[Des Rabbi Vermächtnis.] Tempted of the Devil ... retold ... by M. W. Macdowall

Front matter

Passages in the Life of a Kabbalist A STORY RETOLD FROM THE GERMAN OF AUGUST BECKER M. W. MACDOWALL Translator of Fritz Reuter's 'An Old Story of my Farming Days, and K. E. Franzos' 'Jews of Barnow' Boston CUPPLES & HURD, 94 BOYLSTON ST. CONTENTS RACE. Chapter I., - - - - - 9 II., ----- i9 IIP, ----- 43 IV., ----- 69 V., ----- 91 VI., no VII., 128 „ VIII., ----- 150 IX., ----- 173 X., - - - - - iq6 XL, ----- 218 XII., ----- 243 „ XIII., 264 „ XIV, ----- 281 XV, ----- 297 „ XVI., -----

Preface

. IN these days when mystical theosophy so much prevails amongst a certain set of people — whether under the name of Esoteric Buddhism or any other — it is interesting to consider what was the tendency of the same sort of teaching at the end of last century. The minds of men were then more or less divided between transcendentalism and the doctrines of Voltaire. Magicians and astrologers astonished the multitude yvith their marvellous deeds, and some of them were even recognised as adepts by several of the greatest savants of the time. The tyvo forms of theosophy which then excited the most attention, and attracted the largest number of earnest students, were Zoroastrianism, and the occult teaching of the Jeyvs as contained in the Kabbalah or Qabalah. It is yvith this latter that we are now concerned, for in "Des Rabbi Vermachtnis" — the novel from which our story of " Tempted of the Devil " is taken — Dr. Becker describes the effect which the study of the Practical Kabbalah had on the lives

PREFACE.

. VIII and characters of the initiated, and those who came in contact with them. The Kabbalah has not only exercised a marvellous influence on Jewish mysticism, of which it is also an outcome ; but has likewise been regarded as a study of immense interest by some of the most profound scholars of the 16th and 17th centuries. According to tradition, the doctrines of the Kabbalah were taught by God Himself to certain of the angels, and were by them communicated to Adam after his expulsion from the garden of Eden. By Abraham they were partially introduced into Egypt, and there it was that Moses was first initiated in their mysteries, which he afterwards taught the seventy Elders. And thus, from generation to generation, the Kabbalistic doctrines were handed down in unbroken succession until the days of Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai, who, as we learn from the Talmud, lived at the time of the Destruc tion of the Second Temple.

Having fallen under the ban of Titus, this Rabbi was forced to hide away in a cave for twelve or thirteen years, lest he should fall into the hands of the Romans and be put to death. The Kabbalah had never hitherto been written down ; but had — as the name Kab balah, Received, signifies — been handed on from age to age by oral teaching alone. Kabbalistic tradition informs us that during his confinement in the cave Rabbi Simeon devoted

PREFACE.

. IX himself to meditating on the ' Sublime Kabbalah,' and teaching its doctrines to his son, and to those of his disciples who continued to visit him secretly for instruction. After his death, the Book Sohar — i.e., Splendour — was compiled by his son and Rabbi Abba, his secretary, as an epitome of his teaching. This book may be called the heart, or kernel of Kabbalism.* The cardinal doctrines of the Kabbalah are these : The Supreme Being, His nature and attributes. The Cosmogony. The creation of angels and men. The nature of angels, demons, and elementals. The import of the Revealed Law. The transcendental symbolism of numbers. The peculiar mysteries contained in the Hebrew letters. The equilibrium of contraries.f The Kabbalah may be divided into four heads, viz : I. The Literal Kabbalah. 2.

The Unwritten Kabbalah. 3. The Dogmatic Kabbalah. 4. The Practical Kabbalah. * See Beer's ' Geschichte der judischen Secten,' and Dr. Gins burg's 'Kabbalah.' t See 'The Kabbalah Unveiled,' p. 15, translated by S. L. MacGregor Mathers.

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. X The Literal Kabbalah falls into three parts : The Gematria, Notarikon, and Temurah. The Gematria contains the mystical teaching of Biblical interpretation by the numerical value of the letters forming the word or sentence under consideration. For instance, from the words (Gen. xviii., 2) : ' And lo, three men stood by him,' it is deduced that the three angels, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, were meant, because the Hebrew letters forming the words : ' And lo, three men,' and those making : ' these are Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael,' have the same numerical value. It must be remembered that there are no separate figures for numerals in Hebrew or Chaldæ, so that each letter has a fixed value. The Notarikon has two forms. ist. It teaches how every letter of a word may also be taken as an initial or abbreviation of another word, thus making new words or sentences. 2nd.

In this case, ' the initials or finals, or both, or the medials, of a sentence are taken to form a word or words.'* Temurah (or Temura) is Permution. It con tains fixed rules by means of which one letter may be substituted for another, and through it we are also taught the hidden meanings that belong to the shape of each letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The Unwritten Kabbalah is the name given to * See 'The Kabbalah Unveiled,' p. 9.

