Part 9

Exegesis of this sort is not the characteristic of any single circle, people or century; unscientific methods of biblical interpretation have prevailed from Philo's treatment of the Pentateuch to modern apologetic interpretations of Genesis, ch. i.[5] The Kabbalah itself is but an extreme and remarkable development of certain forms of thought which had never been absent from Judaism; it is bound up with earlier tendencies to mysticism, with man's inherent striving to enter into communion with the Deity. To seek its sources would be futile. The Pythagorean theory of numbers, Neoplatonic ideas of emanation, the Logos, the personified Wisdom, Gnosticism--these and many other features combine to show the antiquity of tendencies which, clad in other shapes, are already found in the old pre-Christian Oriental religions.[6] In its more mature form the Kabbalah belongs to the period when medieval Christian mysticism was beginning to manifest itself (viz. in Eckhart, towards end of 13th century); it is an age which also produced the rationalism of Maimonides (q.v.). Although some of its foremost exponents were famous Talmudists, it was a protest against excessive intellectualism and Aristotelian scholasticism. It laid stress, not on external authority, as did the Jewish law, but on individual experience and inward meditation. "The mystics accorded the first place to prayer, which was considered as a mystical progress towards God, demanding a state of ecstasy."[7] As a result, some of the finest specimens of Jewish devotional literature and some of the best types of Jewish individual character have been Kabbalist.[8] On the other hand, the Kabbalah has been condemned, and nowhere more strongly than among the Jews themselves. Jewish orthodoxy found itself attacked by the more revolutionary aspects of mysticism and its tendencies to alter established customs. While the medieval scholasticism denied the possibility of knowing anything unattainable by reason, the spirit of the Kabbalah held that the Deity could be realized, and it sought to bridge the gulf. Thus it encouraged an unrestrained emotionalism, rank superstition, an unhealthy asceticism, and the employment of artificial means to induce the ecstatic state. That this brought moral laxity was a stronger reason for condemning the Kabbalah, and the evil effects of nervous degeneration find a more recent illustration in the mysticism of the Chasidim (_Hasidim_, "saints"), a Jewish sect in eastern Europe which started from a movement in the 18th century against the exaggerated casuistry of contemporary rabbis, and combined much that was spiritual and beautiful with extreme emotionalism and degradation.[9] The appearance of the Kabbalah and of other forms of mysticism in Judaism may seem contrary to ordinary and narrow conceptions of orthodox Jewish legalism. Its interest lies, not in its doctrines, which have often been absurdly over-estimated (particularly among Christians), but in its contribution to the study of human thought. It supplied a want which has always been felt by certain types, and it became a movement which had mischievous effects upon ill-balanced minds. As usual, the excessive self-introspection was not checked by a rational criticism; the individual was guided by his own reason, the limitations of which he did not realize; and in becoming a law unto himself he ignored the accumulated experiences of civilized humanity.[10]

