YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

THE KABBALAH
Its Doctrines, Development, and Literature

By
CHRISTIAN D. GINSBURG Ll.D.

Second Impression

London
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LIMITED
Broadway Housi : 48-74 Carter Lane E.C.

Reprinted verbatim from the first
edition which contained (pp. 1-82)
entitled " The Essenes."

TO
PEECY M. DOVE, ESQ., F.I.A., F.S.S., &c,
I AFFECTIONATELY INSCRL3E THIS ESSAY,
AS AN EXPRESSION OF MY HIGH REGARD FOR HIM, BOTH
AS A FRIEND AND A CHRISTUN GENTLEMAN.
CHBISTIAN 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 thu 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 1815) ; John
Reuchlin, the renowned scholar and reviver pf oriental litera
ture 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 rest
lessly 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. litera
ture and philosophy will readily be admitted. The claims
of the Kabbalah, however, are not restricted to the literary

84
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 Para
dise. After the" fall the angels most graciously communicated
this heavenly dootrine 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 be not only devoted to it the leisure hours
of the whole forty years, but reoeived 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 pil
grimages, 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 trans
mitted 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 Kab
balah, 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 re
sorted to be initiated by their master into these divine
mysteries ; and here, Simon ben Jochai expired with this
heavenly doctrine iu his mouth, whilst discoursing on it to
his disciples. Scarcely had his spirit departed, when a
dazzling Ught 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 per
ceived 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 deposi<e*l iof
the tomb, another voice was heard from heaven, saying, " This
is he who caused the earth to quake, and th« 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 ("1HT) i.e., Splendour, which is the grand store
house of Knbbalism.
From what has been said, it will be seen that the followers

86
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 mailed Kabbalah (Tl?2p from 73p to receive) which prima
rily denotes reception, and then a doctrine received by oral
tradition. The Kabbalah is also called by some Secret
Wisdom (iTUTM nODPT), because it was only handed down
by tradition through the initiated, and is indicated in the
Hebrew Scriptures by signs which are hidden and unintelli
gible to those who have not been instructed in its mysteries.
From the initial letters of this name, this theosophic system
is also denominated Grace 0"n=m/lM HD3n). Vague and
indefinite as this name may seem to the uninitiated, inasmuch
as it oonveys no idea whatever of the pecuhar doctrines of the
system, but simply indicates the manner in which they have
been transmitted, it is nevertheless the classical and acknow
ledged appellation of this theosophy. The difference between
the word Kabbalah (i"P3p receptio) and the cognate term
Massorah (iTTIDD traditio, from ")DD 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 pecuhar 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

M7
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 ineorporeity (Exod. xx, 4 ; Deut. iv,
15; Ps. xiv, 18), eternity (Exod. iii, 14; Deut. xxxii, 40;
Isa. xii, 4; xliii, 10; xliv, 6; xlviii, 12), immutability (Mai. iii,
6), perfection (Deut. xxxii, ' ; 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 jniverse 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
n<i,mes 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 imphes
that he is an absolute unity and inscrutable, and that there
H

88
is nothing without him, or that the to irav is in him, * — God is
called En Soph HID T1**) = dreipoe Endless, Soundless.1
In this boundlessness, or as the En Soph, he cannot be com
prehended 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 (]]**), because, as far as
our minds are concerned, that which is perfectly incompre
hensible does not exist.0 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 oreator, for he has neither will,
intention, desire, thought, language, nor action, as these pro
perties 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 hke himself, boundless and
yin yvia -an to 10-1 Vi «ra <d by f|ni -ivm pa toi -iimni mv vh wid px '3 »i 1
i:bl3< TOM ill JW DIB fni niN J'« -prt mno, Commentary of the ten Sephiroth,
ed. Berlin, p. 4 a. This doctrine, however, that everything is in the Deity is
not peculiar to the Kabbalah, it has been propounded by the 'Jews from time
immemorial, before the Kabbalah came into existence, as may be seen from the
following passage in tlv, Midrash. " The Holy One. blessed be he, is the space
of the universe, but the universe is not his space foVOT! pwi D>i» 'ra IDlpo n"3pn
lDipo). K. Isaac submitted: from the passage Dip TlbN njwo (Deut. xxxiii. 27),
we do nut know whether the Holy One, blessed be he, is the habitation of the
universe or the universe his habitation ; but from the remark Win 7isp <31M Lord
thou art tlut dwelling j>lace (Ps. xo, 1), it is evident that the Holy One, blessed
be he, is the dwelling place of the universe, and not the universe his dwelling
place." (Bereshith Babba, § lxviii.) To the same effect is the remark of Philo,
*' God himself is the space of the universe, for it is he who contains all things."
(De Somniis, i.) It is for this reason that God is called OlpD or Dlpon = 6 T07rof ,
locus, and that the Septuagint renders '1J1 ta*W Tr)» nMWVl (Exod. xxiv, 10), by
lent elSov rbv toitov, ot elarrfnii 6 d£0£, which has occasioned so much difficulty
to interpreters.
¦p Jin urtoiDS nVi Hnoani painM'trVi »t nrnra 'lm no ston vtri'jrv «b 2
|'« 'Ti>* (Sohar iii, 238 6.) To the same effect is the ancient expository work
on the doctriue of the Emanations which we quoted in the preceding note, comp.
dui "i3\d rn I'nib noton nnrfta mvaa rmionn ;nm ppD pn <np baMn who no
uooyinr-HVnj'taDMin, Commentary on the ten Sephiroth, ed. Berlin, p. 2 o.
rwwtai -vm n*i mono hVi yon ttn tow nVi yin Vi o> '3 -idV> I'm fiid j>m>3 »i 3
ibid., 4 s. '

perfect. On the other hand, again, the beautiful design dis
played 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 exist
ence known in the creation of the world are ten Sephiroth 5
(/1W5)D) or intelligences, which emanated from the Bound
less One (*Y)D '^ii) in the following manner:— At first the
En Soph, or the Aged of the Aged (rpVTJH KpW) or the
Holy Aged (NK>Hp Np'/W), as he is alternately called, sent
forth from his infinit0 light one spiritual substance or intelli
gence. This first Sephira, which existed in the En Soph from
all aternity, and became a reality by a mere act, has no less
than seven appellations. It is called — I, the Crown (1J13),
because it occupies the highest position ; II, .the Aged (NpTI}?),
because it is the oldest or the first emanation — aud 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 Pri
mordial Point (rUWfO imp J), or the Smooth Point (rTT)p3
HDUyB)) because, as the Sohar tells us, " When the Concealed
of the Concealed wished to reveal himself, he first made a single
men b» rrvra nmn w m b» aianb v iob« rw-aa ivs iiba mn <3 idni-i dm i
113DH, Commentary on the ten Sephiroth, p. 2 6. Again, says the same authority,
lniobono icn (Dbwn) Nino nin obirn n-n rrtnn iaoa «stajn biaane io»n cm
,rnpoa nx'-on nrvn p dm inM'-oa fw "bo -nun dmi • • • • laan Mima man n-cn
,ot3,pnt3 Dn yid bsi ,ytd onb w D'M-aan '3 mm ia«i ,-no ib pt rnpoa Han in b3i
atnnrm en -no bri, rriaara on yid bsi, ibid., p. 2.
5 Both the etymology and the exact meaning of ihe word ttved (plural nrreo)
are matters of dispute. B. Azariel, the first Kabbalist, derives it from -icoto
number, whilst the later Kabbalists derive it alternately from TED Saphir, from
bM 1133 DnEBO D'Ottn (Ps. xix, I), and from the Greek cQcupai, and are not at
all certain whether to regard the Sephiroth as principles {dpxai-), or as substances
(iwoiTTiiaus), or as potencies, powers (Svvapeic), or as intelligent worlds (Katrpoi
vorirtKOi), or as attributes, or as entities (niDXV), or as organs of the Deity (D'b3).

90
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 (mVCT NtPn) j
V, the Long Pace, Macroprosopon (]'32N T^N), because tho
whole ten Sephiroth represent the Primordial or the Heavenly
Man (nKTy D"fNi), of which the first Sephira is the head;
VI, The Inscrutable Height (FP^D B)1), 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 incom
prehensible, even to the heavenly hosts ? But he who
sees the Crown sees the glory of the King of Peace.''
(Sohar ii. 1 00 b.) And, VII, it is expressed in the Bible by the
Divine name Ehejeh, or I Am (("WW 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 (/IVn) . 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 (HD3n), proceeded from it. This Sephira, which
among the divine names is represented by Jah (TV Isa. xxvi, 4),
and among the angelic hosts by Oplianim (D^SN Wheels),
sent forth an opposite, *'. e. a feminine or passive, potency,
denominated Intelligence (HJO), which is represented by
the divine name Jehovah (mff), and angelic name Arelim
(DvNIN), and it is from a union of these two Sephiroth,
which are also called Father (N3N) and Mother (NDN), that
the remaining seven Sephiroth proceeded. Or, as the
Sohar (iii, 290 a) expresses it, " When the Holy Aged,
6 The Sohar, like the Talmud, generally renders the words nobo "ibo King
Solomon; while verses in the Song of Songs, by n'b'T MDblD H M3bo the King to
whom peace belongs.

91
the Concealed of all Concealed, assumed a form, he pro
duced 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
InteUigence, the mother, from whose union the other pairs of
Sephiroth successively emanated." These two opposite po
tencies — viz., Wisdom (HD^H) and Intelligence (HO^) — are
joined together by the first potency, the Crown (1/13) ; 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,
HOIT), also called Greatness (rDVO), the fourth Sephira,
which among the divine names is represented by El (/K),
and among the angelic hosts by Ghaskmalim (DvDWri, Comp.
Ezek. i, 4). From this again emanated the feminine or
passive potency, Justice (VI), also called Judicial Power
(mUJI), the fifth Sephira, which is represented by the divine
name Eloha (i"PN), and among theangels by Seraphim (C&Vt/,
Isa. vi, 6) ; and from this again the UDiting potency, Beauty or
Mildness (JT1ND/1), the sixth Sephira, represented by the divine
name Elohim (WTVH), and among the angels by Shinanim
(D'JttJIP, Ps. lxviii, 18). Since without this union the exist
ence of things would not be possible, inasmuch as mercy
not tempered with justice, and justioe 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
(/n»3/l), the sixth Sephira, beamed forth the masculine or
active potency, Firmness (rnj), the seventh Sephira, corre
sponding to the divine name Jehovah Sabaoth (JT1N32J iTliT),
and among the angels to Tarshishim (D^ttWlD, Dan. x. 6) ;

92
this again gave rise to the feminine or passive potency, Splen
dour (Tin), the eighth Sephira, to which answer the divine
name Elohim Sabaoth (niK3S D717N), and among the angels
Benei Elohim (DVPN \33, Gen. vi. 4) ; and from it again,
emanated Foundation or the Basis (T1D*), the ninth Sephira,
represented by the divine name El Chai (TI 7N), and among
the angelic hosts by Ishim (D'ttM, 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 0')D,) of all, emanated the tenth, called Kingdom
(JTD^D), and Shechinah (rVOttf). which is represented by the
divine name Adonai (OTTO), and among the angelic hosts by
Cherubim (DOTD). 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 (VOpPtt), because the two opposite sexes, are com
pared with the two opposite scales, and the uniting Sephira
is compared with the beam which joins the scales, and indi
cates 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 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 CO) hath created these things (PPM)," revealed to R.
Simon b. Jochai that God in his absolute nature is unknown

THE TEN SEPHIROTH.

THE TEN CORRESPONDING
NAMES OF THE DEITY.

THE TEN CORRESPONDING
CLASSES OF ANGELS.

THE TEN CORRESPONDING
MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN
BODY.

11. VO, Crown.

2. MpTTO, the Aged.
1
3. naiCM^rrripa.PRrMORDiALPoiNT.
. J 4, moioS rmpa, Smooth Point.
' 1 5. rrmn wtr"\, White Head.
)rrnn, I am (Exod. iii. 4).
nvn; £Scf.
Head.
1 6. pnaM -pM, Maceopeosopos.
1 7. nub's DIM, Heavenly Man. |
j
\8. nbra en, Inscrutable Height.
)
ii. noan, c-o^U. "Wisdom.
rr, Jah (Isa. xxvi. 4).
D'aoiK, iuWic.
Brains.
iii. rn'a, nZc, Intelligence.
mrp, Jehovah.
D'bMTM, Arelih (Isa. xxxiii. 7).
Heart.
. 1 1. TOTT, yat-tie, Love.
' 1 2. nbna, Greatness.
f bM, the Mighty One.
D'brmn, Chashebaijm (Ezek. i. 4).
Sight Asm.
1. p"l, Judgment.
v.
2. TrtD, Justice.
3. rrnaa, Strength.]
¦nbM, the Almighty.
D'ffTD, Seraphim (Isa. vi. 7).
Left Arm.
Ti. rrwBn, Beaut*.
DflbH, God.
D'aMglD, Shtnanim (Ps. lxviii. 18).
Chest.
vii. nsa, Firmness.
mt*as mrr, Jehovah Sabaoth
Dicm-in, Tarshishim (Dan", x. 6).
Bight Leg.
viii. Tin, Splendour.
niM3s D'nbM, God Sabaoth.
D'nbM 'aa, the Sons of God (Gen. vi. 4).
Left Leg.
ix. T!D% Foundation.
'n bM, Mighty Living One.
D'lDN, Ishim (Ps. civ. 4).
Genital Oegans.
ll. rVDbD, 0ae-t\eia 8G. rSn wjpawr,
)
x. -j Kingdom.
I'aiH, the Lobd.
D'3113, Cherubim.
Union of the Whole Body.
\2. rrj'aio, Shechinah.
J
94
and incomprehensible, and hence, in a certain sense, non
existent ; that this Who (TVH unknoivn subject) had to
become active and creative, to demonstrate his existence, and
that it is only by these (i"V?N) works of creation that he made
himself known to us. It is therefore the combination of the
unknown Who (^0) with these visible (TVH) works that
showed him to be God (D'il^N which is produced by D trans
posed, i. e. D\ and united with PPN). Or, as it is in the
language of the Kabbalah ; —
" Before he gave any shape to this world, before be pro
duced 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 cf 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 ( nVOV DIN), he used it as a chariot (i"03"1D)
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 oould 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 !
Heace, the form in which we delineate him simply describes

95
eaoh tim6 his dominion over a certain attribute, or over the
creatures generally. We oannot understand more of his
nature than the attribute expresses. Hence, when he is di
vested of all these things, he has neither any attribute nor
any similitude or form. The form in whioh 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 (1VD"T). 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 tha seven, streams make together ten. And when the
master breaks the vessels which he has made, the waters
return to the source, and theii only remain the pieoes 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 (^lD pN) = infinite, by whioh
the highest cause is designated : for it then had neither form
nor shape, and there is neither any means whereby to com
prehend 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 ,, which is filled from this source (i.e. the En
Soph) . This is the source of wisdom, wisdom itself ((10311), after
which the Supreme Cause is called ' wise God.' Upon this he
made a large vessel like a sea, which is called Intelligence
(rUO) : hence the name ' intelligent Ood.' It must, how
ever, be remarked that God is wise, and through himself, for
I

90
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 sub
stance. 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 (rDVU), Judicial Strength (iTTUJ), Beauty
(JTINBri), Firmness (n^J), Splendour (TH), Foundation
(¦T1D,), and Kingdom (/VD70). Therefore is he called the
Greater the Merciful, the Mighty, the Glorious, the God of
victory, the Creator, to whom all praise is due, and the Founda
tion 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 Ught which
streams from them, or reduce it, just as it pleases him."
(Sohar, i, 42 b, 43 a, section IO.)
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 com
prehended. 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 (/Y1T3D) which

9T
again are partly visible and partly concealed. These consti
tute 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
(/XrO) 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 emana
tions 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 (JTTVBDn D7ty) and
the world of Emanations (JIIT'XN D/1J?), but represent
and are called the Primordial or Archetypal Man (D~KA
IWTp = vpuroyovos), and the Heavenly Man (jmT'S OIH).
In the figure, the Crown p/13) is the head; Wisdom (rTO3n),
the brains ; and Intelligence (H^S), which unites the two and
mo i3dd j'biBiyo nib'swi rra • • • • nDnnm oosnn nwo j'bauw rwia ba '3. 7 .
iDn, Commentary on the ten Sephiroth, 2 b; 4 a,
m on invabana M3n SEonD O'bapD crura -enn nsi cben ro enc nrveon 8
ji-\cn3i nobicni bwob: to era «' nb -ion m cm vr cna jcon j:cnai cb\o

98
produces the first triad, is the heart or the understanding —
thus forming the head. The fourth and fifth Sephiroth, i.e.,
Mercy (70T1) and Justice ("THS), 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 (J"l"lN3.n), which unites these two opposites and
produces the seoond triad, is the chest ; whilst the seventh
and eighth Sephiroth, — i.e., Firmness (ri2H) and Splendour
(Tin), of the third triad, — are the two legs ; and Foundation
(TID*), the ninth Sephira, represents the genital organs,
Bince 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 (7TO7D), 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 whioh the earthly man is a faint
copy. Moreover, these Sephiroth, as we have already re
marked, 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 Kabbalistio 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.
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 ("?3»1D O^ty).
The seoond triad, again, represents moral qualities; henoe
it is designated the moral or Sensuous World (1WYIO OTiy) :
whilst the third triad represents power and stability, and

lie rx

99
henoe is designated the Material World (JDtOlDn ttW).
These three aspects in which the En Soph manifested himself
are called the Faces (VSJX and I'SISHB = vpdawvov, 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 (CTI fV), or simply the
Tree (P'N), 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 ihe following diagrams : —
1.
TTO1

TW9
Foundation

ntir1*) 10
Kingdom

100 II.
The Endless.

The three Sephiroth on the right, representing the principle
of mercy ("tDH), are called the Pillar of Mercy (WD^ N"lt3D
1DITT NTIDy) ; the three on the left, representing the
principlo of rigour ()ri), are denominated the Pillar of
Judgment (rum NTIQV **7N0ttn N1I3D) ; whilst the four
Sephiroth in the centre, representing mildness (OWn),

101
are called the Middle Pillar (NiTJ^Ohn NTIDJ>). 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,
Ckown (1/13), from which the Sephiroth, Wisdom (lIMn)
and Intelligence (HTl), emanated, and by which they are
also united, thus yielding the Intellectual World, is by itself
used to designate the Intellectual World (JDBTDrt D7W).
Its own names, however, are not changed in this capacity,
and it still continues to be designated by the several appel
lations mentioned in the description of the first Sephira.
The sixth Sephira, called Beauty (JVIMWI), which unites
Sephiroth IV (IVil, Love) and V pnS, Justice), thus yield
ing the Sensuous World, is by itself used to denote the
Sensuous World, and in this capacity is called the Sacred
King (JWHp N370), or simply the King (H2>0) ; whilst
the Sephira called Kingdom (JTOte), which unites the
whole Sephiroth, is here used to represent the Material World,

102
instead of the ninth Sephira, called Foundation plD1"), and
is in this capacity denominated the Queen (N.TD7D) or the
Matron (RDOnBD). Thus we obtain within the trinity
of triads a higher trinity of units, — viz., the Grown pJ"D),
Beauty (mNBJ"!), and Kingdom (TYObQ), — 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 noc yet assumed this
human form in its completeness, which not only implies a
moral and intellectual nature, but, as conditions of develop
ment, 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 monarohs 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 : —

103
" Before the Aged of the Aged, the Concealed of the Con
cealed, 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
orown] 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, 81.) 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 1.)
But since nothing can be annihilated — " Nothing perisheth
in this world, not even the breath which issues from the
9 The notion, however, that worlds were created and destroyed prior to the
-iresent creation, was propounded in tlte Midrash long before the existence of
the Kabbalah. Thus on the verse, "And God saw everything that he had
made, and behold it was very good " (Gen. i, 31), R. Abahu submits inaM Y'n
p -ma ibw rm una® it jannm rvrabw ntui jannm rrrobis urn n'n n".apn«> jn3d
'b l"Jn Mb linn' 'b l"3n from this we see that the Holy One, blessed be he, had
successively created and destroyed sundry worlds before he created the present
world, and when he created the present world he said, this pleases me, the previous
ones did not please me. (Bereshith Babba, section or Parana ix.)

