THE KABBALAH Its Doctrines, Development, and Literature By CHRISTIAN D. GINSBURG Ll.D. Second Impression London GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LIMITED Broadway House: 68–74 Carter Lane E.C. 1920 TO PERCY M. DOVE, ESQ., F.I.A., F.S.S., &c., I AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBE THIS ESSAY, AS AN EXPRESSION OF MY HIGH REGARD FOR HIM, BOTH AS A FRIEND AND A CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN. CHRISTIAN D. GINSBURG. THE KABBALAH. I. A system of religious philosophy, or more properly of theosophy, which has not only exercised for hundreds of years an extraordinary influence on the mental development of so shrewd a people as the Jews, but has captivated the minds of some of the greatest thinkers of Christendom in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, claims the greatest attention of both the philosopher and the theologian. When it is added that among its captives were Raymond Lully, the celebrated scholastic, metaphysician and chemist (died 1315); John Reuchlin, the renowned scholar and reviver of oriental literature in Europe (born 1455, died 1522); John Picus di Mirandola, the famous philosopher and classical scholar (1463–1494); Cornelius Henry Agrippa, the distinguished philosopher, divine and physician (1486–1535); John Baptist von Helmont, a remarkable chemist and physician (1577–1644); as well as our own countrymen Robert Fludd, the famous physician and philosopher (1574–1637), and Dr. Henry More (1614–1687); and that these men, after restlessly searching for a scientific system which should disclose to them “the deepest depths” of the Divine nature, and show them the real tie which binds all things together, found the cravings of their minds satisfied by this theosophy, the claims of the Kabbalah on the attention of students in literature and philosophy will readily be admitted. The claims of the Kabbalah, however, are not restricted to the literary man and the philosopher: the poet too will find in it ample materials for the exercise of his lofty genius. How can it be otherwise with a theosophy which, we are assured, was born of God in Paradise, was nursed and reared by the choicest of the angelic hosts in heaven, and only held converse with the holiest of man’s children upon earth. Listen to the story of its birth, growth and maturity, as told by its followers.