A feature of greater interest is the extraordinary part which this theosophy played in the Christian Church, especially at the time of the Renaissance. We have already seen that the Sephiric decade or the archetypal man, like Christ, is considered to be of a double nature, both infinite and finite, perfect and imperfect. More distinct, however, is the doctrine of the Trinity. In Deut. vi. 43, where Yahweh occurs first, then Elohenu, and then again Yahweh, we are told "The voice though one, consists of three elements, fire (i.e. warmth), air (i.e. breath), and water (i.e. humidity), yet all three are one in the mystery of the voice and can only be one. Thus also Yahweh, Elohenu, Yahweh, constitute one--three forms which are one" (_Zohar_, ii. 43; compare iii. 65). Discussing the thrice holy in Isaiah vi. 3, one codex of the _Zohar_ had the following remark: "The first holy denotes the Holy Father, the second the Holy Son, and the third the Holy Ghost" (cf. Galatinus, _De arcanis cathol._ lib. ii. c. 3, p. 31; Wolf, _Bibliotheca hebraica_, i. 1136). Still more distinct is the doctrine of the atonement. "The Messiah invokes all the sufferings, pain, and afflictions of Israel to 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 their punishment for transgressing the law; as it is written (Isa. liii. 4), Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (_Zohar_, ii. 12). These and similar statements favouring the doctrines of the New Testament made many Kabbalists of the highest position in the synagogue embrace the Christian faith and write elaborate books to win their Jewish brethren over to Christ. As early as 1450 a company of Jewish converts in Spain, at the head of which were Paul de Heredia, Vidal de Saragossa de Aragon, and Davila, published compilations of Kabbalistic treatises to prove from them the doctrines of Christianity. They were followed by Paul Rici, professor at Pavia, and physician to the emperor Maximilian I. Among the best-known non-Jewish exponents of the Kabbalah were the Italian count Pico di Mirandola (1463-1494), the renowned Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522), Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim (1487-1535), Theophrastus Paracelsus (1493-1541), and, later, the Englishman Robert Fludd (1574-1637). Prominent among the "nine hundred theses" which Mirandola had placarded in Rome, and which he undertook to defend in the presence of all European scholars, whom he invited to the Eternal City, promising to defray their travelling expenses, was the following: "No science yields greater proof of the divinity of Christ than magic and the Kabbalah." Mirandola so convinced Pope Sixtus of the paramount importance of the Kabbalah as an auxiliary to Christianity that his holiness exerted himself to have Kabbalistic writings translated into Latin for the use of divinity students. With equal zeal did Reuchlin act as the apostle of the Kabbalah. His treatises exercised an almost magic influence upon the greatest thinkers of the time. Pope Leo X. and the early Reformers were alike captivated by the charms of the Kabbalah as propounded by Reuchlin, and not only divines, but statesmen and warriors, began to study the Oriental languages in order to be able to fathom the mysteries of Jewish theosophy. The _Zohar_, that farrago of absurdity and spiritual devotion, was the weapon with which these Christians defended Jewish literature against hostile ecclesiastic bodies (Abrahams, _Jew. Lit._ p. 106). Thus the Kabbalah linked the old scholasticism with the new and independent inquiries in learning and philosophy after the Renaissance, and although it had evolved a remarkably bizarre conception of the universe, it partly anticipated, in its own way, the scientific study of natural philosophy.[11] Jewish theosophy, then, with its good and evil tendencies, and with its varied results, may thus claim to have played no unimportant part in the history of European scholarship and thought.

The main sources to be noticed are:--

Main Sources.

1. The _Sepher Yesirah_, or "book of creation," not the old Hilkoth Y. ("rules of creation"), which belongs to the Talmudic period (on which see Kohler, _Jew. Ency._ xii. 602 seq.), but a later treatise, a combination of medieval natural philosophy and mysticism. It has been variously ascribed to the patriarch Abraham and to the illustrious rabbi 'Aqiba; its essential elements, however, maybe of the 3rd or 4th century A.D., and it is apparently earlier than the 9th (see L. Ginzberg, _op. cit._ 603 sqq.). It has "had a greater influence on the development of the Jewish mind than almost any other book after the completion of the Talmud" (ibid.).

2. The _Bahir_ ("brilliant," Job. xxxvii. 21), though ascribed to Nehunyah b. Haqqanah (1st century A.D.), is first quoted by Nahmanides, and is now attributed to his teacher Ezra or Azriel (1160-1238). It shows the influence of the _Sepher Yesirah_, is marked by the teaching of a celestial Trinity, is a rough outline of what the _Zohar_ was destined to be, and gave the first opening to a thorough study of metaphysics among the Jews. (See further 1. Broyde, _Jew. Ency._ ii. 442 seq.).