104
mouth, for this, like everything else, has its place and des
tination, 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 (/TlD,l) 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 Babba, 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 com
pletion, 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.' "
C Sohar, iii, 61 b.J "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

105
the Sephiroth which are the emanations of the En Soph. This
is expressed in the Sohar in tho 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 agi
tation, 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 ( D?iy
JIIt^N), 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 (7\WMT\ t)7iy), also
called The Throne (N'DTD), 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,

loe
II. The World of Formation, or the Jetziratic World
(iTOPPT D7W), 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
(TVWT1 Ch<W), also called the World, of Keliphoth (C?7<3f
JY)B*7pn), which contains the Spheres (DvJT'J) 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 (Vibv. D^DttHi D'JSW /WI D^NIK C2vhn
D«)"W own QVbH i}2 OV"6«), and for their service,
again, he made Samael 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 deoade
of emanations. I. The Atzilatic World, called alternately
the World of Emanations (JTfaxK dw), the Image (N3J31H
= uk£>v with "7 prefixed), and the Heavenly Man (GIN
nit1?)?), which, by virtue of its being a direct emanation
from God and most intimately allied with the Deity, u
perfeot and immutable. II. The Briatic World, called the
World of Creation (rWUil tbty) and the Throne (WWO),
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

107
any admixture of matter. III. The Jetziratic World, called the
World of Formation (fTVXVt OtW) and the World of Angels
(NV3N7D), 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 unoorporeal 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 (iWyn O^iy) and the World of
Matter (filB^pn oVvj?) which emanated from the preceding
world, the ten Sephiroth of whioh 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
oonstant 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
beheve 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 burn
ing coal or a burning lamp. He will see first a twofold
light, a bright white and a black or blue Ught; the white
light is above, and ascends in a direct light, whilst the blue
or dark light is below, and seems as tho chair of the former,
yet both are so intimately connected together that they con
stitute only one flame. The seat, however, formed by the

108
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 oonsuming itself, and perpetually
ascends to the upper light, and thus everything merges into a
single unity ("117 NTHTa IWp/lK «7l31 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 al) 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 tlie 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 relation
ship to the Deity of first, second, third, and fourth generations,
are, with the exception of the first (i.e., the World of Ema
nations), inhabited by spiritual beings of various grades.

10 The question, however, about the doctrine of the Trinity in other passages ¦
of the Sohar will be discussed more amply in the sequel, where we shall point
out the relation of the Kabbalah to Christianity.

109
" 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, 08 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 (VDDtOO) occupies the second or the Briatic
World (rW-Q D7V), which is the first habitable world ; he
alone constitutes the world of pure spirits. He is the garment
of HIP 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 an
gelic hosts" who people the second habitable or the Jetziratic
11 The Kabbalistic description of Metatron is taken from the Jewish angelology
of a much older date than this theosophy. Thus Ben Asai and Ben Soma already
regard the divine voice, the Xoyoj (ovrbtt bip) as Metatron. (Beresh. Hah., Parsha v.)
He is called t.'te Great Teacher, the Teacher of Teachers (mi N1ED), and it
is for this reason that Enoch, who walked in close communion with God, and
taught mankind by his holy example, is said by the Chaldee paraphrase of
Jonathan b. Uzziel, to * have received the name Metatron, lite Great Teacher '
after he was transplanted. (Gen. v, 24.) Metatron, moreover, is the Presence
Angel (D'3Dn liB), the Angel of the Lord that was sent to go before Israel
(Exod. xxiii, 21) ; be is the visible manifestation of the Deity, for in him is the
name of the Lord, i.e., his name and that of the Deity are identical, inasmuch as
they are of the same numerical value (viz. : — 'lis and Jvit&tao are the some
according to the exegetical rule called Gematria, . 10 + *i 4 + « 800 = 314;
j 50 + 1 fi + 1 200 + B9 + B9 + 0 40=314. See Rashi on Exod. xxiii, 21,
"ra Nnisaia pitoioD iai dim iotob jtybeo m vton irniai and Sanhedrim 38 b).
So exalted is Metatron's position in the ancient Jewish angelology, that we are
told that when Elisha b. Abitja, also called Acher, saw this angel who occupies
the first position after the Deity, he exclaimed, ' Peradventure, but far be it, there
are two Supreme Powers' (jn nvinn 'n© DlbtDl on nd© Talmud, Chagiga, 15 a).
The etymology of mtctDO is greatly disputed ; but there is no doubt that it is to be
derived from Metatoh, messenger, outrider, tray maker, as has been shown by
Elias Levita, and is maintained by Cassel {Ersch und Grnber's Encykfopadie,
section ii, vol. xxvii, s. v. ; Juden, p. 40, note 84). Sachs {Beitrage zur Sprach-
und Jlterlhumsforschung, vol. i, Berlin 1852, p. 108) rightly remarks that this
etymology is fixed by the passage from Siphra, quoted in Kaphter-Va-Pherach,
c. x, p. 34 b bn-ic y-wt b3 inn-mi rroob jnooD rre»: n"apn bw isasM the finger of
Ood was the messenger or guide to Moses, and showed him all tlie land of Israel.

110
World (miJP DViy), 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 (133), one
Mars (DWNO), one the substance of Heaven (D'OtOTT D2W),
one the angel of light (WHIN), and another the angel of
fire pW)!!) (Comp. Sohar i, 42, &c.) The demons, con
stituting the second class of angels, which are the grossest and
most deficient of all forms, and are the shells (/llBvp) of being,
inhabit the third habitable or Assiatic World (iTt£WD7Ty).
They, too, form ten degrees, answering to the deoade of Sephi
roth, 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 VQ1 lilTI before
tlus heMahemeron, and which the Septuagint renders by aoporoc
Kal aKarao-Ktvatrroc. The third degree is the abode of the dark
ness which the book of Genesis describes as having in the
beginning covered the face of the earth. Whereupon follow
seven infernal halls (JT)73',n Jt2W) = Hells, occupied by the
demons, which are the incarnation of all human vices, and
which torture those poor deluded beings who suffered them
selves to be led astray in this world. These seven infernal
hall* are subdivided into endless compartments, so as to
The termination p has been appended to "ismo to obtain the same numerical value,
as Hffl. The derivation of it from ptra Spovoc, because this angel is imme
diately under the divine throne («"D113), which is maintained by Frank (Kabhala,
p. 43), Graetz (Gnosticismus, p. 44) and others, has been shovn by Frankel
{Xeitschrift, 1846. vol. iii, p. 113), and Cassel (Ersch und Grnber's Encgklop.
section ii, vol. xxvii, pr 41), to be both contrary to the form of the word and to
the description of Metatron.

Ill
afford a separate ohamber of torture for every species of sin.
The prinoe of this region of darkness, who is called Satan in
the Bible, is denominated by the Kabbalah, Samael (bHQO)
= angel of poison or of death. He is the same evil spirit,
Satan, the serpent, who seduced Eve.18 He has a wife, called
the Harlot or the Woman of Whoredom (DOW /IBM), but
they are both generally represented as united in the one name
of the Beast (MVn. 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 microoosm 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 E irthly
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 whioh is neither sub
ject 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
12 The view that the serpent which seduced the p.otoplasts is identical with
Satan is not peculiar to the Kabbalah. It is stated in the Talmud in almost
the same words nbw statai tiv Mjn MrmnDS mon yba nin pawn mot m ijt im
niaoi TH' rEt!.*i31 th* evil spirit, Satan, and lite anyel of death, are the same. Ii
is propounded in the Boraitha that he descends and seduces ; he llun ascends and
accuses, and then comes dou-n again and kills. Baba Bathra, 16 a.
wr.in'bo iitm • ' ¦ otn3 Varm nbai unni HbVyVino bsi tm jpnnn oih iron jvs 13
'» n"o ip 'J »bn irm wbn

112
dwelled in the garden of Eden, he was dressed in the celestial
garment, which is a garment of heavenly Ught. 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 intro
duced. 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 repre
sents the firmament, which extends everywhere, and oovers
everything like a garment — as it is written, ' Who stretchest
out the heavenS like a curtain." (Ps. olv, 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
14 That the righteous are greater than the angels is already propounded in the
Talmud (n-ra>n owboo inv- D'pns D'bvu Sanhedrim 03 «) j and it is asserted that
no one angel can do two things (nirrbw <n» TTDW inn "]K>o fH BereshUh Babba,
section 1), for which reason three angels had to be sent, one to announce to
Sarai the birth of Isaac, the other to destroy 8odnm and Gomorrah, and the
third to save Lot and his family ; whilst a man oan perform several duties. The
superiority of man over angels is also asserted in the New Testament. (1 Cor. vi, 3.)

113
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 twioe, 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,
whioh 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 attraoted, who
understand to read the mysteries in the human face." (Sohar,
ii, 76 a.) He is still the presence of God upon earth (tt/UOIP
iTNAn), and the very form of the body depicts the Tetra-
grammaton, the most sacred name Jehovah (iTliT). Thus the
head is the form of the ' , the arms and the shoulders are like
the H, the breast represents the form of the 1, whilst the two
legs with the back represent the form of the seoond if.
(Sohar, ii, 42 «.)ls
The souls of all these epitomes of the universe are pre-exis-
tent in the World of Emanations,16 and are without exoeption
16 The Karmarthi, who interpreted the precepts of Islamism allegorically, also
maintained that the human body represents the letters in the name of God.
When standing the human body represents an Elif, when kneeling a Lim, and
when prostrated on the ground a He, so that the body is like a book in which
may be read the name Allah. De Saoy, Introduction a VExposi de la Beligion
des Drirzes, pp. 86, 87. Comp. Frank, Die Kabbah, p. 32.
16 The pre-eiistence of the human souls in the celestial regions was believed
by the Jews before the Kabbalah came into vogue. We find this doctrine in the
Book of Wisdom (viii, 20) ; in Josephus, where we are told that the Essenes
believed ' that souls were immortal, and that they descended from the pore air,
ovuir\lKsa9ai liairtp elpKralc role a&paai, to be chained to bodies ' (de Bell.
Jud. ii, 12) ; by Philo, who says ' the air was full of them, and that those which
were nearest the earth Kariaoiv ixle9noopivat oiipaoi 9vnToic, descending to
be tied to mortal bodies, iraKivtpoitovai av9ic, return back to bodies, being

114
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
oreate 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 iu 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,
(71DKO), which is the highest degree of being, and which
both corresponds to and is operated upon by The Crown
("1.TQ), representing the highest triad in the Sephiroth,
called the Intellectual World; (II) The Soul (mi),
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 (/HNSfi), representing the second triad
in the Sephiroth, called the Moral World ; and (III) Tlte
Cruder Spirit (tPBi), 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 ('TID,), representing the third triad
in the Sephiroth, called the Material World.
In its original state eaoh 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
desirous to live in them.' (De Gignat. p. 222, C. ; De Somniis, p. 455, D. Comp.
Arnold on the Book of Wisdom, viii, 20, and Whitby on John ix, 2., where
these quotations and others are given) ; and in the Talmud where it is declared
that the human souls which are to be born (nwiannb p'nrw rfmini Hirm), have
their abode in the seventh heaven (Chagiga, 12 b) ; that they leave gradually
the storehouse of souls to people this earth (rpiM> rvimnn b3 lb3*ff> 1» Jebamoth,
02; Aboda Sara, 5; Nidda, 13); and that the Holy One, blessed be he, took
counsel with them when he was about to oreate the world "iboi tyta be irnDDi:
Obwn rs* KTS1 n"lpn (Bereshitli Rabba, section viii).

116
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 olay 1 The only reply to be given is that these happy souls
have no choice in the matter. Indeed we ore 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 feehngs 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 : thi3 is the heavenly and sacred soul.
He sends him into the oountry, 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 palaoe, what does his
love for his son impel him to do ? He sends, for his soke,
IV The notion about the reluctance of the sool to enter into this world is also
not peculiar to the Kabbalah. The most ancient traot of the Mishna thus speaks
of the soul : " Against thy will thou beoomest an embryo, and against thy will
thou art born " (tVu nn» jra bn -su nn* Tiro br Abath, iv. 99) ; on whioh
Bartonora, in his commentary, remarks : " The soul does not wish to quit the
pure abode of the curtain whioh enolose.8 the Holy of Holies."

116
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 consti
tute one body and one soul, forming as it were the right and
left of one individual ; therefore ' There is nothing new under
the sun.' (Eel. 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 b rth."
(Sohar, i, 91 b.)u The soul carries her knowledge with her
to the earth, so that " every thing which she leams here below
she knew already, before she entered into this world." (Ibid.,
iii, 61 *.)
Since the form of the body as well as the soul, is made
after the image of the Heavenly Man, a figure of the forth
coming 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
t
hidd Minrn NT3 pbonm Htna pamroi mpui 13-1 ;b'b3 inbs piD»:i pm pjv b3 18
'ira ponntri pnrt »ns<rni trow nb'bi nto >m [jrmrs] \mtm b» ipcrwmrrto
n"ap Jinbi wjiin p» [uno] hod -wi h\»j ':aa mb rvnwi xi p D'-ipx m >>:oibi pircnta
tn mdij m ttxmu* panrw iai in"b» ntooi wwipna jib -onn pieon pm vh'h sti
tarn n'b p'an »n no'n *wi ' ujornn nnn win b3 p« -[3 pai 'in Hpi3 HbNOiri ww whot:
rrbn mnnb '3i pram maw '3i '»t • »tm win "3n »j ->a-i 'in-iim maw die: vh»
3 ns m m pbn imi • pbsi mos rpa Miannub

117
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 de-
velopes 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, 101 a b.)19
All human countenances are divisible into the four primor
dial types of faces, wliich 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 phy
siognomy does not consist in the external lineaments, but in
the features which are mysteriously drown in us. The features
Mapm in n"ap mo «nnb ronoH Mann «nsoa-i Names tobo ntabsn m-ied3 1ft
'ran 'innb wrsb wi'itttin 'bobm nam mnn bs NO"pi Mtabisa Mp'pn mroi a''-i neis-ie3
nd"pt isi a"a nanw unbis mnnai \»a -oi mdis-ie3 mo'«i nobis m mm bs :"a
Y'nn a'a '-on» Mb pn n3no'i mm br n>-»ra rrb mnn M-abis Mirm [no»p Nb -wi n"d]
obs Minna pea -o Mobsb p'tm is rrbapb patiN aba Minn • inbs3 own n» ciHt n-u'i
pm ;i;'m-t M,-iM»a Mb'sbn irrn abs >xm »'» -pin' absa -jm Y'nn Vim obs Minna '3-ctm
•Nobr'Mna ''Mpn meis-id3 v^pna M»'ip Mabo 'np jpnnH Mimi srm baim-inno r>pE:
»nso3 MOb» 'una no'Tpm Mtmb n»n'bn mti • abs wi p'Da ip Maipn Mapvi Mimroi
a, n ip m a pbn -irm • in"iiaa nam™ mVi Nobua Mam -|b n<bi rranoM wann

118
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 pecuhar form, which is
reflected in the face." (Sohar, ii, 73 b.) The face thus
lighted up by the pecuhar 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,
hod 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 hfe 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

119
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 tc
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 bouIs
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 ema
nated. 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 feel
ings. It has the faculty for that extraordinary prophetical
knowledge, which was vouchsafed to Moses in an exceptional
manner, called the Luminous Mirror (tOPU WDpBDN —
specularia), and the ordinary knowledge termed the Non-
Luminous Mirror (N1HJ Vtbl WlVpSDN), respectively re
presented in the earthly Paradise by the Tree of Life and
the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil ; and it possesses

120
the higher feeling of love and the lower feehng of fear.80 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 ('Tn *4T»"1S»),
she enjoys a bright and luminous mirror (Nirtil rWl7pE)DN),
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 n 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 trans
lated ly 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
lie thus approached that dark cloud where God is enthroned.
fn this wise the departed spirits of the righteous dress them
selves in the upper regions in luminous garments, to be
able to endure that light which streams from the Lord of
Light." (Sohar, i, 05 b, 06 a.)
The two feelings of love and fear are designed to aid the
soul in achieving her high destiny, when she shall no more
20 The two kinds of faculties, as well as the two sorts of feelings, are also
mentioned ill the Tnlmud. Thus it is said — " All the prophets looked into the
Nox-Lt'Mixous Mirror, whilst our teacher, Moses, looked into the Luminous
.Minnnn." (MnbpcDMa banaa la'ai noo rrww na'Min MnbpccMa ibanoa awaan b3
m'MOr! Jebamoth, 4U I/). And again — •' Also the divine service which is engendered
by fear aucl not by love, has its merit." (Jerusalem Beraclwth, 44; Babylon
Sota, 22 a.)

121
look through the dark glass, but see faoe to faoe 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, hke 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 ontepast 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 0 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 Kigotjr, the fifth Sephira ;
and it is asserted that when these two principles ore 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 preponder
ance 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

122
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 iT
with iTI 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 i"WV and Love rQi"!*,, are divided, and
so placed above each other that they may be read either
across or down, as follows : —

H3 rm

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 habita
tion 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 ex
alted 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 ODrt), represented by the
o'bw Mmrra n"« n"' o» Hin'b iotto lbrnai ibrm iottq nna'aci rr*ap -nm cob 21
bMiw ba awa

123
Patriarch Abraham (comp. OiTON^ Ton Micah, vii, 20 ;)
II. The Pillar of Justice (TnS), represented by Isaac
(comp. prW inE) Gen. xxxi, 42) ; and III. The Middle
Pillar, represented by Jacob (comp. 3pJP^> DON Micah vii, 20),
which is the connecting or uniting principle. (Sohar, i, 146 a ;
148 J.) It is for this reason that the patriarchs are denomi
nated 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 sur
rounds 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 (Jie 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 medi
tates on it with becoming devotion and enthusiasm, he will
perceive six Jods (V'lV) in the pure sky, three to the right
and three to the left, as well as three Vavs (r"11), which hover
about in the heavenly arch. These are the letters of the
priestly benediction (D*3i"D J"0"Q). ... 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, 'Halle
lujah ! Praise, O ye servants of the Lord, praise the name of
the Lord ' (Ps. cxi.ii, 1 ) ; the second, ' Blessed be the name

124
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 develops these
fruits of righteousness, which precludes their immediate re
union 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 e'arth, fails to acquire that ex
perience 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 that82 " All
souls are subject to transmigration (K^'UfcQ VW), and men
do not know the ways of the Holy One, blessed be he ; they
do not know that they ore 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
Mb^o MO"p-pn Min-po twmpi 'lmiM m»3 >aa yrf «bi Mbubaa 'fm pmun ba 22
¦pn Mobp 'xnb rn" «b ¦» nana tftmt piD»3 I'm p» baai mot baa Mea '33 lain* "pn
win -pa Mc-np pan f otid paw rroai piaba rraa • Mobs '»no >pDai inab ms'-u pus
¦ Habrn MiWBb pytt mVi nobs Minna piM pfrai* ptii now pAnoir pram rraa 'ina

125
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 disolosed."
(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 whioh they were too feeble to do
separately. It sometimes, however, happens that it js 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 asso
ciation is therefore called pregnancy (TQ^), because the
stronger soul gives as it were hfe and substance to the weaker
'companion.23 I'm prawo mVi ysrv Mb Mina 'aai pa'no prto noaa -[BWimi Mobsi ina "jotim psb» no3i
Miron rbpn rp -pm nasb^ -pa'iM <dB3 riMi tom nMi rroa Mnoaipa «aaM3 piowa rtabano
'a as F|t 'a pbn irm >b3 Mm nMMb n'»
23 According to Josephus, the doctrine of the transmigration of souls into
other bodies (psrtptpvxnioic), was alsoheld by the Pharisees (comp. Antiq. xviii,
1,3: de Bell. Jud. ii, 8, 14), restricting, however, the metempsychosis to the
righteous. And though the Midrashim and the Talmud are silent about it, yet
from Saadia's vituperations against it (a'Tim D'Mipao 'DO Bi»aM 'nMStatD iniN ban
nprwnn iniM a'Miipl nia»na didim Emunoth ve-Deoth, vi, 7 ; viii, 3) there is
no doubt that this doctrine was held among some Jews in the ninth century of
the present era. At all events it is perfectly certain that the Karaite Jews firmly
believed in it ever since the seventh century. (Comp. Frankel, Monatschr\ft,
x, 177, &o.) St. Jerome assnres us that it was also propounded among the early
Christians as an esoteric and traditional doctrine which was entrusted to the
select few, {abscondite quasi in foveis viperarum versari et quasi haereditario malo
serpere in paucis. Comp. epist. ad Demedriadem) ; and Origen was convinced
that it was only by means of this dootrine that certain Scriptural narratives, such
as the struggle of Jacob with Esau before their birth, the reference about
Jeremiah when still in his mother's womb, and many others, nan possibly be
explained, (wtpi ap\Stv i, 1, eap. vii ; Adver. Celsum, i, 3.

126
As the world, hke all other living beings, is a further ex
pansion 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 2 with which the history of
the creation begins (i.e. JWNY'J), and which is also the first
letter in the word blessing (rQY'2).24 Even the archangel of
wickedness, or the venomous beast (N10O KMin), or Samael
(7NOD), 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 (DD), which signifies venom, will then be dropped,
and he will retain the second part (?**), 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 re
enter those bodies which are now born, in consequence of
having polluted themselves in their previous bodily existence,
and the soul of the Messiah, which, Uke other souls, has its
pre-existence in the world of the Sephiroth, cannot be born
till all human soiils have passed through their period of pro
bation 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 (DIDIfJil "I^IN), cleaned aud
purified shall return into the bosom of tho 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 (rDflM ^OTi). There the profoundest mys
teries are ; there dwells the Heavenly King, blessed be he,
with the holy souls, and is united with them by a loving kiss.
24 The notion that the creation is a blessing, and that this is indicated in the
first letter, is already propounded in the Midrash, as may be seen from the
following remark. The reason why the Law begins with Beth, the seoond letter
of the Alphabet, and not with Aleph, the first letter, is that the former is the first
letter in the word blessing, while the latter is the first letter in the word accursed,
rrv-iM pub Mine >ib"M3 «bi naia jwb mvto >3do rraa nob (Midrasli Babba, sec. i).

