Misplaced Pages

#498501

83-510: Hermetic Qabalah arose from Christian Cabala , which itself was derived from Jewish Kabbalah , during the European Renaissance , becoming variously Esoteric Christian , non-Christian, or anti-Christian across its different schools in the modern era. It draws on a great many influences, most notably: Jewish Kabbalah , Western astrology , Alchemy , Pagan religions, especially Egyptian and Greco-Roman, Neoplatonism , Hermeticism , and

166-671: A "concentration" of Ain , is Ain Suph ( אין סוף "without limit, infinite"); the third state, caused by a "movement" of Ain Suph , is Ain Suph Aur ( אין סוף אור "limitless light"), and it is from this initial brilliance that the first emanation of creation originates. The emanations of creation arising from Ain Suph Aur are ten in number, and are called Sephiroth ( סְפִירוֹת , singular Sephirah סְפִירָה , "enumeration"). These are conceptualised somewhat differently in Hermetic Qabalah to

249-495: A German magician, occult writer, theologian, astrologer, and alchemist, wrote the influential Three Books of Occult Philosophy , incorporating Kabbalah in its theory and practice of Western magic. It contributed strongly to the Renaissance view of ritual magic's relationship with Christianity. Pico's Hermetic syncretism was further developed by Athanasius Kircher , a Jesuit priest, hermeticist and polymath, who wrote extensively on

332-418: A distinct perspective on esoteric interpretation, contributing to a deeper understanding of Thelemic texts and practices. Lon Milo DuQuette has praised the system for its innovative approach. Christian Kabbalah Christian Kabbalah arose during the Renaissance due to Christian scholars' interest in the mysticism of Jewish Kabbalah , which they interpreted according to Christian theology . It

415-510: A friend and protegé late in his career, Cynthia Ozick merits mention among those in Scholem's inner-circle. His late-career relationships with Allen Ginsberg , Harold Bloom , and George Steiner were also significant (though his relationship with Steiner was, characteristically, somewhat combative). Scholem was also friendly with the author Shai Agnon and the Talmudic scholar Saul Lieberman . As

498-590: A historical continuity of development from early Jewish mysticism. In contrast, some Hermeticists see the origins of Qabalah in a western tradition originating in classical Greece with Indo-European cultural roots, later adopted by Jewish mystics. Jewish Kabbalah was absorbed into the Hermetic tradition at least as early as the 15th century when Giovanni Pico della Mirandola promoted a syncretic worldview combining Platonism , Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism , Hermeticism and Kabbalah. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535),

581-884: A lifelong friendship that ended when Benjamin committed suicide in 1940 in the wake of Nazi persecution. Scholem dedicated his book Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism ( Die jüdische Mystik in ihren Hauptströmungen ), based on lectures 1938–1940, to Benjamin. In 1915 Scholem enrolled at the Frederick William University in Berlin (today, Humboldt University ), where he studied mathematics, philosophy, and Hebrew. There he met Martin Buber , Shmuel Yosef Agnon , Hayim Nahman Bialik , Ahad Ha'am , and Zalman Shazar . In Berlin, Scholem befriended Leo Strauss and corresponded with him throughout his life. He studied mathematical logic at

664-697: A major, unofficial but widely acknowledged figurehead of mystical, historical and theological currents within both Reform and (much more controversially) Conservative Judaism after World War II and the Destruction of the European Jewry in the Holocaust, Scholem's stature within Jewish tradition is roughly comparable to the role played before the First World War and during the interwar period by Martin Buber . In

747-528: A religious basis; however, the main interest in Christian Kabbalah was by then dead. A few attempts have been made to revive it in recent decades, particularly regarding the alleged Neoplatonism of the first two chapters of the Gospel of John , but it has not entered into mainstream Christianity. The Franciscan friar Ramon Llull (c. 1232–1316) was "the first Christian to acknowledge and appreciate kabbalah as