3. The _Zohar_ ("shining," Dan. xii. 3) is a commentary on the Pentateuch, according to its division into fifty-two hebdomadal lessons. It begins with the exposition of Gen. i. 4 ("let there be light") and includes eleven dissertations: (1) "Additions and Supplements"; (2) "The Mansions and Abodes," describing the structure of paradise and hell; (3) "The Mysteries of the Pentateuch," describing the evolution of the Sephiroth, &c.; (4) "The Hidden Interpretation," deducing esoteric doctrine from the narratives in the Pentateuch; (5) "The Faithful Shepherd," recording discussions between Moses the faithful shepherd, the prophet Elijah and R. Simon b. Yohai, the reputed compiler of the _Zohar_; (6) "The Secret of Secrets," a treatise on physiognomy and psychology; (7) "The Aged," i.e. the prophet Elijah, discoursing with R. Simon on the doctrine of transmigration as evolved from Exod. xxi. 1-xxiv. 18; (8) "The Book of Secrets," discourses on cosmogony and demonology; (9) "The Great Assembly," discourses of R. Simon to his numerous assembly of disciples on the form of the Deity and on pneumatology; (10) "The Young Man," discourses by young men of superhuman origin on the mysteries of ablutions; and (11) "The Small Assembly," containing the discourses on the Sephiroth which R. Simon delivered to the small congregation of six surviving disciples. The _Zohar_ pretends to be a compilation made by Simon b. Yohai (the second century A.D.) of doctrines which God communicated to Adam in Paradise, and which have been received uninterruptedly from the mouths of the patriarchs and prophets. It was discovered, so the story went, in a cavern in Galilee where it had been hidden for a thousand years. Amongst the many facts, however, established by modern criticism which prove the _Zohar_ to be a compilation of the 13th century, are the following: (1) the _Zohar_ itself praises most fulsomely R. Simon, its reputed author, and exalts him above Moses; (2) it mystically explains the Hebrew vowel points, which did not obtain till 570; (3) the compiler borrows two verses from the celebrated hymn called "The Royal Diadem," written by Ibn Gabirol, who was born about 1021; (4) it mentions the capture of Jerusalem by the crusaders and the re-taking of the Holy City by the Saracens; (5) it speaks of the comet which appeared at Rome, 15th July 1264, under the pontificate of Urban IV.; (6) by a slip the _Zohar_ assigns a reason why its contents were not revealed before 5060-5066 A.M., i.e. 1300-1306 A.D., (7) the doctrine of the En Soph and the Sephiroth was not known before the 13th century; and (8) the very existence of the _Zohar_ itself was not known prior to the 13th century. Hence it is now believed that Moses de Leon (d. 1305), who first circulated and sold the _Zohar_ as the production of R. Simon, was himself the author or compiler. That eminent scholars both in the synagogue and in the church should have been induced to believe in its antiquity is owing to the fact that the _Zohar_ embodies many older opinions and doctrines, and the undoubted antiquity of some of them has served as a lever in the minds of these scholars to raise the late speculations about the En Soph, the Sephiroth, &c., to the same age.

LITERATURE.--The study of the whole subject being wrapped up with Gnosticism and Oriental theosophy, the related literature is immense. Among the more important works may be mentioned, Baron von Rosenroth's _Kabbala Denudata_ (Sulzbach, 1677-1678; Frankfort, 1684); A. Franck, _La Kabbale_ (Paris, 2nd ed., 1889; German by Jellinek, Leipzig, 1844); C. D. Ginsburg, _The Kabbalah, its Doctrines, Development and Literature_ (London, 1865); I. Meyer, _Qabbalah_ (Philadelphia, 1888); Rubin, _Kabbala und Agada_ (Vienna, 1895), _Heidentum und Kabbalah_ (1893); Karppe, _Et. sur les origines du Zohar_ (Paris, 1891); A. E. Waite, _Doctrine and Literature of the Kabbalah_ (London, 1902); Flugel, _Philosophy, Kabbala, &c._ (Baltimore, 1902); D. Neumark, _Gesch. d. Jud. Philosophie d. Mittelalters_ (Berlin, 1907); also S. A. Binion, in C. D. Warner's _World's Best Literature_, 8425 sqq. See further the very full articles in the _Jewish Ency._ by K. Kohler and L. Ginzberg ("Cabbala"), I. Broyde ("Bahir," "Zohar"), with the references. (C. D. G.; S. A. C.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] C. Taylor, _Sayings of the Jewish Fathers_ (1897), pp. 106 sqq., 175 seq.; W. Bacher, _Jew. Quart. Rev._ xx. 572 sqq. (1908).

[2] On the _Zohar_, "the Bible of the Kabbalists," see below.

[3] The view of a mediate creation, in the place of immediate creation out of nothing, and that the mediate beings were emanations, was much influenced by Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021-1070).

[4] See F. Weber, _Judische Theologie_ (1897), pp. 118 sqq.

[5] See C. A. Briggs, _Study of Holy Scripture_ (1899), pp. 427 sqq., 570.