127
(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 : Ufe will be oil 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 (JTltaVi MB). 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 con
cealed 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 de
duced from or rather introduced into the text. These prin
ciples 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

128
and ordinary narratives.2* 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.28 Bui,
25 This view that the mere literal narrative is unworthy of inspiration, and
that it mast contain a spiritual meaning concealed under the garment of the
letter, is not peculiar to the Kabbalah. Both the Synagogue and the Church have
maintained the same from time immemorial. Thus the Talmud already
describes the impious Manasseh, King of Israel, as making himself merry over
the narratives of the Pentateuch and ironically asking (31DT nrnD rrptn ja noao
rvm »3om s?aon pib mnM MbM ainab n»ob ib rrn Mb '31 -ion 'ch bs> nnana «nni
rrroa own msoi D'an Yap m ]3iMi -pi p'bub wbs), whether Moses could not
find anything better to relate than that " Loton's sister was Timna " (Gen. xxxvi,
22) j " Timna was the con' abine of Eliphaz " (ibid, v. 12) ; that " lienben went
in the days of the wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field " (ibid., xxx,
14), Sec, &c. And it is replied that these narratives contain another sense
besides the literal one. (Sanhedrim, 99 b.) Hence the rule (niaMb antra no b3
D'sab p<D), what happened to the fathers is typical of the children.
26 Origen's words are almost literally the same—" Si adsideamus litterae et
secundum hoc vel quod Judaeis, vel quod vulgo videtur, accipiamus quae in lege
scripta sunt, eruhesco dicere et confiteri quia tales leges dederit Deus : videbuntur
enim magis elegantes et rationabiles hominum leges, verbi gratia vel Romanorum
vel Athenionsium, vel Lacedaemoniorum. Homil. vii, in Levit. Again, the
same erudite father says, " What person in his senses will imagine that the
first, second, and third day, in connection with which morning aud evening are
mentioned, were without sun, moon and stars, nay that there was no sky on the
first day ? Who is there so foolish and without common sense as to believe that
God planted trees in the garden eastward of Eden like a husbandman, and
planted therein the tree of life, perceptible to the eyes aud senses, which gave
life to the eater thereof; and another tree which gave to the eater thereof a
knowledge of good and evil? I believe that everybody must regard these as
figures, under which a recondite seuse is concealed." Lib. iv, cap. ii, irspi
apxuv. Huet, Origeniana, p. 107. Comp. Davidson, Sacred Hermcneutics,
Edinburgh, 1843, p, 99, &c. It must, however, not be supposed that this sort
of interpretation, which defies all rules of sound exegesis and common sense, is
. confined to the ancient Jewish Rabbins or the Christian fathers. The Com
mentary on Genesis and Exodus by Chr. Wordsworth, D.D., Canon of Westminster,
may fairly compete in this respect with any production of bygone days. Will it
be believed that Dr. Wordsworth actually sees it " suggested bg the Holy Spirit
Himself," that Noah drunk, exposing his nakedness, and mocked by his own
child, Ham, is typical of Christ who drank the cup of God's wrath, stripped
Himself of His heavenly glory, and was mocked by his own children the Jews f
But we must give the Canon's own words. " Noah drank the wine of his
vineyard ; Christ drank the cup of God's wrath, which was the fruit of the sin
of the cultivators of the vineyard, which he had planted in the world. Noah was
made naked to his shame ; Christ consented for our sake to strip Himself of
His heavenly glory, and took on him the form of a servant. (Plnl. ii, 7.) He
laid aside bis garments, and washed his disciples' feet (John, xiii, 4.) He hid
not his face from shame and spitting. (Isa. 1, 6.) When he was on the Cross,
they that passed by reviled Hiin. (Matt, xxvii, 39.) He was mocked by Hii

129
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 under
stood 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 gar
ment, 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 culled 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 be
hold the Soul of this Soul (i.e., the Deity), which breathes in
the Law." (Sohar, iii, 152 a.)
own children, the Jews. He deigned to be exposed to insult for our sakes, in
shame and nakedness on the Cross (Heb. xii, 2), in order that we might receive
eternal glory from His shame, and bo clothed through His weakness with
garments of heavenly beauty.'' ( Commentary on Genesis and Exodus, London,
1864, p. 52.)

ISO
The opinion that the mysteries of che Kabbalah are to be
found in the garment of the Pentateuch is still more syste
matically 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 V2T\. 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 WM. She then converses with him with her
face covered by a thin veil ; this is me enigmatic language of
the -TOn. After having thus become accustomed to her
society, she at last shews herself face to face and entrusts him
with the innermost secrets of her heart. This is the secret of
the Law, "ilD.27 He who is thus far initiated in the mysteries
27 The notion that the Bible is to be explained in this fourfold manner was
also propounded by the Jewish doctors generally, long before the existence
of the Kabbalah (Comp. Ginsburg, Historical and Critical Commentary on
Erclesiustes. Longman, 1881, p. 30), and has been adopted by some of the
fathers and schoolmen. Origen, although only advocating a threefold sense,
viz. : — truuciTiKbc, i//wx'*Ofi wtv/iaTiKoc, to correspond to the Platonic notion of
tho component parts of man, vis. : — aw/ia, tyv\fl. nvivua, almost uses the same
words aa the Kabbalah. " The sentiments of Holy Scriptures mast be imprinted
upon each one's soul in a threefold manner, that the more simple may be built
up by the .flesh (or body) of Scripture, so to speak, by which we mean the
obvious explanation ; that he who has advanced to a higher state may be edified
by the sunt ot Scripture as it were; but he thai is perfect, aud like to the indi
viduals spoken of by the Apostle (1 Cor. ii, 6, 7), must be edified by the spiritual
law, having a shadow of good tilings to come, vipi ApxHv, lib. iv, cap. ii.
Comp. Davidson, Sacred li'ermenenties, p. 07. Whilst Nicholas de Lyra, the
celebrated commentator and forerunner of the Beformnticn (born about 1270,
died October 23, 1340), distinctly espouses (lie Jewish four modes of interpreta
tion, whioh he describes in the following couplet —
" l.utrrn gnik dncct, quid credit AllegorU,
Morolil iw'J egos , quo teudu Uugogil."
Comp. Alexander's edition of Kitto's Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, s. v. Lib*.

131
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 I three men stood by him "
(Gen. xviii, 2), it is deduced that these three angels were
Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, because TVObtf TVSW and lo !
three men, and ^NST) bw\2) bnyi2 "I^N 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.
n v b v? n i n i
5 + 300 + 800 + 5 + 60 + 6 + 6 = 701
b a 3 "> d i b n
+ 30+1+20 + 10 + 40 + 6 + 30 + 1
b « ' i a j
+ 30 + 1 + 10 + 200 + 2 + 3
^> M B ~\ 1
30 + 1 + 80 + 200 + 6 = 701
This rule is called NHtODJ = N'OO'IJ which is a metathesis
of the Greek word ypupfxa, ypa/ifitia, or ypafifiarcla, in the
sense of numbers as represented by letters.
2. Every letter of a word is taken as an initial or abbrevia
tion of a word. Thus every letter of the word /YtPN"U, the
first word in Genesis, is made the initial of a word, and we
obtain mil) Vhw iVnp'i? dti^N ntO rpuw-Q in the beginning
God saw that Israel would accept the Law. This rule is

182
denominated pp^tOlj = notaricun, from notarius, a short
hand writer, one who among the Komans 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 re
spectively formed into separate words. Thus from the
beginnings and ends of the words no'coT! I17 H^s' 'D who
shall go up for us to heaven ? (Deut. xxx, 12) are obtained
TVyiS circumcision and TVTV Jehovah, and inferred that God
ordained circumcision as the way to heaven.
4. Two words occurring in the same verse are joined to
gether and made into one. Thus 'D who and ilW these
are made into DVDN God by transposing the » and D. Vide
supra, p. 94. 28
6. The words of those verses which are regarded as con
taining a peculiar recondite meaning are ranged in squares
in such a manner as to be read either vertically or boustro-
phedonally, beginning at the right or left hand. Again the
words of several verses are placed over each other, and the
letters which stand under each other are formed into new
words. This is especially seen in the treatment of three
verses in Exod. xiv, (viz., 19-21), which are believed to
28 The above-mentioned exegetical canons, however, are not peculiar to the Kab
balah. They have been in vogue among the Jews from time immemorial. Thus
the difficult passage in Isa. xxi, 8, rrw MTpn which is rendered in the Authorised
Version, and he rru:d, A lion ! or ' as a lion,' as the margin has it, is explained
by the ancient Jewish tradition as a prophecy respecting Habakkuk, who, as
Isaiah foresaw, would in coining days use the very words here predicted. (Comp.
Isa. xxi, 8, 9, with Hab. ii, 1 ) j and this interpretation is obtained by rule 1 ;
inasmuch as rm» lion and pipan Habakhik ore numerically the same, til. : —
n • 1 m •¦"» p l p a n
6 + 10 + 200 + 1 = 216 and 100 + 0 + 100 + 2 + 8 = 216
(See the Commentaries of Bashi, Ibn Ezra, and Kimchi on Isa. xxi, 8.) Again,
in the fact that Jacob made Joseph ' a coat of many colours ' (Gen. xxxvii, 3 ), as
the Authorised Version has it, nr' pieces,' as it is in the margin, the Midrash or
the ancient Jewish exposition, sees the sufferings of Joseph indicated ; inasmuch
as DT3D according to rule ii, is composed of llie initials of "ircic Potiphar, who
imprisoned Joseph ; BnniD merc/innfs D'bMTW Ishmaehtes and D'STO Midianitet,
who bought him and sold him again as a slave. (Gen. xxxvii, 2-3-28 ; xxxix, 1 ;
comp. Rashi on Gen. xxxvii, 3.) For more extensive information on this subject,
we must refer to GLisburg's Historical and Critical Commentary on Ecclesiastes,
Longman, 1861, p. 30, &c.

138

contain the three Pillars of the Sephiroth, and the Divine
Name of seventy-two words. The following tables will illus
trate this principle of interpretation. The first of these three
verses "f>n b\TW i"Ur»D 'JB1? "\bTV\ wribm "]»bQ yp'i
omntfo torn dtobo pyn Tioy ytrn onnrwa, 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.

D

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M

W

V

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1

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1

rt

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n

:

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1

n

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1

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t

I

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1

n

The second of these three verses V31 Onso njPIO fO M»l
¦?« nt mp xbi Tib-<bn ns -i»n "\vnm pyn vw birvtn rurra
Tlb^Tl ^3 ni, «#rf 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.

134 ii.

n

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It is then divided in the following manner, and read from left
to right, beginning at the bottom.
hi.

n

3

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1

1

1

n

n

i

\i>

-,

M

V

1

^

n

1

a

,

t

0

ri

3

n

n

i

n

0

y

i

1

D

i

t

a

N

a

'

1

0

135
Whilst the third of these three verses by IT Pit* (TOD £0*1
bvt jin am nb'bn bz nry onp nm dvi na msr I'm wr,
WOT] iyp2^\ rQirn, a#rf Moses stretched out his hand over
the sea ; and the Lord caused the sea to go bach 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.

D

'

D

n

i

*

P

a

<

1

n

a

1

n

V

?

i

n

n

N

D

iy

i

l

n

V

i

V

n

V

3

n

i

1!

D

i

1

P

n

l

-i

a

D

*

n

n

H

n

l

n

i

1

>

i

»

1

0

%

n

V

B

1

i

i

n

w

n

w

D

10

i

' i

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 : —

29 The limits of this Essay preclude the possibility of entering into a dis
quisition on the seventy-two Divine names. Those who wish to examine the
subject more extensively we must refer to the Commentaries on the Sohar
(Exod xiv. 19-^1), mentioned in the third part of this Essay; and to Bartolocci,
Bibliotheca Magna Babbinica, Pars iv, p. 230 scq., where ample information is
given on this and kindred subjects.
M

p

^J

p

a

op-
!3 — t
p.. P
en
H
p
.3
5j
CD
«T*
n!
o
. .
o
~1
CD
IT*
P>
>-f
a:
P-
<n
O-
r>
5T
*-%
a-
5;
en
p
^j
C
m
y-
H
u,
^
c-
P
~1
c
P
«
CU
H
Cr-
IT*ET*
55'
PP
P
O
PP
aq cu
IT
P
<-<
Ol
^
rr
P
o
p
p
W
o
1 — '
^
c-
cu
o
COCD
p
X
-V
IT
p
to
O
t3
>-<
cu
o
PB
nn3
Adorandns.
N3K
Longanimis.
nV?
Anmineiattis.
OHIO
Quit-situs.
d!?d
Solns.
lfl'D
Spes.
'V
Aaxiliatnr.
Exaltator.
opn
Advocutus.
'in
Ens.
riao
Sublcvatnr.
Dec. iii talus.
Oppoilunus.
1M*
Hxultabundus.
V™
'til
Rccordabilis.
inn
Expetemlns.
Custos.
Dexter.
Fortis.
VrtD
Ervens.
Exnuditor.
'V3
Ju»titin.
Dnmuiator.
Rector.
33!?
Solns.
DIM
Adolesccntia.
"1
Sanator.
rmro
Fcstinus.
Stilvator.
Invocandus.
Mirabilis.
1"
Propulsator.
rm
Adivtor.
Refugiam.
Facics.
¦T1D
Gloria.
po
Peprccatio.
nnV
Expcctatio.
in1
Cogitabundus.
Revelutor.
Magnificus.
Operator.
Compaticns.
nV'
Doctor.
Matutinns.
Custos.
Liberator.
Erector.
nan
Aetcrnum.
Regnator.
Ml
Verus.
Altissimns.
La-tabondus.
<J7
Glcnicns.
mi
Maximus.
'HD
Mercator.
Laudabilis.
niv
. Amabilis.
3D)
Bcncdictns.
1»D
Justus.
mn
Oriuns.
Animus.
DDi
Protector.
DID
Hcquies.
Maltus.
Deus.
Pncmium.
¦on
Bonus.
Dator.
P1D
Assisteus.
2D7
Deprecubilis.
137
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 c.v. gr. : —
11 K) 9 8 7 6 5 13 2 1
rattan t i n i 3 -2 a -1
La3Djr3xp-ivn !? J
r1) 3 ' b n i inTJN-i
U 3 D M S p "I «"1 ^J"'
These anagramic alphabets obtain their respective names from
the first two specimen pairs of letter which indicate the inter
change. Thus, for instance, the first is called Albath J"Q"7N
from the first words, the second Abgath rO"2N, and so on.
The following table exhibits the established rules of the
alphabetical permutations.

C3

!'

ca

rn

Cl

SI

pn

n

C3

n3

bM

1. Albath.

rt

:3

c

ra

en

SI

P1

in

Cl

n;

3N

2. Adoath.

a3

:b

C3

r

ca

sn

pi

11

en

m

3M

3. Aodatb.

:n

rt

n

c

sa

pn

ii

ei

nn

33

IU

1. Adbao.

13

en

rt

c:

S'

pa

in

Cl

hi

13

nN

5. Ahead.

c:

ro

rt

S3

P'

ia

en

ni

13

n3

IN

6. Aral.

ci

r:

En

Sb

P3

T

ira

nn

ni

13

IN

7. Azbav.

sc

ei

Sn

pb

ID

S3'

na

m

13

13

nn

8. ACUBAZ.

rn

K

S3

pn

ib

cr

n'

n

13

n3

an

9. Atbach.

ET

SC

p:

I'D

C3

n3

in

n

na

a3

'N

10. AjtBAT.

Cl

ss

pc

13

On

nb

in

m

ai

•3

3M

11. ACHBI.

SC

F'

ID

¦ c:

nn

11

nn

ai

•3

33

b«

12. Albach.

SI

PE

¦w

cr

,13

m

an

'i

33

b3

an

13. Ambal.

i»

ID

cs

nc

m

ai

¦n

31

bi

>33

3N

14. Ahbasi:

pn

¦a

CE

ns

at

•1

3n

bi

03

33

CM

15. ASBAH.

ip

est

na

an

'i

31

bn

01

33

C3

TN

16. Aabas.

ia

TP

na

TI

31

bi

an

31

C3

S3

EM

17. Afba.

tn

r?

>a

3n

bi

01

3n

Cl

w

E3

SM

18. Azbaf.

c

m

3a

bn

01

31

en

SI

C3

S3

pM

19. Aebaz.

no

3'

ba

on

31

DI

rn

El

S3

P3

IN

20. Arbak.

ro

b-

D2

:n

Cl

SI

En

SI

P3

13

CN

21. Asbbab.

bD

O'

ja

en

si

El

sn

pi

13

C3

.IN

22. Atbbash.

To this list is to be added —
nt)
V
SD
so
3D
b3
*a
m
in
13
3N
23. Aboad.
no
c
IB
pn
SI
El
rn
Cl
33
?3
bM
24. Albam.
138
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 de
claration 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 (7nN). But there are three names, and
how can they be one ? And although we read one ("intf),
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, and 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 read 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
'ran nn33 jton Nn ni Niirr • Mnin nsicbi »i3Db N-nrr irrN «nv b3i Nnrr 30
Nn • tnN 'ipN T'vi in inb3 Nn i"it 13'nbN n«ni? v;'t Nipi Niin' in'N Mnv b3i Nun'
MCip nin N3Tin3 MbM in ji:>h jn mM p-ipi 3: :» F|ni in ji:'m T-n 1,13'M innc nbn
bip snnoMi >bipi nii in'N mii -inN ]'bM Nnbm si;nb homo M3'n ivnr p3'Mi srnM
N3n fiin • m MbM ji3'M iNbi bipi Mii3 in inbsi M'ni Mnm ncw /pirn Nnbn vrMi in in'N
nNicbi Miin'3C3 13 T3nb'p in'N mi 'in p:'Ni )'3ii3 Nnbn /in ji:'m '"' i;'nbN""
mti • in ii3'Ni Hnbn '3ni T3S Npi bip 'Nn3 ».b3i • nbid iv fiid j'md MbDi Nurra rrmsi

189
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. Elenzar, 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 (^IIN) and Jehovah (nw), immediately follow
each other, Jehovah is pointed and read (i"rt!T) Elohim.
The reason of this, us it is generally supposed, is to avoid the
repetition of Adonai, Adonai, since the Tetragrammaton is
otherwise always pointed and read (ftVV). The Kabbalah,
however, as we shall see, discovers in it o recondite meaning.31
" R. Eleazar, when sitting before his father R. Simeon, said
to him, we have been taught that whenever Elohim (OTf?M)
occurs, it denotes Justice. Now how can Elohim sometimes be
put for Jehovah, as is the case in those passages wherein
Adonai (OVTN) and Jehovah (TViTV) 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
T3St imd hjtosp inbsi iisnM Mum piu nnsi ¦ Ncip mn niti 'bsnMi mov bsi N-nrr wm
/in irr»i Vipi nto Nnnn nsno J3M Mpi M-nn' 'Mn. b3M /-pis 'Mn tssi jnoi tis wi
'3 3"n nt '3 pbn imi • nboi mt-q Mir; mi
m"h Yv 'Min N3'i inM baa D'nbM p':n Nn rr>b -ra« >13W »"n n'Dp 3'n' mn iisbN '« 31
b=3 ri3'M 'nrn pir* Mm cnbN i?m 'mdm /mrr 'jtm ps D'nbM npNi itm .tn n"n yVi
/D'nbMn Min •"' '3 -]33b b« .113cm oi>n nsTi ivon /Mipa 3'ro Min .on rrb ion inM
n'Mi mM3 Nimbi /'urn n'M M3'i n'Mi ir«3i N:rr mi nbo rrb ton • OfibNn mw ?"• j'nsi

140
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 (iTirh), but read
Elohim (OVPN). 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 (inN) One [i.e.,
in the declaration of the divine unity y01V] must pronounce
the Aleph (ii) 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 tbey are one. He said to them, those two names,
Jehovah Jehovah, are in the declaration 'Hear O Israel '
(Deut. vi, 4), and Elohenu (HTlbn), between them, is united
with them as the third, and this is the conclusion which is
sealed with the impression of Truth (DOM). 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) ; tVHp P Pit OTtp 3N n? ^,"np
fc'tpH W\ nt, tho first holy refers to the Holy Father ;
the second to the Holy Son .- and the third to the Holy
N3'ib ism N'l"n '3Enm Nnrmi 'am inN b33 t'it Nin «m in Mn rrb mN m:'i .tn "am
'ninb3 N3in N3ii b3i )i3'M pn '3 nboi nii 'in Nn b3M /D'nbM rrb pipi mrr rn3 ps
'm n„c pj-i '3 pbn Smi i hi p mi 'lrnEnn Mbi in3 'icpnm m Nb3i '3Smi
)moi • bba niM wra 33B' Mbi nb'i nN'ip Nispbi rpM MEanb -past) ™ inNi iMn 32
Mnbn nn 131 Nnbn p'Mi m3 *innBN Mini ]i:>M pn to« in mb unM rn iisim.t ni tjsi
itmi ins rpncN u-nbN mm mm pw bM-w taci jrrow pn ]>bM p ton • in 513'N
'm 3"Dprp '3 pbn imi : N-m Miim; m p'M trim pinna ni • nn» Np3CS)i3i Nonin