830-828: A system of arithmancy created by James Lees in 1976. It assigns numerical values to the English alphabet to interpret esoteric texts, particularly The Book of the Law . Initially overlooked, the system gained recognition through Cath Thompson's publications, which detailed its methods and applications. EQ provides an alternative to traditional Hebrew and Hermetic Qabalah, emphasizing the linguistic and numerical properties of English. Various Thelemic practitioners use English Qaballa in rituals and textual analysis, exploring its unique insights into Crowley's work. Ongoing research continues to expand its applications within modern occult practices, demonstrating its adaptability and relevance. This system offers

913-454: A tool of conversion", although he was "not a Kabbalist, nor was he versed in any particular Kabbalistic approach". Not interested in the possibilities of scholarly Jewish influence, which began later in the Renaissance, his reading of new interpretations of Kabbalah was solely for the sake of theological debate with religious Jews; i.e., proselytizing. An early expression of Christian Kabbalah

SECTION 10

#1732852825499

996-531: Is a good illustration of the wider Hermetic approach. It is a set of tables of correspondences relating various parts of ceremonial magic and Eastern and Western religion to the thirty-two numbers representing the ten spheres (Sephiroth) plus the twenty-two paths of the Qabalistic Tree of Life. The panentheistic nature of Hermetic Qabalists is plainly evident here, as one may simply check the table to see that Chesed (חסד "Mercy") corresponds to Jupiter , Isis ,

1079-555: Is also known as the pentagrammaton. It is an attempt by Christian theologians to read the name of the Christian deity into The unpronounced name of the Jewish God. The first of Reuchlin's two books on Kabbalah, De verbo mirifico , "speaks of the […] name of Jesus derived from the tetragrammaton". His second book, De arte cabalistica , is "a broader, more informed excursion into various kabbalistic concerns". Francesco Giorgi , (1467–1540)

1162-697: Is based on one of the Holy Books of Thelema written by Aleister Crowley in 1907, called Liber Trigrammaton, sub figura XXVII -- Being the Book of the Mutations of the Tao with the Yin and the Yang . Liber Trigrammaton (aka Liber XXVII ) was called by Crowley "the ultimate foundation of the highest theoretical qabalah". Correspondences are created with some of the major forms of divination such as

1245-448: Is considered to be an emanation of the divine energy (often described as 'the divine light') which ever flows from the unmanifest, through Kether into manifestation. This flow of light is indicated by the lightning flash shown on diagrams of the sephirotic tree which passes through each sephirah in turn according to their enumerations. Each sephirah is a nexus of divine energy, and each has a number of attributions. These attributions enable

1328-506: Is often transliterated as Cabala (also Cabbala ) to distinguish it from the Jewish form and from Hermetic Qabalah . The movement was influenced by a desire to interpret aspects of Christianity even more mystically than contemporary Christian mystics . Greek Neoplatonic documents came into Europe after Constantinople fell to Mehmed II . Neoplatonism had been prevalent in Christian Europe and had entered into Scholasticism since

1411-470: Is seen in classical monotheism. Hermetic Qabalah adheres to the Neoplatonic conception that the manifest universe, of which material creation is a part, arose as a series of "emanations" from the "godhead". These emanations arise out of three preliminary states that are considered to precede manifestation. The first is a state of complete nullity, known as Ain ( אין "nothing"); the second state, considered

1494-912: The Bahir , its exegesis in the Pardes and the Zohar to its cosmogonic, apocalyptic climax in Isaac Luria's Ein Sof that is known collectively as Kabbalah . After generations of demoralization and assimilation in the European enlightenment, the disappointment of messianic hopes, the famine of 1916 in Palestine, and the catastrophe of the Final Solution in Europe Scholem gathered and reassembled these sacred texts from many of

1577-562: The I Ching , Tarot and runes , as well as Greek and Hebrew alphabets , the Tree of Life , Western and Vedic astrology , magic squares , and the Platonic solids . A primary feature of this qabalah is a new understanding of the Cube of Space and its 26 components of edges, faces, and vertices, which equal the number of letters in the English alphabet. English Qaballa (EQ) is a Qabalah supported by

1660-733: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ), who went on to found the Fraternity of the Inner Light wrote The Mystical Qabalah , considered by her biographers to be one of the best general introductions to modern Hermetic Qabalah. After the dissolution of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Crowley integrated Hermetic Qabalah into his new religious philosophy, Thelema . Crowley's works, such as Magick , 777 , and The Book of Thoth emphasize

