The Jewish Kabbalah--(How it was used to infiltrate Christianity using the Hebrew Roots movement and the Christian Zionism)
Deuteronomy 18:10-12a:
"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord…"
Biblically we see over and over in the Old Testament where the Hebrew people fell from obeying the Law and embraced witchcraft and sorcery, Baal worship and all manner of idolatry. Throughout the Old Testament we encounter the obedience, disobedience, repentance and constant struggle of the Jewish people to remain faithful to God and the Law. Their tenacity and desire to obey the Law cannot be disputed. The question will be addressed whether the Jew's disobedient practices were, and are, taught in the oral traditions which evolved into the Talmud and Kabbalah and which are referenced by various Hebrew Roots leaders.
Jewish Mysticism
The Kabbalah itself consists of a large body of speculation on the nature of divinity, the creation, the origin and fate of the soul and also the role of human beings. It generally is subdivided into four sections: meditative, devotional, mystical and magical. It is for this reason that Kabbalah is regarded as an esoteric offshoot of Judaism.
The gnosis of the Kabbalah has been well recognized by Jewish scholars. From an article cited in the Jewish Enclyclopœdia, we see the intimate relationship between Gnosticism and the Cabala:
"... The Jewish Encyclopœdia quotes the opinion that "the central doctrine of Gnosticism -a movement closely connected with Jewish mysticism-was nothing else than the attempt to liberate the soul and unite it with God;" but as this was apparently to be effected 'through the employment of mysteries, incantations, names of angels,' etc… it will be seen how widely even this phase of Gnosticism differs from Christianity and identifies itself with the magical Cabala of the Jews. Indeed, the man generally recognised as the founder of Gnosticism, a Jew commonly known as Simon Magus, was not only a Cabalist mystic, but avowedly a magician… instituted a priesthood of the Mysteries and practiced occult arts and exorcisms…" 1
M. Matter states in Histoire du Gnosticisme, that Jewish scholars fully understand that the secret oral traditions of the Cabala were previous to any Christian gnosticism.
"The Cabala is anterior to the Gnosis, an opinion which Christian writers little understand, but which the erudites of Judaism profess with a legitimate assurance." 2.
D.F. Ranking in " Some Notes on Various Gnostic Sects and their Possible Influence in Freemasonry" remarks that the secret oral tradition of the Cabalists confirms them as being Gnostics.
"This claim to the possession of a secret oral tradition, whether known under the name of [similar to yvwois only in Greek]…or of Cabala, confirms the conception of the Gnostics as Cabalists and shows how far they had departed from Christian teaching. For if only in this idea of " one doctrine for the ignorant and another for the initiated," that Gnostics had restored the very system which Christianity had come to destroy."3.
Author Nesta Webster concurs with M. Matter and other historians that Gnosticism involved an attempt to cabalize Christianity.
"... M. Matter is therefore right in saying that Gnosticism was not a defection from Christianity, but a combination of systems into which a few Christian elements were introduced. The result of Gnosticism was thus not to Christianize the Cabala, but to cabalize Christianity by mingling its pure and simple teaching with theosophy and even magic." 4.
Jacob Prasch of Moriel, however, does not seem to recognize Jewish mysticism as Gnosticism:
"People began reinterpreting the Bible, not using the Jewish method of midrash, but using Greek methods. Typology and allegory Midrash uses typology and allegory-symbols-in order to illustrate and illumine doctrine…"
" The symbolism illustrates the doctrine, which is itself stated plainly elsewhere in Scripture…In the Gnostic world of Greek thinking, the opposite happens. Gnostics claim to have received a subjective, mystical insight-called a gnosis-into the symbols. They then reinterpret the plain meaning of the text in light of the gnosis. For Gnostics, symbolism is the basis for their doctrine, contrary to the ancient Jewish methods…" 5.
In The Sacred Books of the Jews, Harry Gersh certifies the early origins of Jewish mysticism,
"Jewish mysticism began in Biblical days, long before the term Kabbalah was invented. By the first century it had become a proper subject for scholarly study. Philo Judaeus speculated on the Platonic idea of emanations as intermediaries between God and the physical world. The Roman philosopher Plotinus (205-270) traveled in the East and returned to combine Indian, Persian, Greek, and Jewish mystic theories into a systematic structure of these emanations." 6.
"…H. Loewe, in an article on the Kabbala in Hastings' Encyclopœdia of Religion and Ethics, says: "This secret mysticism was no late growth. …we can be fairly certain that its roots stretch back very far and that the mediæval and Geonic Kabbala was the culmination and not the inception of Jewish esoteric mysticism. …" 7.
