induce the ecstatic state. That this brought moral laxity was a stronger reason for condemning the Kabbalah, ' See F. See also:Weber, Judische Theologie (1897), pp. 118 sqq. See C. A. See also:Briggs, Study of Holy Scripture (1899), pp. 427 sqq•, 570. Even the " over-Soul " of the mystic See also:Isaac See also:Luria (1534–1572) is a conception known in the 3rd century A.D.

(See also:

Rabbi Resh Lakish). For the early stages of Kabbalistic theories, see K. Kohler, Jew. Ency. iii. 457 seq., and L. Ginzberg, ibid. 459 seq.; and for examples of the relationship between old Oriental (especially Babylonian) and Jewish Kabbalistic teaching (early and late), see especially A. Jeremias, Babylonisches in N. Test. (See also:Leipzig, 190) ; E. Bischoff, Bab. Astrales See also:im Weltbilde See also:des Thalmud u.

Midrasch 1907). L. Ginzberg, Jew. Ency. iii. 465. & See, especially, on the mystics of Safed in Upper See also:

Galilee, S. Schechter, Studies (1908), pp. 202-285. apostle of the Kabbalah. His treatises exercised an almost magic See also:influence upon the greatest thinkers of the time. Pope See also:Leo X. and the early Reformers were alike captivated by the charms of the Kabbalah as propounded by Reuchlin, and not only divines, but statesmen and warriors, began to study the Oriental See also:languages in order to be able to See also:fathom the mysteries of Jewish theosophy. The Zohar, that farrago of absurdity and spiritual devotion, was the weapon with which these Christians defended Jewish literature against hostile ecclesiastic bodies (Abrahams, Jew.

Lit. p. ro6). Thus the Kabbalah linked the old scholasticism with the new and See also:

independent inquiries in learning and See also:philosophy after the Renaissance, and although it had evolved a remarkably bizarre conception of the universe, it partly anticipated, in its own way, the scientific study of natural philosophy' Jewish theosophy, then, with its See also:good and evil tendencies, and with its varied results, may thus claim to have played no unimportant part in the See also:history of European scholarship and thought. The See also:main sources to be noticed are: I. The Sepher Yesirah, or " See also:book of creation," not the old Hilkoth Y. (" rules of creation "), which belongs to the Talmudic Main period (on which see Kohler, Jew. Ency. xii. 602 seq.), Sources. but a later See also:treatise, a See also:combination of medieval natural philosophy and mysticism. It has been variously ascribed to the See also:patriarch See also:Abraham and to the illustrious rabbi 'Aqiba; its essential elements, however, maybe of the 3rd or 4th century AM., and it is apparently earlier than the 9th (see L. Ginzberg, op. cit. 6o3 sqq.). It has " had a greater influence on the development of the Jewish mind than almost any other book after the completion of the See also:Talmud " (ibid.). 2.

The Bahir (" brilliant," See also:

Job. See also:xxxvii. 21), though ascribed to Nehunyah b. Hagganah (1st century A.D.), is first quoted by Nahmanides, and Is now attributed to his teacher See also:Ezra or Azriel (116o-1238). It shows the influence of the Sepher Ye.firah, is marked by the teaching of a See also:celestial Trinity, is a rough outline of what the Zohar was destined to be, and gave the first opening to a thorough study of See also:metaphysics among the Jews. (See further I. Broyde, Jew. Ency. ii. 442 seq.). 3. The Zohar (" shining," See also:Dan. xii. 3) is a commentary on the Pentateuch, according to its See also:division Into fifty-two hebdomadal lessons. It begins with the exposition of Gen. i.

4 (" let there be light ") and includes eleven See also:

dissertations: (1) " Additions and Supplements "; (2) " The Mansions and Abodes," describing the structure of See also:paradise and See also:hell ; (3) " The Mysteries of the Pentateuch," describing the evolution of the Sephiroth, &c.; (4) " The Hidden Interpretation," deducing esoteric doctrine from the narratives in the Pentateuch; (5) " The Faithful Shepherd," recording discussions between See also:Moses the faithful shepherd, the prophet See also:Elijah and R. See also:Simon b. Yobai, the reputed compiler of the Zohar; (6) " The Secret of Secrets," a treatise on See also:physiognomy and See also:psychology; (7) " The Aged," i.e. the prophet Elijah, discoursing with R. Simon on the doctrine of transmigration as evolved from Exod. xxi. I–xxiv. 18; (8) " The Book of Secrets," discourses on cosmogony and See also:demonology; (9) " The Great See also:Assembly," discourses of R. Simon to his numerous assembly of disciples on the form of the Deity and on pneumatology; (to) " The See also:Young Man," discourses by young men of superhuman origin on the mysteries of ablutions; and (II) " The Small Assembly," containing the discourses on the Sephiroth which R. Simon delivered to the small See also:congregation of six surviving disciples. The Zohar pretends to be a compilation made by Simon b. Yohai (the second century A.D.) of doctrines which God communicated to Adam in Paradise, and which have been received uninterruptedly from the mouths of the patriarchs and prophets. It was discovered, so the See also:story went, in a cavern in Galilee where it had been hidden for a thousand years. Amongst the many facts, however, established by modern criticism which prove the Zohar to be a compilation of the 13th century, are the following: (i) the Zohar itself praises most fulsomely R.

Simon, its reputed author, and exalts him above Moses; (2) it mystically explains the Hebrew vowel points, which did not obtain till 570; (3) the compiler borrows two verses from the celebrated hymn called " The Royal Diadem," written by Ibn Gabirol, who was See also:

born about 1021; (4) it mentions the See also:capture of See also:Jerusalem by the crusaders and the re-taking of the Holy City by the See also:Saracens; (5) it speaks of the See also:comet which appeared at Rome, 15th See also:July 1264, under the pontificate of See also:Urban IV.; (6) by a ,See also:lip the Zohar assigns a reason why its contents were not revealed before 506o–5066 A.M., i.e. 1300—1306 A.D., (7) the doctrine of the En Soph and the Sephiroth was not known before the 13th century; and (8) the very existence of the Zohar itself was not known prior i See, e.g., G. Margoliouth, " The Doctrine of See also:Ether in the Kabbalah," Jew. Quart. Rev. xx. 828 sqq. On the influence of the Kabbalah on the See also:Reformation, see Stickl, Gesch. d. Philosophie des Mittelalters, ii. 232-251.to the I th century. Hence it is now believed that Moses de See also:Leon (d. 1305), who first circulated and sold the Zohar as the See also:production of R. Simon, was himself the author or compiler.

That eminent scholars both in the synagogue and in the church should have been induced to believe in its antiquity is owing to the fact that the Zohar embodies many older opinions and doctrines, and the undoubted antiquity of some of them has served as a See also:

lever in the minds of these scholars to raise the late speculations about the En Soph, the Sephiroth, &c., to the same age.

End of Article: KABBALAH (late Hebrew kabbalah, gabbalah)

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