1743-532: The Kabbalah , Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew University of Jerusalem . Scholem is acknowledged as the single most significant figure in the recovery, collection, annotation, and registration into rigorous Jewish scholarship of the canonical bibliography of mysticism and scriptural commentary that runs through its primordial phase in the Sefer Yetzirah , its inauguration in

SECTION 20

#1732852825499

1826-783: The Kabbalah , there are ten archangels , each commanding one of the choirs of angels and corresponding to one of the Sephirot . It is similar to the Jewish angelic hierarchy . Both Jewish tradition and mainstream academic scholarship understand Kabbalah to have originated within Judaism, developing concepts and ideas from earlier Medieval Jewish neoplatonism. In the mid-twentieth century, Gershom Scholem hypothesized that Medieval Kabbalah had its roots in an earlier Jewish version of Gnosticism ; however, contemporary scholarship of Jewish mysticism has largely rejected this idea. Moshe Idel instead has posited

1909-605: The Sanhedria Cemetery . Jürgen Habermas delivered the eulogy. Scholem became a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He taught the Kabbalah and mysticism from a scientific point of view and became the first professor of Jewish mysticism at the university in 1933, working in this post until his retirement in 1965, when he became an emeritus professor. Scholem directly contrasted his historiographical approach on

1992-679: The University of Jena under Gottlob Frege . He was in Bern in 1918 with Benjamin when he met Elsa (Escha) Burchhard, who became his first wife. Scholem returned to Germany in 1919, where he received a degree in Semitic languages at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich . Together with Benjamin he established a fictitious school – the University of Muri. Scholem wrote his doctoral thesis on

2075-449: The "finest writings..." from the major currents of Jewish mysticism could only be found in long block quotations in antisemitic texts, where some "nincompoop who had quoted and translated the most wonderful, the most profound things," had assembled them "in order to decry them as blasphemies." (This was a strong, somewhat exaggerated statement for expressive effect that Scholem attributes to Ernst Bloch in his memoirs—but there he co-signs

2158-534: The 17th century messianic movement, known as Sabbateanism , was developed from the Lurianic Kabbalah . In order to neutralize Sabbateanism, Hasidism had emerged as a Hegelian synthesis . Many of those who joined the Hasidic movement, because they had seen in it an Orthodox congregation, considered it scandalous that their community should be associated with a heretical movement. In the same way, Scholem produced

2241-507: The 22 Hebrew letters and the 22 paths of the Tree; the ace to ten in each suit correspond to the ten Sephiroth in the four Qabalistic worlds; and the sixteen court cards relate to the classical elements in the four worlds. While the sephiroth describe the nature of divinity, the paths between them describe ways of knowing the Divine. According to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's interpretation of

2324-514: The Christian doctrine of the Trinity. This belief also drove him to make a literal translation of the Gospel of Matthew into Hebrew and to write a kabbalistic commentary on it. Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem ( Hebrew : גֵרְשׁׂם שָׁלוֹם ) (5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982) was a German-born Israeli philosopher and historian . Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of

2407-580: The Germans' collective sense of guilt. Various stories and essays of the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges were inspired or influenced by Scholem's books. He has also influenced ideas of Umberto Eco , Jacques Derrida , Harold Bloom , Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben , and George Steiner . American author Michael Chabon cites Scholem's essay, The Idea of the Golem , as having assisted him in conceiving

2490-551: The Hebrew letters to the Tarot cards, thus formulating a link between Western magic and Jewish esotericism which has remained fundamental ever since in Western magic. Levi had a deep impact on the magic of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn . Hermetic Qabalah was developed extensively by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , Within the Golden Dawn, the fusing of Qabalistic principles such as

2573-590: The Jewish diaspora) is incontrovertible, his relationship to the manifest ethics of Zionism was more ambiguous and critical than Buber's. After his emigration from Berlin to Palestine, Scholem became a librarian, heading the Department of Hebrew and Judaica at the National Library. In 1927 he revamped the Dewey Decimal System , making it appropriate for large Judaica collections. Scholem's brother Werner

