ABSTRACT
The word Ḳabbâlâh is mentioned frequently in books which describe amulets, charms, and talismans, but it is important to make it clear to the reader that among the early Ḳabbalists the use of magical stones and spells was unknown. The word Ḳabbâlâh means διαδoxή, and denotes Tradition (παράδoδις) regarded from the point of view of Reception, i.e. Ḳabbâlâh is something which has been handed down and is Received generally (C. Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, Cambridge, 1877,p. 120). At first Ḳabbâlâh was understood to refer to the teaching of the Tôrâh, i.e. the Pentateuch, or Five Books of Moses. Later the other Books of the Bible were joined to these, and Ḳabbâlâh was regarded as the exposition of a great secret, and mystical and religious system of philosophy, which was supposed to deal with and explain the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the dealings of God with the human race. The names of the founders of Kabbalah and the date when they lived are unknown, but they were certainly mystics, and they were, in the writer's opinion, Semites, probably Hebrews who were, and they still are, great idealists. The foundations of Ḳabbâlâh are very ancient, and they were laid by men who believed that, by means of the system which they were putting together, they could bring themselves into a special relationship with God, and make Him protect them against every calamity and misfortune which can come upon man. The Kabbalah of the Middle Ages represents a mass of beliefs and traditions which the Hebrews adopted from the Egyptians, Babylonians and Assyrians, Syrians, Zoroastrians, Gnostics, Greeks, Arabs, and even European peoples. And, whilst readily accepting new beliefs and theories they abandoned nothing.
