Maggid

—Name and Origin (Hebrew form Ḳabbalah [

The specific term for the esoteric or mystic doctrine concerning God and the universe, asserted to have come down as a revelation to elect saints from a remote past, and preserved only by a privileged few. At first consisting only of empirical lore, it assumed, under the influence of Neoplatonic and Neopythagorean philosophy, a speculative character. In the geonic period it is connected with a Mishnah-like text-book, the "Sefer Yeẓirah," and forms the object of the systematic study of the elect, called "meḳubbalim" or "ba'ale ha-ḳabbalah" (possessors of, or adepts in, the Cabala). These receive afterward the name of "maskilim" (the wise), after Daniel 12:10; and because the Cabala is called

The Cabala is divided into a theosophical or theoretical system, Ḳabbalah 'Iyyunit (

Meaning of the Word "Cabala."

Cabala comprised originally the entire traditional lore, in contradistinction to the written law (Torah), and therefore included the prophetic and hagiographic books of the Bible, which were supposed to have been "received" by the power of the Holy Spirit rather than as writings from God's hand (see Ta'an. 2:1; R. H. 7a, 19a, and elsewhere in the Talmud; compare Zunz, "G. V." 2d ed., pp. 46, 366, 415, and Taylor, "Early Sayings of the Jewish Fathers," 1899, pp. 106 et seq., 175 et seq.). Each "received" doctrine was claimed as tradition from the Fathers—"masoret me-Abotenu" (Josephus, "Ant." 13:10, § 6; 16, § 2; Meg. 10b; Sheḳ. 6:1)—to be traced back to the Prophets or to Moses on Sinai (compare "meḳubbalani" in Peah 2:6; 'Eduy. 8:7). So the Masorah, "the fence to the Torah" (Ab. 3:13) is, as Taylor (c. p. 55) correctly states, "a correlation to Cabala." The chief characteristic of the Cabala is that, unlike the Scriptures, it was entrusted only to the few elect ones; wherefore, according to IV Esdras 14:5,6, Moses, on Mount Sinai, when receiving both the Law and the knowledge of wondrous things, was told by the Lord: "These words shalt thou declare, and these shalt thou hide." Accordingly the rule laid down for the transmission of the cabalistic lore in the ancient Mishnah (Ḥag. 2:1) was "not to expound the Chapter of Creation ("Ma'aseh Bereshit," Genesis 1) before more than one hearer; nor that of the Heavenly Chariot ("Merkabah," Ezekiel 1; compare 1 Chronicles 28:18 and Ecclus. [Sirach] 49:8) to any but a man of wisdom and profound understanding"; that is to say, cosmogony and theosophy were regarded as esoteric studies (Ḥag. 13a). Such was the "Masoret ha-Ḥokmah" (the tradition of wisdom, handed over by Moses to Joshua (Tan., Wa'etḥanan, ed. Buber, 13); and likewise the twofold philosophyof the Essenes, "the contemplation of God's being and the origin of the universe," specified by Philo ("Quod Omnis Probus Liber," ). Besides these there was the eschatology—that is, the secrets of the place and time of the retribution and the future redemption (Sifre, Wezot ha-Berakah, 357); "the secret chambers of the behemoth and leviathan" (Cant. R. 1:4); the secret of the calendar ("Sod ha-'Ibbur")—that is, the mode of calculating the years with a view to the Messianic kingdom (Ket. 111a-112a; Yer. R. H. 2:58b); and, finally, the knowledge and use of the Ineffable Name, also "to be transmitted only to the saintly and discreet ones" (Ẓenu'im or Essenes; Ḳid. 71a; Yer. Yoma 3:40d; Eccl. R. 3:11), and of the angels (Josephus, "B. J." 2:8, § 7). All these formed the sum and substance of the Mysteries of the Torah, "Sitre or Raze Torah" (Pes. 119a; Meg. 3a; Ab. 6:1), "the things spoken only in a whisper" (Ḥag. 14a).