Hermetic Qabalah - Misplaced Pages Continue

2656-505: The Jews to compel their conversion – starting with Ramon Llull ", whom Harvey J. Hames called "the first Christian to acknowledge and appreciate kabbalah as a tool of conversion", though Llull was not a Kabbalist himself nor versed in Kabbalah. Later Christian Kabbalah is mostly based on Pico della Mirandola, Johann Reuchlin and Paolo Riccio. After the 18th century, Kabbalah became blended with European occultism, some of which had

2739-506: The Kabbalah in his discourse The Garden of Cyrus and encyclopaedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica which was translated into German by the Hebrew scholar and promoter of the Kabbalah, Christian Knorr von Rosenroth . Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, (1636–1689), became well known as a translator, annotator, and editor of Kabbalistic texts; he published the two-volume Kabbala denudata ('Kabbalah Unveiled' 1677–78), "which virtually alone represented authentic (Jewish) kabbalah to Christian Europe until

2822-625: The National Library in Jerusalem. Gerhard (Gershom) Scholem was born in Berlin to Arthur Scholem and Betty Hirsch Scholem. His father was a printer. His older brother was the German Communist leader Werner Scholem . He studied Hebrew and Talmud with an Orthodox rabbi. Scholem met Walter Benjamin in Munich in 1915, when the former was seventeen years old and the latter was twenty-three. They began

2905-557: The Qabalist to form a comprehension of each particular sephirah's characteristics. This manner of applying many attributions to each sephirah is an exemplar of the diverse nature of Hermetic Qabalah. For example, the sephirah Hod has the attributions of: Glory, perfect intelligence, the eights of the tarot deck, the planet Mercury, the Egyptian god Thoth, the archangel Michael, the Roman god Mercury and

2988-624: The Tree of Life and Sephiroth, utilizing Qabalistic principles to explore human consciousness and spiritual growth. Thelema's development continued through organizations like the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) and the A∴A∴ , which further embedded Hermetic Qabalah into their rituals and teachings, perpetuating its influence within modern esoteric practices. There are various systems of English gematria , sometimes referred to as English Qabalah, that are related to Hermetic Qabalah. These systems interpret

3071-585: The Yin, and a point for the Tao. By attributing 26 Roman script letters to the trigrams of this work, Crowley felt that he had fulfilled the injunction to "obtain the order & value of the English Alphabet", as noted in his 'Old Comment' to The Book of the Law . However, he also wrote that "The attribution in Liber Trigrammaton is good theoretically; but no Qabalah of merit has risen therefrom." Due to its cryptic nature, Liber Trigrammaton has been

3154-480: The aftermath of the Adolf Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, Scholem sharply criticised Hannah Arendt 's book, Eichmann in Jerusalem and decried her lack of solidarity with the Jewish people ( Hebrew : אהבת ישראל "love of one's fellow Jews", ʾahəvaṯ ʾiśrāʾēl ). Arendt responded that she never loved any collective group, and that she does not love the Jewish people but was only part of them. The bitter fight, which

3237-516: The alchemical element Mercury. The general principle involved is that the Qabalist will meditate on all these attributions and by this means acquire an understanding of the character of the sephirah including all its correspondences. Hermetic Qabalists see the cards of the tarot as keys to the Tree of Life. The 22 cards including the 21 Trumps plus the Fool or Zero card are often called the " Major Arcana " or "Greater Mysteries" and are seen as corresponding to

3320-448: The archives that had been disarranged, orphaned, confiscated under Nazi rule or otherwise washed up in Genizah cataloging the flood of fragments and disordered, decontextualized manuscripts into an annotated and relatively organized sequence of texts available to scholars and seekers within the reception of this tradition. Many other Jewish scholars assisted in this process of recovery once it

3403-457: The colour blue (on the Queen Scale), Poseidon , Brahma , and amethyst . Many of the Golden Dawn's rituals were published by Crowley, some altered in various ways to align them with his own New Aeon magickal approach. Israel Regardie eventually compiled the more traditional forms of these rituals and published them in book form. Dion Fortune , an initiate of Alpha et Omega (an offshoot of

