The Cabala of the Jews was not without influence on the thoughts of Christian scholars, among them Raymon Lulli (1225-1315), Pico di Mirandola (1463-94), Reuchlin, Heinrich, Cornelius Agrippa (1487-1535), Zorzi (1460 1540) and others. It is not too much to say that Cabalistic speculation recurs in the the ology of some of the noted precursors of the Reformation, and had a share in the develop ment of the Evangelical Church's dogmatics.
In brief, the main contentions of the Cabala are these: (1) God is unknowable in His own essence. He is the En-sOf, limitless, infinite. He is the Hidden of All Hidden. He is the °negative" as far as He is cognizable by man. He is the first primal of all primals, the ulterior principle. Only as far as He has deigned to change His absoluteness into relativity, by per mitting creation to take on existence, is He cognizable in measure as creation reveals Him. Between Him and creation, through irradiation or condensation of His primal light, He placed a mediator, Metatron, or the Prince of the World, or the Merkaba or Chariot; to this, sometimes denoted as the first Sephirah, refer all anthropomorphisms of scriptural description of the Godhead. The Infinite has no attributes. But the Mediator has. He is the "Superior Man," the °Celestial Man," "Wisdom? This primal man or being is the creator and gov ernor of the world. He is endowed with cor poreality.
In God, will and thought and action are identical and synchronous — instantaneous. In Him transition from resolution to execution presupposes no change in essence. This divine will is the Razon Kacknon, the untreated eter nal will. It is the first principle or sephirah. God, however, concentrates himself. This "mystery of the divine concentration' (Sod Zimzum) results in rendering visible that part of himself which is the world. This act is similar to making a rent in a vessel, through which the contents are exposed to view. Through God's self-concentration, however, room is made for the visible world. For it limited vacancy is produced in which the divine ray of light is implanted as the germ of pro gressive creation. The Infinite has thus him self willed His partial finiteness. The Cause of all Causes has produced the 10 Sephiroth. He is the Crown, the Light that is Infinite. In Him there is neithet form nor substance. But He made a little vessel, the letter Yod. It is °wisdom"; then created He the sea, which is reason. This sea He divided into seven streams, for which He made seven ves sels: (1) Greatness; (2) power; (3) beauty; (4) victory; (5) highness; (6) foundation; (7) Shekinah or government. Some of these Sephiroth are constructive, others— the first three—are elemental. Some mystics regard these 10 as identical — representing only various aspects of the Divine Infinite —but others hold them to be tools of the Creator, superior be ings totally different from Him. In the
Sephiroth two natures inhere: (1) That through which all change occurs, i.e., the °vessel"; (2) that which is unchangeable, i.e., the °Light" or the Power.
(2) Man. Man is the highest creature. His body is built according to the mysteries of wisdom. But he is more than body. He is threefold, soul,— animal soul (Nephesh), moral soul (Ruach), intelligent soul (Nesham51). This third soul emanates from °Wisdom? the second from "Beauty," the third from "Do minion, or Kingdom? The soul is pre-existent. After dissolution of the temporary union of body and triune soul, the intelligent soul as cends to God, the moral soul enters Eden, the animal abides peacefully on earth. This is the destiny of the righteous. If stained by sin, the soul has to undergo punitory trials. Hence the Cabala accepts the doctrine of the transmigra tion of the soul. Only those souls that have fully developed their power may return to God or enter Eden; others will have to serve their period of probation, sometimes two souls being °inter-impregnated," merged into one, so as to help each other in the performance of the al lotted task.
Man should love and fear God. Love is the secret of unity with God. In the degree man loves God he rises to higher intimacy with God. Life in the beyond is life which vouchsafes deeper contemplation of the divine reality. Evil is the contrary of the God-like, the "left side? Evil is finite. Evil man mistakes semblance for substance. He separates himself from God. The Cabala to a certain extent teaches the sin lessness of original man whose fall brought sin and evil into creation.
Man, however, is not eternally lost. He may rise to the centre of divine light through peni tence.
The Cabala has induced a more spiritual conception of religion and ernphazised its ethical implications more strongly than legal ritualism could vitalize. On the other hand it encouraged the belief in magic, in demons and opened the door to many grotesque and even noxious superstitions. Its adepts came to put faith in signs and constellations, and other wise naturalized in Judaism many conceits and customs of non-Jewish origin and significance.
Bibliography.— General readers may be re ferred to Franck, A. 'La Kabbale) (German translation by Jellinek) ; Ginsberg, 'The Kab balah' ; Fliigel, 'Philosophic Qabbala and Ve danta' ; Myer, Isaac, Tabbalah.) An exhaus tive list of special works is given in 'Jewish Encyclopedia' (III, 479).
Emn. G. Mascn, Professor of Rabbinical Literature and Philos ophy, University of Chicago.