[6] Even the "over-Soul" of the mystic Isaac Luria (1534-1572) is a conception known in the 3rd century A.D. (Rabbi Resh Lakish). For the early stages of Kabbalistic theories, see K. Kohler, _Jew. Ency._ iii. 457 seq., and L. Ginzberg, ibid. 459 seq.; and for examples of the relationship between old Oriental (especially Babylonian) and Jewish Kabbalistic teaching (early and late), see especially A. Jeremias, _Babylonisches in N. Test._ (Leipzig, 1905); E. Bischoff, _Bab. Astrales im Weltbilde des Thalmud u. Midrasch_ (1907).

[7] L. Ginzberg, _Jew. Ency._ iii. 465.

[8] See, especially, on the mystics of Safed in Upper Galilee, S. Schechter, _Studies_ (1908), pp. 202-285.

[9] See the instructive article by S. Schechter, _Studies in Judaism_ (London, 1896), pp. 1-55.

[10] See the discriminating estimates by S. A. Hirsch, _Jew. Quart. Rev._ xx. 50-73; I. Abrahams, _Jew. Lit._ (1906), ch. xvii.: _Judaism_ (1907), ch. vi.

[11] See, e.g., G. Margoliouth, "The Doctrine of Ether in the Kabbalah," _Jew. Quart. Rev._ xx. 828 sqq. On the influence of the Kabbalah on the Reformation, see Stockl, _Gesch. d. Philosophie des Mittelalters_, ii. 232-251.

KABINDA, a Portuguese possession on the west coast of Africa north of the mouth of the Congo. Westwards it borders the Atlantic, N. and N.E. French Congo, S. and S.E. Belgian Congo. It has a coast-line of 93 m., extends inland, at its greatest breadth, 70 m., and has an area of about 3000 sq. m. In its physical features, flora, fauna and inhabitants, it resembles the coast region of French Congo (q.v.). The only considerable river is the Chiloango, which in part forms the boundary between Portuguese and Belgian territory, and in its lower course divides Kabinda into two fairly even portions. The mouth of the river is in 5 deg. 12' S., 12 deg. 5' E. The chief town, named Kabinda, is a seaport on the right bank of the small river Bele, in 5 deg. 33' S., 12 deg. 10' E.; pop. about 10,000. From the beauty of its situation, and the fertility of the adjacent country, it has been called the paradise of the coast. The harbour is sheltered and commodious, with anchorage in four fathoms. Kabinda was formerly a noted slave mart. Farther north are the ports of Landana and Massabi. Between Kabinda and Landana is Molembo at the head of a small bay of the same name. There is a considerable trade in palm oil, ground nuts and other jungle produce, largely in the hands of British and German firms.

The possession of the enclave of Kabinda by Portugal is a result of the efforts made by that nation during the last quarter of the 19th century to obtain sovereignty over both banks of the lower Congo. Whilst Portugal succeeded in obtaining the southern bank of the river to the limit of navigability from the sea, the northern bank became part of the Congo Free State (see AFRICA, S 5). Portuguese claims to the north of the river were, however, to some extent met by the recognition of her right to Kabinda. The southernmost part of Kabinda is 25 m. (following the coast-line) north of the mouth of the Congo. This district as far north as the Chiloango river (and including the adjacent territory of Belgian Congo) is sometimes spoken of as Kacongo. The name Loango (q.v.) was also applied to this region as well as to the coast-lands immediately to the north. Administratively Kabinda forms a division of the Congo district of the province of Angola (q.v.). The inhabitants are Bantu negroes who are called Kabindas. They are an intelligent, energetic and enterprising people, daring sailors and active traders.

KABIR, the most notable of the Vaishnava reformers of religion in northern India, who flourished during the first half of the 15th century. He is counted as one of the twelve disciples of Ramanand, the great preacher in the north (about A.D. 1400) of the doctrine of _bhakti_ addressed to Rama, which originated with Ramanuja (12th century) in southern India. He himself also mentions among his spiritual forerunners Jaideo and Namdeo (or Nama) the earliest Marathi poet (both about 1250). Legend relates that Kabir was the son of a Brahman widow, by whom he was exposed, and was found on a lotus in Lahar Talao, a pond near Benares, by a Musalman weaver named 'Ali (or Nuri), who with his wife Nima adopted him and brought him up in their craft as a Musalman. He lived most of his life at Benares, and afterwards removed to Maghar (or Magahar), in the present district of Basti, where he is said to have died in 1449. There appears to be no reason to doubt that he was originally a Musalman and a weaver; his own name and that of his son Kamal are Mahommedan, not Hindu. His adhesion to the doctrine of Ramanand is not a solitary instance of the religious syncretism which prevailed at this time in northern India. The religion of the earlier Sikh _Gurus_, which was largely based upon his teaching, also aimed at the fusion of Hinduism and Islam; and the example of Malik Muhammad,[1] the author of the Padmawat, who lived a century later than Kabir, shows that the relations between the two creeds were in some cases extremely intimate. It is related that at Kabir's death the Hindus and Musalmans each claimed him as an adherent of their faith, and that when his funeral issued forth from his house at Maghar the contention was only assuaged by the appearance of Kabir himself, who bade them look under the cloth which covered the corpse, and immediately vanished. On raising the cloth they found nothing but a heap of flowers. This was divided between the rival faiths, half being buried by the Musalmans and the other half burned by the Hindus.[2]

