The Kabbalah: its doctrines, development, and literatureGinsburg, Christian D. (Christian David)
Religion
The Kabbalah: its doctrines, development, and literature
Ginsburg, Christian D. (Christian David)
Cabala
(c) Scholion.—The first Sephira is like the concealed light, the second
like sky-blue, the third like yellow, the fourth like white, the fifth
like red, the sixth like white-red, the seventh like whitish-red, the
eighth like reddish-white, the ninth like
white-red-whitish-red-reddish-white, and the tenth is like the light
reflecting all colours. [74]
The gradation of the Sephiroth is as follows—
i
רום מעלה
/ \
/ \
iii ii
בינה חכמה
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v vi iv
פחד תפארת חסד
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viii ix vii
הוד יסוד עולם נצח
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x
צדק
For this date of the Kabbalah (i.e., 1150–1190) we have the testimony
of some of the earliest and most intelligent Kabbalists themselves.
Thus R. Joseph b. Abraham Gikatilla (born about 1247, and died 1307)
most distinctly tells us that R. Isaac the Blind, of Posquiers (flour.
circa 1190–1210), the teacher of R. Azariel, was the first who taught
the doctrines of this theosophy. [75] R. Bechja b. Asher, another
Kabbalist who lived soon after this system was made known, in his
commentary on the Pentateuch, which he composed A.D. 1291, styles R.
Isaac the Blind, as the Father of the Kabbalah. [76] Shem Tob b.
Abraham Ibn Gaon (born 1283), another ancient Kabbalist, in attempting
to trace a Kabbalistic explanation of a passage in the Bible to its
fountain head, goes back to R. Isaac as the primary source, and
connects him immediately with the prophet Elias, who is said to have
revealed the mysteries of this theosophy to this corypheus of the
Kabbalah. [77] Whilst the author of the Kabbalistic work entitled
מערכת אלהות the contemporary of R. Solomon b. Abraham b. Adereth
(flour. A.D. 1260), frankly declares that “the doctrine of the En Soph
and the ten Sephiroth is neither to be found in the Law, Prophets, or
Hagiographa, nor in the writings of the Rabbins of blessed memory, but
rests solely upon signs which are scarcely perceptible.” [78]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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