KABBALAH - Selected Writings. Bernhard Pick

KABBALAH - Selected Writings

the Messiah of the afflictions of Israel in exile, and that the sinners among them do not reflect in order to know their Lord, he raises his voice and weeps because of those sinners, as it is written, 'he is wounded for our transgressions' (Is. liii. 5). Whereupon those souls return and take their place. In the garden of Eden there is one place which is called the palace of the sick. The Messiah goes into this palace and invokes all the sufferings, pain and afflictions of Israel to come upon him, and they all come upon him. Now if he did not remove them thus and take them upon himself, no man could endure the sufferings of Israel, due as punishment for transgressing the Law; as it is written—'Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,' etc. (Is. liii, 4 with Rom. xii. 3, 4). When the children of Israel were in the Holy Land they removed all those sufferings and afflictions from the world by their prayers and sacrifices, but now the Messiah removes them from the world." (Zohar, II, 212b). With reference to these passages13 which speak of the atonement of the Messiah for the sins of the people, which are given in the Zohar as the explanation of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, Professor Dalman14 remarks that the Jews reject and object to cabalistic statements as something foreign to genuine Judaism.

The theosophic speculations of the Cabala are at least just as Jewish as the religious philosophical statements of Bachja or Maimonides; yes, it seems to us that the God of revelation and of scripture is more honestly retained in the former than in the latter, where he becomes a mathematical One without attribute and thereby may satisfy a superficial reason, but leaves the heart empty. That these Jewish thinkers, influenced by Aristotle, had no inclination to find in Is. liii an expiating mediator, is only too inexplicable. He, who by his own strength can soar into the sphere of "intelligences" and thus bring his soul to immortality, needs no mediator. But we are concerned here not with a philosophical or theosophical thought-complex, but the simple question whether the prophet speaks in Is. liii of a suffering mediator of salvation. The answer of the Cabalists at any rate agrees with the testimony of many of them.

What are we to think of the Cabala? That there is a relationship between it and neo-Platonism is obvious. Erich Bischoff15 thinks that the Cabala represents a peculiar monism, which in some degree has influenced modern philosophy. In ethical respects it contains many fruitful and sublime thoughts, often indeed in fanciful wording. But as magic it has been of great influence on all kinds of superstitions and even on occultistic tendencies. It offers a highly interesting object of study whose closer investigation is rendered more difficult on account of the abtruse manner of representation and the many magic and mystic accessories. But that which is valuable is sufficient to insure for it a lasting interest.

1 A collection of passages abusing the Talmud is given by Landauer in the Orient, 1845, pp. 571-574; see also Rubin, Heidenthum und Kabbah, Vienna, 1893, pp. 13 f.; also his Kabbala und Agada, ibid., 1895, p. 5, where we read that according to Abulafia the Cabalists only were genuine men, and the Talmudists monkeys.

2 Wiinsche, whom we have followed, evidently refers to the prayer called Kaddish, for which see my article s. v. in McClintock and Strong, vol. XII. A very interesting article on "Judische Seelenmesse und Totenanrufung" is given by Dalman in Saat auf Hoffnung (Leipsic, 1890), pp. 169-225.

3 Orelli in his article "Zauberei" in Realencyklopadie fur protest. Theologie und Kirche, vol. XXI, 1908, p„ 618, remarks : "The Jewish Cabala has promoted the magic degeneration of the religion• to a great extent it furnished profound expressions and formulas for the exercise of superstitious arts."

4 "Lord of the name" = θεοῦργος, a man who by words of conjuration and other formulas knows how to exercise a power over the visible and invisible world.

5 Compare Kahana, Rabbi Israel Baal Schem-Tob, sein Lcben, kabbalistisches System und VVirken, Sitomir, 1900.

6 Compare Perl, Megalleh temirin, or Die enthullten Geheimnisse der Chassidim, Lemberg, 1879; Ch. Bogratschoff, Entstehung, Entwicklung und Prinsipien des Chassidismus, Berlin, 1908.

7 See my article s. v. in McClintock arid Strong.

8 These and some other treatises of the same kind are collected by Pistorius in a collection entitled Artis cabbalisticae scriptores, Basel, 1587.

9 These three parts are Englished by Mathers.

10 Buddeus in Iiitroductio in Historiam Philosopliiae Hebraeorum (Halle 1702) calls Knorr von Rosenroth's work "confusum et obscurum opus, in quo necessaria cum non necessariis utilia cum inutilibus, confusa sunt, et in unam velut chaos conjecta." Knorr von Rosenroth has also written a number of hymns.

11 "Compare also Bischoff, Die Kabbalah, p. 26.

12 Compare Joel, Die Religionsphilosophie des Sohar, Leipsic, 1849, pp. 240 ff.—The Zoharic passages referring to the Trinity are given in the original with a German translation in Ansziige ans dent Buche Sohar (by Tholuck; revised by Biesenthal), Berlin, 1857; 4th ed., 1876; also by Pauli, The Great Mystery; or How Can Three Be One, London, 1863.

13 A collection of the passages referring to the atoning work of the Messiah is given in Ausziige aus dem Buche Sohar, pp. 35 f., more especially in Wiinsche, Die Leiden des Messias, Leipsic, 1870, pp. 95-105; and by Dalman, "Das Kommen des Messias nach dem Sohar" (in Saat auf Hoffnung), Leipsic, 1888, pp. 148-160.

14 In his Jesaja 53, das Prophetenwort von Siihnlcidcn des Heilandes unit besonderer Berucksichtigung dcr synagogalen Literatar, Leipsic, 1890.

15 The author of Die Kabbalah. Einfuhrung in die jiidische Mystik und Geheimwissenschaft, Leipsic, 1903.