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67-397: "Yetzirah" as in "formation" is as opposed to "Beriah" as in "creation": actually taking whatever matter that was created in "Beriah" and shaping it into the basic elements. On the Tree of Life diagram Yetzirah is associated with the sefirot Chesed , Gevurah , Tiferet , Netzach , Hod and Yesod . Together, these six sefirot are known as the Microprosopus (Zeir Anpin) also known as

134-565: A syncretic attempt to reconcile several distinct ideas. This heavily annotated version, self-termed Sefirotic System , introduced more innovations: abstract concepts, divine names, the 22 Hebrew letters for each path, and new astrological symbols. Between 1677 and 1684, Christian Knorr von Rosenroth published Kabbala denudata . The first volume concluded with an apparatus featuring five ilanot, or kabbalistic trees, representing various aspects of Lurianic cosmology. Four of these were based on ilanot that had been designed by Jewish kabbalists over

201-400: A Hebrew letter, owing to Kircher's syncretism. With the resurgence of occultism in the 19th century, many new versions appeared, but without major innovations. According to a Chabad source, the tree of life is to be interpreted in the following way: The tree represents a series of divine emanations of God's creation itself ex nihilo , the nature of revealed divinity, the human soul, and

268-501: A Latinist, he was chosen to accompany Frederick, the third son of the prince, to the University of Paris . Frederick was some years his junior, and was destined for an ecclesiastical career. This new connection did not last long, but it determined the course of Reuchlin's life. He now began to learn Greek , which had been taught in the French capital since 1470, and he also attached himself to

335-559: A change of government had opened the way for his return to Stuttgart, where his wife had remained all along. His friends had now again the upper hand and knew Reuchlin's value. In 1500, or perhaps in 1502, he was given a very high judicial office in the Swabian League , which he held until 1512, when he retired to a small estate near Stuttgart. For many years Reuchlin had been increasingly absorbed in Hebrew studies , which had for him more than

402-518: A commission met in Frankfurt to investigate the case. It condemned Hoogstraaten. But the final decision of Rome did not indemnify Reuchlin. The contest ended, however; public interest had grown cold, absorbed entirely by the Lutheran question, and Reuchlin had no reason to fear new attacks. When, in 1517, he received the theses propounded by Luther , he exclaimed, "Thanks be to God , at last, they have found

469-745: A different aspect of the Divine, as well as aspects of human consciousness and existence. These are, from top to bottom: An eleventh sefirah, Da'at , appears in some diagrams of the tree halfway between Keter (node 1) and Tiferet (node 6). The diagram is also used in Christian Kabbalah , Hermetic Qabalah , and Theosophy . The nodes are also associated with deities , angels , celestial bodies, moral values, single colors or combinations of them, and specific numbers . Paolo Riccio 's son, Jerome/Hieronymus, actively exchanged letters and shared his father's work with Reuchlin before publication. Thus, in

536-457: A gross libel ( Handspiegel wider und gegen die Juden ) declaring that Reuchlin had been bribed. Reuchlin defended himself in a pamphlet titled Augenspiegel (1511), which the theologians at the University of Cologne attempted to suppress. On 7 October 1512, they, along with the inquisitor Jacob van Hoogstraaten , obtained an imperial order confiscating the Augenspiegel . In 1513, Reuchlin

603-450: A jurist and expert in putting it into execution. Reuchlin evaded the demand, mainly because the mandate lacked certain formalities, but he could no longer remain neutral. The execution of Pfefferkorn's schemes led to difficulties and to a new appeal to Maximilian. In 1510, Reuchlin was appointed by Emperor Maximilian to a commission that was convened to review the matter. His answer is dated from Stuttgart, 6 October 1510; in it, he divides

670-592: A man who will give them so much to do that they will be compelled to let my old age end in peace." Heinrich Graetz and Francis Yates contended that this affair helped spark the Protestant Reformation . Although suspected of a leaning toward Protestantism, Reuchlin never left the Catholic Church . In 1518, he was appointed professor of Hebrew and Greek at Wittenberg, but instead sent his nephew Melanchthon . Luther's comment that justification by faith

