Kabbalism, Of The Religious Philosophy Of The Hebrews.

after listening to the serpent , or sensuality ; Abel , the spirit which despised the body entirely , and yields through its ignorance of the world ; Abraham , Divine knowledge ; Hagar , human knowledge ; Sarah , virtue ; Isaac , the regeneration of primitive perfection ; Jacob , ascetic virtue ; Thamar , faith , for she united herself to Judah without removing her veil . * Our readers will remember a similar interpretation of this latter in Mr . rTeale ' s Text Pmblems .

The Mercavah , or Chariot of Ezekiel is the grand subject of Kabbalistic inquiry , it contains the greatest mysteries , the mystery of mysteries ; it was written upon , studied , and meditated on by all the great doctors . Some of the writings of the Spanish Jews have come down to us , but far the greatest amount of mystical exposition has perishedfrom the

super-, stitious reverence which forbade committing such Divine knowledge to paper , lest it should fall into the hands of unfit persons . It was forbidden for any one under the age of forty to study it ; if unprepared by discipline the very reading of it was dangerous ; a story is told of a young student who commenced

to read the prophecies of Ezekiel , with the intention of explaining the vision ; he was , however , fatally interrupted by a supernatural fire which consumed him at once . A certain rabbi walking with R . Jaehanan , asked permission to speak of the Mercavah ; the latter immediately got off his ass and sat under a

tree , not venturing to listen to such awful mysteries while seated on an ass . When the latter spoke , a divine light descended from heaven , and the trees immediately began to chant Psalm cxlviii . Eb less has this vision been a grand subject with Christian Kabbalists , who have found in it—on equally sound

princip les of interpretation—the doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation . It is more than probable that Kabbalism had its arcana , which were never committed to writing , but were taught to the initiated ; what we possess is the shell or covering , under which lay the hidden mystery , orally explained by the professor to those worthy oi being instructed into its secrets ; perhaps this initiation into the mysteries of the Kabbala was , like all

other ancient , and some modern , mysteries , accompanied by an oath not to divulge its secrets . Thus , much of the language of the Kabbalists , many of their expressions , still more their explanations and interpretations of Scripture , appear to us absurd and extravagant ; they were , however , but the parable , theallegorical picturewhich symbolisedas well as

con-, , cealed , the esoteric meaning : until we know what the meaning is , we have no right to ridicule the fantastic dress , the "rough garment , " "the ashes , " ' which concealed the prophet's face . Another part of Kabbalistic interpretation , wasthat supplied by letters and numbers ; later

Kabbalists added another , that by the stars , which they called the " Alphabet of Heaven ; " we shall touch but slightly on this . In the first place , each letterwas supposed to have relations with the Sephiroth ; for instance , X indicated the unapproachable light where dwelt the Deity , and had reference to the first

Sephiroth , the crown . In its form it is composed of a Yav between two Jod—the Vav is the intelligence engendered by wisdom ¦ . the upper Jod is knowledge ever looking upward ; the under Jod is understandingproduced by intelligence . Transposing the word aleph ( which signifies an ox ) , we have pala , which means to conceal . Thus we are led to conceive of the unfathomable abyss of the wisdom of God . As s is

male , so 3 is female ; the two arms of the latter embrace her husband . Again , Beth signifies a house , so" Wisdom hath builded her house ; " wisdom beingthe second Sephirah . Again , Beth opens her two arms to receive the Holy Spirit . Applying the whole description of "wisdom" in Proverbs viii . to thesecond Sephirah ( as the Pathers did to Christ ) , they

make out that it was by the instrumentality of this-Sephirali especially that God created the world . Por this reason , the account of the creation commences with 2 , in the word Bereshith . We need not follow this further . Again , each letter is a numeral ; each word , by adding the numerical value of each letter ,

has a certain value which may be represented by the sum total of the letters , but in sum total equalling the first , these two words were in some way equivalent to each other , and might in any case be substituted for each other , and thus a wholly new meaninggiven to a sentence : this was especially true of

propernames : by both these means , endless mysteries were found in the different names of God , especially in the-Tetragrammaton . As might be expected , the Kabbalists used amulets and talismans in various forms , and under various circumstances . The names of God , written on parchments , strung round the neck , were specifics against fevers and diseases . The word Shivariri , written as below , was a cure for affections in the eyes : —

H' -Ot ? Hnn HH H » H The orig in of this is curious . Where it is said , Gen . xix . 11 that the angels smote the men of Sodom

, with Wwufam , the Chaldee paraphase reads BesMvariri . This Avas thought to be the name of a demon who blinded people ; so this name , used as a charm , would drive away the demon . Portions of the Psalms , written in peculiar forms , were used as talismans ; so were the seventy-two names of God , and the blessing