It cannot be assumed that the Kabbalah came from only Jewish sources and ideas.
"As the Kabbalah evolved, it came to share certain ideas with other ancient mystical systems, including those of the Gnostics and Pythagoreans. The Kabbalah did not restrict itself solely to instruction on the apprehension of God but included teachings on cosmology, angelology, and magic." 8
Despite God's many warnings to the contrary, the Jews incorporated paganism into their traditions which contradicted the Word of God.
"… In spite of the imprecations against sorcery contained in the law of Moses, the Jews, disregarding these warnings, caught the contagion and mingled the sacred tradition they had inherited with magical ideas partly borrowed from other races and partly of their own devising. At the same time the speculative side of the Jewish Cabala borrowed from the philosophy of the Persian Magi, of the Neo-Platonists, and of the Neo-Pythagorean. There is, then, some justification for the anti-cabalists contention that what we know today as the Cabala is not of purely Jewish origin." 9.
Harry Gersh shows the migration of the mid-eastern Kabbalists throughout Europe:
"From Babylonia and Palestine, Jewish mysticism moved into the Jewish communities of Europe and blossomed there. Every community produced its own mystic literature, mystic belief, and mystic practices. There were distinctive Spanish, French, Italian, and German Kabbalahs. Some were mainly 'practical', dealing in magic; others were mainly 'speculative', emphasizing philosophical explanations; many combined practical and speculative Kabbalah in equal parts." 10.
History
Colin Low in his Kabbalah FAQ, indicates the origins of Kabbalah date from remote antiquity.
"…Kabbalah is a mystical and magical tradition which originated nearly two thousand years ago and has been practiced continuously during that time. It has been practiced by Jew and non- Jew alike for about five hundred years. On the Jewish side it has been an integral and influential part of Judaism. On the Hermetic side it has created a rich mystical and magical tradition with its own validity, a tradition which has survived despite the prejudice generated through existing within a strongly Christian culture." 11.
Michael Sidlofsky of Toronto, writing on "Kabbalah and Jewish Renewal" states that "Kabbalah,
"…is the most commonly-used term for the Jewish mystical tradition, especially the kind which originated in twelfth-century France and spread through Europe, the Middle East and eventually world-wide, to this day. The two main varieties of pre-kabbalistic Jewish mysticism are called Maaseh Merkavah and Maaseh Bereshit (more on these below), and the particular variety emerging in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe and continuing among Ashkenazic Jews until today is called Hasidism." 12.
Most scholars concur that these secret oral traditions were first committed to writing around the thirteenth century. Dr. Christian Ginsburg in "The Kabbalah" states:
"…The first date at which the Zohar is definitely known to have appeared is the end of the thirteenth century when it was committed to writing by a Spanish Jew, Moses de Leon…." 13.
Pico della Mirandola, a major Renaissance Gnostic, Hermeticist and Cabalist, was described by Vicomte Léon de Poncins’ in Judaism and the Vatican:
"Pico de Mirandola, who died in Florence, Italy in 1494, was a hebraiser who devoted himself to studying the Cabbala under the direction of Jewish masters such as Jehuda Abravanel:
It was in the princely house of Pico de Mirandola that the Jewish scholars used to meet….The discovery of the Jewish Cabbala, which he imparted to various enlightened Christians contributed far more than the return to Greek sources to the extraordinary spiritual blossoming which is known as the Renaissance. About half a century later, the rehabilitation of the Talmud was to lead to the Reformation….Pico de Mirandola had understood that the indispensable purification of Christian dogma could only be effected after a profound study of the authentic Jewish Cabbala." 14.
James Webb, author of the Occult Underground, wrote of Renaissance scholar Pico della Mirandola, a student of Marsillo Ficino, founder of the neo-Platonic Academy of Florence, Italy. Pico de Mirandola "...conceived of Hermes and Plato as aids to persuading those to religion who would not accept Scripture alone."