737-622: A mere philological interest. He was interested in the reform of preaching as shown in his De Arte Predicandi (1503)—a book that became a sort of preacher's manual; but above all, as a scholar, he was eager that the Bible should be better known, and could not tie himself to the authority of the Vulgate . The key to the Hebraea veritas was the grammatical and exegetical tradition of the medieval rabbis , especially of David Kimhi , and when he mastered this, he

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804-516: A pattern resembling a tree. The list of sefirot with their usual translations in Hermetic Qabalah is: The 22 connecting paths on the Tree of Life represent the connections between the sephiroth. Each path is associated with a specific Hebrew letter, Tarot card, and a range of meanings and correspondences. Hermetic Qabalists see the cards of the tarot as keys to the Tree of Life. The 22 cards including

871-421: A plane of divine energy. This is why another correspondence for " Binah " is the idea of suffering because the "supernal" maternal energy gives birth to a world that is inherently excluded from that divine union. After " Binah ", the universe begins building the materials it will need to fulfill its evolution and it creates new combinations of those materials until it is so dense that, by the stage of " Malkuth ",

938-460: A satirical collection purporting to defend his accusers, but actually directed against them. No party could survive the ridicule that was poured on Reuchlin's opponents by this document. Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen did all they could to force Reuchlin's enemies to restitution of his material damages; they even threatened a feud against the Dominicans of Cologne and Spires. In 1520,

1005-501: A universe of multiple things. Kabbalists also do not envision time and space as preexisting and place them at the next three stages on the tree of life. First is " Keter ", which is thought of as the product of the contraction of "Ein Sof" into a singularity of infinite energy or limitless light. In the Kabbalah, it is the primordial energy out of which all things are created. The next stage

1072-452: Is " Chokmah " (or "wisdom" in English), which is considered to be a stage at which the infinitely hot and contracted singularity expanded forth into space and time. It is often thought of as pure dynamic energy of an infinite intensity forever propelled forth at a speed faster than light. Next comes " Binah " (or "understanding" in English), which is thought of as the primordial feminine energy,

1139-520: Is a diagram used in Rabbinical Judaism in kabbalah and other mystical traditions derived from it. It is usually referred to as the "kabbalistic tree of life" to distinguish it from the tree of life that appears alongside the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Genesis creation narrative and well as the archetypal tree of life found in many cultures. Simo Parpola asserted that

1206-468: Is invested with a mind, consciousness in the Kabbalah is thought of as the fruit of the physical world, through whom the original infinite energy can experience and express itself as a finite entity. After the energy of creation has condensed into matter, it is thought to reverse its course back up the tree until it is once again united with its true nature, Keter. Thus the Kabbalist seeks to know himself and

1273-464: Is not always pictured in reproductions of the tree of life, but is referred to universally as Ohr Ein Sof ( Hebrew : אֵין סוֹף אוֹר , romanized :  endless light ). To Kabbalists, it symbolizes that point beyond which our comprehension of the origins of being cannot go. It is considered to be an infinite nothingness out of which the first "thing", usually understood by Kabbalists to be something approximating "energy", exploded to create

1340-492: Is thought to express the nature of its sphere. The first three spheres, called the "supernal" spheres, are considered to be the primordial energies of the universe. The next stages of evolution on the tree of life are considered to exist beyond a space on the tree, called the "Abyss", between the "supernals" and the other spheres, because their levels of being are so distinct from each other that they appear to exist in two totally different realities. The "supernal" spheres exist on

1407-457: The Augenspiegel , and called on Reuchlin to recant. Meantime a formal process had begun at Mainz before the grand inquisitor. But Reuchlin managed to have the jurisdiction changed to the episcopal court of Speyer . The Reuchlin affair caused a wide rift in the church and eventually the case came before the papal court in Rome. Judgment was not finally given until July 1516; and then, though the decision

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1474-494: The De Verbo he ascribes to Pforzheim his inclination towards literature. Here he began his Latin studies in the monastery school, and, though in 1470 he was for a short time at Freiburg , that university seems to have taught him little. Reuchlin's career as a scholar appears to have turned almost on an accident; his fine voice gained him a place in the household of Charles I, Margrave of Baden , and soon, having some reputation as

1541-675: The Kabbala has no small affinity. Following Pico, he seemed to find in the Kabbala a profound theosophy that might be of the greatest service for the defence of Christianity and the reconciliation of science with the mysteries of faith, a common notion at that time. Reuchlin's mystico-cabalistic ideas and objects were expounded in the De Verbo Mirifico , and finally in the De Arte Cabalistica (1517). Many of his contemporaries thought that