141
Ghost.33 This passage, however, is omitted from the present
recensions of the Sohar. Some Jewish writers have felt
these passages tc 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 refer
ring to the Sephiroth.3*
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.34
".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
the body is secured. So it is with the children of the wo
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
83 Cowi). Onliitinns, De Arcanis Cutlwl. lib. ii, c. 8, p. 81 ; who says that some
Codices of the Chaldee paraphrase in Isa. vi, 3, had also »'"ip WU VI? W# WTjJ
WS"!p MH11 the Holy Father, the Holy Hvn. atid the. M°l$ Ghost ; see also Wul?,
iitblwtheca Hebrew i, 1 ISO ; Graetz, Gnehitktt del- Jvdxn. vii, 3-39,
31 Comp. Joel, Die Jieligionsphilosophie des Sohar. Leipzig, 1849, p. SJ40 ff.
b3 pican> pa /vn Mnbr bs NiBab pa pcnana im proa M-pis pDDn'i xnsea 85
MB"© VT'bB K"11D '3D 5?TO1 IMpla pE"C b31 NTOlEa ¦ NC13 'CC baD ;bro ' Mil '3W
Mn pa Mm nan ip'ENi y)N msiii • nsm am ¦ inb: pcm pa nMpbNb jimm Min
amob nisp 'rai Nnsca • ni or mi pec p3'N sob* aa an fjin • neij 'B"ib bab »niiDM
3'nai jbsn Mbab n.ihdm a>m naaai pumaon psia3 vrc'a wis mb >pbM Mobsb MmiDM
rpwi ;H3n Nmi MnnpN irnanai ab nbi: imanai 'uiis'vtuiiso M3iin wwdo bbino Nim
'Mrr*'ini '3 pbn imi : mbiji p"\» bab 13b Min MmiDM 13b neij rnian Minnai /msiii

142
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 men
tion 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 doc
trines 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
aai p3M3i pmiMD p3'M3 jbanoni 'bboo • • • ¦ Mnnb psi Mn:33i pnnca p» 30
Nrronb mb pnMi Mnsca Nmcnb mb j'toni pnni pmumi Miim bs j'baui p:Ni pin
bs 'aai Nbp d'im 'pmiMob si3Db 'banDa Mbi pna n N'a"n row pnmbja bMici niss
po"pi pnn«33 ps'N pa"n • 13'naisn Mann 13'TOEn bbinn Mini Y'nn inai pa"n p3'N
Nba>n inna bHS men ps 'pma aai Nba'n npMi Mm Nb3'n n'M pi Nresa ¦ vmnnj
b'pN in'Mi wbnbMi mbs pin inbai mbs pn"i bNici prnic b3 paw bai pin bab nNpi
i"nn • MnniNi <»:is bs bMic'i prniD' bacnb ban C3 ia 'in Nb 'mbs b'a:i bNicn in-'bsn
nn 'i3S 11m p:aipi pnbie p:>«a M^rip niin3 bNic nn ia • • • '131 hum Min a"bn pM
rp 'a pbn inn : mots aaa pb pica men Mncn • Mnbsn pic'i pria p;'N ba pbon
'n 3'1

143
friends. Indeed, the very fact that so large a number of
Kabbalists have from time to time embraced the Christian
fnith 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 Syna
gogue, 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 (*WI K*?J),
consisting of extracts from the Talmud and the Sohar, to
prove the validity of the Christian doctrine (Niirenberg, 1805);
John Stephen Rittengal, grandson of the celebrated Don Isaac
Abravanel, and translator of The Book Jetzira, or of Creation
(!TV3P ISO), into Latin (Amsterdam, 1 642) ; 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 contro
versies 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
37 Comp. Peter Beer, Geschichte der reiigiosen Secten der Juden. Berlin,
1822-23, vol. ii, p. 309, &c.
38 D'iBcn DniM DD'Bin ic»b " bina' dn tot Nbi Conip. Dm3 in ed. Fiirst,
Leipzig, 1840, p. 7.

144
Beuohlin 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 N13, 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
3« HI") p 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 PN stone, into p 2N 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,
COby p"T2£ is by Gematria, = numerical value, (which is
Rule 1, given above, p. 131), the same as HIPP rWD. 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 rehgion ;
and in the present day argue badly both against him who
adduces them and against him who is convinced by them.

145

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, tiiose 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 per
fect 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 a!
things.

.146
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, aud to whom the anthropomor
phisms 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 plaoe ; 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

147
able to examine the validity of the Kabbalists' claims to the
books whioh, aocording 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 t/te 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 cele
brated philosopher, R. Jehudah Ha-Levi (bom 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 aud multifarious, whilst on the other hand
they converge and harmonize ; and this harmony can only
proceed from One who originated it."'1 (Khozari, iv. 25.)
The whole Treatise consists of six Perakim (D'pIS) or chap
ters, subdivided into thirty-three very brief Mishnas (JTUtfD)
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,
iso D'ainn D'Bbnnn o'iaia inimMi minbM bs nun • ¦ ¦ • DmaNb Nim rrar ibd 1
inMn nro i Drm cine icm mNn isn cnnaoni inN isa D'nao: D'lronn on baM
n"a <sai

148
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 (irYVTID ttfDO "I5,), and
the harmony which pervades all the constituent pnrts 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 ;s he uses them, both in
their phonetic nature and in their sacred character, as ex
pressing the divine truths of the Scriptures. But, since the
Hebrew alphabet is also used as numerals, whioh are repre
sented 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 lands of signs — i.e.,
the twenty-two letters of the alphabet and the ten funda
mental numbers — are designated the thirty-two ways of secret
wisdom ; and the treatise opens with the declaration3 — " 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
2 It is for this reason that the Book Jetzira is also called 13'aN DrroMI nvniN
tlie Letters or Alphabet of the Patriarch Abraham,
obis -poi D"n crrbN bmc Tib* niNast mm m ppn nnan nwbB O'nwi o'«>b»i 3
m'S' 1BD I IIB'DI 1BD1 TED3 D'ICD m»b»3 lattj Clipi D1TO IS pi» NOJl DI p3m Dim bM
'M miro 'M 'plE

149
name, hath created the world by means of (19D) numbers,
C")13D) phonetic language, and writing (1SD)." (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 Sub
stance and indivisible. Hence, the Spirit of the living God
(0"n DT6N nil) 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." (Chapter i,
Mishna ix). From this Spirit the whole universe proceeded
in gradual and successive emanations, in the following order.
The creative air, represented bv number two, emanated from
the Spirit (rtHD IT)")). " In it He engraved the twenty-two
letters." The water again, represented by the number three.
proceeded from the air (ni")Q D'D). "In it He engraved
darkness and emptiness, slime and dung.'' Whilst the ether
or fire, represented by the number four, emanated from the
water (D'DD KM). " 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 messen
gers, flaming fire his servants"5 (Cap. i. Mish. ix, x.) These
intermediate members between the Creator and the created
world sustain a passive and created relationship to God, and
i vmpn tm rm nam mn bip Dtabisn ti bm roe -piani -pia 0"n O'nbn mi nro» 4
'b mota 'm piB
Dawi nibioa nsawi mn« wbw no' nvniN D'nwi dtws na asm ppn mm mi O'nw 5
poa jppn mai wci inai inn pa asm ppn mm d'd wb» : pn nnN mil nnsics ues
d'3Dimi Tiaan MD3 na asm ppn O'oo wm saiM i mnsn poa paDnmn pa pw nans
wm vmwo mmi i'3Mbn rros TON30 wsn id' pcbusni mon 'aNbrn w-ipn nvm cwci
''i 'id miDD 'm p-e i mmb

150
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 hcxndc, each unit of which represents space
in the six directions (JlVKp WI^), 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 (WipTl 7DVT1
1?*:»DN2 TVDD). The position of the decade is therefore as
follows — o
Spirit.

0

0

O

Ether or Fire.

0
Height.

o

0

0

East.

0
Depth.

151
These constitute the primordial ten, from which the whole
universe prooeeded.
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."6 (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
(JT1DN Vkt>), 2, seven double (/Tl^SD yiV) and 3, twelve
simple consonants (JTttaitVS ~Wy DW), 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. W"OK JTIDN vbv
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
(Qbiyy n")D« vbv). 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 ;tself in the rain or wet.
These constitute the fundamental points of the year (W?W
njttO /11DN). 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
WB3i ns'n ba wb: ona is pis p>nm fipv psn ppn -nc nvniM cmtft diws 6
'a mw a* mo : iisb Tnsn ba

152
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 revo
lution of time, and the microcosm, which proceeded from the
three primordial elements, are exhibited by the three letters
Aleph (H), Mem (D) and Shin (!£>.) Hence it is said that
by means of these three letters — which, both in their phonetic
and sacred character, represent the elements, inasmuch as
N, as a gentle aspirate, and as the initial of "V1J* air,
symbolises the air ; D, as a labial or mute, and as the
initial of D'D water, represents the water ; whilst V, as
a sibilant, and as the last letter of Vti 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, Tao /ns3i:o nVnHD yaw
The three dominions proceeding from the triad of the pri
mordial 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, G@d created —
In the World — Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus,
Mercury, Moon.
hi Man — Wisdom, Riches, Dominion, Life, .Favour,
Progeny, Peace.
In the F«w— Sabbath, Thursday, Tuesday, Sunday,
Friday, Wednesday, Monday.

158
Owing to the opposite = double pronunciation of these
seven letters, being hard and soft, they are also the symbols
of the seven opposites (/IWIDJI) in which human life moves,
viz., wisdom aud 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 (JTIlltp WW), 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 .J"V)t01ltfB ~wy OTW
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 pSVD p ''tin Tin,
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.

154

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.7 " Just as the
twenty-two letters yield two hundred and thirty-one types by
combining Aleph (N) with all the letters, and all the letters
with Aleph; Beth (2), 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 remark9 — " 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.
TABLE OF PERMUTATION.

a. Two letters

b. Three letters

v. Four letters

3X 1.

33M 1.

33M1 19.

13XJ 13. 1JMS 7.

133K 1.

M3 2.

33K 2.

33M1 20.

aiM3 14. 31N3 8.

JTl» 2.

3X3 3.

3N31 21.

¦n»aa 15. -nuj 9.

T33N S.

K33 4.
M331 22.
MT33 16. m-,33 10.
313M 4.
am 5.
3M31 23.
3N11 17. JNTJ 11.
13,-M S.
H33 6.
M331 24.
N373 18. M-a 12.
aa-iM 6.
form one.
build six.
build twenty-four.
nVbn mnm ma ds obiai Dbia cs ma /r|bM os Dbiai nbia os rib* piam rtpw is'a 7
'i men ':«? pic : to nwa msv nam bai ns'n ba msdj
cna o'icsi S31N ni3i3 nsaiM D'na moo m:i3 nwibw D'na >nw nwa nrniM 'no 8
1'mw rro aiwm ns -(tni pan D'na diwsi niMD sac nmaww D'na diwsi nMn m:ia won
'i mwn '1 piB 1 sinwb nbia' pwrr -yn iaib rrna' ncn
155

Pc""E3""^3"SS 8 H K. P § E
eE5rS-f:5sE6Bfi5.F§c ccccrccccccccc p B D » 8 D (I P 8 8 (1 !l B
fi^&''5fc&5iar&fc
i^S''B2S5ifi'P§H ¦S-K-B •£•£¦?; ¦&•?•§¦£
B &S.Pgg
S 8.P § g
a? g e
5£ : :

g:

+ s
+
' + +
iH
+ CO
+
; r-l
++ en
+ ++ o
+
+
| CO
+ ++ •a
++ eo
+ +

156
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

X

1

=

2

3

X

2

=

6

4
X
6
=
24
5
X
24
=
120
6
X
120
=
720
7
X
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 ma
crocosm, 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."9 Each of this
triad, notwithstanding its multifariousness, constitutes a sys
tem, having its own centre and dominion.10 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 revolu
tion of the Zodiac ; whilst the centre of the microcosm is the
heart.11 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 body12 " 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
'M njWO '1 pID ! WD3 njW DblB D'3DM3 D'TS 9
i ma m ppviN jbiai iws D'jw '33 bs nsaw nsaw 'aa bs nwbw nwbw 'aa bs mn lo
'a rown 'i pin
manboa "(boa wcaa lb na'ma "Tboa mwa baba 1MB3 bs -jbos Dbwa 'bn 11
dwdo nwbw D"rm nwbw dww nwbw D'3mM nwbw manboa Dims iws D'3W 12
jbtta bwin )OM3 -[bo bMi )iwbm mon iaan d'mjiw nwbw rrem o>3iNm abn D'amM nwbw
'1 pie i ma m ypiiM piai iws o'jw-'aa bs nsaw nsaw 'aa bs nwbw nwbw 'u bs inn
't rnwo
157
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 ave internally conneoted 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 cos
mic, 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 specula
tions 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.

158
Besides the language of the Book Jelzira 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.13 The fabrication of this pseudograph was evidently
suggested by the fact that the Talmud mentions some treatises
on the Creation, denominated TVW iTO^n and rTW "IBD
(Sanhedrim 65 b ; 67 b) which " R. Chanina and B. Oshaja
studied every Friday, whereby they produced a calf three
years old and ate it ;"14 and whereby R. Joshua ben
Chananja declared he could take fruit and instantly produce
the trees which belong to them. (Jerusalem Sanhedrim,
cap. vii. adfinem.lb) Indeed Dr. Chwolson of Petersburg has
shown in his treatise " on the Remnants of the ancient Baby
lonian 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 /WwlTI productions or DWDN 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 de
clares, 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 whioh
13 Die gottesdiensttichen Vortrage der Juden. Berlin, 1882, p. 165, &c.
Nnb'n Nba'B inb ia'm m'S' mabna 'pds nn wiaw 'bso bai n<»win an nj'jn ai 14
'a i"d pirno 1'b'baMi
t'b«M pbrasi ymmiNi rnp itm rrvs' ibd t bs «3M brr M'33n ja siwim 'i ion 16
spam rb»K yras pirn yaio

159
treated on the artificial productions of plants, metals, and
living beings, and that the Book Jetzira, mentioned in the
Talmud, was most probably suoh a Babylonian document."18
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 TWHi 1SD
the Book of Creation, but ascribed it to the patriarch Abra
ham. The perusal, however, of a single page of this book
will convince any impartial reader that it has as little in com
mon with the magic work mentioned in the Talmud or with
the ancient Babylonian works whioh 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.17
Having shown that the Book Jetzira, claimed by the Kab
balists as their first and oldest code of doctrines, has no
affinity with the real tenets of the Kabbalah, we have now to
examine : —
16 Der IsraeUtische Volkslehrer, vol. ix. Frankfort-on-the Maine, 185B,
p. 364, Sec.
17 For those who should wish to prosecute the study of the metaphysical
Book Jetzira, we must mention that this Treatise was first published in a Latin
translation by Postellus, Paris, 1552. It was then published in the original with
five commentaries, viz., the spurious one of Saadia Gaon, one by Moses Nacb-
manides, one by Eleazer Worms, oue by Abraham b. David, and one by M oses
Botarel. Mantua, 1505. Another Latin version is given in Jo. Pistorii artis
cabalistical semptorum, 1587, Tom. I, p. 809 seq. which is ascribed to fieuchlin
and Paul Ricci ; and a third Latin translation, with notes and the Hebrew text,
was published by Rittangel. Amsterdam, 1662. The Book is also published with
a German translation and notes, by John Friedrich v. Meyer, Leipzig. 1830. As
useful helps to the understanding of this difficult Book we may mention The
Kusnri of R. .lehudah Ha-Levi, with Casgel's German version and learned anno
tations. Purtiv. chop 25, p. 344. &c, Leipzig, 1833; Zunz, Die gottesdienslliclien
Vorlrdge der Jnden (Berlin. 1832), p. 165, (fee. ; Graeiz. Gnosticixmus und Jitden-
thum (Krotoshin, 1846), p 102, &c. ; Jellinek, Beitrage zur Geschichte der
Kabbala, Part i (Leipzig, 1852). p. 3, Sec. Comp. also Wolf, Bibliotheca
Hebraea, vol i., p. 23, *c .vol. ii., p. 1 190,. vol. iii , p. 17. vol. iv , p. 703. &c. ;
Philosopltie der Geschichte, vol. i , 2nd ed. (Minister, 1357), p 63, Sec; Stein-
sdineider, Jewish Literature (London. 1857), pp 107,302, &c. ; and by the same
author, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in BMiotlieca Bodleiana, col. 552.

160
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 commen
tary on the five Books of Moses, according to the division
into Sabbatic sections, was originally called "I1N W 10TTO 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 So/tar prnt), i.e. Light, Splendour,
was given to it afterwards,- either because this document begins
with the theme light, or because the word Sohar frequently
occars on the first page. It is referred to by the name of the
Book Sohar ("lmtn 1BD) 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
(WTP }2 WW '1 bll! ttmO), because this Rabbi is its re
puted author.18 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 cf the pages on which
they respectively commence.
1. Tosephta and Mathaniihan (]IViT\0 and N/IBDlfi), or
Small Additional Pieces which are given in vol. i, 3 1 b ; 32 b ;
37 a; 54 b; 59 a; 60 b; 62; 98 * ; 121 a; 122, 123 b ;
147; 151 a; 152 a; 232, 233 b; 234 a; vol. ii, 4, 27 b;
18 The Sohar was first published by Da Padova and Jacob b. Naphtali, 3 vols.
4to, Mantua, 1558-1560, with an Introduction by Is. de Lattes ; then again in
Cremona, 1560, fol.; Lublin, 1623, fol. ; then again edited by Rosenrotb, with
the variations from the works Derech Emeth, and with the explanation of the
difficult words by Issachar Bar, an Index of all the passages of Scripture
explained in the Sohar, and with an Introduction by Moses b. Uri Sheroga
Bloch, Sulzbach, 1684, fol. ; with an additional Index of matters, Amsterdam,
1714, 8 vols. Svo; ibid. 1728; 1772, and 1805. The references in this Essay
are to the last mentioned edition. It must, however, be remarked that most
of the editions have the same paging. Comp. Steinschneider, Cataloqus Libr.
Hebr. in, Bibliotlieca BocUeiana Col., 537-545 : Furst, Bibliotheca Judaica. iii.
829-386. '

161
28 a; 68 b; 135 b; vol. iii, 29 b; 30 a ; 54 b; 65. 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 apos
trophes to the initiated in these mysteries, calling their
attention to some doctrine or explanation.
2. Hechaloth (JlPS'n) 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 re
arranged 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 (mm njlD), 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 5—111 a; 140 h— 149 b ;
151 a; 152 5; 154 5-157 5; 1615—162 5; 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 (ObyiTl »TD), 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 (D'TDI) and Gi-matrias
(J"l WU0D3) , 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 congregatedi
souls of the saints in behalf of the sinners about to be

162
punished. (Sohar, i, 104 b.) Lot's two daughters are the
two proclivities in man, good and evil. (Ibid. 1 10.) 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 (M3DHO WJH), or the Faithful Shep
herd. 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 5 ; 91 5 —
93 a; 134 5, 157 5—159 a; 187 5— 188 a; vol. iii, 3 a-
4 5; 20 a, 24 5, 27, 28 a— 29 a; 33 a— 34 a; 42 a, 44 a ;
63; 67 5—68 a; SI 5—83 b; 85 5— 86 a; 88 5—90 a;
82 5— 93a; 97a— 101 a; 103 5— 104a; 108 5—111 b;
121 5— .'26 a; 145 a— 146 5; 152 5—153 5; 174 a—
175a; 1785—179 5; 180 a, 215 a— 239 a ; 242 a— 258 a;
263 a— 264 a: 270 5—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 Ellas, and with
R. Simon b. Jochai, the celebrated master of the Kabbalistic
school, who is called the Sacred Light (NtPHp JWXU). The
chief object of this portion is to show the profound and
allegorical import of the Mosaic commandments and prohi
bitions, 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.
G. Raze Derazin (VVXl T1), or the Secret of Secrets,

163
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 Htnn TMIV!) and thou
shalt look into the face. (Exod. xviii, 21.)
7. Saba Demishpalim (D'BSHfOT N3D), 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
D'DSWO, i.e., Exod. xxi, 1 — xxiv, 18, because the Kabbalah
takes this word to signify punishments of souls (l^H), 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 5.)
8. Siphra Detzniutha (Nfill^n >TI3D), or the Book of
Secrets or Mysteries, given in vol. ii, 176 5 — 178 5. It is
divided into five sections (Dp^B), 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 puro intelligence to matter, the
double principle of masculine and feminine (NDN1 N3N),
expressed in the Tetragrammaton, the androgynous proto
plast, 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 iT'liT 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.