"This reasoning appears eventually to have been endorsed by the Church in the case of Pico, who joined to his Hermetism a 'Christian Cabala,' and concocted a universal system in which Cabalistic ideas played a considerable part. Although condemned by a tribunal, Pico's synthesis was rehabilitated in 1493 by Alexander VI, whose recognition of the Cabalist as a loyal son of the Church seemed to give some authority to Pico's position. It should be remembered in this context that Sixtus IV (Pope, 1471-84) had himself translated seventy Cabalistic books into Latin, and that the concept of the 'Christian Cabala' was not peculiar to Italian thought. Reuchlin, the foremost Orientalist of the time, and the author of the first Hebrew grammar, came nearest to success in the attempt to transform the Cabala into Christian philosophy - although his pupil Widmanstadt considered the Jewish tradition as 'a Trojan horse introduced into the Church. But the Hermeticists and Cabalists of the Renaissance were always maintaining their orthodoxy." 15.
Drach's "De l'Harmonie entre l'Eglise et la Synagogue, II," confirms that Pico della Mirandola received instruction in the Kabbala. Mirandola imagined that it held the doctrines of Christianity and therefore caused Pope Sixtus IV to order the Latin translations for the use of divinity students. 16.
Quoting from the Jewish Encyclopœdia's articles on Cabala and Reuchlin, we see the history of the influx of Cabalism into Catholicism and Christianity.
"At the same time the Cabala was introduced into Germany by Reuchlin, who had learnt Hebrew from the Rabbi Jacob b. Jechiel Loans, court physician to Frederick III, and in 1494 published a Cabalistic treatise De Verbo Mirifico, showing that all wisdom and true philosophy are derived from the Hebrews. Considerable alarm appears, however, to have been created by the spread of Rabbinical literature, and in 1509 a Jew converted to Christianity, named Pfefferkorn, persuaded the Emperor Maximilian I to burn all Jewish books except the Old Testament. Reuchlin, consulted on this matter, advised only the destruction of the Toledot Yeshu and of the Sepher Nizzachon by the Rabbi Lipmann, because these works " were full of blasphemies against Christ and against the Christian religion," but urged the preservation of the rest. In this defence of Jewish literature he was supported by the Duke of Bavaria, who appointed him professor at Ingoldstadt, but was strongly condemned by the Dominicans of Cologne. In reply to their attacks Reuchlin launched his defence De Arte Cabalistica, glorifying the Cabala, of which the " central doctrine for him was the Messianology around which all its other doctrines grouped themselves.1." 17.
"His whole philosophical system, as he himself admitted, was in fact entirely Cabalistic, and his views were shared by his contemporary Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim. As a result of these teachings a craze for Cabalism spread amongst Christian prelates, statesmen, and warriors, and a number of Christian thinkers took up the doctrines of the Cabala and " essayed to work them over in their own way. " Athanasius Kircher and Knorr, Baron von Rosenroth, author of the Kabbala Denudata, in the course of the seventeenth century " endeavoured to spread the Cabala among the Christians by translating Cabalistic works which they regarded as most ancient wisdom." "Most of them," the Jewish Encyclopœdia goes on to observe derisively, " held the absurd idea that the Cabala contained proofs of the truth of Christianity…. Much that appears Christian [ in the Cabala ] is, in fact, nothing but the logical development of certain ancient esoteric doctrines.2" 18.
S.L. McGregor Mathers', Introduction to the Kabbalah Unveiled is actually Mathers' English translation of Baron von Rosenroth's Kabbala Denudata, mentioned above. It was used to propagate the 'absurd idea' as stated by the Jewish Encyclopœdia, of a Christian Cabala, and as one peruses the contents, these ideas are affirmed.
"…At the present time a powerful wave of occult thought is spreading through society; thinking men are beginning to awake to the fact that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in their philosophy;" and, last but not least, it is now felt that the Bible, which has been probably more misconstrued than any other book ever written, contains numberless obscure and mysterious passages which are utterly unintelligible without some key wherewith to unlock their meaning. THAT KEY IS GIVEN IN THE QABALAH. Therefore this work should be of interest to every biblical and theological student."
"Let every Christian ask himself this question: "How can I think to understand the Old Testament if I be ignorant of the construction put upon it by that nation whose sacred book it formed; and if I know not the meaning of the Old Testament, how can I expect to understand the New?"
"Were the real and sublime philosophy of the Bible better known, there would be fewer fanatics and sectarians. And who can calculate the vastness of the harm done to impressionable and excitable persons by the bigoted enthusiasts who ever and anon come forward as teachers of the people? How many suicides are the result of religious mania and depression! What farragos of sacrilegious nonsense have not been promulgated as the true meanings of the hooks of the Prophets and the Apocalypse! Given a translation of the sacred Hebrew Book, in many instances incorrect, as the foundation, an inflamed and an ill-balanced mind as the worker thereon, what sort of edifice can be expected as the result?"