1608-633: The ilan should be regarded as primarily indebted to the Porphyrian tree and maps of the celestial spheres rather than to any speculative ancient sources, Assyrian or otherwise. Kabbalah's beginnings date to the Middle Ages , originating in the Bahir and the Zohar . Although the earliest extant Hebrew kabbalistic manuscripts dating to the late 13th century contain diagrams, including one labelled "Tree of Wisdom,"

1675-524: The 'Lesser Countenance' or the 'Small Face.' In this sense, it stands in contrast with the Macroprosopus (Arich Anpin). The moment of formation, when the fetus' form becomes apparent, is called "the formation of the child" and corresponds to the world of Yetzirah. The external state of consciousness in the World of Formation is called ״half good and half evil.״ The "half evil" refers to the self-consciousness of

1742-463: The 21 Trumps plus the Fool or Zero card are often called the " Major Arcana " or "Greater Mysteries" and are seen as corresponding to 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,

1809-582: The Christians. He proposed that the emperor should decree that for ten years there should be two Hebrew chairs at every German university, for which the Jews should furnish books. Maximilian's other experts proposed that all books should be taken from the Jews; and, as the emperor still hesitated, his opponents threw on Reuchlin the whole blame of their ill success. Pfefferkorn circulated at the Frankfurt Fair of 1511

1876-553: The Jews from becoming Christians are three: first, usury ; second, because they are not compelled to attend Christian churches to hear the sermons ; and third because they honor the Talmud .". Pfefferkorn's plans were backed by the Dominicans of Cologne ; and in 1509 he obtained the emperor's authority to confiscate all Jewish books directed against the Christian faith. Armed with this mandate, he visited Stuttgart and asked Reuchlin's help as

1943-578: The Medicean Academy in Florence; his connection with the count became permanent, and after his return to Stuttgart he received important posts at Eberhard's court. About this time, he appears to have married, but little is known of his married life. He left no children, but in later years, his sister's grandson Philipp Melanchthon was like a son to him until the Reformation estranged them. In 1490, he

2010-457: The acquaintance of the bookseller Johann Amerbach , for whom he prepared a Latin lexicon ( Vocabularius Breviloquus , 1st edition, 1475–76), which ran through many editions. This first publication, and Reuchlin's account of his teaching at Basel in a letter to Cardinal Adrian ( Adriano Castellesi ) in February 1518, show that he had already found his life's work. He was a born teacher, and this work

2077-437: The basis of that thorough knowledge which Reuchlin afterward improved on his third visit to Rome in 1498 by the instruction of Obadja Sforno of Cesena . In 1494, his rising reputation was greatly enhanced by the publication of De Verbo Mirifico . In 1496, Duke Eberhard I of Württemberg died, and enemies of Reuchlin had the ear of his successor, Duke Heinrich of Württemberg (formerly Heinrich Count of Württemberg-Mömpelgard). He

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2144-404: The beings of this world. The "half good" refers to the emotional sensitivity of one to the other as expressed in the genuine desire to make the other happy. This external dimension of Yetzirah is the seat of heated emotion, of “hotheadedness.” A more internal dimension of Yetzirah—based on the awareness that the true battleground between good and evil is within us—is the emotional imperative to pit

2211-593: The books into six classes — apart from the Bible which no one proposed to destroy — and, going through each class, he shows that the books openly insulting to Christianity are very few and viewed as worthless by most Jews themselves, while the others are either works necessary to the Jewish worship, which was licensed by papal as well as imperial law or contain matter of value and scholarly interest which ought not to be sacrificed because they are connected with another faith than that of

2278-504: The concept of a tree of life with different spheres encompassing aspects of reality traces its origins back to the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the ninth century BCE. The Assyrians assigned moral values and specific numbers to Mesopotamian deities similar to those used in Kabbalah and claims that the state tied these to sacred tree images as a model of the king parallel to the idea of Adam Kadmon . However, J. H. Chajes states that