164
9. Idra Rabba (N3"l NTW), or the Great Assembly is
given in vol. iii, 127 5 — 145 a, and derives its name from the
fact that it purports to give the discourses which R. Simon "b.
Jochai dehvered 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
oontained 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 (pVV) and the Young (1W), to
the oreation 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, demon-
ology, &c, (fee. 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 Rosen-
roth's Kabbala Denudala.
10. Januka (XplJ1), or the Discourse of the Young Man,
is given in vol. iii, 186 a— 102 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 (yOV). When at
meals this wonderful Januka gave them sundry discourses
on the mysterious import of the washing of hands, based on

165
Exod. xxx, 20, on the grace recited at meals, on the Shechinah,
on the angel who redeemed Jacob (Gen. xlviii, 16), &c, &o.,
which elicited the . declaration from the Rabbins that "this
youth is not the child of human parents" (iW \r\plT WH
Kin }"2) ; and when hearing all this, R. Simon b. Jochai
coincided in the opinion, that " tbis youth is of superhuman
origin." 1 1-. Idra Suta (NDlt HTW) or the Small Assembly, is
given in vol. iii, 287 6 — 296 5, 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 recapitula
tion of the Idra Rabba, occupying itself with speculations
about the Sephiroth, the Deity in his three aspects Q'EPT Fib'i! ),
or principles which successively developed themselves from
each other, viz. — the En Soph (*11D Vtt), or the Boundless
in his absolute nature, the Macroprosopon (1*S3K "p"lN), or
the Boundless as manifested in the first emanation, and the
Microprosopon (VSUK *l*J7t), 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 con
tents,, 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 indi
cated 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 oomposed, in the narratives of the

166
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 Kab
balah 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 attrac
tive 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, com
municated 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. Eleaznr, to communicate to them his last doctrines,19 " when
pfrt itii : lrrota pwrr rp-on -imoi >sV na -iwto) 'm yiny hih ti vh wttdk -pi 1 0
I'll L"IF|Vj

167
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 5.) 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 8how 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 (NlPHp WJX'Q), and exalts him above
Moses, " the true Shepherd."20 " 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 5; 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,
non mVi no Nrron 'on wmi rw'wi nuto rump mrwn vv/m fvhs k"o\d >to rmnDN 20
mrrawi wnma p'ra 'meoh uron mjhi wi kyio1! nj":n mm mm p'toi novo s>: -a
Ton s mass ncnoi nprs <roo 'ow in' a^> nrrni iwt hoW; »niiDM3 pwab pan M3'pn
p^n imi t vjd to p? '3 »t »A muoi Y'nn tonoM mVi st rf; rrerai pro 'nemi »»t himt
: '3 l">p rp "y
Q

168
who is the Lord, and before whom all men must appear.
(Sohar, ii, 38 a.)51
2. The Sohar quotes and mystically explains the Hebrew
vowel .points (i, 16 5; 24 5; 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.28 3. The Sohar (rOOVJO W\ Faithful Shepherd, on section
DWTp hi, 82 5), 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
niD^D "1/13 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 quo
tation in the Sohar from this Hymn is beyond the shadow of
a doubt, as will be seen from the following comparison —
Sohar. Ibn Gebirol.
KPDW2 Hta NDIM [HWBWI WirTD] VWVDN1 Orr'n ]1TN <D' blH
orr-rom -pmo arris yrm rv»-i orr-rom "peno
Ii 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.23
4. The Sohar (i, 18 5 ; 23 a) quotes and explains tho
interchange, on the outside of the Mezuza,*4 of the words
)o irwi wmi jmot •'"yen wi 'n p-inn 'jb ]»a 'n p-mn '3D !jm -pwi to n«r yro 21
i'm rrt rn '2 P'jn vm in-np mnnnM1) 'S3 N'rot
22 Comp. Alexander's edition of Kitto's Cyclopadia of Biblical Literature,
s.v. Mocha.
23 Comp. Sachs, Die religiose Poesie der Juden in Spanien, Berlin, 1840,
p. 220, note 2.
24. For a description of the Mezuza, which consists of a piece of parchment,
whereon is written Deut vi, 4-9 ; xi, 13-21, put into a reed or hollow cylinder,
and affixed to the right hand door-post of every door in the houses of the Jews,
see Alexander's edition of Kitto's Cyclopadia of Biblical Literature, s.v. Mezuza.

169
(nitT w6t* TMTV) Jehovah our God is Jehovah for (lfO
1T13 IP3103) 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.25 5. The Sohar (iii, 232 5) uses the expression Esnoga,
whieh is a Portuguese corruption of synagogue, and explains
it in a Kabbalistic manner as a compound of two Hebrew
words, i.e., Es = t£W and Noga = rUU brilliant light.™
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.2' " 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 accom
plished. 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
25. Com p. Nissen, in the collection of various Hebrew Dissertations, entitled
JVS, edited by Jost and Creizenach, vol. ii, Frankfort-on the- Maine, 1842-48,
p. 161, &,c.
'« m'di fp '3 fin imi i nai3 mtt ttrwn 'lb np nanrji -ovh nam nau Mrmw 28
towovn^Trri pri-tt* n"2p -o» rra oianNi «oto3 ^mso'D' tVpht Maoi Minn to 'yi 27
n 1'3'on )inn wia mm pa mo'tp to-itu Mnrt Np'iin in'j am M^sto Hmprra
N'3p"u rinto vra-i noa '3D ':oi Mtoo n':pn 'n'M -n wo'ip ms-uu b'wdi> iww
: Woe 'an mtvoj Minn D'toro'i tj> in'TOn1) ManM1! ''32b \<rh fayp pw : ra'to) «to
¦m in2 wiprvwn'i in"1!!! dytk »32 Mttasrwta mehn p'pn pip mtntf) 'mtsuif '33 p'on
! UHM '321! IDDH' M1! MBTip NSIMl pM2 pM pTntom D'torrrt -pQD TITI HW2' to TITI NO' to
'» r) rn '3 fin -imi

170
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,28 " 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 disappear
ance, 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 5.) 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 (K3131 HWiT) Vincimento, fell
on the self-same day, October 2nd, into the hands of the
insurrectionists .so
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
pro fP' '»21 pim '52 M333D MM? M252 in rtNinMbi D'torrv '33D^ nwap pat pn 28
nMn'nc wovai pav '» o'nVi Tro Mm pirn* paa '» rr>a pwwi M^p-i nwaoMa rr>3D
mroip m'ov par '» ry&> mwat) nova tt'san'i [nMS'avj] nMrvnw Mrrvi pav n^aa inn>
to Maiai Mto'm 'Dm amp mtitto p«to pro 'a pto3< mdv Minm wti Mn-ipa 'inn'
i 'a a'n rp 'a fin imi iw Mnip Minm MB'ton
29. Comp. Beer, in Frankel's Monatschrift fur Geschichte und WUsenschaft
des Judenthums, vol. v, Leipzig, 1856, p. 168-160.

171
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
says30 — " 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 5, 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 (flou
rished 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).
1 1 . Isaac of Akko (flourished 1 290) 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 Stein Schneider
rightly remarks,31 " this is an impartial and indirect testimony
that the Sohar was recognised scarcely fifty years after its
pviD yas pot rv» M30ia ivfnb D'pv t*mi pa wn mp inw nan'roe rpn ti" lai 30
Mnrai /»i 'o (-rasna) Mpto i"mi (i"nii) • ->«» poi n'e i"mi poi ios t'mi iD'toa pa «jbi
i"P *p 'm fin imi sm-bso nn]>vh pre Tin pa poi n>» ttw 13 v*mi D'toroM M"na
'2 i'<p '3
31 Steinschneider, in Ersch und Gruher's Encyklopadie, section II, vol. xxxi,
p. 101 ; and Jetoish Literature, Longman, 1857, p. 113.

172
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.32 When Isaac of Akko,
who escaped the massacre after the oa'pture of this city (A.D.
1291), oame to Spain and there saw the Sohar, he was
anxious to ascertain whether it was genuine, since it pre
tended 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
<jtrw nwi laironn ¦end D>»on nam n3iro las 'a ia» pi prop 'i ana vim wins 32
rerai ia»o aira rrtMB'Ma rnMaaa iay pi prer> 'i m rrn n"o nawai ii"2 nw>o '12 d»
ied rrvsw Min las pi prop 'in a"i vm owi nai isoa >nM3oi ¦ nWno1) Ma mass n"o
¦m 'i p pui j"3oin to) 133 p pu Dtoa 131031 las 13D13 nsiroi "jMbon mwa ntop
'i rra» iom irnin ido uoia msdi is'3 npn1! tied1) -pn Nim -Vi D"aoin p omaM p
rfm '3BD .innoM1; 'idni i hm imv wim3 onnDM1) D'ann iom msoa 133 iwaM 'n pawo
dmi -psioiD 'i 'i3i on >a ]'omh 'otorn' pmta msosid no 'a top© i'dmi 'rpi iidm nspo
pwto Min 'noMn iddtto '3DO rpion nai pi vi3i D3'M '3 p»n oip pioto nMin
'nta S'Binon pson p'ton upoo 13M®' D'MaoiD liai 'a tvmiw 'aooi sVn ito 'otojiv
pioiaoD D'VnaDisi ora owroan D'Totoin pm naMWMi vinM wri 'i"aoaiD3 ntapo
OT D1M130 DID 1M3D31 STO'1! 13n3 M1! lOM nB aM PIDO D'toipO D'MtolD niTID Drf! Ml
>ni!o» ; naa ioim mi naa idim m 'nmiaD nm 'na«\D to on>ni3TOn 'nMSo m?i 'idd miip
133a M'sibop1) aHi«j> pHo iniH nam Vi prom pN3n a-in '3 v/mb to '7 dioim
O'idimo Min pM'1? 'i n*D 'i Darin Ta aB3i 'map1! Ma n"'1 paiN pMa rrnn wani
rrn m noo 'i toM /m ibd '"aim lan m? d'jwdo m"'i 'ni«an iMivi moo '1 vto
rjDa ana Tno ona np' poai /naM D'Mtoa nnai-n mco 'i 3ina' inaai anian a© arm
vi3ni 133 iwSm 'n »"3im ian iwm icDn -pno iomi >a-ai '.toau inai nam 31 srm
^D^o) Taon i»m villain T» :m Nawi nnDD 'Miaa '3Mi -iSm 0*131 tan1! p'nso >3R
0'paM ¦*) nw»' na noMa saw '^iti 'd» iai'1 i'3'sa p msomi m noo 'ia o® msomv
M'n 'VaiB' n3'io3 'n'33 nvn Min ton »"a«3i -on icm poipn iBDn m1! dm rpav nai
t» tm m nt» 'i "p'1 'sod tibs naNn D'iain irrn >rn '"piN oc >aM "(Miai na'iN

173
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 band. 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 —
mo is 'a mn ao'n miwrr 'snoai -d© rro'i MtoiMa nami NtoiMa in'3 aM 310'! M731N
ibhp jdmi m 'i io©i ]pn aii3 Dan did >nN2W nt'im aM M3M1 'dsb titi D'idmi nsni
ioim m D'pbna dim >33© inrm ibd m-rc ib manan i ion1; in»'3©Ni vain p nMSOMi
tiddm ia to sir '3W no© 15 p^Dn mVi ^m (nrt ?) 'b 113 iom> rroo 'n naa ioim mi naa
/m rroo 'i a« it? aa m? D'nsow.pDD Naa *> nans 'a neNa »i idm'i 'J'omm 'd 13171
*mniBD3 3na© no to ana iroai amsn did to3 moo 'i mn pi m imi ibd dVim )'hi
laiDD nt3' p3 M'sioi aii3 iiBDmn m n©D 'i 'a si :•>> Tiara -pi ni'H3 »3 sd© nnsi
p' i©n (iaM) m:m D'ans nniD3 o'3'3on D'T©i>n i1) lans© 3mi rpa Man in'a mn ovn© -a
asnanvn© nions mn in3i in©N ara© i» ito pnra inoi am an D©a D'3inb oni
riMin t»3 t©n "man Y©»n \rn tVi DipMi iai3iM i'»a no© i3Jo©©ai • to iDinai Nosai
isais' m1! i©n '\niin idd? nam i»n nsn awn nns na idimi nViM n rpv 'iMipsn
'np na iomi incMa m rpv 'i Nip'© i nMi M'n >nx»i •¦psj'M i«m rw now dm n'aian am
oS na tis iom'1 mnoo 'mi : p ©»m n©o 'i nwh nniM vt)©i innE© Ta n«3 nnao M3
toMb on1! iDm ni "pNi '337 -pa nM N'ona Nin '3ian 'a in na 'idni noo 'i n©N nn'3 M3
p'nso "pr» mn i©n iniin ibd pi oawa 121 too ncpaD '3M pn to' to oiaaa 1331
naias' i©n Dmiai nN 'r'oani iaa nnaai 13a na 'iDNn naN D'i3i din '3aa ;ni3i laob
idm'i f|DV '1 n©N7 sa©m moo 'i n©N pm -p ©»ni "pm ¦ mi dm D'3iiao vmn nMiai
in no iaai i©mid toM icn ds mn m ibd oai»D dn ivdv nai o-fin >a mar> no
iDMn sjiid tvart 131 nrtoo 3ma iniw 'niNi3 ia moiMi •3na©na,i33naia3©i
"|ta«o 'a iqn1; -p nN3 N^n » ania nnN t©nio pi ied -p pi nnm ibdo p'nso nnN©
Ma ama '3M 'toco© m mo unb »*hn Vjn siqn'i '^n p'i "p naa mm invi 3ni3 nnN
i»N3 nn» toM DniN mi3 Nin 1370 '3 iidn> »a nans onasa ian> nti '1213 ima©>
Dip' D'oia DniN i3p' Dp'nso '3N ©ipn mia '"aei -an ion imin ibd -pno© wo©'
: niMii Ta'» i©Ma

174
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,33
and shall only give one example, which the erudite historian,
Dr. Graetz,34 has pointed out. In his Sephar Ha-Rimon
(IIDHH 13D), 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 (IWySO Itn 137
VINO, jTIDK? DV IVH QTlbii) Come, behold the works of
Elohim, what perishableness he made in the earth (Ps. xlvi,
8), showing that TWOItf destruction, perishableness, is conso
nant with the name D^rPN. In looking at the original, it
will be seen that the text has illiT and not D^rPN, and that
Moses de Leon, by a slip of memory, confounded this passage
with DV6N /Tl7j?SD "ttOl "Ob Come and see the works of
Elohim (Ps. xlvi, 5). Now, the whole explanation and the
same blunder are transferred into the Sohar. The commen
tators 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.
33 Moses ben Schem-Tob de Leon, und sein ferhdltniss zum Sohar, von
Adolph Jellinek. Leipzig, 1851, p. 21-36. Jellinek also gives additional
iiiforiiijiion on this subject in his other contributions to the Kabbalah which
will be found mentioned in the third part of this Essay.
31 Comp. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, vol. vii, Leipzig, 1863, p. 408, where
other facts are given, proving that Moses de Leon is the author of the Sohar.

175
Sohar, i, 58 a. Moses de Leon, ii, No. 133, p. 25.
i©m omaN mtooo nn w rmc rmm 'i mvon d© niTia inM otto ©> '3 D3om
• • • • lorwi rnopiM Mip -vtn 'iai mo© o© vh Van iidm nvinn to D"pa rmimo iai3
(p©o© p©a) »aaa ona mo© Mm 'mti niD© avtn* nitoBo vn© '3Bo 'iai mtoco ini
toMpM3Dvp o©'n'Vn ' mtoBO nn iimi nitoDo vn vfnfivm • • • • mo© d©
mo© o© ottihi md© nitoBo pirn pa to to im psm ipM3 ovp d© 'n vn"
'iai M"n 'i ma ton tpMa '3bo didbs oto town Dawn m nitooon
D©a vm MaoaM© m d©3 wot to©
'iai Dovpa Diav vn* Dta mron
It is for these and many other reasons that the Sohar is
now regarded by Steinschneider, Beer, Jellinek, Graetz, &a,
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
R

176
a crab-tree and a well were created for their subsistence.
He and his son sat in the wand up to their necks all the day
studying the Law. They spent twelve long yeors in this
cavern ; when Elias the prophet came and stood at the
entrance of the cavern, nnd culled 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 aud
sowing." (Sabbath, 33 a. Comp. also, Jerusalem Shebiith,
ix, 1 ; Bereshith Rabba, cap. lxxix ; Midrash Kohelelh, 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.
ft is this commentary to which we must look, us the
most ancient document embodying the doctrines of the
Kabbalah. The author of this commentary, R. Azariel b.
Menachem, was born in Valladolid, about 1 1 CO. He dis
tinguished 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 ths celebrated R. Moses
Nuohmanides, 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,20 and the following is the lucid analysis
of it as given by the erudite Jellinek, according to Spinoza's
form of Ethics.
20. nai©m nW -pi to nWED 1©» ©VE Commentary on the Ten Sephiroth,
by way of Questions aud Answers. This commentary was first known through
the Kabhalistio works of Meier Ibn Gabhai, entitled roiOM Til, Tlie Path of
Faith, printed in Padua, 1603, and'Wlpn ni3S, The Service of Holiness, also called
D'nbN niNID, The Vision oftlu Lord, first printed in Mantua, 1546 ; Ihen Venice,
1.1(17, and Cracow, l'i78. It was then published in Gabriel Warschawer's volume
entitled 4 Collection o, Kabbalistic Treatises (ntop3 D'Elpa IBD), Warsaw, 17118 ;
and has recently been' published in Be.-lin, 1850. It is to this Berlin 'edition
that the references in this Ebsi.v ar<! made.

177
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 transcen
dent. (Answer 1.)
(a) Proof. —Each effect has a cause, and every thing
which has order und design has a governor. (Answer ).)
(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 un
limited, 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 imma
nent. (Ibid.)
Scholion. — As the En Soph is invisible and exalted, it is
the root of bo.th 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 con
nection 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

178
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 ore the attributes
of the Sephiroth. (Answer 7.)
4. Proposition. — The Sephiroth are emanations and not
creations. I . 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.)

179
'5. Proposition. — The Sephiroth are both active and
passive (bzptVS) b^pV).
Proof. — As the Sephiroth do not set aside the unity of
the En Soph, each one of them must receive from its prede
cessor, and impart to its successor — i.e., be receptive and
imparting. (Answer 9.)
6. Proposition. — The first Sephira is called Inscrutable
Height (TlbyO DV)) ; the second, . Wisdom (HOST!) ; the
third, Intelligence (HM) ; the fourth, Love (IVtl) ; the fifth,
Justice ("TnS) ; the sixth, Beauty (/T1K3D) ; the seventh,
Firmness (rTjO) ; the eighth, Splendour (TH) ; ,the ninth,
the Righteous is the Foundation of the World (~W pHS
UVty) ; and the tenth, Righteousness (p"T2).
(a) Scholion. — The first three Sephiroth form the world of
thought ; the seoond 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 oalled a unity (STPfT) ; the second,
inasmuch as it is denominated living (TVH) ; the third, inas
much as it is termed spirit (mi) ; the fourth, inasmuch es it
is called vital principle (IVSU) ; the fifth, inasmuch as it is
denominated soul (TVSttfX) ; the sixth operates on the blood,
the seventhon 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
Ught, 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.21
21 The above analysis is taken from Dr. Jellinek's Beitrdge zur Geschichte
der Kabbalah. Erstes Heft, Leipzig, 1 Sb'l. This erudite scholar also gives
some additional information on H. Azariel in the second part of his Beitrdge
zur GeschiclUe der- Kabbalah, p. 32, &c. Leipzig, 1803.

180
The gradation of the Sephiroth is as follows-
i
ntora on

irna niMBn -ron

TiU iX TU
nn Daw tid' nara

pis
For this date of the Kabbalah (i.e., 1150-1190) we have
the testimony of some of the earliest and most intelhgent
Kabbalists themselves. Thus R. Joseph b. Abraham Gikatilla
(bom 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.85 R. Bechja b. Asher, another Kabbalist who
lived soon after this system was made known, in his commen
tary on the Pentateuch, which he composed A.D. 1291, styles
R. Isaac the Blind, as the Father of the Kabbalah.33 Shem
Tob b. Abraham Ibn Gaon (born 1283), another ancient
Kabbalist, in attempting to trace a Kabbahstic 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
wn no» -na '3'dd miaio nwaao ntop ntoaawo DTjann iim nvn to vraw ntopi 22
[©rp©iD3«] ©ip33©DmaM'iOTipnaiina'3Dpnat' lTDnn This passage from
Oikatilla's rrnrm ©itb which is contained in vi oses de Leon's maarm ©Ban IBD is
quoted by Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, vol. vii, p. 144.
38 ntopn 'SM urn '3D pnaP '1 Comp. Commentary on Pericope naW! ed. Lemberir
1811.

181
mysteries of this theosophy to this corypheus of the Kabbalah.84
Whilst the author of the Kabbalistic work entitled /QiyD
JTirPN 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."83
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 fanoiful 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
tc 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. Turphon 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 suoh as are pious, not easily provoked,
not given to drinking, and are not self opinionated. He who

24 In his Super-Commentary mi Nachmanides' Treatise on Seorets, (nmo
}30"in) entitled 31B D» ina or aim D© IBD Shem Tob Ibn Gaon on Pericope nae'i
remarks as follows lmaN ¦» [l"3Ml] 3in J3 prw 'i i» WM 'CD WM Min ni plDD OTTD '3
N'aan In another Kabbalistic work, entitled aNaan iiaoi piMn '13 which he com
pleted at Tafet in 1355, he says— to nnann ©n'D ran nsn'aD 1N1W '311 M1W >3il
una '3D pnar '3io ltop© 1D3 • • • • mi'Bnn ©wb lana miw rpaim ntop 'B These two
worts are still in MS, and the quotations are given in Cormoly's Itiniraris,
p. 270, and in Graetz's Geschichte der Jnden, vol. vii, p. 445.
Vi 1313 Mai D'3inaa nai D'm>333 Mai mins Ma nm otm i3iaa t©m mD pin 'a m 85
TOi natp mnasn 'to3 13 ltop "p» Comp. ninaM naiso cap, vii, 82 b, ed. Mantua, 1 558.

