("Tradition"): The system of Jewish philosophical mysticism which later came to form an
important division, almost a sect, within Judaism. The rise of Cabala, or mystic secret lore,
took place at the time of the Maimonidean philosophical controversy in Judaism, and was caused directly thereby.

It claimed to be an ancient divine tradition, whence the name. Cabala began about the year 1200, in Gerona, Spain, and was later carried to Palestine. Other centers of Cabala, in later times, were Northern Spain, Southern Spain, Morocco, and Salonica, Turkey. Founded by Isaac the Blind, it was first systemized and fashioned into a coherent system by Isaac's two disciples, Azriel (Ezra) b. Menahem of Gerona and Asher B. David.

Cabala taught that the goal of religion and of union with God can be attained not through philosophical speculation or through the leading of a religious life, but only through the contemplation of the mystic and secret tradition which goes back to the very origins of mankind, and by the aid of the holy names of God and intense concentration on, and study of, various religious principles. Cabala interpreted the Bible prayers, and especially the Song of Songs, in a mystical manner, no doubt as a protest against Jewish philosophy, which was felt to be bare, soulless, and too logical. It taught that God is the Eternal (En Sof, "the Endless One") who is
exalted above all existence, and is infinite. God did not create the world directly, but an emanation from Him, a sort of spiritual substance, created the world. This is the first Sefirah (sphere), which radiated from itself a second force, or sphere; the second, in turn, radiated a third, the third emanated a fourth, and thus until ten powers or spiritual substances had been radiated.

These are the Ten Spheres (Sefiroth), all of which form part of the Eternal, or En Sof. Through these Ten Spheres God clothes Himself with a body and makes Himself visible. All the anthropomorphic acts ascribed to God in the Bible are thus explained as the activities of the Ten Sefiroth; through them God created the world, has relations with His creatures, and guides the universe. The Sefiroth have both an infinite and a finite side, and are the sole intermediaries between the En Sof and mankind. Both on mankind and on the Eternal Himself the spheres can exert influence; good and moral conduct on the part of the human soul can produce a
response on the part of the En Sof. Israel, through the Torah and the Revelation, was selected in order to preserve the world. Israel, by observing the 613 (Taryag) commands and prohibitions of the Torah, acts on the Ten Sefiroth, which are thus impelled to bestow their grace and bounty on the world. Thus the religious commandments and ceremonies have a profoundly mystical
significance, for they are the means whereby the world exists. All Judaism's religious laws are interpreted in a mystical sense by the Cabala. The earthly Temple at Jerusalem had its counterpart in the Heavenly Temple the Ten Sefiroth. When the Temple was destroyed prayer took its place, and prayer thus is extremely essential. But prayer, to be effective, has to be made
to one of the Ten Sefiroth, thus it is mystical; prayers are not to be made directly to God.

As regards the soul, Cabala taught that all souls were created at the time the world was created. If, during its association with the body, the soul has kept itself free from contamination, it becomes, after death, a part of the world of the Ten Sefiroth. Cabala believed in the transmigration of souls, and in reward and punishment after death. Those souls which on earth were well-versed in Cabala are to hasten the coming of the soul of the Messiah; this soul of the Messiah is the last soul created at the beginning of the world, when all souls were made. The time of the spiritual perfection of the universe will arrive when all the souls created at
the time of the creation of the world have been clothed in bodies.

The early Cabalists soon produced a work called "Bahir" (Luminous), which they alleged was an ancient Cabalistic document written by prominent Tannaim of the Mishnaic period. Although several times exposed as a later production, it became in subsequent centuries an authentic source-book for Cabala and proof of the antiquity of Cabalistic doctrines. The "Sefer Yetzirah"
was another highly venerated early Cabalistic work. In the 14th cent. and subsequently the Zohar of Moses de Leon became recognized as the text-book of Cabala par excellence, although written by Moses de Leon himself, and not by Simeon b. Yohai, of the 2nd cent.

There were two kinds of Cabala, theoretical, or purely speculative and epistomological; and practical Cabala, magical in character, which purported to be able to conjure up angels, exorcise demons and spirits, and perform miracles, through the use of amulets, the skilled use of the names of God, and similar superstitions and devices. Practical Cabala, introduced by Isaac Luria, in the latter half of the 16th cent. has as its goal the hastening of the time of the coming of the Messiah; this was to be effected by means of the stringent moral purification of the individual and by fixed concentration at prayer and in the performance of all religious
customs and practices.

After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, in 1492, Safed, Palestine, became the great new center of Cabala. Here a great number of disciples gathered about the mystic and legend-inducing figures of Isaac Luria, and Hayim Vital Calabrese. Some of these disciples, like Israel Sarug and Jacob Zemach, were instrumental in spreading Luria's Cabalistic teachings among the Jews of
Germany, Holland, Italy and Poland. The Lurian system of Cabala emphasized especially the fervid belief in the Messianic redemption and the salvation of the soul. It aimed to be strictly practical, demanded of its adherents a rigid religious course of life, and had a more detailed and mystical theory of the transmigration of souls. Both Lurian and theoretical Cabala exercised profound influence on Rabbinic Judaism, and weaned thousands of disciples away from it; it was violently attacked and denounced by many authors and scholars. Thus Leon Modena, in his "Ari Nohem" (The Roaring Lion), bitterly assailed the Cabala, ruthlessly exposing the deceptions upon which it is based and the spuriousness of the Zohar, its main source and textbook.

Cabala influenced a large part of the masses of the Jews and some of the works written by the Cabalists affected the later Hasidim. In addition, several of the later Messianic movements, all unsuccessful as far as results are concerned, were inspired by Cabalistic teachings. Works like the "Shene Luchoth Haberith" (The Two Tables of the Covenant), of Isaiah Horovitz, were written for the purpose of spreading the Cabalistic teachings and hopes among the Jewish masses.

Cabala had great influence over Christianity, too. Christian Cabalists arose who concerned themselves with harmonizing the Cabala with various Christian doctrines and dogmas, e.g. the trinity. Some of these Christian Cabalists, who sought and found confirmation of Christian dogmas in the teachings of the Cabala, were Aegidius of Viterbo, Erasmus, Knorr von Rosenroth, Reuchlin, and Pico Della Mirandola. Mirandola (latter half of the 15th cent.) was initiated into the mysteries of Cabala by Jochanan Aleman. He claimed to have discovered in the obscure doctrines and formulae of Cabala the confirmation of such Christian doctrines, besides, the
trinity, as the fall of the angels, eternal punishment, purgatory, the incarnation of Jesus, and original sin, and proclaimed that Cabala definitely proved the divinity of Jesus and his place in the trinity. Pope Sixtus IV. (1471-84), as a result of Mirandola's activities, favored the production of Latin translations of various Cabalistic writings, to be used in defending and propagating the Catholic faith. In addition, the Humanistic movement, which induced many Christian savants to study Hebrew, led to great interest in Cabala on the part of the latter.

A.I.S. Abraham I. Shinedling, A.B., M.A. Rabbi

Jewish mysticism...may have originally been based on Chaldean doctrines, but it was of a specifically Jewish character long before Christian mysticism had developed itself. The principle elements which the Jewish mystic had to blend together were reason, mystical promptings and his Torah...Mystical speculative continued to develop themselves for centuries before they led up to mediaeval Cabbal.__S.A. Hirsch, The Cabbalists, 1922.