2345-410: The diagram, Malkuth, and the original tree of life is equivalent to the ten spheres seen from the middle sphere of the diagram, Tiferet. Kabbalists believe the tree of life to be a diagrammatic representation of the process by which the universe came into being. On the tree of life, the beginning of the universe is placed in a space above the first sphere (named " Keter " or "crown" in English). It

2412-514: The first step to the conversion of the Jews was to take away their books. This view was advocated by Johannes Pfefferkorn , a German Catholic theologian . Pfefferkorn, himself converted from Judaism , actively preached against the Jews and attempted to destroy copies of the Talmud , and engaged in what became a long-running pamphleteering battle with Reuchlin. He wrote that "The causes which hinder

2479-429: The good inclination against the evil inclination. But in order for our good inclination to be victorious over our evil inclination, it must first be empowered by an input of Divine light and energy. God gives us this input in the merit of our first devoting ourselves to do good for our fellows. The consciousness of the world of Yetzirah is that of communing with God, speaking to Him directly in prayer or indirectly through

2546-450: The initial pure limitless energy has solidified into the physical universe. Since its energies are the basis of all creation, the tree of life can potentially be applied to any area of life, especially the inner world of man, from the subconscious all the way to what Kabbalists call the higher self. The tree of life speaks not only of the origins of the physical universe out of the unimaginable but also of humanity's place in it. Since man

2613-474: The intention of becoming a teacher in the local university , but his friends recommended him to Count Eberhard of Württemberg , who was about to travel to Italy and required an interpreter. Reuchlin was selected for this post, and in February 1482 left Stuttgart for Florence and Rome . The journey lasted but a few months, but it brought the German scholar into contact with several learned Italians, especially at

2680-560: The leader of the Paris realists, Jean à Lapide (d. 1496), a worthy and learned man, whom he followed to the vigorous young University of Basel in 1474. At Basel Reuchlin took his master's degree (1477), and began to lecture with success, teaching a more classical Latin than was then common in German schools, and explaining Aristotle in Greek. His studies in this language had been continued at Basel under Andronicus Contoblacas . In Basel he made

2747-528: The meaning as being about "he would save His people from their sins." Reuchlin did not long enjoy his victory over his accusers in peace. In 1519, Stuttgart was visited by famine, civil war and pestilence. In response to concerns about growing religious controversies Leo X had Reuchlin's Augenspiegel condemned on 23 June 1520, claiming it to be "scandalous and offensive" and upholding the University of Cologne's previous condemnation. From November of 1519 to

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2814-497: The modern Greek fashion. This pronunciation, which he defends in De recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronuntiatione (1528), came to be known, in contrast to that used by Desiderius Erasmus , as the Reuchlinian . At Heidelberg, Reuchlin had many private pupils, among whom Franz von Sickingen is the best-known name. With the monks he had never been liked; at Stuttgart, his great adversary

2881-429: The nodes. The nodes are often arranged into three columns to represent that they belong to a common category. In kabbalah, the nodes are called sefirot . They are usually represented as circles and the paths (Hebrew: צִנּוֹר , romanized:  ṣinnoroṯ ) are usually represented as lines. The nodes usually represent encompassing aspects of existence , God , or the human psyche . The paths usually represent

2948-505: The now-iconic tree of life emerged during the fourteenth century. The iconic representation first appeared in print on the cover of the Latin translation of Gates of Light in the year 1516. Scholars have traced the origin of the art in the Porta Lucis cover to Johann Reuchlin . The tree of life usually consists of 10 or 11 nodes symbolizing different archetypes and 22 paths connecting

3015-625: The paths between them describe ways of knowing the Divine. The path of the flaming sword ( Hebrew : נתיב החרב הבוערת) refers to the flaming sword which God put to guard the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve were cast out. It is a concept in Kabbalah which represents the order in which the ten sefirot were created. The path emanates from the Ein Sof , the boundless source of divinity, begins at Kether (the crown) and ends at Malkuth (the kingdom), where

3082-543: The physical world manifests, and symbolizes "the logos which unifies them." Johann Reuchlin Johann Reuchlin ( German: [ˈjoːhan ˈʁɔʏçlɪn] ; 29 January 1455 – 30 June 1522), sometimes called Johannes , was a German Catholic humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew , whose work also took him to modern-day Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. Most of Reuchlin's career centered on advancing German knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. Johann Reuchlin

