KABBALAH (r6mp), the celebrated system of religious philosophy, or more properly theosophy, which has played so important a part in the theo logical and exegetical literature of both Jews and Cbristians ever since the middle ages.
1. Name and its signification.—The term ri9ZP (from to receive), properly denotes reception, then a a'octrine received by oral tradition. The difference between it and the word iT11Dn (from 1121.), to deliver) is, that the former expresses the act of receiving, whilst the latter denotes the act of giving over, surrendering, transmitting. The Kabbalah is also called by some min= ;inv.% secret wisdom, because it pretends to be a very ancient and secret tradition, and rri, grace, from the initials of these two words.
2. The funa'amental doctrines of the Kabbalah. —The cardinal doctrines of the Kabbalah are as follows :—God is above everything, even above being and thinking. It cannot, therefore, be said of him that he has either a will, intention, desire, thought, language, or action, since these properties, which adorn man, have limits, whereas God is in every way boundless, because he is perfect. Owing to this boundlessness of his nature, which neces sarily implies absolute unity and immutability, and that there is nothing without him, I. e., that the TO /ra.i., is in him, he is called EN SOPH = without end, boundless, and can neither be comprehended by the intellect nor described with words, for there is nothing which can grasp and depict him to us. In this incomprehensibility or boundlessness, God, or the En Soph rN), is in a certain sense not existent WM) ; since, as far as our mind is con cerned, that which is incomprehensible does not exist. Hence, without making himself hensible, his existence could never have been known. He had, therefore, to become active and creative in order that his existence might become perceptible.
But since, on the one hand, the will to create, which implies limit, and the circumscribed and im perfect nature of this world, preclude the idea of taking it as the direct creation of him who can have 110 will, nor produce anything but what is like himself, boundless and perfect ; and since, on the other hand, the beautiful design and order displayed in the world, which plainly indicate an intelligent and active will, forbid us to regard it as the off spring of chance, the Ell Soph must be viewed as the Creator of the world in an indirect manner, through the medium of ten Sephiroth pr-ono)* or intelligences, which emanated from the En Soph in the following manner.
From his infinite fulness of light the En Soph sent forth at first one spiritual substance or intelli gence ; this intelligence, which existed in the En Soph from all eternity, and which became a reality by a mere act, contained the nine other intelligences or Sephiroth. Great stress is laid upon the fact that the first Sephira was not created, but was simply an emanation (n9qt-1); and the difference between creation and emanation is thus defined, that in the former a diminution of strength takes place, whilst in the latter this is not the case. From the first Sephira emanated the second, from the second the third, from the third the fourth, and so on, one proceeding from the other, till the number ten. These ten Sephiroth form among themselves, and with the Ell Soph, a strict unity, and simply represent different aspects of one and the same Being, just as the flame and sparks which proceed from the fire, and which appear different things to the eye, form only different manifestations of one and the same fire. Differing thus from each other simply as different colours of the same light, all the ten emanations alike partake of the perfec tions of the En Soph. They are boundless, and yet constitute the first finite things, so that they are both infinite and finite. They are infinite and perfect like the En Soph when he imparts his ful ness to them, and finite and imperfect when that fulness is withdrawn from them. The finite side in the emanation of the Sephiroth is absolutely necessary, for thereby the incomprehensible En Soph makes his existence known to the human intellect, which can only grasp that which has measure, limit, and relation. From their finite, side the Sephiroth may even be called bodily, and this renders it possible for the En Soph, who is immanent in them, to assume a bodily form.