182
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 oome."
(Babylon Kiddushin, 71 a.) Upon this the celebrated
Maimonides (born 1135, died 1304) remarks — "Now every
one 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 us 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 mnst be well under
stood, 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

188
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 scjenoe — I speak of the percep
tion 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.' "26
It is this passage, as well as Maimonides' comment upon
it, whioh 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+8 + 3 + 5 +6 + 5 +4+4 + 8= 42
yid*i reobu Tin nso mas/i rmaj nTra rwi noon ina
But Franck, like many other writers, confounds mysticism
with Kabbalah. That the Jews had an extensive mysticism,
embracing theosophy with its collateral angelology and uran-
ology, 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"
(JT019N tJI3), 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 (Tip T)2) 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).

26 Comp. More Nebvchim, port 1, cap. lxii.
S

184
The sages had also secret doctrines about the hexahemeron
(nWD TOyD) and the Vision of Ezekiel = Theosophy
(n20")D TVttyO), "which were only communicated to presi
dents 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, 05 b, 67 b ; Jerusalem
Sanliedrin, 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"
(mynp). 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 commence
ment 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 (flpHQIJ), 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, re
garding him as fltapn T'lT the Minor Deity, in contradistinc
tion to 7VUn *!"1T 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,
1858.

185
3.. Shiur Koma (nDIp "ITJWP), 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 tha
sundry members of the Deity. It is given iij the Book
Raziel (TWO "1SD) of Eleazer b. Jehudah of Worms, printed
at Amsterdam, 1701, and at Warsaw, 1812.
4. The Palaces (fivaTt). This mystical document opens
with an exaltation of those who are worthy to see the chariot
throne (n23"10n n^SS), 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 (n2D")D) ; gives an episode from the history of
the martyrs and the Roman emperor Lupinus, a description of
the angels, and of the sundry formula? 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 descrip
tion of the formula? 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 re
printed in Jellinek's valuable Beth Ha-Midrash, vol. iii,
pp. 83-108.
These mystical treatises constitute the centre around which

186
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 fonnd it necessary to denounce
the system. " We have one divine name only," says he,
" which is not derived from His attributes, viz., the Tetra
grammaton, for which reason it is called Shem Ha-Mephorask
(liHIBQn DIV). Believe nothing else, and give no credence to
the nonsense of the writers of charms and amulets ('2/113
/liy'DpiTj, 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
(j"VlD«V), 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 beheve 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. 26 1 ),
that the Sohar itself takes the ten divine names mentioned
in the Bible, which it enumerated in vol. iii, 11a, and which

187
it makes to correspond to the ten Sephiroth, to be the saored
name composed of forty-two letters, viz. : —
4 + 2+2+ 5+4+ 6+2+5+2+4+3+4 = 48
'rn* rt "?» niNas tit oh1?** bx tit n*1 n^na -ton nrtx
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
subjeot must be relinquished when the two systems are com
pared. The very expression En Soph (^ID pN) which the
Kabbalah uses to designate the Incomprehensible One, is
foreign, and is evidently an imitation of the Greek tiiretpoc..
The speculations about the En Soph, that he is superior to
actual being, thinking and knowing, are thoroughly Neo-
Platonic (iireKeivaoiidae, tvtpylac., vov ycd vor)<n<i>e.) ; 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.87 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
(to iv) 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
(appnroe, ayvuiarde), 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.
27 Mb -pi to dm "3 iana©n ps 'a D'iniMi iaia ramo ipnon 'oani Commentary on
the ten Sephiroth, 2 u.

188
So Neo-Platonism. The Sephiroth are divided in the Kab
balah into a trinity of triads respectively denominated o?iy
b21DTl the Intellectual World, 105On D7VJ? the Sensuous World,
and WBn dbiy the Material World, which exactly corre
sponds to the three triads of Neo-Platonism vovg, tyx1"' and
foaic. 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 ema
nates, 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.'"28
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 (olov « qmnos ri)y ii, abrov
ireptXafi\j/iv.

28 Proclus, Inst. Theol. 7, 81 ; Smith, Dictionary of Soman and Greek
Biography and Mytltology, s.v. Pboclus.

189

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 Kab
balah is the birth of the Sohar, which divides the history of
this theosophy into two periods, viz., the j>re-Sohar period
and the post- Sohar period. During these two periods dif
ferent schools developed themselves, which are classified by
the erudite historian, Dr. Graetz, as follows : — ' •
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 quo
tations 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. 1 Comp. Geschichte der Juden, vol. vii, p. 110, &c.

190
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 im
portance 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 exe
cution ; 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.2 His numerous writings,
an account of which will be found in Alexander's edition of
2 Vide Ibn Jachja, Shalslieleth Ha-Kabbalah ; Grcetz, Geschichte der Juden,
vii, 88, Ate.

191
Kitto's Cyclopaedia, under Nachmanides, are pervaded with
the tenets of this system. In the Introduction to his Com
mentary 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— Qrtbii &03 JWN-Q in
Gen. i, 1, may be redivided into other words, ex. gr. VIV12
0\"!7>t N13JT In like manner is the whole Pentateuch, which
consists of nothing but transpositions and numerals of divine
names."3 5. The Treatise on the Emanations (lYfmH /13D2), sup
posed 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 und Til i ah
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 aud 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, lik* ten trees planted upon
a narrow space, contend about the sap of the soil, aud finally
perish altogether. III. God manifested himself in four worlds,
mpanno '13'nn© n"apn a© vmo© nais mum to >a oon a© ntop ia'T3 ©' ns .1
©M13 paa nvuiK rra'na parnr m©Nia piDB o a©o "in to ai©nn V5N3 inN rasa nioea
•mo© a© jmni'TBO'ai tttbits iaao >3 minn toi ovraN imn'

192
viz. — Atzilah, Beriah, Jetzira and Asiah, corresponding to
the Tetragrammaton nVT. In the Atzilatic luminous teorldii
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
aud 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 Asiatic 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."4
6. Jacob ben Sheshet of Gerona (flour. 1243). He wrote
a Kabbalistic Treatise in rhymed prose, entitled D^lVn tyv
the Gale of Heaven, after Gen. xxviii, 17. It was first
published by Gabriel VVarshawer in his collection of eight
Kabbalistic Essays, called n"?3pa 0>VS\pb IBD. Warsaw, 1798.
It forms the third Essay in this collection, and is erroneously
entitled 2V3 OV Wpb the Collection of Shem Tob. It has
now been published under its proper title, from a codex by
4 This remarkable Treatise was first published bv H. Abraham Vilua 1802 •
it was then reprinted with all its faults in l.emberg, 1850. The erudite anti
indefatigable llr. Jellinek has now reprinted it in his Auswald kabbalMischer
Mystik, part i, Leipzig, 1853, and the above analysis is from the Introduction to
this excellent edition.

193
Mordeoai Mortera, in the Hebrew Essays and Reviews, entitled
Ozar Nechmad (TOTO "IJttN) vol. iii, p. 153,&c. Vienna, 1860.
The characteristic feature of this school, whioh is the creative
school, is that it for the first time established, and developed
the doctrine of the En Soph (=11D ] **) the Sephiroth (JTiTBD)
or Emanations, metempsychosis pi3J?n TID) with the doctrine
of retribution (7l03n T1D) belonging thereto, and a peculiar
ohristology, 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 plaoe or lived in it. The chief represen
tatives of this school are —
1, Isaac, and 2, Jaoob, junior, the two sons of Jaoob
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 distin
guished 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 cortege 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. H's
works on the Kabbalah are— (a) An Exposition of the Tal-
mudic Hagadoth, entitled TDDn 1X18, (*) 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.5
5. Shem Tob b. Abraham Ibn Gaon, born 1283, died oirca
1832, who wrote many Kabbalistic works.
6. Isaac of Akko (flour. 1290) author of -the Kabbalistic
5 Steinschneider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, 2677-2680.
Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, vii, 218, &c.

194
Commentary on the Pentateuch, entitled WTy IYTND not
yet printed, with the exception of ah extract published by
Jellinek.6 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 1 270'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 opera
tive 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-reve
lation 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.' IV. THE SCHOOL OF ABULAFIA, founded by
Abraham ben Samuel Abulnfia, is represented by —
6 Comp. Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Kabbnln, von Adolph Jellinek, part ii,
Leipzig, 185-', p. xiii, Sec.
7 Comp. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, vol. vii, p. 221, &c.

195
1. Abulafia, the founder of it, who was boin 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 medioine, making himself master of the phil
osophical 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, nnd especially those of
the divine name, into letters, and by regarding each letter
as a distinct word (Jlp'HtOIJ), or by transposing the compo
nent parts of words in every possible way to obtain thereby
peculiar expressions (^YTX), or by taking the letters of each
word as numerals. (NHtODJ), 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 ascelic 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 hits gone through
these practices and is in such a condition, the fulness of the

196
Godhead is shed abroad in the human soul : the soul tben
unites itself with the divine soul in a kiss, aud 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,8 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 religon, Abulafia went to
Sicily, accompanied by several of his disciples. In Messina
another revelation from God was vouchsafed to him, an
nouncing 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 a priori maxims ; III, The
generally acknowledged maxims, or consensus communis ;
8 This will be seen from the reduction of the respective names to their numerical
value by the rule Gernatria, viz. : — ^ 30 + n1 + >10 + i7i 200 = 248 ¦
l 6 + n 6 + > 10 + i 200 + 3 80 + , 7 = 348 ;
and D 40 + n 6 + 1 200 + 3 2 + Ml = 248.

197
and TV, Transmitted dootrines 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 whioh 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 alpha
bet, 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 vovs, which in its

198
turn again unites itself with God, as the unity to which every
thing 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."9
Abulafia wrote no less than twenty-six grammatical, exegeti
cal, mystical and Kabbalistic works, and twenty-two prophetic
treatises. And though these productions are of great im
portance 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 (mi/in JTQVti WW), 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 (T13N J"U3), 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 (Tlp\jn ^D), or
the Gate to the Points (Tip'jn 'W), published in the col
lection of seven treatises, called the Cedars of Lebanon
'.» This Epistle of Abnlafiu hos been published by Jellinek in his Auswahl
kabbalistischer Myslik, part i, p. 13, &c, Leipzig, 1853, who also gives the
above analysis, which we hiive translated as literally as possible.

199
0U21? TIN), Venice, 1601, aud Cracow, 1648, of which it
is the third treatise. iii. The Mystery of the Shining
Metal ("?Ott?nn TiD), 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
(ilIlK "Wtf), being a treatise on the names of the Deity and
the ten Sephiroth, first published in Mantua, 1501; then
Riva de Treuto, 1561; Cracow, 1600. A Latin version of it by
Knorr von Roseuroth is given in the first part of the Cabbala
Denudata, Snlzbach, 1077-78. v. The Gates of Righteous
ness (p"TS 'r\yVf), on the ten divine names answering to the
ten Sephiroth, published at Riva de Trento, 1501. vi. Mys
teries (DITID) connected with sundry Pentateuchal ordinances,
published by Jechiel Ashkenazi in his Temple of the Lord
(nW b2rt), Venice and Dantzic, 1 590- 1 (JOG.10
From the above description it will be seen that the charac
teristic features of this school are the stress which its followers
lay on the extensive use of the exegetical rules called Gematria
(KnODi), Notaricon (llpntD'O), and Ziruph (*V)T2{), 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 Kab
balah became known among Christians through the restless
efforts of Raymond Lully, the celebrated scholastic meta
physician and experimental chemist. This Doctor illuminalus,
as he was styled, in consequence of his great learning and
10 Comp. Jellinek, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Kabbaln, part ii, p. 60, &c. ;
Steinschneider, Catulogus Libr. Hebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, Col. 1401-1470.

200
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 con
version 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 doc
trine of " the identity of the Deity and nature ;"u and there
is very little doubt that the Kabbalistic method of palming
their notions on the text of Scripture, by means of the
Gemalria, NoUiricon and Ziruph, suggested to him the in
vention of the Great Art (Alts 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.12
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 doc
trines 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
11 Comp. Tennemann, Geschichte der Philosophic, vol. viii. p. 887.
12 Dicitur baec doctrina Kabbala quod idem est secundum Hebraeos ut re-
ceptio veritatis cnjuslibet rei divinitus revelatae animae rationali  Est igitur
Kabbala habitus anima rationolis ex recta ratioue divinarum rerum cognitivus ;
propter quod est de maximo etiam divino cons quutive diviila scientia vocari
debet. Comp- De Audita Kabbalistico, sive ad omnes scientias introdutorium .
Strasburg, 1B51.

201
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 establish
ment, Venice, 1523, then again, ibid, 1545, and in Lublin,
1595 — has been translated into Latin by the famous Pico della
Mirandola.13 1820. 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 intro
ductory 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 Sephi
roth, 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
aud necessary first Emanation, investigating the question as
to how many Sephiroth this property extends (cap. v) ; on
13 For the other works of Recanti, both published and unpublished, as well
as for the exact date of his literary labours, we must refer to Steinschneider,
Catuloqus Libr. Hebr. in Bibliotlieca Bodleiana, Col. 1733-1737 ; and to Fiirst,
Bibliotluca Judaica, vol. iii, pp. 135, 130.

202
the subordination and order of the Sephiroth and the dia
grams, 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 (JTfflvp ) and their relation to the- pure
ones (cap. viii).
Gate II, which is entitled, On the influence of the Sephi
roth on the government of the world (Providence J , consists
of six chapters, treating respectively on the relation of the
Sephiroth to the fundamental characteristics of Providence,
such as mercy, justice, &c; (nap. i) ; on the corresponding
relations of the unclenn Sephiroth (cop. 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
nVIN "WN THft current among the Jewish philosophers
(cap. 1); on the names of the Sephiroth, stating that there
is no uniform principle among the Kabbalists ; that the appel
lations are derived from the Bible, the Talmud and later
literati ; that tlie 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, Pentium of 11. 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 Sephi
roth, with examples of interpretation of the Bible and Talmud

203
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 Kabba
lists 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.14
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 edit
ing some older works, and with writing Kabbalistic com
mentaries 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
* 14 The MS. of Ibn Wnkkar's Trentise is minutely described by Uri (No 384).
It is written in a character resembling the later Gsrmun Hebrew, is furnished with
references to the passages in the Bible and verbal translations in Latin, and
contains such clerical blunders as no Hebrew copyist would commit. The above
analysis of it is taken from the article in Ersch und GruberS Allgetneine Ency-
klopadie, section ii, vol . xxxi, p. 1 00, &c, written by the erudite Steinschneider.
For the other Kabbalistic works of Ibn Wakkar we must refer to. the same
elaborate article.

204
the mysteries of the names of God and the angels, of permu
tations, 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.15
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, nnd maintains that the
salvation of Israel depends upon the Kabbalah. He also wrote
Homilies on tho Pentateuch, the Feasts and Fasts, &c, in
which the Kabbalistic doctrines are fully propounded.18
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 Kab
balah, he praises philosophy, speaks of Aristotle as of a
prophet, and maintains that philosophy and the Kabbalah
propound exactly the same doctrines, and that they only
differ in language and in technical terms. In this commen
tary, which he wrote to instruct the Christian scholar Maestro
Juan in the Kabbalah, Botarel shows how, by fasting, ab
lutions, 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
15 This nrran rro has been published in Amsterdam, 1648.
16 The rraWM IDD consists of eleven parts, subdivided into- chapters; and
was published in FeiTara, 1657 j the Homilies, entitled minn to nwn were
first published in Venice, 1647, and then in Padua, 1567.

205
pillars.17 It is almost needleBs 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 commen
tary on the Kabbalistic work, entitled The Divine Order ;18
and (ii) Abraham Ibn Sabba, who was banished with thou
sands 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.19
1403-1494. The Kabbalah, which soon after its birth
became partiully 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,
17 Botarel's Commentary on the Book Jetzira was first published with the
text of this book and other commentaries, Mantua, 1502; then Zolkiev, 1745;
and in Grodno, 1806, 1820.
18 The rmrr nn:D which is a Commentary on the lrrtNM rOT*o was published
together with it in Ferrnra, 1508.
10 The Commentary iron ins was first published at Constantinople, 1514;
then in Venice, 1523, 1548, 1566 ; and in Cracow 1595. Pellican has translated
this Commentary into Latin, and the MS. of this version is in the Zurich
Library.

206
he found that20 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.'21 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.28
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' ItfBJn JlDDn de Scientia animae ; and
3, Shem Tob Falaquera's Jlltyon 13D
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
20 Vidi in illis (testis est Deus) religionem non tnm Mosaicam quam
Christinnnin ; ibi Trinitatis mysterium ; ibi verbi Incarnotio, ibi Messiae divini-
tates ; ibi de pecato originali, de illius per Christum expiatione, de ceelesti Hieru-
salem, de casu daimonum, de ordinibus Angelorum, de Pnrgatoriis, de luferorum
poenis; Eadem legi, quae apud Panlum et Dionysiinn, npnd Hieronymum et
Augustinum qdotidie lcgiinus. Comp. Index a Jacobo Gaffarello, published by
Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebraea,vo\. i, p. 9 at the end of the volume.
21 Nulla est scientia, quae nos magis certificet de divinitate Christi, quam
magia et Cabbala, vide Apologia, p. 42, opp. vol. 1. Basil, 1601.
22. Hie libri ( Cabbalistornm ) Sixtus IV, Poutifex maxinius, qui hunc, sub
quo vivimus feliciter, Iunncentium VIII, proxime untecessit, maxima cura
studioque curavit, tit in publicain ndei nostrae utililarem, Latinis Uteris man-
darentur, jamqne cum ille decessit, tres ex illis pervenerant ad Latinos. Vide
Ganarelli in Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebraea, appendix to vol. i, p. 9.

207
father of the German Reformation. This eminent scholar, —
who is also called by the Greek name Gapnion (tcairviov), or
Capnio, whioh 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 Df.si-
derids 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 attain
ments soon attracted notice, and he was sent (1473) with the
young Margrave Frederick, eldest son of Charles II, after
wards 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 Attio 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 Tubingen 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 Domini
cans elected him as their proctor in the whole of Germany,
w

208
Reuchlin had not time to enter at once upon the study of He
brew and Aramaic, which are the key to the Kabbalah, and he
had reluctantly to wait till ! 4 92, when he accompanied Eberh ard
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.23
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, accord
ing 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.
Book II endeavours to shew that all wisdom and true
philosophy are derived from the Hebrews, that Plato, Pytha
goras and Zoroaster borrowed their ideas from the Bible, and
that traces of the Hebrew language are to be found in the
liturgies and sacred books of all nations. Then follows an
explanation of the four divine names, which are shown to have
been transplanted into the systems of Greek philosophy.
The first and most distinguished of them TVTVtk "yDt\ TVTX&
ego sum qui sum (Exod. iii, 12), is translated in the Platonic
philosophy by ro 6W<oc wv. The second divine name, which
we translate by Kin He, i.e., the sign of unchangeableness and
23 " Is (Jekiel Loanz) me, supra quam dici queat, fideliter literos Hebraicos
primus edocuit." Comp. Rudim. Hebr. p. 3.