3149-461: The posthumous print editions of Moses Cordovero 's Pardes Rimonim between 1592 and 1609. However, the diagrams with 22 paths lacked consistency with each other and none of them had the 22 letters. Between 1652 and 1654, Athanasius Kircher published his version of the tree in Oedipus Aegyptiacus . According to 20th-century occult writer Aleister Crowley , Kircher designed his diagram in

3216-528: The preceding half century; one (his figures 8–12) was designed by Knorr based on his reading of select passages of Naftali Hertz ben Yaakov Elchanan 's 1648 Emek ha-melekh . Consequently, according to contemporary students of Western esotericism (rather than to scholars of Jewish Kabbalah), two versions are now widely circulated: one where Malkuth has 1 path, owing to Reuchlin's original; and another where Malkuth has three paths, owing to several later versions; both having 22 paths in total, corresponding each to

3283-405: The relationship between the concepts ascribed to the spheres or a symbolic description of the requirements to go from one sphere to another. The columns are usually symbolized as pillars . These usually represent different kinds of moral values , electric charges , or types of ceremonial magic . The sefirot are the ten spheres on the Tree of Life. Each sefirah (singular of sefirot) represents

3350-618: The spheres were of the same size, the lines became wide paths, the spheres were aligned into 3 distinct columns, Malkuth was connected to three spheres, and astrological symbols for the known celestial bodies were used in conjunction with the Hebrew names to label the spheres. However, it also had only 17 paths, albeit distributed differently. Reuchlin's version was reprinted in Johann Pistorius' compilation of 1587. Finally, several versions from unknown artists introducing 21 and 22 paths appeared in

3417-400: The spiritual path of ascent by man. In this way, Kabbalists developed the symbol into a full model of reality, using the tree to depict a map of creation. The symbolic configuration is made of ten spiritual principles, but eleven can be shown, since Keter and Da'at are interchangeable. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is equivalent to the ten spheres seen from the last sphere of

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3484-400: The spring of 1521, the veteran statesman sought refuge in the University of Ingolstadt where he received an appointment as professor from William of Bavaria . He taught Greek and Hebrew there for a year. It was 41 years since at Poitiers he had last spoken from a public chair; but at 65 he retained his gift of teaching, and hundreds of scholars crowded round him. This gleam of autumn sunshine

3551-721: The study of His Torah and taking counsel with a true Torah sage. The perspective of the world of Yetzirah as a state of consciousness is based on general notions. At this level, particular definitions are not apparent. The sense of selfhood that is apparent at this level of consciousness can only be grasped in impersonal language. Non-permanent angels dwell in the world of Yetzirah, unlike archangels which reside in Briah. In addition, Yetzirah corresponds to: Tree of Life (Kabbalah) The tree of life ( Hebrew : עֵץ חַיִּים , romanized :  ʿēṣ ḥayyim or no: אִילָן‎ , romanized :  ʾilān , lit.   'tree')

3618-473: The supernal mother of the universe which receives the energy of "Chokmah", cooling and nourishing it into the multitudinous forms present throughout the whole cosmos. It is also seen as the beginning of time itself. Numbers are very important to Kabbalists, and the Hebrew letters of the alphabet also have a numerical value. Each stage of the emanation of the universe on the tree of life is numbered meaningfully from one (" Keter ") to ten (" Malkuth "). Each number

3685-477: The universe as an expression of God and to make the journey of return using the stages charted by the spheres, until he has come to the realization he sought. In Hermetic Qabalah, the Tree of Life is a fundamental concept and symbol that represents the structure of the universe and the spiritual and metaphysical path to enlightenment. It is often depicted as a diagram composed of ten interconnected spheres (called sephiroth) and 22 connecting paths, which together form

3752-587: The year 1516, Reuchlin's diagram came to appear on the cover of the Paolo Riccio's Latin translation of Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla 's Gates of Light . The diagram only had 17 paths and, at the time, the concepts of 10 spheres and 22 letters were still distinct in the literature. In 1573, a version sketched by Franciscus Zillettus appeared in Cesare Evoli, De divinis attributis . This version introduced several innovations that would reappear in later versions: all

3819-461: Was again broken by the plague; but now he was called to Tübingen and again spent the winter of 1521–22 teaching in his own systematic way. But in the spring he found it necessary to visit the baths of Liebenzell , and there contracted jaundice , of which he died, leaving in the history of the new learning a name only second to that of his younger contemporary Erasmus . Reuchlin died in Stuttgart and