Antiquity of the Cabala.

How old the Cabala is, may be inferred from the fact that as early a writer as Ben Sira warns against it in his saying:

That many such books containing secret lore were kept hidden away by the "wise" is clearly stated in IV Esdras 14:45-46, where Pseudo-Ezra is told to publish the twenty-four books of the canon openly that the worthy and the unworthy may alike read, but to keep the seventy other books hidden in order to "deliver them only to such as be wise" (compare Daniel 12:10); for in them are the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge (compare Soṭah 15:3). A study of the few still existing apocryphal books discloses the fact, ignored by most modern writers on the Cabala and Essenism, that "the mystic lore" occasionally alluded to in the Talmudic or Midrashic literature (compare Zunz, "G. V." 2d ed., pp. 172 et seq.; Joël, "Religionsphilosophie des Sohar," pp. 45-54) is not only much more systematically presented in these older writings, but gives ample evidence of a continuous cabalistic tradition; inasmuch as the mystic literature of the geonic period is only a fragmentary reproduction of the ancient apocalyptic writings, and the saints and sages of the tannaic period take in the former the place occupied by the Biblical protoplasts, patriarchs, and scribes in the latter.

Cabalistic Elements in the Apocrypha.

So, also, does the older Enoch book, parts of which have been preserved in the geonic mystic literature (see Jellinek, c., and "Z. D. M. G." 1853, p. 249), by its angelology, demonology, and cosmology, give a fuller insight into the "Merkabah" and "Bereshit" lore of the ancients than the "Hekalot," which present but fragments, while the central figure of the Cabala, Meṭaṭron-Enoch, is seen in ch. - in a process of transformation. The cosmogony of the Slavonic Enoch, a product of the first pre-Christian century (Charles, "The Book of the Secrets of Enoch," 1896, p. ), showing an advanced stage compared with the older Enoch book, casts a flood of light upon the rabbinical cosmogony by its realistic description of the process of creation (compare ch. - and Ḥag. 12a et seq.; Yer. Ḥag. 2:77a et seq.; Gen. R. -). Here are found the primal elements, "the stones of fire" out of which "the Throne of Glory" is made, and from which the angels emanate; "the glassy sea" (

A Continuous Tradition.

More instructive still for the study of the development of cabalistic lore is the Book of Jubilees written under King John Hyrcanus (see Charles, "The Book of Jubilees," 1902, Introduction, pp. et seq.)—which also refers to the writings of Jared, Cainan, and Noah, and presents Abraham as the renewer, and Levi as the permanent guardian, of these ancient writings (ch. 4:18, 8:3, 10:13; compare Jellinek, "B. H." 3:155, 12:27, 21:10, 45:16)—because it offers, as early as a thousand years prior to the supposed date of the "Sefer Yeẓirah," a cosmogony based upon the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and connected with Jewish chronology and Messianology, while at the same time insisting upon the heptad as the holy number rather than upon the decadic system adopted by the later haggadists and the "Sefer Yeẓirah" (ch. 2:23; compare Midr. Tadshe and Charles's note, 6:29 et seq.; Epstein, in "Rev. Et. Juives," 22:11; and regarding the number seven compare Ethiopic Enoch, 77:4 et seq. [see Charles's note]; Lev. R.; Philo, "De Opificios Mundi," 80-43, and Ab. 5:1-3; Ḥag. 12a). The Pythagorean idea of the creative powers of numbers and letters, upon which the "Sefer Yeẓirah" is founded, and which was known in tannaitic times—compare Rab's saying:"Bezalel knew how to combine [

The "wonders of the Creative Wisdom" can also be traced from the "Sefer Yeẓirah," back to Ben Sira, c.; Enoch, 42:1, 48:1, 82:2, 92:1; Slavonic Enoch, 30:8, 33:3 (see Charles's note for further parallels); IV Esdras 14:46; Soṭah 15:3; and the Merkabah-travels to Test. Abraham,; Test. Job, (see Kohler, in Kohut Memorial Volume, pp. 282-288); and the Baruch Apocalypse throughout, and even II Macc. 7:22,28, betray cabalistic traditions and terminologies.