Hermetic Qabalah - Misplaced Pages Continue

3486-505: The elder figure). Though Scholem's relationships with Hannah Arendt , Theodor Adorno , Hans Jonas , and Ernst Bloch were more characteristically turbulent than those relationship just mentioned, the frequent citation of these figures in Scholem's published writings and private correspondence demonstrates that they were among his closest and most influential colleagues. Selected letters from his correspondence with thinkers, critics and philosophers have been published. Though appearing as

3569-452: The first to promote aspects of Kabbalah beyond exclusively Jewish circles was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) a student of Marsilio Ficino at his Florentine Academy. His syncretic world-view combined Platonism , Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism , Hermeticism and Kabbalah. Mirandola's work on Kabbalah was further developed by Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), a Jesuit priest, Hermeticist and polymath ; in 1652, Kircher wrote on

3652-463: The followers of Isaac Luria . However, he did not follow the teachings of these Jewish authorities but later used his learning to further Christian theological pursuits. Despite his claim to have spent six years in these travels, it appears that he only made several shorter trips. Walther himself did not author any significant works of Christian Kabbalah but maintained a voluminous manuscript collection of magical and kabbalistic works. His significance for

3735-510: The format for modern esoteric organisations. Post-Enlightenment Romanticism encouraged societal interest in occultism, of which Hermetic Qabalistic writing was a feature. Francis Barrett 's The Magus (1801) handbook of ceremonial magic gained little notice until it influenced the French magical enthusiast Eliphas Levi (1810–1875). Levi presented Qabalism as synonymous with both white and black magic . Levi's innovations included attributing

3818-529: The history of Christian Kabbalah is that his ideas and doctrines exercised a profound influence on the works of the German theosopher , Jakob Böhme , in particular Böhme's Forty Questions on the Soul (c.1621). The following century produced Athanasius Kircher, a German Jesuit priest, scholar and polymath. He wrote extensively on the subject in 1652, bringing further elements such as Orphism and Egyptian mythology to

3901-474: The hypothesis that the source of the 13th century Kabbalah was a Jewish gnosticism that preceded Christian gnosticism. The historiographical approach of Scholem also involved a linguistic theory. In contrast to Buber, Scholem believed in the power of the language to invoke supernatural phenomena. In contrast to Walter Benjamin , he put the Hebrew language in a privileged position with respect to other languages, as

3984-530: The latter's death in flight from the Gestapo in 1940. In addition to his Kabbalah scholarship, a significant portion of Scholem's working life postwar was spent recovering, editing and promoting the literary estate of his dead friend. Martin Buber was a patron, publisher and sponsor of the careers of both Scholem and his best friend Benjamin (despite Benjamin's frequent ingratitude and incorrigible blowing of deadlines and Scholem's occasionally scathing critiques of

4067-472: The letters of the Roman script or English alphabet via an assigned set of numeric values. In 1904, Aleister Crowley wrote out the text of the foundational document of his world-view, known as Liber AL vel Legis , The Book of the Law . In this text was the injunction found at verse II:55; "Thou shalt obtain the order & value of the English Alphabet, thou shalt find new symbols to attribute them unto" which

4150-507: The mid-nineteenth century". The Kabbala denudata contains Latin translations of, among others, sections of the Zohar , Pardes Rimmonim by Moses Cordovero , Sha’ar ha-Shamayim and Beit Elohim by Abraham Cohen de Herrera , Sefer ha-Gilgulim (a Lurianic tract attributed to Hayyim Vital ), with commentaries by Knorr von Rosenroth and Henry More; some later editions include a summary of Christian Kabbalah ( Adumbratio Kabbalæ Christianæ ) by F. M. van Helmont. Johan Kemper (1670–1716)

4233-478: The mix in his work, Oedipus Aegyptiacus . It was illustrated by Kircher's adaptation of the Tree of Life . Kircher's version of the Tree of Life is still used in Western Kabbalah. The physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605–82) is recognised as one of the few 17th century English scholars of the Kabbalah. Browne read Hebrew, owned a copy of Francesco Giorgio 's highly influential work of Christian Kabbalah De harmonia mundi totius (1525), and alluded to

