Jewish Mysticism

The mention of Jewish mysticism likely evokes the Kabbalah, but there were other forms. I suppose you could argue that it begins with Adam, the first man, if the theory that the Sefer Yetzirah was written by Adam were true (but let's look at other options).

In fact, there were many philosophical trends prior to the Common Era (like Prophetic Judaism and Apocalyptic Judaism). The Sefer Yetzirah is judged to have inspired/affected Jewish mysticism in 200-600CE with its ideas on the formation of the world using the Hebrew alphabet and 10 sefirot.

The 11th through 13th centuries saw a rise in named scholars producing works that tried to explain the universe and the relationship of Man to God. This is where we find Isaac Israeli ben Solomon developing Jewish Neoplatonism, along with men like Solomon ibn Gabirol and Abraham ibn Ezra and Maimonides.

Neoplatonism was an attempt to "modernize" the works of Plato—considered a primary utility on intellectual thought but needing more work as new ideas came about in the centuries following his era—by people like John Eriugena and many others. One of its common themes was monism, the idea that all reality c an be tied to and derived from a single principle.

Many of the Jewish scholars promoting mysticism were in Spain, where Muslims had taken over and brought with them Arabic-language versions of texts from Greek philosophers not yet available to the Latin West. Jewish mysticism flourished in Spain until 1492 and the Alhambra Decree that expelled all Jews from Spain.

One of the features of Jewish mysticism we find in the Sefer Yetzirah and in the Kabbalah is the development of the 10 sefirot: the 10 facets or dimensions of the inner self.

1. Keter/Ayin (nothingness),  
2. Hokhma (wisdom)  
3. Binah (understanding)  
4. Hesed (Kindness) 
5. Gevurah (Discipline) 
6. Tiferet (Glory) 
7. Netzah (Victory) 
8. Hod (Splendor) 
9. Yesod (Foundation) 
10. Shekhinah (Divine Presence)

The Sefer Yetzirah was the first work that listed 10 sefirot, but the tenth was called Malkut, which means "Kingdom" or "Queenship." (I am sure that there are countless pages written about why one over the other would be used.) In both the Sefer and Kabbalah the tenth of the sefirot refers to the point where the divine manifests in the real world. That is why (see the illustration) it appears at the bottom of the diagram, because despite its name it is the "lowest point" on the scale, being attached to the material world.

So what about Christian philosophers? What did they think about the Kabbalah? Well, some of them adopted some concepts from Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. Let's talk about how that worked next time.