Gnosticism and Cabala.

But especially does GNOSTICISM testify to the antiquity of the Cabala. Of Chaldean origin, as suggested by Kessler (see "Mandæans," in Herzog-Hauck, "Real-Encyc.") and definitively shown by Anz ("Die Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus," 1879), Gnosticism was Jewish in character long before it became Christian (see Joël, "Blicke in die Religionsgeschichte," etc., 1880, 1:203; Hönig, "Die Ophiten," 1889; Friedländer, "Der Vorchristliche Jüdische Gnostizismus," 1898; idem, "Der Antichrist," 1901). Gnosticism—that is, the cabalistic "Ḥokmah" (wisdom), translated into "Madda' " (Aramaic, "Manda' " = knowledge of things divine)—seems to have been the first attempt on the part of the Jewish sages to give the empirical mystic lore, with the help of Platonic and Pythagorean or Stoic ideas, a speculative turn; hence the danger of heresy from which Akiba and Ben Zoma strove to extricate themselves, and of which the systems of Philo, an adept in Cabala (see "De Cherubim," 14; "De Sacrificiis Abelis et Caini," 15; "De Eo Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiatur," 48; "Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit," 22), and of Paul (see Matter, "History of Gnosticism," ), show many pitfalls (Gnosticism, Minim). It was the ancient Cabala which, while allegorizing the Song of Songs, spoke of see ADAM ḲADMON, or the God-man, of the "Bride of God," and hence of "the mystery of the union of powers" in God (see Conybeare, "Philo's Contemplative Life," p. 304), before Philo, Paul, the Christian Gnostics, and the medieval Cabala did. Speculative Cabala of old (IV Esd. 3:21; Wisdom 2:24) spoke of "the germ of poison from the serpent transmitted from Adam to all generations" (

Cabalistic Dualism.

The whole dualistic system of good and of evil powers, which goes back to Zoroastrianism and ultimately to old Chaldea, can be traced through Gnosticism; having influenced the cosmology of the ancient Cabala before it reached the medieval one. So is the conception underlying the cabalistic tree, of the right side being the source of light and purity, and the left the source of darkness and impurity ("siṭra yemina we siṭra aḥara), found among the Gnostics (see Irenæus, "Adversus Hæreses," 1:5, § 1; 11, § 2; 2:24, § 6; Epiphanius, "Hæres," 32:1,2; "Clementine Homilies," 7:3; compare Cant. R. 1:9; Matthew 25:33; Plutarch, "De Isiḳe," 48; Anz, c. 111). The fact also that the "Ḳelippot" (the scalings of impurity), which are so prominent in the medieval Cabala, are found in the old Babylonian incantations (see Sayce, "Hibbert Lectures," 1887, p. 472; Delitzsch, "Assyrisches Wörterbuch," s.

It stands to reason that the secrets of the theurgic Cabala are not lightly divulged; and yet the Testament of Solomon recently brought to light the whole system of conjuration of angels and demons, by which the evil spirits were exorcised; even the magic sign or seal of King Solomon, known to the medieval Jew as the MAGEN DAWID, has been resurrected (see Conybeare, in "Jew. Quart. Rev." 11:1-45; also EXORCISM).

