THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
development of the Cabala, and that it was not fully developed until the thirteenth century.
The Messianic teachings of the Cabala are closely connected with the doctrine of the realm of the evil sefiroth. When through their piety and virtue mankind shall steadily have diminished the kingdom of the kelifoth, the Messiah will appear 8. Doctrine and restore all things to their original of the condition. Under his rule all will turn to
Messiah, the divine light, and idolatry will cease. In its account of the nature and task of the Messiah the Cabala diverges a little from the views advanced by the Talmud and the Midrash.
In its anthropology the Cabala generally adopts the tenets of Talmudic and Gaonic mysticism, so that its new developments may be summarized briefly. Earthly man is a type of the prototype Adham kadhmon, and thus comprises within himself all that the ideal creation contains. He is, therefore, a microcosm. The Cabala also teaches the dual nature of man, who consists of body and soul. Every member has its symbolic meaning, while the body, as the garment of the soul, typifies the merkabah (the heavenly Throne-Chariot of Ezek. i., x.). The soul, however, is far superior to the body, since it is derived from the divine all-soul, and through the " canals " (zinnoroth) can influence the intellectual world and draw down its blessings to the lower world. It appears under the three designations of nefesh, ruah, and neshamah. The first is blind impulse, the second is the seat both of good and evil impulses, and the third is able to unite with God and the kingdom of light. The Cabala also teaches the pre- 9. Doctrines existence of the soul. All souls desof the tined to enter human bodies have Soul. existed from all eternity in a fixed number, nourished by the sight of the divine radiance of the Shekinah. The entrance of the soul into a body is a misfortune, and it implores God to spare it such imprisonment. Before their entrance into human bodies souls are androgynous, while marriage unites the severed halves to a single whole. This doctrine, like the preceding, is reminiscent of Plato and Philo, as is the cabalistic doctrine that all earthly learning is but a reminiscence of what the soul had known before it came to earth. Of special interest is the cabalistic doctrine of reincarnation. Each soul which is united with a body is to undergo a period of trial in this world, and if it is found able to preserve its original purity it returns immediately at death to its place of heavenly origin. If, on the other hand, it falls into sin, it is subjected to a purification, and is obliged to remain in lower forms of existence, such as animals, trees, stones, and rivers, until it has fully atoned for its evil and has regained the purity requisite for its return to its celestial home. Occasionally, however, the sin-laden soul wanders in the world with its fellows, 10. Metemp- naked and ashamed, until it finally sychosis. receives its purification in hell. New souls are seldom born, the greater number being reincarnations. This is a proof of the corruption of the human race, and though exalted spirits sometimes descend to earth for the
welfare of man and assume human form, all the souls created from the beginning have not yet been able to be born on account of the number of reincarnations necessitated by human wickedness, and the Messiah consequently has not come. During sleep the souls of the righteous frequently leave their bodies, ascend to the celestial regions, hold converse with the spirits there, and receive revelations of future mysteries. Evil souls, on the other hand descend to the realms of darkness and impurity and converse with demons, who give them false and lying words. To enable mankind to hold communication with the world of light during terrestrial existence, the cabalists exacted a scrupulous observance of the ceremonial law and, above all, prayer, to which was ascribed an influence over God liimself . Among other agencies stress was laid on asceticism, flagellation, retirement from the world, the practise of all good works, the wearing of white garments, and the use of the phylacteries and the prayer-mantle.
Aristotelian scholasticism gave rise in Judaism to a system of exegesis which resulted in a view of religion as a matter of the head, rather than the heart. Yet at this very time the increasing persecution of the Jews evoked a need for spiritual strength and revivification, and these requirements were met by the cabalistic opposition to the purely intellectual interpretation of the Bible and by the substitution of a new method of hermeneutics, which sounded the depths of the Scriptures and thus strengthened the sinews of religion. As early as the Talmudic and Mishnaic period the feeling had prevailed in certain quarters that in addition to the literal meaning of the Bible (peshat) there was an allegorical meaning (derush). The cabalists went still further, and regarded the letters, words, and names of the Bible 11. Mystic as possessed of deeply hidden divine Biblical mysteries, while such accounts as Exegesis of those of Hagar, Esau, and Balak the Cabala, contained far more than mere history. They therefore laid little stress on the literal sense of the Bible, though not a letter might be added to it or taken from it. In their endeavor to unlock the divine mysteries they employed various systems of exegesis. Of these the chief was the gematria, or study of letters. As early as the Sefer Yer.irah the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet were divided according to sound, form, and numerical value. To the first class belonged the three "mothers," aleph, mem, and shin, which represented the three primal elements, aleph standing for air (awwer), mem for water (mayim), and shin for fire (esh). The seven " double " letters which formed the second division (beth, gimel, daleth, kaph, pe, resh, and taw) were symbolic of the seven planets, the seven days of the week, the seven gates of the soul, 12. Biblical the seven seas, and the like; while in Interpre- virtue of their twofold pronunciation, tation by either aspirated or unaspirated, they Gematria. typified the seven antitheses of man: life and death, wisdom and folly, riches and poverty, peace and war, beauty and hideousness, fertility and desolation, power and slavery. The twelve "simple" letters, which