CABBALA, among the Jews, means those oral tradi tions respecting the interpretation of the law, which they pretend were originally communicated by revelation, and handed down from father to son, without interruption, alteration, or omission. By means of this mystical sci ence, they pretended to be able to explain all the appear ances of nature, as well as the revealed and written law of God. It appears, indeed, that the Jews preferred the cabbaastical traditions to the acknowledged scriptures, whose meaning tney mid almost entirely subverted. It It as not without reason that our Lord charged the Jews with having made the law of God of no effect by their tra ditions ; and he specifies several instances, which already substantiate the charge.
Maimonides, in the preface to the Mishnah, gives the following account of the origin of the Cabbala. It was revealed to Adam by an angel, who brought him a book containing the mysteries of this recondite science. This book was lost at the fall, and restored again in conse quence of tat earnest prayecs of Adam ; and being again lost amidst the corruption which preceded tee flood, it was afters arils restored to Abraham. But a particular revelation was given on this subject to Most s, on Mount Sinai, who received a mystical m.d traditionary, as well as a written and perceptive law. This traditionary law was considered as containing the complete explanation of that which was written ; and as the meaning is always more valuable than the mere symbol, so this pretended explanation of the law by divine authority, was soon ex alted above the law itself. We are farther told, that Mo ses, on coming down from the mount, rehearsed both the law and the explanation of it to Aaron ; then to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar ; then to the seventy elders ; and, last of all, to the whole people : so that Aaron heard it four times, his sons thrice, the elders twice, and the peo ple once. The law only was committed to writing ; the explanation was entrusted to the memories of the priests and elders. The first was simply called the law, the se cond the oral law, or cabbala, derived from the Hebrew kibel, to receive by tradition. '['he Jews farther pretend, that the cabbala being again lost during the Babylonish captivity, was restored to Esdras, and they mention seve rel famous rabbis by whom it was transmitted to later ages.
It cannot be necessary to attempt a serious refutation of these notions, which are not only totally unsupported by scripture, but contrary to some of its clearest intima tions. They betray an evident design to wrest the word of God from the people, and to introduce something re sembling the esoteric doctrines of the heathen : they are in short a part of that system of priestcraft, which has often exerted such a malignant influence over the know ledge and happiness of men.
Some Christian divines have held opinions bearing a considerable resemblance to the cabbala of the Jews. Thus Parkhurst, in his Hebrew Lexicon, p. 115, 4th edit. says, " It may safely be inferred, that the whole garden was so contrived by infinite wisdom, as to repre sent and inculcate on the minds of our first parents a plan or system of religious truths, revealed to them by their Creator." This may be called a kind of natural
cabbala. But the doctrine of traditions has been receiv ed in its full extent by the church of Rome, which holds them of equal value with the written word of God. According to the council of Trent, " the truth and dis ( ipline of the Catholic are comprehended both in the sacred books and in the traditions which have been received from the mouth of Jesus Christ or of his apostles, and which have been preserved and trans mitted to us by an uninterrupted chain and succession." But the Jewish cabbala was chiefly of that artificial kind, waich drew mystical meanings h om particular words or expressions, thus producing signilications very different from what the words or expressions seemed naturally to imply. This artificial cabbala was of three kinds : the first, called gcmatria, consisted in interpret ing words according to the arithmetical power of the letters which composed them. Thus in the words tiz, Be Shiloh, i. e. Shiloh shall come, the numerical value of the letters is the same as in the word r•n 11/C3 Riah. The second kind of artificial cabbala was called notaricon, and consisted in taking every letter for a word, and thus making an entire sentence out of one word. Thus the first word in the hook of Genesis rovzilz De rashit, contains the initial letters of these words, Bern, Ratio, A retz, Shemim, Im, Temnut, and may be trans lated, " he created the firmament, the earth, the heavens, the waters, and the abyss." The third kind was called themurah, and was much the same , s the modern ana gm in, which consists iu formin!, new words by Cie trans position of Thus, from the same word Bc•ashit, the cabbalists formed A-bc-tisri, i. e. the first day of the month Tisri, and from this accidental coincidence, they inferred, that the world was created at that season of the year, corresponding nearly with our September.
These are sufficient examples of rabbinical trifling, and should be a warning to divines and commentators to avoid occult and fanciful interpretations, and to abide by the plain meaning of the word of God. We do not af firm that there never is any secret meaning contained under the words of scripture : in several places of the book of Revelation, some mystery is•evidently concealed under particular names and expressions ; but then we are expressly warned of this, and unless when we have such intimation, it is idle to search for secret meanings ; and even with regard to those names and expressions, which are confessedly mystical, we have shown the dan ger and uncertainty of cabbalistical interpretations. See AN-riennisT. For further particulars respecting the Jewish cabbala, see Calmet's Dictionary; Prideaux's Connect. ; Enfield's Hitt. of Philosophy, vol. ii. chap. 3. (g)