To the same class belongs the "Sefer Refu'ot" (The Book of Healing), containing the prescriptions against all the diseases inflicted by demons, which Noah wrote according to the instructions given by the angel Raphael and handed over to his son Shem (Book of Jubilees, 10:1-14; Jellinek, "B. H." 3:155-160; Introduction, p. ). It was identified with the "Sefer Refu'ot" in possession of King Solomon and hidden afterward by King Hezekiah (see Pes. 4:9,56a; "B. H." c. p. 160; Josephus, "Ant." 8:2, § 5; compare idem, "B. J." 2:8, § 6, and the extensive literature in Schürer, "Gesch. des Volkes Israel," 3d ed., 3:2,99 et seq.), whereas the secret of the black art, or of healing by demonic powers, was transmitted to heathen tribes, to "the sons of Keṭurah" (Sanh. 91a) or the AMORITES (compare Enoch, 10:7).

So striking is the resemblance between the SHI'UR ḲOMAH and the anthropomorphic description of the Deity by the Gnostics (see Irenæus, c. 1:14, § 3) and the letters of the alphabet laid across the body in Atbash (

With the scanty materials at the disposal of the student of Gnosticism, it seems premature and hazardous at present to assert with certainty the close relationship existing between it and the ancient Cabala, as Matter, in his "History of Gnosticism," 1828 (German translation, 1833 and 1844), and Gfroerer, in his voluminous and painstaking work, "Gesch. des Urchristenthums," 1838, and , have done. Nevertheless it may be stated without hesitation that the investigations of Grätz ("Gnosticism und Judenthum," 1846), of Joël ("Religionsphilosophie des Sohar," 1849), and of other writers on the subject must be resumed on a new basis. It is also certain that the similarities, pointed out by Siegfried ("Philo von Alexandria," pp. 289-299), between the doctrines of Philo and those of the Zohar and the Cabala in general, are due to intrinsic relation rather than to mere copying.

As a rule, all that is empiric rather than speculative, and that strikes one as grossly anthropomorphic and mythological in the Cabala or Haggadah, such as the descriptions of the Deity as contained in the "Sifra de Zeni'uta" and "Iddra Zuṭṭa" of the Zohar, and similar passages in "Sefer Aẓilut" and "Raziel," belongs to a prerationalistic period, when no Simon ben Yoḥai lived to curse the teacher who represented the sons of God as having sexual organs and committing fornication (see Gen. R.; compare Vita Adæ et Evæ, 3:4, with Enoch, 7:1 et seq.; also compare Test. Patr., Reuben, 5; Book of Jubilees, 5:1, and particularly 15:27). Such matter may with a high degree of probability be claimed as ancient lore or Cabala (= "old tradition").

And as to speculative Cabala, it was not Persia with her tenth-century Sufism, but Alexandria of the first century or earlier, with her strange commingling of Egyptian, Chaldean, Judean, and Greek culture, that furnished the soil and the seeds for that mystic philosophy which knew how to blend the wisdom and the folly of the ages and to lend to every superstitious belief or practise a profound meaning. There sprang up that magic literature which showed the name of the Jewish God (

—History and System:

This remarkable product of Jewish intellectual activity can not be satisfactorily estimated as a whole unless the religioethical side of the Cabala is more strongly emphasized than has been the case heretofore. It constantly falls back upon Scripture for its origin and authenticity, and for its speculative-pantheistic and anthropomorphic-prophetic tendencies. While mysticism in general is the expression of the intensest religious feeling, where reason lies dormant, Jewish mysticism is essentially an attempt to harmonize universal reason with the Scriptures; and the allegorical interpretation of the Biblical writings by the Alexandrians as well as by the Palestinians (ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION) may justly be regarded as its starting-point. These interpretations had their origin in the conviction that the truths of Greek philosophy were already contained in Scripture, although it was given only to the select few to lift the veil and to discern them beneath the letter of the Bible.

Mystic Doctrines in Talmudic Times.