"I say fearlessly to the fanatics and bigots of the present day: You have cast down the Sublime and Infinite One from His throne, and in His stead have placed the demon of unbalanced force; you have substituted a deity of disorder and of jealousy for a God of order and of love; you have perverted the teachings of the crucified One. Therefore at this present time an English translation of the Qabalah is almost a necessity, for the Zohar has never before been translated into the language of this country, nor, as far as I am aware, into any modern European vernacular." 19.
Perusing the contents further we see the presentation of a Trinity, alongside other "Christian" statements but it is clearly not Christian in content. The way to heaven is described through the use of Gematria.
"Thus the Qabalah is called ChKMh NSThRH, Chokhmah Nesthorah, "the secret wisdom;" and if we take the initials of these two words Ch and N, we form by the second kind of Notariqon the word ChN, Chen, "grace." Similarly, from the initials and finals of the words MI IOLH LNV HShMIMH, Mi Iaulah Leno Ha-Shamayimah, "Who shall go up for us to heaven?" (Deut. xxx. 12), are formed MILH, Milah "circumcision," and IHVH, the Tetragrammaton, implying that God hath ordained circumcision as the way to heaven." 20.
Gematria is based on the relative numerical values of words. Words of similar numerical values are considered to be explanatory of each other. In other words, it is lettered numerology which explains that circumcision is the way to heaven.
Galatians 5:2-6:
" Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love."
Influence of Kabbalah
Mysticism is met with varied reactions within the Jewish community.
"…Like most subjects of Jewish belief, the area of mysticism is wide open to personal interpretation. Some traditional Jews take mysticism very seriously. Mysticism is an integral part of Chasidic Judaism, for example, and passages from kabbalistic sources are routinely included in traditional prayerbooks." 21.
"Other traditional Jews take mysticism with a grain of salt. One prominent Orthodox Jew, when introducing a speaker on the subject of Jewish mysticism, said basically " it's nonsense, but it's Jewish nonsense, and the study of anything Jewish, even nonsense, is worthwhile." 22.
Jewish historian Graetz claimed that the Cabala is at variance with Orthodox Judaism. Other anti-cabalists like Theodore Reinach declare that the Cabala is:
"…a subtle poison which enters into the veins of Judaism and wholly infests it.; Salomon Reinach calls it "one of the worst aberrations of the human mind." 23.
Michael Sidlofsky in "Kabbalah-A Brief History" shows that the Kabbalah has fluctuated in open popularity.
"The history of Jewish mysticism has taken some dramatic turns, from elite, secretive club to mass movement to object of scorn and back and forth. Right now the Kabbalah seems to be enjoying unprecedented popularity. Will it become, either in its Orthodox or Jewish Renewal forms, the Judaism of the future? It is premature to say so, but one thing seems clear: given the trend towards easier and faster mass communication and the increasing hunger for genuine spirituality, Jewish mysticism as a widespread phenomenon is here to stay this time." 24.
Kabbalah is also making a huge influx into North America. Michael Sidlofsky goes on to show the trend for mysticism has risen dramatically.
"…A more traditional American Orthodox rabbi, Aryeh Kaplan, spent the seventies and early eighties reconstructing the forgotten Jewish meditative tradition by researching long-neglected kabbalistic texts, many only extant in manuscript. He boldly disregarded the centuries-old rabbinic ban on the dissemination of kabbalistic practices among those under forty and unschooled in Bible and Talmud--a result of the Shabbetai Tzvi tragedy--by teaching Jewish meditation classes and publishing practical manuals and source readers on the subject. Thanks largely to Kaplan's efforts, many Orthodox rabbis and lay people have taught and written about Kabbalah, recognizing its appeal to non-practicing Jews searching for spiritual guidance." 25.