Kabir's fame as a preacher of _bhakti_, or enthusiastic devotion to a personal God, whom he preferred to call by the Hindu names of Rama and Hari, is greater than that of any other of the Vaishnava spiritual leaders. His fervent conviction of the truth and power of his doctrine, and the homely and searching expression given to it in his utterances, in the tongue of the people and not in a learned language remote from their understanding, won for him multitudes of adherents; and his sect, the _Kabirpanthis_, is still one of the most numerous in northern India, its numbers exceeding a million. Its headquarters are the _Kabir Chaura_ at Benares, where are preserved the works attributed to Kabir (called the _Granth_), the greater part of which, however, were written by his immediate disciples and their followers in his name.

Those works which seem to have the best claim to be considered his own compositions are the _Sakhis_, or stanzas, some 5000 in number, which have a very wide currency even among those who do not formally belong to the sect, and the _Shabdawali_, consisting of a thousand "words" (_shabd_), or short doctrinal expositions. Perhaps some of the _Rekhtas_, or odes (100 in number), and of the _Ramainis_--brief mystical poems in very obscure language--may also be from his hand. Of these different forms specimens will be found translated in Professor H. H. Wilson's _Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus_, i. 79-90. Besides the followers who call themselves by Kabir's name, there may be reckoned to him many other religious sects which bear that of some intermediate _guru_ or master, but substantially concur with Kabir in doctrine and practice. Such, for instance, are the _Nanakshahis_ in the United Provinces, the Central Provinces, and Bombay, and the _Dadu-panthis_, numerous in Rajputana (Wilson, _loc. cit._ pp. 103 sqq.); the Sikhs, numbering two and a half millions in the Panjab, are also his spiritual descendants, and their _Granth_ or Scripture is largely stocked with texts drawn from his works.

Kabir taught the life of _bhakti_ (faith, or personal love and devotion), the object of which is a _personal_ God, and not a philosophical abstraction or an impersonal quality-less, all-pervading spiritual substance (as in the Vedanta of Sankaracharya). His utterances do not, like those of Tulsi Das, dwell upon the incidents of the human life of Rama, whom he takes as his type of the Supreme; nevertheless, it is the essence of his creed that God became incarnate to bring salvation to His children, mankind, and that the human mind of this incarnation still subsists in the Divine Person. He proclaims the unity of the Godhead, the vanity of idols, the powerlessness of _brahmans_ or _mullas_ to guide or help, and the divine origin of the human soul, _divinae particula aurae_. All evil in the world is ascribed to _Maya_, illusion or falsehood, and truth in thought, word and deed is enjoined as the chief duty of man: "No act of devotion can equal truth; no crime is so heinous as falsehood; in the heart where truth abides there is My abode."[3] The distinctions of creeds are declared to be of no importance in the presence of God: "The city of _Hara_[4] is to the east, that of '_Ali_[5] is to the west; but explore your own heart, for there are both _Rama_ and _Karim_;"[6] "Behold but One in all things: it is the second that leads you astray. Every man and woman that has ever been born is of the same nature as yourself. _He_, whose is the world, and whose are the children of '_Ali_ and _Rama_, He is my _Guru_, He is my _Pir_." He proclaims the universal brotherhood of man, and the duty of kindness to all living creatures. Life is the gift of God, and must not be violated; the shedding of blood, whether of man or animals, is a heinous crime. The followers of Kabir do not observe celibacy, and live quiet unostentatious lives; Wilson (p. 97) compares them to Quakers for their hatred of violence and unobtrusive piety.