209
of the eternal idea of the Deity, is also to be found among
the Greek philosophers in the term lam-ov, which is opposed
to Sarepbv. The third name of God used in Holy Writ is VH
Fire. In this form God appeared in the burning bush when
he first mauifested himself to .Moses. The prophets describe
him as a burning fire, and John the Baptist depicts him as
such when he says, " I baptize you with water, but he who
cometh after me shall baptize you with fire." (Matt, iii, 11.)
The fire of the Hebrew prophets is the same as the ether
(ai $>)o) mentioned in the hymns of Orpheus. But these three
names are in reality only one, showing to us the divine nature
in three different aspects. Thus God calls himself the Being,
because every existence emanates from him ; he calls himself
Fire, because it is he who illuminates and animates all things
and he is always He, because he always remains like himself
amidst the infinite variety of his works. Now just as there
are names which express the nature of the Deity, so there are
names which refer to his attributes, and these are the ten
Sephiroth. Tf we look away from every attribute and every
definite point of view in which the divine subsistence may be
contemplated, if we endeavour to depict the absolute Being
as concentrating himself within himself, and not affording us
any explicable relation to our intellect, he is then described
by a name which it is forbidden to pronounce, by the thrice
holy Tetragrammaton, the name Jehovah (nin*) the Shem
Ha-Mephorash (WTSSn DK>).
There is no doubt that the tetrad (reraain-uc) of Pythagoras
is an imitation of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, and that the
worship of the decade has simply been invented in honour of
the ten Sephiroth. The four letters composing this name
represent the four fundamental constituents of the body (i.e.,
heat, cold, dryness and humidity), the four geometrical prin
cipal points (i.e., the point, the line, flat and body), the four
notes of the musical scale, the four rivers in the earthly

210
paradise, the four symbolical figures in the vision of Ezekiel,
&c, &c, &c. Moreover if we look at these four letters
separately we shall find that each of them has equally a recon
dite meaning. The first letter \ which also stands for the
number ten, and which by its form reminds us of the mathe
matical point, teaches us that God is the beginning and end of
all things. The number >Ft*, expressed by Tt the second letter,
shows us the union of God with nature — of God inasmuch as
he is depicted by the number three, i.e., the Trinity ; and of
visible nature, inasmuch as it is represented by Plato and
Pythagoras under the dual. The number six, expressed by 1,
the third letter, which is likewise revered in the Pythagorean
school, is formed by the combination of one, two, and three,
the symbol of all perfection. Moreover the number six is
the symbol of the cube, the bodies (solida), or the world.
Hence it is evident that the world has in it the imprint of
divine perfection. The fourth and last letter of this divine
name (n) is like the second, represents the number^-*, and
here symbolizes the human and rational soul, which is the
medium between heaven and earth, just as- five is the centre
of the decade, the symbolic expression of the totality of
things. Book III, the exponent of which is Capnio, endeavours to
shew that the most essential doctrines of Christianity are to
be found by the same method. Let a few instances of this
method suffice. Thus the doctrine of the Trinity is to be
found in the first verse of Genesis. If the Hebrew word NT3
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 IN nn \2 Son,
Spirit, Father. Upon the same principle we find the two
persons of the Trinity in the words, " the stone which the
builders refused is become the head stone of the corner"
(Ps. cxviii, 22), inasmuch as the three letters composing the

211
word PM stone, are to be divided into ]2 2H Father, Son.
Orpheus, in his hymn on the night, described the Trinity of
the New Testament in the words, vv{, olparbs, al$i)p, for night
which begets everything can only, designate the Father;
heaven, that olyphus which in its boundlessness embraces all
things, and which proceeded from the night, signifies the Son ;
whilst ether, which the ancient poet also designates^/rVry breath,
is the Holy Ghost. The name Jesus in Hebrew n'WTP
the irtm-aypapixaroy yields the name nw Jehovah ; and the
IV which in the language of the Kabbalah is the symbol of
fire or light, which St. Jerome, in his mystical exposition
of the alphabet, has made the sign of the Aoyoc- This mys
terious name therefore contains a whole revelation, inasmuch
as it shows us that Jesus is God himself, the Light or the
Logos. Even the cross, which is the symbol of Christianity,
is plainly indicated in the Old Testament, by the tree of life
which God planted in the midst of the garden ; by the pray
ing attitude of Moses, when he raised his hands towards
heaven in his intercession for Israel during the combat with
Amalek ; and by the tree which converted the bitter waters
into sweet in the wilderness of Marah.24
The Treatise de Verbo Mirifico is, however, only an intro
duction to another work on the same subject which Reuchlin
published twenty-two years later, entitled De Arte Gabalistica.
Hagenau, 1516. This Treatise, like the first, is in the form of
a dialogue between a Mohammedan named Marrianus, a
Pythagorean Philosopher named Philolaus, and a Jewish
doctor named Simon. The dialogue is held in Frankfort,
where the Jew resides, to whom the Mohammedan and
Pythagorean resort to be initiated into the mysteries of the
Kabbalah. The whole is a more matured exposition and
elaboration of the ideas hinted at in his first work.
24 Comp. Franck, Die Kabbalah oder die Beligioni Philosophie der Hebraer
ubersetzt von Jellinek. Leipzig, 1814, p. 8, Sco.

212
The Kabbalah, according to Reuchlin, is a symbolical
reception of Divine revelation; and a distinction is to be
made between Cabalici, to whom belongs heavenly inspira
tion, their disciples Cabalaai, and their imitators Cabalistae.
The design of the Kabbalah is to propound the relations of
the absolute Creator to the creature. God is the Creator of
all beings which emanated from him, and he implanted
aspirations in them to attain actual communion with him.
In order that feeble man might attain this communion, God
revealed himself to mankind in various ways, but especially
to Moses. This Divine revelation to Moses contains far
mere than appears on the surface of the Pentateuch. There
is a recoudite wisdom concealed in it which distinguishes
it from other codes of morals and precepts. There are in the
Pentateuch many pleonasms and repetitions of the same
things and words, and as we cannot charge God with having
inserted useless and superfluous words in the Holy Scriptures,
we must believe that something more profound i3 contained
in them, to which the Kabbalah gives the key.
This key consists in permutations, commutations, &c, &c.
But this act of exchanging and arranging letters, and of in
terpreting for the edification of the soul the Holy Scriptures,
which wu have received from God as a divine thing not to be
understood by the multitude, was not communicated by Moses
, to everybody, but to the elect, such as Joshua, and so by
tradition it came to the seventy interpreters. This gift is
called Kabbalah. God, out of love to his people, has revealed
hidden mysteries to some of them, and these have found the
living spirit in the dead letter ; that is to say, the Scriptures
consist of separate fetters, visible signs which stand in a
certain relation to the angels as celestial and spiritual emana
tions from God ; and by pronouncing them, the latter also
are affected. To a true Kabbalist, who has an insight into
the whole connection of the terrestrial with the celestial, these

213
signs thus put together are the means of placing him in close
union with spirits, who are thereby bound to fulfil his
wishes.25 The extraordinary influence which Reuchlin's Kabbalistic
Treatises exercised upon the greatest thinkers of the time and
upon the early reformers may be judged of from the un
measured terms of praise which they bestowed upon their
author. The Treatises were regarded as heavenly communi
cations, revealing new divine wisdom. Conrad Leontarius,
writing to Wimpheling on the subject, says — " I never saw
anything more beautiful or admirable than this work (i.e., De
Verbo MirificoJ, which easily convinces him who reads it
that no philosopher, whether Jew or Christian, is superior to
Reuchlin." Aegidrus, general of the Eremites, wrote to the
holy Augustine " that Reuchlin had rendered hiro, as well as
the rest of mankind, happy by his works, which had made
known to all a thing hitherto unheard of." Philip Beroaldus,
the younger, sent him word " that Pope Leo X had read his
Pythagorean book greedily, as he did all good books; after
wards the Cardinal de Medici had done so, and he himself
should soon enjoy it."20 Such was the- interest which this
newly-revealed Kabbalah created- among Christians, that not
only learned men but statesmen and warriors began to study
the oriental languages, in order to be able to fathom the
mysteries of this theosophy.
1450-1498. Whilst the Kabbalah was gaining such high
favour amongst Christians both in Italy and Germany, through
the exertions of Mirandola and Renchlin, a powerful voice was
raised among the Jews against the Sohar, the very Bible of
this theosophy. Elia del Medigo, born at Candia, then in
Venetia, 1450, of a German literary family, professor of
25 Comp. Tlte Life and Times of John Beuchlin, by Francis Besham,
p. 102, &c.
26 Vide Life of John Reuchlin, p, 108.

214
philosophy in the University of Padua, teacher of Pico de
Mirandola, and a scholar of the highest reputation both
among his Jewish brethren and among Christians, impugned
the authority of tlte Sohar. In his philosophical Treatise on
the nature of Judaism as a harmonizer between religion and
philosophy, entitled An Examination of the Law (/Hi! /OTT2),
which he wrote December 29, 1491, he puts into the mouth
of an antagonist to the Kabbalah the following three argu
ments against the genuineness of the Sohar : 1 , Neither the
Talmud, nor the Gaonim and Rabbins knew anything of the
Sohar or of its doctrines ; 2, The Sohar was published at a
very late period ; and 3, Many anachronisms occur in it,
inasmuch as it describes later Amoraic authorities as having
direct intercourse with the Tanaite R. Simon b. Jochai who
belongs to an earlier period.27
1522-1570. The voice of Elia del Medigo and others,
however, had no power to check the rapid progress of the
Kabbalah, which had now found its way from Spain and Italy
into Palestine and Poland, and penetrated all branches of life
and literature. Passing over the host of minor advocates and
teachers, we shall mention the two great masters in Palestine,
who formed two distinct schools, distinguished by the promi
nence which they respectively gove to certain doctrines of the
Kabbalah. The first of these is Moses Cordovero, also called
Remak = p'DT from the acrostic of his name ITNYTTlp
R. Moses Cordovero. He was born in Cordova, 1522, studied
the Kabbalah under his learned brother-in-law, Solomon
Aleavez, and very soon became so distinguished as a Kabbalist
and author that his fame travelled to Italy, where his works
were greedily bought. His principal works are : 1, An In
troduction to the Kabbalah, entitled A Sombre or Sweet
27 The mn n-m was first published in a collection of diverse Treaties,
in Basle, 1629-31 ; and then in Vienna, 1833, with an elaborate philosophical
commentary by T. 8. Reggio. The arguments against the Sohar are in this
edition, p. 43.

215
Light (2iy) TIN) first published in Venice, 1587, then in
Cracow, 1647, and in Fiirth, 1701 ; 2, Kabbalistic reflections
and comments ou ninety-nine passages of the Bible, entitled
The Book of Retirement (|WU 19D), published in Venice,
1543 ; and 8, A large Kabbalistio work entitled The Garden
of Pomegranates (D'JID") DTIB), which consists of thirteen
sections or gates (Wtyv) subdivided into chapters, and dis
cusses the Sephiroth, the Divine names, the import and
significance of the letters, &c, &c. It was first published in
Cracow, 1591. Excerpts of it have been translated into
Latin by Bartolocci, Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica, vol. iv,
p. 231, &c, and Knorr von Rosenroth, Tractatus de Anima
ex libro Pardes Rimmonim in his Cabbala Denudata, Sulz-
bach, 1677.88
The peculiar feature of Cordovero is that he is chiefly
occupied with the scientific speculations of the Kabbalah,
or tlie speculative Kabbalah (jVJVJJ Tr)2p), as it is called in
the modern terminology of this esoteric doctrine, in contra
distinction to the wonder-working Kabbalah (DWyB Tr?2p),
keeping aloof to a great extent from the extravagances which
we shall soon have to notice. _ In this respect therefore he
represents the Kabbalah in its primitive state, as may be seen
from the following specimen of his lucubrations on the
nature of the Deity. " The knowledge of the Creator is
different from that of the creature, since in the case of the
latter, knowledge and the thing known are distinct, thus
leading to subjects which are again separate from him. This
is described by the three expressions — cogitation, the cogitator
and the cogitated object. Now the Creator is himself know
ledge, knowing and the known object. His knowledge does
not consist in the fact that he directs his thoughts to things

28 For the other works of Cordovero, both published and unpublished, we
must refer to Fiirst, Bibliotlieca Judaica, vol. i, p. 187, &c. ; and Steinschneider,
Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, col. 1793, &c.

216
without him, since in comprehending and knowing himself,
he comprehends and knows everything which exists. There
is nothing which is not united with him, and which he does
not find in his own substance. He is the archetype of all
things existing, and all things are in him in their purest and
most perfect form; so that the perfection of the creatures
consists in the support whereby they are united to the primary
source of his existence, and they sink down and fall from
that perfect and lofty position in proportion to their separation
from him."29-
1 534- 1 572. The opposite to this school is the one founded
by Isaac Luria or Loria, also called Ari = '""IN from the
initials of his name pTIT "1 IJSlWn R. Isaac Ashkanazi.
He was born at Jerusalem 1534, and, having lost his father
when very young, was taken by his mother to Kahira, where he
was put by his rich uncle under the tuition of the best Jewish
master. Up to his twenty-second year he was a diligent
student of the Talmud and the Rabbinic lore, and distin
guished himself in these departments of learning in a most
remarkable manner. He then lived in retirement for about
seven years to give free scope to his thoughts and meditations,
but he soon found that simple retirement from collegiate
studies did not satisfy him. He therefore removed to the
banks of the Nile, where he lived in a sequestered cottage for
several years, giving himself up entirely to meditations and
reveries. Here he had constant interviews with the prophet
Elias, who communicated to him sublime doctrines. Here,
too, his soul ascended to heaven whenever he was asleep, and
in the celestial regions held converse with the souls of the
great teachers of bygone days. When thirty-six years of age
(1570) the Prophet Elias appeared to him again and told him
to. go to Palestine, where his successor was awaiting him.
Obedient to the command, he went to Safet, where he gathered
29 Pardes Rimmonim = The Garden of Pomegranates, 55 a.

217
round him ten disciples, visited the sepulchres of ancient teach
ers, and there, by prostrations and prayers, obtained from their
spirits all manner of revelations, so much so that he was con
vinced he was the Messiah b. Joseph and that he was able to
perform all sorts of miracles. It was this part of the Kabbalah,
i.e., the ascetic and miraculous (NVyo Tr72p), which Loria
taught. His sentiments he delivered orally, as he himself did
not write anything, except perhaps some marginal notes of a
critical import in older books and MSS. His disciples treasured
up his marvellous sayings, whereby they performed miracles
and converted thousands to the doctrines of this theosophy.
1548-1620. The real exponent of Loria's Kabbalistio
system is his celebrated disciple Chajim Vital, a descendant
of a Calabrian family, who died in 1 620 at the age of seventy-
seven. After the demise of his teacher, Chajim Vital dili
gently collected all the MS. notes of the lectures which Loria's
disciples had written down, from which, together with his own
jottings, he produced the gigantic and famous system of the
Kabbalah, entitled the Tree of Life (D^TtTl Ify). This work,
over which Vital laboured thirty years, was at first circulated
in MS. copies, and every one of the Kabbalistic disciples had
to pledge himself, under pain of excommunication, not to
allow a copy to be made for a foreign land ; so that for a time
all the Codd. remained in Palestine. At last, however, this
Thesaurus of the Kabbalah, which properly consists of six
works, was published by J. Satanow at Zolkiev, 1772. New
editions of it appeared in Korez, 1785; Sklow, 1800; Do-
browne, 1804; Stilikow, 1818; and Knorr von Roseuroth
has translated into Latin a portion of that part of the great
work which treats on the doctrine of the metempsychosis
(cbnbirt).30 1558-1560. The circulation of Loria's work which gave
30 For a description of the component parts of the D*Ttn y» 1DD as well as for
an account of the sundry editions of the several pnrts, published at different times,
we must refer to Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, vol. iii, pp. 479-481,

218
an extraordinary impetus to the Kabbalah, and which gave
rise to the new school and a separate congregation in Palestine,
was not the only favourable circumstance which had arisen to
advance and promulgate the esoteric doctrine. The Sohar,
which since its birth had been circulated in MS., was now for
the first time printed in Mantua, and thousands of people
who had hitherto been unable to procure the MS. were thus
enabled to possess themselves of copies.3' It is, however,
evident that with the increased circulation of these two Bibles
of the Kabbalah, as the Sohar and Loria's Etz Chajim are
called, there was an increased cry on the part of learned Jews
against the doctrines propounded in them. Isaac b. Immanuel
de Lates, the Rabbi of Pesaro, and the great champion for the
Kabbalah, who prefixed a commendatory epistle to the Sohar,
tells us most distinctly that some Rabbins wanted to prevent
the publication of the Sohar, urging that it ought to be kept
secret or be burned, because it tends to heretical doctrines.32
1571-1648. Of the numerous opponents to the Kabbalah
which the Sohar and Loria's work called forth, Leo de Modena
was by far the most daring, the most outspoken and the most
powerful. This eminent scholar who is known to the Christian
world by his celebrated History of the Rites, Customs and
Manners of the Jews, which was originally written in Italian,
published in Padua, 1640, and which has been translated into
Latin, English, French, Dutch, &c, attacked the Kabbalah in
two of his works. His first onslaught is on the doctrine of
metempsychosis in his Treatise entitled Ben David. He
composed this Treatise in 1635-36, at the request of David
Finzi, of Egypt, and he demonstrates therein that this doctrine
31 An analysis of the Sohar, as well as a description of the different editions
of it, are given in the second part of this Essay, p. 160, &c.
32 Comp. his Resp., ed. Vienna, 1860, p. 21, &c, vepl ICM D'mn iu pou
¦no'inn ncTD to rrotan mm d»eo irmn nDsin art; and again, ibid. p. 28,
naio in rrra p»o •p'E'ji rivo1) n<3» irrra p>»n >s yidni ire iD'Dirra ana vf n»
•wipn-w^

219
is of Gentile origin, and was rejected by the great men of the
Jewish faith in bygone days, refuting at the same time the
philosophico-theological arguments advanced in its favour.33
It is, however, his second attack on this esoteric doctrine, in
his work entitled The Roaring Lion (DnU 'IK), which is so
damaging to the Kabbalah. In this Treatise — which Leo de
Modena composed in 1639, at the advanced age of sixty-eight,
to reclaim Joseph Chamiz, a beloved disciple of- his, who was
an ardent follower of the Kabbalah — he shows that the books
which propound this esoteric doctrine, and which are palmed
upon ancient authorities, are pseudonymous ; that the doc
trines themselves are mischievous ; and that the followers of
this system are inflated with proud notions, pretending to
know the nature of God better than anyone else, and to
possess. the nearest and best way of approaching the Deity.34
1623. The celebrated Hebraist, Joseph Solomon del Medigo
(born 1591, died 1637), -a contemporary of the preceding
writer, also employed his vast stores of erudition to expose
this system. Having been asked by R. Serach for his views
of the Kabbalah, del Medigo, in a masterly letter, written in
1623, shows up the folly of this esoteric doctrme, and the
unreasonableness of the exegetical rules, whereby the followers
of this system pretend to deduce it from the Bible.33
1 635. We have seen that the information about the Kab
balah, which Mirandola and Reuchlin imparted to Christians,
was chiefly derived from the writings of Recanti aud Gikatilla.
Now that the Sohar had been published, Joseph de Voisin
33 This Treatise is published in the collection entith d D'jp rata by Eliezar
Ashkanazi, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 1854.
34 The cm: 'in was published by Dr. Julius Fiirst, Leipzig, 1 810. Leo de
Modena's relation to the Kabbalah, the Talmud and Christianity is shown in an
elaborate Introduction by Geiger in the mai -pa idnd Berlin, 185(1. See also the
article Leo de Modena, in Alexander's edition of Kitto's Cyclopaedia of Biblical
Literature, vol. ii, p. 811.
35 This Epistle, together with a German translation and learned notes, has
been published by Geiger iu his collection of sundry treatises, entitled Melo
Cltofnajim. Berlin, 1840.

220
determined to be the first to make some portions of it accessible
to those Christian readers who did not understand the Aramaic
in which ihis Thesaurus is written. Accordingly he translated
some extracts of the Sohar which treat of the nature of the
human soul.36
1652-1654. Just at the very time when some of the most
distinguished Jews exposed the pretensions of the Kabbalah,
and denounced the fanciful and unjustifiable rules of inter
pretation whereby its advocates tried to evolve it from the
letters of the revealed law, the celebrated Athanasius Kircher,
in a most learned and elaborate treatise on this subject,
maintained that the Kabbalah was introduced into Egypt by
no less a person than the patriarch Abraham ; and that from
Egypt it gradually issued all over the East, and intermixed
with all religions and systems of philosophy. What is still
more extraordinary is that this learned Jesuit, in thus exalting
the Kabbalah, lays the greatest stress on that part of it which
developed itself afterwards, viz., the combinations, transposi
tions and permutations of the letters, and does not discriminate
between it and the speculations about the En Soph, the
Sephiroth, &c, which were the original characteristics of
this theosophy.37 The amount of Eastern lore, however,
which Kircher has amassed in his work will always remain
a noble monument to the extensive learning of this Jesuit.
1645-1076. The wonder-working, or practical branch of
the Kabbalah (NVyD Tw2p), as it is called, so elaborately
propounded and defended by Kircher, which consists in the
transpositions of the letters of the sundry divine names, &c,
and which as we have seen constituted no part of the original
Kabbalah, had now largely laid hold on the minds and fancies
36 Comp. Disputatio Cabalistica B. Israel Alii Mosis de anima, AYc, adjectis
commentariis ex Zolutr. Paris, 1035.
37 Kiicher's Treatise on the Kabbalah is contained in his stupendous work,
entitled (Edipus JEgyptiacus, vol. ii, pp. 209-3(10. Rome, 1635.

