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Rosicrucian Digest Vol 90 No 2 2012 Kabbalah Kabbalah: A Brief Overview Joshua Maggid, Ph.D., FRC here are strong connections with traditional Jewish Kabbalah out of their Kabbalah in Rosicrucianism and religious context and presents them as TMartinism, and Kabbalah remains a collection of practical techniques for an important aspect of the teachings of finding happiness, fulfillment, prosperity, the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC and the relationships, etc. Traditional Martinist Order. In this article, Another common way of classifying Joshua Maggid, a longtime Rosicrucian and different types of Kabbalah is according to Martinist who has studied Kabbalah for many the kinds of activities involved. years, presents a brief overview of Kabbalah, including Jewish, Christian, and Hermetic “Theoretical Kabbalah” or “Theosophical Kabbalah. Kabbalah” includes a system of metaphysics, a description of the inner For those beginning to learn about it, workings of Divinity and how it interacts Kabbalah can be difficult and confusing. with the material world, and methods of Different books say different things. Any deriving esoteric interpretations of the two books on Kabbalah may address Holy Scriptures.3 completely different topics, or they “Meditative Kabbalah” consists of a may provide conflicting definitions and wide variety of practices aimed at attaining interpretations of the same material. In higher states of consciousness, exploring the addition, authors use different English spiritual realm, encountering the Divine, spellings for the same Hebrew terms. and receiving new spiritual insights.4 This One reason for this is that there are is also referred to as “Mystical Kabbalah” several different systems or traditions and “Prophetic Kabbalah.” that all refer to themselves as “Kabbalah.” “Practical Kabbalah” refers to theurgy There is Jewish Kabbalah, Christian and magic, attempting to influence the 1 Kabbalah, and Hermetic Kabbalah. Divine Realm and produce practical Christian and Hermetic Kabbalah borrow effects in the material world. To some concepts, terms, and techniques from extent, however, these distinctions can be Jewish Kabbalah, but they may use them somewhat arbitrary. Some modern authors differently, and they incorporate elements in the Hermetic or Magical tradition from other traditions. Even within see magic more as a system of spiritual traditional Jewish Kabbalah, because it development rather than an exercise of has existed over many centuries and in personal power.5 different parts of the world, there have developed a variety of different systems, Jewish Kabbalah 2 Rosicrucian schools, and methods. In recent years, Some authors apply the word Digest there has also appeared a kind of “New “Kabbalah” to all of Jewish mysticism, No. 2 Age Kabbalah,” which takes elements of going back thousands of years, including 2012 Page 2 the Merkavah tradition and even the of the Zohar were first circulated in Spain Biblical prophets. Others reserve the term by Rabbi Moshe de Leon in the 1290s. He “Kabbalah” for the specific form of Jewish claimed that he found them, and that they mysticism that began around the twelfth were written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and thirteenth centuries CE in southern in the second century CE. Academic France and in Spain. That was when the scholars generally believe that the Zohar word “Kabbalah” was first used to refer to was actually written by de Leon himself, these writings and activities. or possibly by a group with which he was Merkavah Mysticism (The Work of associated. It may have incorporated or the Chariot) is sometimes classified as expanded upon earlier oral traditions. pre-Kabbalistic or as Early Kabbalah. Its Mostly written in a form of Aramaic, dates are usually given as starting around much of the Zohar is extremely arcane and the second century BCE and continuing notoriously difficult to understand. for about a thousand years. These mystics would meditate and send their souls upward, proceeding through a series of seven holy palaces or chambers. Each chamber provides a different spiritual experience. They hoped to eventually reach the seventh and highest chamber and receive a divine vision like the one described by the prophet Ezekiel [1:1-28]. The Sefer Yetzirah6 (The Book of Formation) is often called the oldest Kabbalistic text.7 It describes in detail how God used the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet to create everything in the universe. When properly interpreted, it can also be read as a meditation manual that describes a number of meditation techniques using the Hebrew letters. Traditionally attributed to the Biblical Statue of Moshe de Leon in Guadalajara, Spain. patriarch Abraham, the origin of the Sefer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_de_leon Yetzirah is unknown, but some date it to around the second or third century CE. In the sixteenth century, the city of The Sefer ha Zohar8 (The Book of Safed (Tzfat), in what is now Israel, was a Splendor) is generally acknowledged to be major center of the flourishing of Kabbalah. the most important Kabbalistic writing. Many important figures emerged in Safed Not a single book, but a collection