SECTION 50

#1732852825499

4316-469: The modern reader must read Franz Kafka in order to enter into the frame of mind native to the Kaballah, and elsewhere remarked that, "among the peculiarities" Benjamin's writings was its "enormous suitability for canonization; I might almost say for quotation as a kind of Holy Writ." The notion of the three periods, with its interactions between rational and irrational elements in Judaism, led Scholem to put forward some controversial arguments. He thought that

4399-399: The name of the Rabbi in his canonical account of this visit, Scholem explains elsewhere that this scholar—once the Rabbi of Poznań —was Phillip Bloch. ) The analysis of Judaism carried out by the Wissenschaft school was flawed in two ways, according to Scholem: It studied Judaism as a dead object rather than as a living organism; and it did not consider the proper foundations of Judaism,

4482-436: The non-rational force that, in Scholem's view, made the religion a living thing. In Scholem's opinion, the mythical and mystical components were at least as important as the rational ones, and he thought that they, rather than the minutiae of Halakha , were the truly living core of Judaism. In particular, he disagreed with what he considered to be Martin Buber 's personalization of Kabbalistic concepts as well as what he argued

4565-405: The oldest known kabbalistic text, Sefer ha-Bahir . The following year it appeared in book form as "Das Buch Bahir", having been published by his father's publishing house. Drawn to Zionism and influenced by Buber, he immigrated in 1923 to the British Mandate of Palestine . It may be considered notable that though Scholem's allegiance to the Zionist cause (or the reclamation of Palestine by

4648-468: The only language capable of revealing the divine truth. His special regard for the spiritual potency of the Hebrew language was expressed in his 1926 letter to Franz Rosenzweig regarding his concerns over the "secularization" of Hebrew. Scholem considered the Kabbalists as interpreters of a pre-existent linguistic revelation. Scholem's closest peers included, most famously, Walter Benjamin and Leo Strauss . Though his relationship with Franz Rosenzweig

4731-422: The other seven "to the lower or earthly world". Alternatively, they "would make Kether the Creator (or the Spirit ), Hokhmah the Father , and Binah  – the supernal mother – Mary ", which placed her "on a divine level with God, something the orthodox churches have always refused to do". Christian Kabbalists sought to transform Kabbalah into "a dogmatic weapon to turn back against

4814-434: The period of the Torah in which God "revealed Himself to Moses through the four-lettered name of the Tetragrammaton " (יהוה), and the period of Christian spiritual rule of the earth which is known in Christianity as "the redemption." It was asserted that the five-letter name associated with this period is an altered version of the tetragrammaton with the additional letter shin (ש). This name, Yahshuah (יהשוה for 'Jesus'),

4897-458: The scattered dogmas of the Christian Cabala into an internally consistent system", based on Pico and Reuchlin and adding "to them through an original synthesis of kabbalistic and Christian sources". Balthasar Walther, (1558 – before 1630), was a Silesian physician. In 1598–1599, Walther undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to learn about the intricacies of the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism from groups in Safed and elsewhere, including amongst

4980-408: The sentiment and appropriates it as his own description of the state of affairs in other places.) Due to Scholem's efforts, and those of his students and colleagues, the confused and inscrutable condition of Kabbalistic bibliography and provenance would be significantly remedied after the end of the World Wars and the foundation of the modern state of Israel where Scholem worked as head librarian of

5063-618: The story of his early research "at the start of my path" in 1922 when he went to Berlin to visit "the only Jewish scholar scholar who had engaged in the study of Kabbalah in the previous generation." Gesturing at the rabbi's library of documents, manuscripts and autographs written by the authors of the Kabbalah, some of which had been inscribed in early modern or medieval centuries, Scholem remarked, "How wonderful it is, Herr Professor, that you have read and learned all this!" to which "...the elderly gentleman replied: 'What! And I also have to read all this nonsense?!" (Though he does not mention

SECTION 60

#1732852825499

5146-428: The study of Jewish mysticism with the approach of the 19th-century school of the Wissenschaft des Judentums ("Science of Judaism"), which sought to submit the study of Judaism to the discipline of subjects such as history , philology , and philosophy . According to Jeremy Adler, Scholem's thinking was "both recognizably Jewish and deeply German," and "changed the course of twentieth-century European thought." At