3886-475: Was again in Italy. Here he saw Pico della Mirandola , to whose Kabbalistic doctrines he afterward became heir, and made a friend of the pope's secretary, Jakob Questenberg, which was of service to him in his later troubles. Again in 1492 he was employed on an embassy to the emperor Frederick at Linz , and here he began to read Hebrew with the emperor's Jewish physician Jakob ben Jehiel Loans , whose instruction laid

3953-555: Was born at Pforzheim in the Black Forest in 1455, where his father was an official of the Dominican monastery. According to the fashion of the time, his name was graecized by his Italian friends into Capnion (Καπνίων), a nickname which Reuchlin used as a sort of transparent mask when he introduced himself as an interlocutor in the De Verbo Mirifico . He remained fond of his home town; he constantly calls himself Phorcensis , and in

4020-459: Was for much of his life the real centre of all Greek and Hebrew teaching in Germany. To carry out this work he provided a series of aids for beginners and others. He never published a Greek grammar, but he had one in manuscript for use with his pupils, and also published several little elementary Greek books. Reuchlin, it may be noted, pronounced Greek as his native teachers had taught him to do, i.e., in

4087-465: Was glad, therefore, hastily to follow the invitation of Johann von Dalberg (1445–1503), the scholarly bishop of Worms , and flee to Heidelberg , which was then the seat of the Rhenish Society In this court of letters Reuchlin's appointed function was to make translations from the Greek authors, in which his reading was already extremely wide. Though Reuchlin had no public office as a teacher, he

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4154-623: Was not to be done mainly from the professor's chair. By 1477, Reuchlin had left Basel to seek further Greek training with George Hermonymus in Paris, and to learn to write a fair Greek hand that he might support himself by copying manuscripts. And now he felt that he must choose a profession. His choice fell on law , and he was thus led to the great school of Orléans (1478), and finally to Poitiers , where he became licentiate in July 1481. From Poitiers, Reuchlin went in December 1481 to Tübingen with

4221-417: Was really for Reuchlin, the trial was simply quashed. And while the obscurantists escaped easily at Rome, with only a half condemnation, they received a crushing blow in Germany. In Reuchlin's defense, Virorum Epistolæ Clarorum ad Reuchlinum Phorcensem (Letters of famous men to Reuchlin of Pforzheim), had been published. It was closely followed by Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum (Letters of obscure men),

4288-661: Was resolved to open it to others. In 1506, appeared his epoch-making De Rudimentis Hebraicis —grammar and lexicon—mainly after Kimhi, yet not a mere copy of one man's teaching. The edition was costly and sold slowly. One great difficulty was that the wars of Maximilian I in Italy prevented Hebrew Bibles from coming into Germany. But for this also Reuchlin found help by printing the Penitential Psalms with grammatical explanations (1512), and other helps followed from time to time. But his Greek studies had interested him in those fantastical and mystical systems of later times with which

4355-414: Was summoned before a court of the inquisition . He was willing to receive corrections in theology, which was not his subject, but he could not unsay what he had said; and as his enemies tried to press him into a corner, he met them with open defiance in a Defensio contra Calumniatores (1513). The universities were now appealed to for opinions and were all against Reuchlin. Even Paris (August 1514) condemned

4422-622: Was the Augustinian Conrad Holzinger . On this man he took a scholar's revenge in his first Latin comedy Sergius , a satire on worthless monks and false relics. Through Dalberg, Reuchlin came into contact with Philip, Count Palatine of the Rhine , who employed him to direct the studies of his sons, and in 1498 gave him the mission to Rome, which has been already noticed as fruitful for Reuchlin's progress in Hebrew. He came back laden with Hebrew books and found when he reached Heidelberg that

4489-435: Was the "true Cabala" in his Commentary on Galatians has been explained as relating to Reuchlin's influence. While Luther had consulted Reuchlin as a Hebrew expert and used De Arte Cabalistica as support for an argument, Luther took objection to Reuchlin's comment in De rudimentis hebraicis that the Hebrew letters for Jesus' name meant "the hidden God," which Luther found contrary to Matthew, Chapter 1 :21, which describes

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