Israeli journalist, Hannah Newman, wrote Masters of the Blinding Light to warn fellow Jews of the infiltration of New Age mysticism, aka Kabbalah, into Judaism. The door-to-door sale of the Zohar throughout Israel will no doubt lead to replacement of the Torah with Kabbalah. As Jesus said to the Pharisees: "Your traditions have made the Word of God of none effect:":
"In a similar development on the mystical side of Judaism, NA spokesmen applaud orthodox Jewish teachers for recently releasing Kabbalah from the restricted access imposed on it by past generations of Jewish sages, making its teachings available to all, and even encouraging free exploration without rabbinic supervision. In Israel the Zohar (a major Kabbalistic work) is even being sold door-to-door. [This is strictly forbidden under the 'old order' of Judaism, but NAers are not concerned with proper understanding of the teaching, since Kabbalah is simply one path to their goal of getting as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, into 'contact with the spirit realm']. These teachers are being hailed as 'co-conspirators' who are furthering the NA Plan. [not stated whether deliberately or unknowingly, but the results will be the same.] From the NA standpoint, however, the value of Jewish Kabbalah lies only in its teachings which overlap "the other ancient occult doctrines", specifically: reincarnation; traffic with angels, demons and departed human spirits; 'monism' (light and darkness, good and evil, are all sides of G-d); attributing 'secret messages' or 'hidden meanings' to words or statements which mean something else at face value; self-induced trances, resulting in visions or 'astral' (out-of-body) travels; and harnessing of superhuman powers by pronouncing sacred names. [It is noteworthy that none of these can be supported by a clear (pashat or darash) Torah passage, while some are expressly forbidden; yet they are arguably the best-known elements of Kabbalah today. The fact that they are accepted by so many Torah Jews in spite of their dubious relevance to Torah, only supports the claims of the NA missionaries.] The NA goal is to promote a Kabbalah in the Jewish community which goes through successive 'transformations' until it is finally severed from all links with the Torah, thus 'recovering' its 'purity'." 26.
Jewish writer H. Loewe, in an article on the Kabbalah in Hastings' Encyclopœdia of Religion and Ethics has declared this:
"[Kabbalism] has contributed to the formation of modern Judaism, for, without the influence of the Kabbala, Judaism today might have been one-sided, lacking in warmth and imagination. Indeed, so deeply has it penetrated into the body of the faith that many ideas and prayers are now immovably rooted in the general body of orthodox doctrine and practice. This element has not only become incorporated, but it has fixed its hold on the affections of the Jews and cannot be eradicated." 27.
What is Kabbalah?
Deuteronomy 29:29:
"The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."
According to "The Kabbalah Unveiled" website, the Kabbalah is Jewish esoteric doctrine.
"The Qabalah may be defined as being the esoteric Jewish doctrine. It is called in Hebrew QBLH, Qabalah, which is derived from the root QBL, Qibel, meaning 'to receive'. This appellation refers to the custom of handing down the esoteric tradition by oral transmission, and is nearly allied to 'tradition'." 28.
Another website, "Kabbalah: The Misunderstood Doctrine," discloses that the Talmud alludes to a secret wisdom for an elect group of students.
"The Talmud contains vague hints of a mystical school of thought that was taught only to the most advanced students and was not committed to writing…" 29.
It was Pico della Mirandola's thesis that the secret oral tradition of the Rabbinic sages were no less divinely inspired than the Law given to Moses. There appears to be a slight contradiction on the hereditary oral transmission of these secrets. Mirandola states that because they were not written they were passed through a 'regular succession of revelations.'
"In exactly the same way, when the true interpretation of the Law according to the command of God, divinely handed down to Moses, was revealed, it was called the Kabbalah, a word which is the same among the Hebrews as `reception' among ourselves; for this reason, of course, that one man from another, by a sort of hereditary right, received that doctrine not through written records but through a regular succession of revelations....In these books principally resides,… the spring of understanding, that is, the ineffable theology of the supersubstantial deity; the fountain of wisdom, that is, the exact metaphysic of the intellectual and angelic forms; and the stream of knowledge, that is, the most steadfast philosophy of natural things." 30.
Gerry Rose, author of, "The Venetian Takeover of England and Its Creation of Freemasonry" presents the idea that this Ancient Wisdom was passed down from Moses to the elite disciples and that only the initiated could understand Kabbalah.
"According to tradition "...the Kabbalah was the fount of ancient wisdom that Moses passed down to elite disciples, an esoteric doctrine that only an elect can interpret." 31.
"The Authenticity of Kabbalah" ascribes to the Kabbalah the secrets of life which are supposedly hidden in the Torah.
The Kabbalah " uncovers many of the infinite layers of the secrets of life, of Creation, of the soul, of the heavenly spheres. It penetrates beyond the garments and the body of the Torah. It is the very core and soul of Torah, the ultimate revelation of Divinity - exposing the inner meaning, effects and purpose of Torah and mitzvot. The illumination emanating from the Kabbalah ignites the soul of man, setting it on fire in the awareness of a deeper and higher reality. Its study and insights are themselves mystical experiences. The Kabbalah is all this - but always and exclusively within the context of Torah." 32.
Moses warned Israel in Deuteronomy 4:2:
"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." |