5229-433: The subject in Oedipus Aegyptiacus . Johann Reuchlin, a Catholic humanist (1455–1522), was "Pico's most important follower". His main sources for Kabbalah were Menahem Recanati ( Commentary on the Torah , Commentary on the Daily Prayers ) and Joseph Gikatilla ( Sha'are Orah , Ginnat 'Egoz ). Reuchlin argued that human history divides into three periods: a natural period in which God revealed Himself as Shaddai (שדי),

5312-421: The subject in 1652, bringing further elements such as Orphism and Egyptian mythology to the mix. Rosicrucianism and esoteric branches of Freemasonry , such as Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia , taught religious philosophies, Qabalah, and divine magic in progressive steps of initiation. Their esoteric teachings, and secret society structure of an outer body governed by a restricted inner level of adepts, laid

5395-486: The subject of various interpretations by Thelemic scholars and practitioners. It is often analyzed in conjunction with other works by Crowley and the broader context of Thelemic teachings. Its trigrams are sometimes correlated with the I Ching and other systems of divination and symbolism. The most developed interpretation, known as Trigrammaton Qabalah (TQ), was first published by R. Leo Gillis in 1996, and subsequently released as The Book of Mutations in 2002. This system

5478-418: The symbolism of the tarot. Hermetic Qabalah differs from the Jewish form in being a more syncretic system; however, it shares many concepts with Jewish Kabbalah. A primary concern of Hermetic Qabalah is the nature of divinity, its conception of which is quite markedly different from that presented in monotheistic religions; in particular there is not the strict separation between divinity and humankind which

5561-445: The ten Sephiroth with Greek and Egyptian deities was made more cohesive and was extended to encompass other systems such as the Enochian system of angelic magic of John Dee and certain Eastern (particularly Hindu and Buddhist) concepts, all within the structure of a Masonic or Rosicrucian style esoteric order. Aleister Crowley passed through the Golden Dawn before going on to form his own magical orders. Crowley's book Liber 777

5644-416: The three periods within a different frame of reference: there was the primordial inscription and enunciation of the Law in the Torah and the Talmud, the mystical reflections of the Kaballah, and the post-metaphysical phase of mystical writings represented by (for example) the writings of Franz Kafka or the critical mysticism of his friend and correspondent Walter Benjamin. Scholem often told his students that

5727-468: The time Scholem entered his field of study, Jewish mysticism was acknowledged as Judaism's weakest scholarly link by many of the scholars, publishers and cultural leaders of the Jewish community and gentile German scholars who sponsored Scholem's early career, including Martin Buber , Salman Schocken , Franz Rosenzweig , Robert Eisler , Philipp Bloch  [ de ] , Moses Marx, Clemens Baumker , Fritz Hommel and Walter Benjamin . Scholem told

5810-406: The translation of Greek and Hebrew texts in Spain in the 13th century. The Renaissance trend was a relatively short-lived phenomenon, ending by 1750. Christian scholars interpreted Kabbalistic ideas from "a distinctly Christian perspective, linking Jesus Christ, His atonement, and His resurrection to the Ten Sefirot " – the upper three Sephirot to the hypostases of the Trinity and

5893-432: The way they are in Jewish Kabbalah . From Ain Suph Aur crystallises Kether, the first sephirah of the Hermetic Qabalistic tree of life. From Kether emanate the rest of the sephirot in turn, viz. Kether (1), Chokhmah (2), Binah (3), Daath, Chesed (4), Geburah (5), Tiphareth (6), Netzach (7), Hod (8), Yesod (9), Malkuth (10). Daath is not assigned a number as it is considered part of Binah or a hidden sephirah. Each sephirah

5976-464: Was a Hebrew teacher, whose tenure at Uppsala University lasted from 1697 to 1716. He was Emanuel Swedenborg 's probable Hebrew tutor. Kemper, formerly known as Moses ben Aaron of Cracow, was a convert to Lutheranism from Judaism. During his time at Uppsala, he wrote his three-volume work on the Zohar entitled Matteh Mosche ('The Staff of Moses'). In it, he attempted to show that the Zohar contained

