9. THE CABALA. Cabala designates the mystic lore of the Jews and the practices based thereon. The name is etymologically related to a Hebrew verb meaning to receive and which is technically used to denote the recep tion and transmission of divine revelation. Its application to theosophic speculation and theurgic art indicates the belief that the doc trines and practices comprising the Cabala were imparted through divine revelation, saints such as, among others, the Patriarchs being regarded as the chosen recipients of the divine unfolding.
The twofold character of the Cabala as speculative and experimental is expressed in the distinction of the one as Cabala Iynnit reflective Cabala, and of the other as Cabala Maasit — active or theurgic Cabala. His torically considered, the Cabala antedates by many centuries the works devoted to the ex position of its theories and the inculcation of its practices. Indications are plentiful in both the Apocrypha and the Pseudo-epigrapha, nota bly in the Enoch books and the Testaments of various Biblical heroes, pointing to the ac ceptance and currency of Cabalistic concepts at the time these extra-canonical books were composed. Babylonian mythological elements, as well as Zoroastrian theological conceits, were among the extraneous influences that gave fertile impulse to cabalistic speculation. Greek philosophy, especially as developed in the Stoic and Neo-Platonic systems of must also be credited with having stimulated its de velopment. Jewish, of the late pre-Christian, and Christian Gnosticism of the early Christian centuries, may be looked upon as its prede cessor. The absolutely transcendental char acter of Jewish monotheism could not but lay near to reflective minds the fundamental prob lems, basic to all Jewish mysticism, how the sublime extra and supra-mundane Deity could be 'the Creator of the existing world and could be regarded as being in contact with it as its ruler and guide, and more especially how man could rise into communion with God. The Biblical account of the Creation known as the Ma'aseh Bereshit (literally the work of the be ginning) and the description of the divine chariot in the first chapter of Ezekiel termed the Ma'aseh Merkabah (literally the work of the chariot) were held in early Talmudic rec ords to hide esoteric knowledge within the reach of the chosen few who of mature age and proper degree of wisdom might venture to unravel their occult suggestions. The allegor
ical method of interpreting scriptural contexts, in vogue among the preachers of Haggadists of the synagogue, stood the elect searchers for the contents of divine revelation transmitted in these two chapters in good stead. By amplify ing it, they arrived at the deeper meaning of Genesis i and Ezekiel i, designated by them as the "secrets" and the "hidden things" of the Torah or the Law. But care was had not to divulge publicly the truth thus found. It was zealously reserved exclusively for the "wise) and Concepts that recur as basic to later theosophic speculations are attributed to some of these Talmudic wise men; for instance, the view that fire, water and air existed before creation, these three producing light, darkness and wisdom respectively, the world being a combination of these six elements, or that crea tion in reality is a process of condensation, God contracting Himself or His garments of light to make room for the world resulting from this operation. The Pantheistic designa tion of the Godhead as the "Place" the Maki= (Greek Topos) of the universe credited to some Talmudic doctors is another indication of the prevalence of mystic speculation in the Tal mudic schools, as is also the personification of God's °Justice and "Mercy," of frequent re currence in Talmudical parlance. Another evi dence to the same effect is the tendency char acteristic of a number of Talmudical observa tions to represent God's activity by 10 hypos tases of Sephirot, viz., wisdom, insight, cogni tion, power, strength, immutability, justice, righteousness, love and mercy. Sometimes, as in Philo, wisdom is named as the totality of these 10 potentialities. But most significant in this connection is the occurrence in Talmudic theology of Metatron, an angelic mediator be tween the transcendental Deity and Creation. He is the Demiurgos, the instrument through which the supra-mundane God acts. Again the soul is often described as pre-existent. The pious are credited with the power while living to ascend to God. During such ascension they learn the secrets of the Beyond. Furthermore the "mystery of and of which is one of the main preoccupations of the later (literary) Cabala, as well as the doctrine of emanation, is met with in the Pseudo-epigrapha as in Talmudic passages.