at that time, but the most influential figure of books, the Zohar contains esoteric for Kabbalah was Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534- interpretations of the Holy Scriptures and 1572), often referred to as “the Ari” or descriptions of the inner workings of the “the Arizal.” He provided a new approach Divine Realm. Much of it is in the form of to understanding and interpreting the stories about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Zohar, and he constructed a very detailed his companions, traveling around the Holy description of the creation of the universe, Land and discussing the hidden meanings the divine emanations, and the process of of the scriptures. Manuscripts of portions reincarnation.9 Page 3 During the European Enlightenment Giovanni Pico della Mirandola of the eighteenth century, science and (1463-1494) had books on Kabbalah rationality came to the fore, and interest translated from Hebrew into Latin, and in mysticism diminished. In Judaism, he also wrote books on Kabbalah. He the failure of the messianic Sabbatean argued that the Catholic Church should movement in the seventeenth century incorporate Kabbalah and magic into had discredited Kabbalah in the eyes of Christian theology. Pico believed that, by many, and mysticism generally lost its employing Kabbalistic methods of esoteric appeal. While Kabbalah was attacked interpretation, he could use the Hebrew and suppressed by the dominant forces, Scriptures to prove the truth of Christian a form of Kabbalah was perpetuated by teachings such as the divinity of Jesus the Hassidic movement starting in the and the doctrine of the Trinity. One of eighteenth century in Eastern Europe. his famous “Nine Hundred Theses” was: Hassidism conveyed Kabbalah in a “There is no science that assures us more somewhat popularized form that allowed of the divinity of Christ than magic and for encountering the Divine in nature Cabala.”11 and everyday life rather than exclusively through scriptural study and complex meditative techniques. Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) was a Jewish philosopher and historian who founded the modern academic study of Kabbalah. Born and raised in Germany, he later emigrated to what is now Israel, where he became the first Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Scholem, and the students he trained and influenced, helped to make Kabbalah widely available to the lay public. Christian Kabbalah In the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, during the European Renaissance, Kabbalistic writings were translated from Hebrew into Latin and Statue of Giordano Bruno in the Campo dei Fiori in became widely available to Christian Rome, where he was burned at the stake in 1600. http://www.glebedigital.co.uk/blog/?p=999 scholars. Kabbalistic concepts and methods were adopted by some Christian Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522), a theologians, giving rise to what is Christian scholar who studied Greek and called Christian Kabbalah.10 Christian Hebrew, was influenced by the work of Kabbalists also assimilated aspects of the Pico della Mirandola. He wrote books Hermetic and Platonic writings, which in Latin on Kabbalah12 and argued that were also translated into Latin during this Kabbalah should be accepted by the period, associating Christian Kabbalah Church because it proved the truth of Rosicrucian with Hermetic magic and Neoplatonist Christian teachings and could be used to Digest No. 2 theurgy. convert Jews to Catholicism. 2012 Page 4 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Hermetic Kabbalah Nettesheim (1486-1535) drew extensively In the seventeenth and eighteenth from Kabbalah throughout his Three Books centuries, as it developed in underground of Occult Philosophy,13 a very influential esoteric movements, Christian Kabbalah compendium of Western occultism and gradually incorporated more pagan magic. elements and alchemical symbolism. Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was a By the late nineteenth century, the Dominican friar who studied the works term “Hermetic Kabbalah” was used to of Pico, Reuchlin, and Agrippa, and wrote distinguish it from the Christian Kabbalah several books himself.14 He traveled around of the Renaissance. Europe trying to find a royal patron who Alphonse Louis Constant, writing would support him in his quest to have the under the name of Eliphas Levi (1810- Church adopt Kabbalah and magic. Bruno 1875), connected the cards of the Tarot did not find the support he sought, and he deck with the letters of the Hebrew made the mistake of returning to Rome, Alphabet, the ten Sefirot of the Kabbalistic 19 where he was arrested by the Inquisition Tree of Life, and the Sefer Yetzirah. and burned at the stake for heresy in 1600. One of the most familiar names from that era is Dr. Gerard Encausse, known Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636- as Papus (1868-1916). He was involved 1689) translated parts of the Zohar and in several esoteric societies and was a co- other Kabbalistic works from Hebrew into founder of the Ordre Martiniste (Martinist Latin in a compendium called Kabbala Order) and the Kabbalistic Order of the Denudata (The Kabbalah Unveiled).
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