221
of both Jews and Christians, and was producing among the
former the most mournful and calamitous effects. The famous
Kabbalist, Sabbatai Zevi, who was born in Smyrna, July,
1641, was the chief actor in this tragedy. When a child he
was sent to a Rabbinic school, and instructed in the Law, the
Mishna, the Talmud, the Midrashim, and the whole cycle of
Rabbinic lore. So great were his intellectual powers, and so
vast the knowledge ho acquired, that when fifteen he betook
himself to the study of the Kabbalah, rapidly mastered its
mysteries, became peerless in his knowledge of " those things
which were revealed and those things which were hidden ;"
and at the age of eighteen obtained the honourable appellation
sage (D3H), and delivered public lectures, expounding the
divine law and the esoteric doctrine before crowded audiences.
At the age of twenty-four he gave himself out as the Messiah,
the Son of David, aud the Redeemer of Israel, pronouncing
publicly the Tetragrammaton, which was only allowed to the
high priests during the existence of the second Temple.
Though the Jewish sages of Smyrna excommunicated him for
it, he travelled to Salonica, Athens, Morea and Jerusalem,
teaching the Kabbalah, proclaiming himself as the Messiah,
anointing prophets and converting thousands upon thousands.
So numerous were the believers in him, that in many places
trade was entirely stopped ; the Jews wound up their affairs,
disposed of their chattels and made themselves ready to be
redeemed from their captivity and led by Sabbatai Zevi back
to Jerusalem. The consuls of Europe were ordered to
.enquire into this extraordinary movement, and the governors
of the East reported to the Sultan the cessation of commerce.
Sabbatai Zevi was then arrested by order of the Sultan,
Mohammed IV, and taken before him at Adrianople. The
Sultan spoke to him as follows — " I am going to test thy
Messiahship. Three poisoned arrows shall be shot into thee,
and if they do not kill thee, I too will believe that thou art the

222
Messiah." He saved himself by embracing Islamism in the
presence of the Sultan, who gave him the name Effendi, and
appointed him Kapidgi Bashi. Thus ended the career of
the Kabbalist Sabbatai Zevi, after having ruined thousands
upon thousands of Jewish families. M
1 677-1 684. Whether the learned Knorr Baron von Rosen-
roth knew of the extravagances of Sabbatai Zevi or not is
difficult to say. At all events this accomplished Christian
scholar believed that Simon b. Jochai was the author of the
Sohar, that he wrote it under divine inspiration, and that it
is most essential to the elucidation of the doctrines of Christi
anity. With this conviction he determined to master the
difficulties connected with the Kabbalistic writings, in order to
render the principal works of this esoteric doctrine accessible
to his Christian brethren. For, although Lully, Mirandola,
Reuchlin and Kircher had already done much to acquaint the
Christian world with the secrets of the Kabbalah, none of these
scholars had given translations of any portions of the Sohar.
Knorr Baron von Roseuroth, therefore put himself under
the tuition of R. Meier Stern, a learned Jew, and with his
assistance was enabled to publish the celebrated work entitled
the Unveiled Kabbalah (Kabbala Denudata), in two large
volumes, the first of which was printed at Sulzbach, 1 677-78,
and the second at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 1 684, giving a Latin
translation of the Introduction to and the following portion
of the Sohar— the Book of Mysteries (K/TBP3S"i ISP) ; the
Great Assembly (H21 NT7N) ; the Small Assembly (NTTi*
KBIT);. Joseph Gikatillu's Gate of Light (mi** "W) ; the
Doctrine of Metempsychosis (Dvl^PJn), and the Tree of Life
(D"n \y), of Chajim Vital ; the Garden of Pomegranates
(D'JID'T D"n3), of Moses Cordovero ; the House of the Lord
(Qribii /VO), and the Gate of Heaven (DWH "W), of
38 Comp. Jost, Geschichte des Judenthums und seiner Secten, vol. iii, p. 163, &o.
Leipzig, 1859.

223
Abraham Herera ; the Valley of the King ("]blXt pliy), of
Naphtah b. Jacob; the Vision of the Priest (\r\2 ntOD),
of Issachar Beer b. Naphtali Cohen, &c, &o., with elaborate
annotations, glossaries and indices. The only drawbaok to
this gigantic work is that it is without any system, and that
it mixes up in one all the earlier developments of the Kab
balah with the later productions. Still the criticism passed
upon it by Buddeus, that it is a " confused and obscure work,
in which the necessary and the unnecessary, the useful and
the useless are mixed up and thrown together as it were into
one chaos,"39 is rather too severe ; and it must be remembered
that if the Kabbala Denudata does not exhibit a regular
system of this esoteric doctrine, it furnishes much material
for it. Baron von Rosenroth has also collected all the
passages of the New Testament which contain similar doc
trines to those propounded by the Kabbalah.
1758-1763. Amongst the Jews, however, the pretensions
and consequences of the Kabbalistic Pseudo-Messiah, Sabbatai
Zevi, and his followers, produced a new era in the criticism of
the Sohar. Even such a scholar and thorough Kabbalist
as Jacob b. Zevi of Emden, or Jabez (\"2y), as he is called
from the acrostic of his name (MX ]2 2py'1), maintains in his
work, which he wrote in 1758-1763, and which he entitled
The Wrapper of Books, that with the exception of the
kernel of the Sohar all the rest is of a late origin.40 He
shows that ( I ) The Sohar misquotes passages of Soripture,
misunderstands the Talmud, and contains some rituals
which were ordained by later Rabbinic authorities (D^DIB).
(2) Mentions the crusades against the Mohammedans. (3) Uses
89 Confusam et obsonram opus, in quo necessaria cum non necessariis, utila
cum inutilibus, confusa sunt, et in unam velut chaos conjecta. Introductio in
Historiam Philosophiae Hebraeorum. Halle, 1702. Buddeus gives in this
Introduction (p. 232, Sec), a detailed description of the Kabbala Denudata.
40 The DlCDii nnDBO of Jabez was published at Altona, 1763. A thorough
critique of it is given by Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, vol. vii, p. 494, &c.

224
the philosophical terminology of Ibn Tibbon's Hebrew Trans
lation of Maimonides' More Nebuchim, and borrows the
figure of Jehudah Ha-Levi's Khosari, that " Israel is the heart
in the organism of the human raoe, and therefore feels its
sufferings more acutely " (Khosari, ii, 36, with Sohar, iii,
221 b, 161 a) ; and (4) Knows the Portuguese and North
Spanish expression Esnoga.
1767. Whilst the Jews were thus shaken in their opinion
about tho antiquity of the Sohar, learned Christians both on
the Continent and in England maintained that Simon b.
Jochai was the author of the Bible of the Kabbalah, and
quoted its sentiments in corroboration of their pecuhar views.
Thus Dr. Gill, the famous Hebraist and oommentator, in his
work on the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language, adduces
passages from the Sohar to shew that the Hebrew vowel
points were known A.D. 120, at whioh time he tells us " lived
Simon ben Jochai, a disciple of R. Akiba, author of the
Zohar."* 1830. Allen, in the account of the Kabbalah in his
Modern Judaism, also premises the antiquity of the Sohar.
Taking this pseudonym as the primary source of the primitive
Kabbalah, Allen, like all his predecessors, mixes up the
early mysticism and magic, as well as the later abuse of the
Hagadic rules of interpretation, denominated Gematria,
Notaricon, Ziruph, &c, which the Kabbalists afterwards
appropriated, with the original doctrines of this theosophy.48
1843. Even the erudite Professor Franck, in his excellent
work La Kabbale (Paris, 1843), makes no distinction between
the Book Jetzira and the Sohar, but regards the esoteric
doctrines of the latter as a development and continuation of
the tenets propounded in the former. He moreover main-
41 Oorap. A Dissertation concerning the Antiquity of tlie Hebrew Language,
Letters, Vowel-points and Accents. By John Gill, D.D. London, 1767.
42 Modern Judaism, by John Allen, p. 67-96, 2nd edition. London, 1830.

225
tains that the Sohar consists of anoient and modern frag
ments, that the ancient portions are the Book of Mysteries
(N/WOrT iOSD), the Great Assembly or Idra Rabba («TI»
K21), and the Small Assembly or Idra Suta (KBIT VCTtH),
and actually proceeds from the school of R. Simon b. Joohai,
while several of the other parts belong to a subsequent period, '
but hot later than the seventh century; that the fatherland of
the Sohar is Palestine ; that the fundamental principles of
the Kabbalah, which were communicated by R. Simon b.
Jochai to a small number of his disciples, were at first pro
pagated orally ; that they were then from the first to the
seventh century gradually edited and enlarged through
additions and commentaries, and that the whole of this com
pilation, completed in the seventh century, owing to its many
attacks on the Asiatic religions, was kept secret till the thir
teenth century, when it was brought to Europe. To fortify
his opinions about the antiquity of the Kabbalah, Franck is
obliged to palm the doctrine of the Sephiroth upon passages
in the Talmud in a most unnatural manner. As this point,
however, has been discussed in the second part of this Essay,
(vide supra, p. 188, etc.) there is no necessity for repeating
the arguments here.43 ' Still Franck 's valuable contribution to
the elucidation of the Sohar will always be a weloome aid to
the student of this difficult book.
1845. A new era in the study of the Kabbalah was created
by the researches of M. H. Lahdauer, who died February
3rd, 1841, when scarcely thirty-three years of age. This
learned Rabbi, whose premature death is an irreparable loss
to literature, in spite of constitutional infirmities, which
occasioned him permanent sufferings during the short period
of his earthly career, devoted himself from his youth to the

43 Franck's La Kabbale has been translated into German, with notes and
corrections by the learned and indefatigable Adolph Jellinek ; Die Kabbala oder
die Religions- Philosophic der Hebraer. Leipzig, 1844.

226
study of Hebrew, the Mishna, the Talmud, nnd the rich stores
of Jewish learning. He afterwards visited the universities of
Munich and Tubingen, and in addition to his other researches
in the department of Biblical criticism, determined to fathom
the depths of the Kabbalah. It was this scholar who, after a
careful study of this esoteric doctrine, for the first time dis
tinguished between the ancient mysticism of the Gaonim
period and the real Kabbalah, and shewed that " the former,
as contained in the Alphabet of R. Akiba (Wpy '"11 JTIWIN),
the Dimensions of the Deity (TtUSp TIJW), the Heavenly
Mansions (RVyTl), and even the Book of Jetzira (~\30
TWT) and similar documents, essentially differ from the later
Kabbalah, inasmuch as it knows nothing about the so-called
Sephiroth and about the speculations respecting the nature of
the Deity, and that, according to the proper notions of the
Kabbalah, its contents ought to be described as Hagada and
not as Kabbalah."44 As to the Sohar, Landauer maintains
that it was written by Abraham b. Samuel Abulafia towards
the end of the second half of the thirteenth century. Land-
auer's views on the Kabbalah and on the authorship of the
Sohar, as Steinschneider rightly remarks, are all the more
weighty and instructive because he originally started with
opinions of an exactly opposite character. (Jewish Litera
ture, p. 209.)
1849. D. H. Joel, Rabbi of Sheversenz, published in 1849
a very elaborate critique on Franck's Religious Philosophy
of the Sohar, which is an exceedingly good supplement
to Franck's work, though Joel's treatise is of a negative cha
racter, and endeavours to demolish Franck's theory without
propounding another in its stead. Thus much, however, Joel
positively states, that though the Sohar in its present form

44 The Literary Remains of Landauer, comprising his researches on the
Kabbalah, have been published in the Literaturblait des Orients, vol. vi
p. 178, See.

2B7
could not have been written by R. Simon b. Joohai, and
though the author of it may not have lived before the thir
teenth century, yet its fundamental doctrines to a great extent
are not the invention of the author, but are derived from
ancient Jewish sources, either documentary or oral.48
1851. After a lapse of seven years Jellinek fulfilled the
promise whioh he made in the preface to his German transla
tion of Franck's la Kabbale ou la philosophic religieuse des
Hibreux, by publishing an Essay on the authorship of the
Sohar. And in 1851 this industrious scholar published a
historico-oritical Treatise, in whioh he proves, almost to
demonstration, that Moses b. Shem Tob de Leon is the author
of the So/tar.*" Several of his arguments are given in the
second part of this Essay (vide supra, p. 174, &c), in our
examination of the age and authorship of the Sohar.
1852. Whilst busily engaged in his researches on the
authorship and composition of the Sohar, Jellinek was at the
same time extending his labours to the history of the Kab
balah generally, the results of which he communicated in two
parts (Leipzig, 1852), entitled Contributions to the History
of the Kabbalah. The first of these parts embraces (1) the
study and history of the Book Jetzira, (2) diverse topics
connected with the Sohar, and (3) Kabbalistio doctrines and
writings prior to the Sohar ; whilst the second part (1) con
tinues the investigation on the Kabbalistic doctrines and
writings prior to the Sohar, as well as (2) discusses additional
points connected with the Sohar, and (8) gives the original
text to the history of the Kabbalah.4'
1853. Supplementary to the above works, Jellinek pub-
45 Die Beligiont-philosophie des Sohar, Von D. H. Joel. Leipzig, 1849,
p. 78, &c.
46 Moses Ben SchemTob de Leon und sein Verh&ltniss zum Sohar, Vou
Adolph Jellinek. Leipzig, 1851.
47 Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Kabbala, Von Adolph Jellirek, first and seoond
parts. Leipzig, 1852.

228
lished, twelve months afterwards, the first part of a Selection
of Kabbalistic Mysticism, which comprises the Hebrew texts
of (1) The Treatise on the Emanations (mlrXK /ODD),
(2) The Book of Institutions flVyn "IBD), by R. Chamai
Gaon, (3) The Rejoinder of R. Abraham b. Samuel Abulafia
to R. Solomon b. Adereth, and (4) The Treatise entitled
Kether Shem Tob (2VH DP "irO), by R. Abraham of Cologne.
These Treatises, which are chiefly taken from MSS. at the
public Libraries in Paris and Hamburg, are preceded by
learned Introductions discussing the characteristics, the age,
the authorship and the sources of each document, written by
the erudite editor.48 May Dr. Jellinek soon fulfil his promise,
and continue to edit these invaluable contributions to the
Kabbalah, as well as publish his own work on the import of
this esoteric doctrine.
1856. Dr. Etheridge, in his Manual on Hebrew Literature,
entitled Jerusalem and Tiberias, devotes seventy pages to a
description of the Kabbalah. It might have been expected
that this industrious writer, who draws upon Jewish sources,
would give us the result of the researches of the above-named
Hebraists. But Dr. Etheridge has done no such thing ; — he
confuses the import of the Book Jetzira, the Maase Bereshith
(/1WQ TVtiya) and the Maase Merkaba (n^mo H0JD),
with the doctrines of the Kabbalah ; and assigns both to the
Book Jetzira and to the Sohar an antiquity which is contrary
to all the results of modern criticism. The following extract
from his work will suffice to shew the correctness of our
remarks : —
" To the authenticity oi" the Zohar, as a work of the early Kabba
listic school, objections have indeed been made, but they are not of
sufficient gravity to merit an extended investigation. The opinion that
ascribes it as a pscudo fabrication to Moses de Leon in the thirteenth
century, has, I imagine, but few believers among the learned in this
subject in our own day. The references to Shemun ben Yoohai and the
Kabala in the Talmud, and abundant internal evidence found in the
48 Auswahl Kabbalistischer Mystik, part 1. Leipzig, 1853.

229
book itself, exhibit the strongest probability, not that Shemun himself
was the author of it, but that it is the fruit and result of his personal
instructions, and of the studies of his immediate disciples."49
Now the bold assertion that there are few believers among
the learned of our own time in the pseudo fabrication of the
Sohar by Moses de Leon in the thirteenth century, when such
learned men as Zunz,40 Geiger,61 Sachs,42 Jellinek*3 and a
host of other most distinguished Jewish scholars, regard it
almost as an established fact ; as well as the statement that
there are references to the Kabbalah in the Talmud, can
only be accounted for from the fact that Dr. Etheridge has
not rightly comprehended the import of the Kabbalah, and
that he is entirely unacquainted with the modern researches
in this department of literature.
1857. The elaborate essay on Jewish literature by the
learned Steinschneider, which appeared in Ersch and Gruber's
Encyclopaedia, and which has been translated into English,
contains a most thorough review of this esoteric doctrine.
It is, however, to be remarked that the pages devoted to this
subject give not so much an analysis of the subject, as a
detailed account of its literature ; and, like all the writings
of this excellent scholar, are replete with most useful infor
mation.41 1858-1861. A most instructive and thorough analysis of
the Sohar appeared in a Jewish periodical, entitled Ben
Chananja, volumes i, ii, iii, and iv.55 This analysis was
49 Jerusalem and Tiberias ; Sora and Cordova, by J. W. .Etheridge, M.A.,
Doctor in Philosophy. London, 1850, p. 314.
60 Die Gottesdienslliclhen Vortrdge der Juden. Berlin, 1831, p. 405.
51 Melo Chafnajim. Berlin, 1840. Introduction, p. xvii.
62 Die Religiose Poesie der Juden in Spanien. Berlin, 1845, p. 327.
58 Moses Ben Scliem Tob de Leon. Leipzig, 1851.
64 Jewish Literature, from the German of M. Steinschneider. London, 1857,
pp. 104-122 ; 249-309.
55 Versuch einer umstdndliclien Analyse des Sohar, von Schuldirektor Ignatz
Stern, io. Ben Chananja, Monatschrift fur jiidische Theolagie, vol. iv. Szegedin,
1858-1861.

230
made by Ignatz Stern, who has also translated into German
those portions of the Sohar which are called the Book of
Mysteries, the Great Assembly, and the Small Assembly, and
has written a vocabulary to the Sohar. The recent death of
this great student in the Kabbalah is greatly to be lamented.
With the exception of the analysis of the Sohar, all his
works are in MS. ; and it is to be hoped that the accomplished
Leopold Low, chief Rabbi of Szegedin, and editor of the
Ben Chananja, who was the means ,of bringing the retiring
Ignatz Stern into public, will publish his literary remains.
1859. As the Kabbalah has played so important a part
in the mental and religious development, and in the history
of the Jewish people, the modern historians of the Jews, in
depicting the vicissitudes of the nation, felt it to be an essential
element of their narrative, to trace the rise and progress of this
esoteric doctrine. Thus the learned and amiable Dr. Jost
devotes seventeen pages, in his history of the Jews, to this
theosophy.48 1863. No one, however, has prosecuted with more tho
roughness, learning and impartiality the doctrines, origin
and development of this esoteric system than the historian
Dr. Graetz. He, more than any of his predecessors since
the publication of Landauer's literary remains, has in a most
masterly manner carried out the principle laid down by this
deceased scholar, and has distinguished between mysticism and
the Kabbalah. Graetz has not only given a most lucid descrip
tion of the doctrines and import of the Kabbalah in its
original form, but has proved to demonstration, in a very
elaborate treatise, tliat Moses de Leon is the author of the
Sohar.61 Whatever may be the shortcomings of this portion

58 Geschichte des Judenthums und seiner Secten, Von Dr. J. M. Jost, vol. iii,
p. 66-81. Leipzig, 1859.
67 Geschichte der Juden, Von Dr. H. Graetz, vol. vii, pp. 73-87 : 442-459 :
487-607. Leipzig, 1863.

231
of Graetz 's history, no one who studies it will fail to learn
from it the true nature of this esoterio doctrine.
1868. Leopold L8w, the chief Rabbi of Szegedin, whose
name has already been mentioned in connection with Ignatz
Stern, published a very lengthy review of Graetz's description
of the Kabbalah. Though the Rabbi laboured hard to shake
Dr. Graetz's position, yet, with the exception perhaps of
showing that the Kabbalah was not invented in opposition
to Maimonides' system of philosophy, the learned historian's
results remain unassailed. Moreover, there is a confusion of
mysticism with the Kabbalah through many parts of Dr. Low's
critique.48 We are not aware that anything has appeared upon this
subject since the publication of Graetz's researches on the
Kabbalah and Low's lengthy critique on these researches.
Of course it is not to be supposed that we have given a
complete history of the Literature on this theosophy ; since
the design of this Essay and the limits of the volume of
"the Literary and Philosophical Society's Transactions," in
which it appears, alike preclude such a history. This much,
however, we may confidently say, that nothing has been
omitted which essentially bears upon the real progress or
development of this esoteric dootrine.
Several works, in which lengthy accounts of the Kabbalah
are given, have been omitted, because these descriptions do
not contribute anything very striking in their treatment of
the Kabbalah, nor have they been the occasion of any re
markable incidents among the followers of this system.
Among the works thus omitted are Buddeus' Introduction
to the History of Hebrew Philosophy ; 49 Basnage's History
of the Jews,™ where a very lengthy account is given of the
68 Comp. Ben Chananja Motiatschriftfurjudisclte Theohgie, vol. vi.pp. 725-
783 ; 741-747 ; 785-791 ; 805-809 ; 821-828 ; 988-942. Szegedin, 1863.
59 Introductio ad Hist. PhUosoph. Ebraeorum. Halle, 1702.
60 Histoire desJu\fs, English translation, pp. 184-256. London, 1708.

232
Kabbalah, without any system whatever, chiefly derived from
the work of Kircher ; Wolfs account of the Jewish Kabbalah,
given in his elaborate Bibliographical Thesaurus of Hebrew
Literature, where a very extensive catalogue is given of Kab
balistic authors ; 61 and Molitor's Philosophy of History.69
We sincerely regret to have omitted noticing Munk's
description of the Kabbalah.63 For, although he does not
attempt to separate the gnostio from the mystical elements,
which were afterwards mixed up with the original doctrines of
this esoteric system, yet no one can peruse the interesting
portion treating on the Kabbalah and the Sohar without
deriving from it information not. to be found elsewhere.
01 De Cabbala Judeorum, in his Bibliotheca Hebraea, vol. ii, pp. 1191-1217.
Hamburg, 1728.
62 Philsophie der Geschichte oder uber die Tradition, vol. iii. Minister, 1839.
63 Melanges de Philosophic Juive et Arabe, p. 275, &c. Paris, 1859.

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