6059-439: Was a Venetian Franciscan friar and "has been considered a central figure in sixteenth-century Christian Kabbalah both by his contemporaries and by modern scholars". According to Giulio Busi, he was the most important Christian Kabbalist second to its founder Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. His, De harmonia mundi , was "a massive and curious book, all Hermetic, Platonic, Cabalistic, and Pinchian". Paolo Riccio (1506–1541) "unified

6142-449: Was a Zionist. I am astounded by her ability to pronounce upon movements in which she was once so deeply engaged, in terms of a distance measured in light years and from such sovereign heights." Differing perspectives on the appropriate penalty for Adolph Eichmann further illuminate differences between the two authors. Whereas Arendt felt that Eichmann should be executed, Scholem was opposed, fearing that his execution would serve to alleviate

6225-656: Was a member of the ultra-left "Fischer-Maslow Group" and the youngest ever member of the Reichstag , or Weimar Diet , representing the Communist Party of Germany . He was expelled from the party and later murdered by the Nazis during the Third Reich . Unlike his brother, Gershom was vehemently opposed to both Communism and Marxism . In 1936, he married his second wife, Fania Freud. Fania, who had been his student and could read Polish,

6308-581: Was among the Spanish conversos from Judaism, from the late 13th century to the Expulsion from Spain of 1492. These include Abner of Burgos and Pablo de Heredia. Heredia's Epistle of Secrets is "the first recognizable work of Christian Kabbalah", and was quoted by Pietro Galatino who influenced Athanasius Kircher . However, Heredia's Kabbalah consists of quotes from non-existent Kabbalistic works, and distorted or fake quotes from real Kabbalistic sources. Among

6391-608: Was an inadequate approach to Jewish history, Hebrew language, and the land of Israel . In the worldview of Scholem, the research of Jewish mysticism could not be separated from its historical context. Starting from something similar to the Gegengeschichte of Friedrich Nietzsche , he ended up including less normative aspects of Judaism in the public history. Specifically, Scholem in his scholarly writing that Jewish history could be divided into three periods: Elsewhere, in oral presentation or informal reflection, Scholem inflected

6474-416: Was exchanged in various articles, led to a rift between Scholem and Arendt though they remained mutually respectful thereafter and continued to work alongside one another on various projects, particularly in their work on the literary estate of Walter Benjamin. In an apparently wrathful moment, Scholem wrote to Hans Paeschke that he "knew Hannah Arendt when she was a socialist or half-communist and... when she

6557-519: Was helpful in his later research, particularly in regard to Jacob Frank . In 1946 Scholem was sent by the Hebrew University to search for Jewish books that had been plundered by the Nazis and help return them to their rightful owners. He spent much of the year in Germany and Central Europe as part of this project, known as "Otzrot HaGolah". Scholem died in Jerusalem , where he is buried next to his wife in

6640-430: Was of shorter duration, it was also a deeply influential one. Likewise, though Scholem was never directly introduced to Franz Kafka , he found out later in life that Kafka approved of his comments in a debate. Scholem and Benjamin's discussions of Kafka, spanning decades, played no small role in the elevation Kafka's literary and epistolary writings to canonical status in both secular and mystical literature as writing that

6723-481: Was prophetic or premonitory of the Holocaust while also having qualities of a kind of post-metaphysical kabbalah. It is a measure of the depth of Scholem's friendship with Benjamin that he wrote two memoirs at the end of his life: his own autobiography tends to be less read or frequently cited than his "Autobiography of a Friendship" recounting his lifelong relationship and work in partnership with Benjamin prior to

6806-404: Was understood by Crowley as referring to an English Qabalah yet to be developed or revealed. In one of the Holy Books of Thelema written by Aleister Crowley in 1907, called Liber Trigrammaton, sub figura XXVII -- Being the Book of the Mutations of the Tao with the Yin and the Yang , are 27 three-line diagrams known as 'trigrams', which are composed of a solid line for the Yang, a broken line for

6889-554: Was underway, but it is broadly recognized that Scholem initiated this process of textual and archival recovery and rebirth. As Scholem points out in his memoirs, the canon of sacred Jewish writings from the diaspora and the Middle Ages (re: " Kabbalah ") had fallen into such a state of disrepair and oblivion—fragmented and effaced by persecutions from without as well as contortions, conversions and schisms from within Judaism—that many of

#498501