K
Kabbala. — The term is now used as a technical name
for the system of esoteric tlieosophy which for many
generations played an important part, chiefly among
the Jews, after the beginning of the tenth century of
our era. It is a transcript of the Heb. r\^2p, itself an
abstract noun derived from the pi 'el ^3p. It pri-
marily signifies reception, and, secondarily, a doctrine
received by oral tradition. Its application has greatly
varied in the course of time, and it is only since the
eleventh or twelfth century that the term Kabbala has
become the exclusi\e appellation for the system of
Jewish religious pliilosophy which claims to have been
firmness, corresponding to Yahweh Sabaoth, and
this again produced the feminine potency splen-
dour, represented by Elohe Sabanth. From splen-
dour emanated the ninth Sephira, foundation, which
answers the Divine name El-Hai and closes the
third trinity of the Sephiroth. Lastly, splendour
sends forth kingdom, the tenth Sephira, which en-
circles all the others and is represented by Adonai.
These ten Sephiroth are emanations from the En-
Soph, forming among themselves and with Him a
strict imity, in the same way as the rays which
proceed from the light are simply manifestations of
uninterruptedly transmitted by the mouths of the one and the .same light. They are infinite and perfect
patriarchs, prophets, elders, etc., ever since the crea- when the En-Soph imjiarts His fullness to them, and
tion of the first man. The two works which the advo- finite and imperfect when that fullness is withdrawn
cates of this system treat as the authoritative expo- from them (Ginsburg). In their totalitj-, they repre-
sition of its doctrines are: (1) the " Book of Creation " sent and are called the archetypal man, without whom
and (2) the "Zohar". The former is a short treatise the production of permanent worlds was impossible,
consisting of six chapters subdivided into thirty-three 1° fact, they constitute the first world, or world of
very brief sections. It is written in Mishnic Hebrew, emanations, which is perfect and immutable because
and is made up of oracular sentences. It professes of its direct procession from the Deity,
to be a monologue of the patriarch Abraham, who Emanating immediately from this first world is the
enumerates the thirty-two ways of wisdom by which world of creation, the ten Sephiroth of which are of
God produced the universe, and who shows, by the a more limited potency, and the substances of which
analogy which is assumed to exist between the visi-
ble things and the letters which are the signs of
thought, the manner in which all has emanated from
God and is inferior to Him. The "Zohar", or second
are of the purest nature. From the world of creation
proceeds the world of formation, with its less refined
ten Sephiroth, although its substances are still with-
out matter. Finallj', from this third world proceeds
expository work of the Kabbala, has justly been the world of action or of matter, the ten Sephiroth of
called the "Bible" of the Kabbalists. It is written which are made of the grosser elements of the other
in Aramaic, and its main portion is in the form of a worlds. Of these worlds, the second, that of creation,
cornmentary on the Pentateuch according to the lat- is inhabited by the angel Mctalron, who governs the
ter's division into fifty-two weekly lessons. Its title visible world, and is the captain of the hosts of good
"Zohar" (light, splendour) is derived from the words angels who in ten ranks people the third world, that
of Gen., i, iii (Let there be light), with the exposition of formation. The demons or bad angels inhabit the
of which it begins. It is a compilatory work, wherein fourth world, that of action, the lowest regions of
several fragments of ancient treatises can still be which constitute the seven infernal halls wherein the
noticed. The following is a brief account of the chief demons torture the poor mortals whom they betrayed
contents, doctrinal, hermeneutical, and theurgical, into sin in this life. The prince of the demons is
of the "Zohar". Samael (the "angel of poison or of death"); he has a
Considered in Himself, the Supreme Being is the wife called the Harlot; but both are treated as one En-Soph — Endless, Infinite — and, in a certain sense, person, and are called "the Beast". Man was di- f he £«— Non-existent — since existence is in human rectly created not by En-Soph, but by the Sephiroth, conception a limitation which as such should not be and is the counterpart of the archetypal man. His predicated of Him. We can conceive and speak of body is merely a garment of his soul. Like God, he tJod only in so far as He manifests and, as it were, act- has "a unity and a trinity, the latter being made up of uaUzes Himself in or through the Sephiroth. His first the spirit representing the intellectual world, the soul manifestation was by way of concentration in a point representing the sensuous world, and the life repre- — the first Sephira, "the Crown", as it is called — senting the material world. Souls are pre-existent, which is hardly distinguishable from the En-Soph destined to dwell in human bodies, and subjected to from Whom it emanates, and which is expressed in the transmigration till at last they return to God. The Bible by the name Ehieyeh (I am). From the first world also, including Samael himself, will return ulti- Sephira proceeded a mascuUne or active potencv mately — viz. at the advent of the Messias born at the called wisdom, represented in the Bible by Yah, and end of days — to the bosom of the Infinite Source.
' ' • • . -. ^ Then Hell shall disappear and endless bliss begin.
All these esoteric floctrines of the Kabbala are sup- posed to be contained in the Hebrew Scriptures, in which, however, they can be perceivcti only by those in- itiated into certain hermeneutical methods. The fol- lowing are the three principal methods of discovering
an oiiposite, i. e. a feminine or passive potency, called
intelligence, and represented by Yahweh. These two
opposite potencies are coupled together by the
" Crown ", and thus yields the first trinity of the
Sephiroth. From the junction of the foregoing
opposite tendencies emanated the masculine potency .„ „ „.„ .-> ^ , - .......j,
called love, the fourth Sephira, represented by the the heavenly mysteries hidtlen under the letters and
Biblical El, and the feminine one justice, the fifth
Sephira, represented by the Divine name Elohah.
From them again emanated the uniting potency,
beauty, the sixth Sephira, represented in the Bib'le
by Elohim. And thus is constituted the second
words of the Sacred Text: (1) The Tenn/rah (change),
by means of which each letter of the Hebrew alphabet
is interchanged with another, according to some aefinite
process, aswhen .\Uph, the first letter. Incomes Lamed
by interchange with the twelfth, the second, Beth, be-
^■"'"'fy of the Sephiroth. In its turn, beauty beamed comes Mew. the thirteenth, etc.; or as, when the last
forth the seventh Sephira. the masculine potency letter takes the place of the first, the last but one takes
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