CABBALAH (Heb. Qabbālāh « Tradition »). - A term originally referring to the prophetic books of the Bible, which from the 12th century A.D. designates esoteric Jewish doctrine. The rise of this doctrine was contributed to, more or less directly, by the theosophy ma'āšeh mer-kābhāh ("work of the divine chariot," Ez. 1) and the Tannaitic cosmogony ma'āšeh bērēšīth ("work of the beginning" of creation), the commentary of the Gaonite Sa'adjah (v.) on the "Book of Creation" (sēpher jēšīrāh), the speculations on the divine names of Judah Levita and Abraham ibn Ezra, the doctrine of the will and the word drawn by the cabalists (mēgabbālām) from Ibn Gabirol and Joseph ibn Saddiq, the historico-philosophical speculations on creation of Abraham bar Hijjā, Neoplatonic emanatism (theory of the scales of being with a triple gradation: intellect, soul, nature), Neoplatonic psychology, the doctrine of the active intellect, the prophetological doctrine of Maimonides, the Hasidism or pietism that established itself in Germany and France in the 12th-13th centuries. The theory of the šēkhīnāh (divine immanence) of Sa'adjah is found there linked to speculations on the protoanthropos ('adhām qadhmōn) and the cherubim, deriving from the mysticism of the "chariot," and to a particular theory of the "logos."
The c. does not represent a mystical conception of God; the state of ecstasy has a secondary importance in it, and the principle "I in you" is absent from it; it aims rather at a theoretical knowledge of the divine attributes, a knowledge of a contemplative character, due to revelations that the master communicates confidentially to his chosen disciples.
Even the magical conceptions in the c. are not truly such. Magism surfaces only in practical c. (the "cabbala") and not in speculative c., insofar as it aims to influence the divine will without making itself master of it.
Demonology is not truly such, insofar as it does not see in demons beings that rise up against God, but maleficent forces in the service of God. In general, the basic principle of biblical prophetism prevails in the c.: "I and you," to which is joined an element of national egocentrism: Israel depends in everything on God; the salvation of humanity, of the entire cosmos depends in turn on the purity of the community of Israel, an idea this — nature suffers and decays with man and because of man, and with him rises again and is renewed — which, undergoing the most varied evolutions and ascensions, runs through all of Holy Scripture, from the first pages of Genesis to the letters of St. Paul (cf. P. H. M. Biedermann, Die Erlösung der Schöpfung beim Apostel Paulus, Würzburg 1940).
Cabalistic literature is contained in many unpublished manuscript works (very many in Jerusalem). To the ancient period belong the Pir'xe hēkhāhāth ("Celestial Palaces"), the book Bāhir ("Brightness"); trans. and ed. by G. Scholem, Das Buch B., Berlin 1933). The majority of cabalistic works, including the famous book Zōhar ("Splendor"), were circulated as anonymous literature or under a pseudonym. Thus the Zōhar was attributed to a Palestinian doctor of the 2nd century A.D., Simeon ben Jōhāj. The Zōhar is an assemblage of writings — the fundamental part in the form of a theosophical commentary on the Pentateuch — which became "the Bible" of cabalism. The "editor" was the cabalist Moses de León of the 13th century. The Zōhar aims, it appears, at counterbalancing the influence of Aristotelianism and its Jewish followers. Some of the writings included in the Zōhar differ on certain important doctrinal questions from the thought of Moses de León. A critical edition of the Zōhar is still lacking. The method followed in the exposition is the allegorical one. The symbol exists independently of the discovery of the object symbolized. In this way the c. succeeds in preserving the totality of the traditional material enclosed in rabbinic teaching.
At the center of cabalistic thought stands the doctrine of the ten sēphirōth, a term that J. Klatzkin (Thesaurus philosophicus linguae hebraicae, III, p. 109) explains as "powers (degrees, madhrēghōth) or qualities in the concatenation of emanation and creation." The organic nexus among the sēphirōth is presented graphically in the form of a tree or of the protoanthropos. Through knowledge of the intimate essence of the 10 sēphirōth the pious man (saddiq) brings his spiritualized prayers and his pious works before the Absolute, the 'ēn sōph ("without end"). The sēphirōth are placed in relation with the Decalogue and the ten words by means of which the world was created (Abhōth, V, 1; Hagīgāh, 12 a). The canonical order in which the sēphirōth follow one another is: kēther ("crown"), hokhmāh ("wisdom"), bī-nāh ("intellect"), gēdhullāh ("greatness") or hēsedh ("grace"), gēbhārāh ("strength") or dīn ("judgment"), tiph'ēreth ("beauty") or rahāmīm ("mercy"), nesah ("duration," "splendor"), hōd ("majesty"), saddīq ("righteous") or jēsōdh ('ōlām) ("foundation of the world"), maikhāth ("kingdom") or 'ōjārāh ("crown"). Each of the sēphirōth has still other symbolic names, placed in connection with scriptural verses.
From the 12th century onward great centers of cabalistic studies arose in Provence. In Spain the c. was favored by Solomon ben Adret (v. ADRET), who, however, was not active from the literary point of view. An exponent of contemplative c. is Abraham Abulafia (13th century). His disciple Josef Gikatila stands under the influence of the Zōhar. The doctrine cabalistic of Jishāq ibn Latif (end of the 13th century) has a philosophical character; that of Abraham ben Eliezer (from 1515 in Jerusalem) is of an apocalyptic character. At the beginning of the 16th century the city of Safed (upper Galilee) rose to great importance for the development of the c. Even the great codifier Josef Caro stands under the influence of the c. Famous is Moses Cordovero (1522-70), systematizing theologian of the c. Superior to him was only Isaac Luria, called Ha-'āri (1534-72). Among the adversaries of the c. figures the well-known rabbi of Venice, Leone Modena. Cabalism influenced two vast pseudo-Messianic currents: Sabbatianism and Frankism.
Among Christians, Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) cites in the treatise De christiana religione under the title of "Lucido" the book Bāhir; Pico della Mirandola (1463-94) cultivated Hebrew studies together with Elia Del Medigo and Jōhānān Alemanno (v.). In a letter addressed to Pico, Elia expounds the fundamental principles of the cabalistic system. In his work Bēhinath had-dāth ("Examination of Religion") Elia maintains that the identification of God with the sēphirōth is in conflict with the Jewish faith; if one wishes to admit the 'ēn sōph as first cause above the sēphirōth, one cannot speak of a true conflict with religion. Flavius Mithridates carried out for Pico Latin translations of cabalistic works. Pico was the first to bring the c. into contact with Christian thought; he often appeals to it in the "Conclusions."
Giovanni Reuchlin (d. 1522) systematically expounds the c. for Christian use in De verbo mirifico (1494) and in De arte cabalistico (1517): the name of Jesus is the true "verbum mirificum." Other Christian scholars of the c. in the 16th century were Cardinal Egidio da Viterbo, Paolo Riccio, Pietro Galatino. The Protestant mystic Guillaume Postel translated into Latin the Zōhar and the Book of Creation; the school of Jacob Böhme devoted itself to cabalistic studies.
Among the Jewish representatives of the c. in Italy we may mention: in the 10th century S. Donnolo da Oria (cf. D. Castelli, Il commento di S. D. sul libro della Creazione, Florence 1882), in modern times the moralist Moses Hayyim Luzzatto (1707-46) and the rabbi Elia Benamozegh (1822-1900).