In Talmudic times the terms "Ma'aseh Bereshit" (History of Creation) and "Ma'aseh Merkabah"(History of the Divine Throne = Chariot; Ḥag. 2:1; Tosef., ib.) clearly indicate the Midrashic nature of these speculations; they are really based upon Genesis 1 and Ezekiel 1:4-28; while the names "Sitre Torah" (Ḥag. 13a) and "Raze Torah" (Ab. 6:1) indicate their character as secret lore. In contrast to the explicit statement of Scripture that God created not only the world, but also the matter out of which it was made, the opinion is expressed in very early times that God created the world from matter He found ready at hand—an opinion probably due to the influence of the Platonic-Stoic cosmogony (compare Philo, "De Opificiis Mundi," , who states this as a doctrine of Moses; see Siegfried, "Philo von Alexandria," p. 230). Eminent Palestinian teachers hold the doctrine of the preexistence of matter (Gen. R. 1:5, 4:6), in spite of the protest of Gamaliel II. (ib. 1:9).

The Six Elements.

A Palestinian Midrash of the fourth century (see Epstein, in "Rev. Etudes Juives," 29:77) asserts that three of the elements—namely, water, air, and fire—existed before the creation of the world; that water then produced the darkness, fire produced light, and air produced wisdom (

So, also, was the doctrine of the origin of light made a matter of mystical speculation, as instanced by a haggadist of the third century, who communicated to his friend "in a whisper" the doctrine that "God wrapped Himself in a garment of light, with which He illuminates the earth from one end to the other" (Gen. R. 3:4; see ABRAHAM, APOCALYPSE OF; compare Ex. R. 15:22: "After He had clothed Himself in light, He created the world"). Closely related to this view is the statement made by R. Meïr, "that the infinite God limited or contracted Himself [

God in the Theosophy of the Talmud.

In dwelling upon the nature of God and the universe, the mystics of the Talmudic period asserted, in contrast to Biblical transcendentalism, that "God is the dwelling-place of the universe; but the universe is not the dwelling-place of God" (Gen. R. 68:9; Midr. Teh. xc.; Exodus 24:11, LXX.) Possibly the designation

The attempts of the mystics to bridge the gulfbetween God and the world are especially evident in the doctrine of the preexistence of the soul [compare Slavonic Enoch, 23:5, and Charles's note.—K.] and of its close relation to God before it enters the human body—a doctrine taught by the Hellenistic sages (Wisdom 8:19) as well as by the Palestinian rabbis (Ḥag. 12b; 'Ab. Zarah 5a, etc.).

The Pious.

Closely connected herewith is the doctrine that the pious are enabled to ascend toward God even in this life, if they know how to free themselves from the trammels that bind the soul to the body (ASCENSION). Thus were the first mystics enabled to disclose the mysteries of the world beyond. According to Anz, c., and Bousset, "Die Himmelreise der Seele," in "Archiv für Religionswissenschaft," 4:136 et seq., the central doctrine of Gnosticism—a movement closely connected with Jewish mysticism—was nothing else than the attempt to liberate the soul and unite it with God. This conception explains the great prominence of angels and spirits in both the earlier and the later Jewish mysticism. Through the employment of mysteries, incantations, names of angels, etc., the mystic assures for himself the passage to God, and learns the holy words and formulas with which he overpowers the evil spirits that try to thwart and destroy him. Gaining thereby the mastery over them, he naturally wishes to exercise it even while still on earth, and tries to make the spirits serviceable to him. So, too, were the Essenes familiar with the idea of the journey to heaven (see Bousset, c. p. 143, explaining Josephus, "Ant." 18:1, § 5); and they were also masters of angelology. The practise of magic and incantation, the angelology and demonology, were borrowed from Babylonia, Persia, and Egypt; but these foreign elements were Judaized in the process, and took the form of the mystical adoration of the name of God and of speculations regarding the mysterious power of the Hebrew alphabet (see Ber. 55a; compare Pesiḳ. R. 21 [ed. Friedmann, p. 109a], "the name of God creates and destroys worlds"), to become, finally, foundations of the philosophy of the "Sefer Yeẓirah."

The Syzygies.

Another pagan conception which, in refined form, passed into the Cabala through the Talmud, was the so-called