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. XI that Kabbalistic knowledge yvhich is never put upon paper, and the possession of which may not be confessed by the initiated.! The Dogmatic Kabbalah contains the doctrinal part of this esoteric teaching, and may be divided into four heads, the last of which is known to very few people : I. The Book of Creation (or Formation). II. The Sohar (or Zohar), yvith its developments, &c. III. The Commentary on the Ten Sephiroth. IV. The Purifying Fire. Mr. MacGregor Mathers says that the Book Jetzira (or Yetzira), yvhich he translates Book of Formation, ' treats of the Cosmogony as symbolized by the ten numbers, and twenty-two letters of the alphabet, which it calls the thirty-tyvo paths.' It is regarded by Kabbalists as very ancient, and is ascribed to the Patriarch Abraham. Dr. Ginsburg, however, and many other critics, are of opinion that it really dates from the 9th century of the Christian era, and he says that ' its fabrication yvas evidently suggested by the fact that the Talmud mentions some treatises on the creation!

These yvere, how ever, magical in character, as we learn from the stories told about them in the Talmud, and were by no means identical with the Book Jetzira. In t Ibid., p. 13.

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. XII course of time they were lost, and it is supposed by Dr. Ginsburg that the Jetzira was written to take their place. * In the Sohar, yve read of the Supreme Being, who is hidden behind the three Kabbalistic veils: t ist, Ain = Negativity ; 2nd, Ain Soph = the Limit less ; and 3rd, Ain Soph Aur=the Limitless Light. This Being is 'boundless in His nature,' possessing neither ' will, intention, desire, thought, language, nor action.' From Him proceed the Sephiroth, or ten Emanations, which are ' begotten, not made,' yvhich are at once ' infinite and finite,' and which, although separate, are yet united in perfect balance by the Ruach, or Holy Spirit. The doctrine of Trinity in Unity as shown in the Sephiroth can only be mentioned here, as any notice of so difficult a subject would make the introduction too long.

It is through the Sephiroth, which in their united whole represent the Archetypal Man (the Adam Kadmon), that the creation gradually evolved, and it is to them, says Ginsburg, that the ' Anthropo morphisms of Scripture and the Haggada refer.' The Book Sohar is composed of several treatises, which tradition teaches us yvere collated from the words of Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai by his son Rabbi Eleazar, and his secretary Rabbi Abba ; but * 'The Kabbalah Unveiled,' and Dr. Ginsburg's 'Kabbalah.' t'The Cloud -Veils of the Ain formulating the Hidden Sephiroth, and concentrating in Kether, the First Sephira.'

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. XIII since then various amplifications and commentaries have been added to it. Many Jewish historians and theologians, on the contrary, hold that it yvas composed by Moses de Leon, who first introduced, and sold it in Europe, alleging that he had found the MS. in the possession of some Arabian Jews, yvho venerated it for its occult teaching and an tiquity. Those who regard him as its author look upon the Sohar as a pseudograph of the 13th century. Dr. Ginsburg is of opinion that the distinctive tenets of the Kabbalah are founded on Neo- Platonism, and gives several examples in proof of this assumption. It cannot, however, be denied that the Jews had been possessed of an esoteric Theosophy, that embraced magic and its attendant occultism, long before the Kabbalah was finally yvritten down.

This Theosophy probably had its rise in the ancient home of the Jewish race, was strengthened by the Egyptian mysticism learnt during the sojourn of the children of Israel in the Land of Goshen, and was no doubt further developed at the time of the Babylonish Captivity. Moreover, regarding the connection between Neo-Platonism and the Kabbalah, yve learn from Dr. Edersheim* that : ' If . . . we have noticed a remarkable * 'The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,' by the Rev. A. Edersheim, D.D.

PREFACE.

. similarity between Philo and the Rabbis, there is a still more curious analogy between his teaching and that of Jewish Mysticism as ultimately fully developed in the " Kabbalah." The very term Kabbalah (from Kabal, to hand down) seems to point out not only its descent by oral tradition, but also its ascent to ancient sources.* Its existence is presupposed, and its leading ideas are sketched iu the Mishnah. The Targums bear at least one remarkable trace of it. May it not be that as Philo frequently refers to ancient tradition, so both Eastern and Western Judaism may here have drawn from one and the same source — we will not venture to suggest hoyv high up — while each made use of it as suited their distinctive wants ? At any rate, the Kabbalah also, likening Scripture to a person, compares those who study merely the letter to them yvho attend only to the dress ; those who consider the moral of a fact to those who attend to the body ; while the initiated alone, who regard the hidden meaning, are those yvho attend to the soul.' Again, the 'Makom' of Philo, like the ' Ain Soph ' of the Kabbalah, being unconditioned, can only be comprehended through His manifesta tions.

As the Kabbalah solved this difficulty by the doctrine of the Sephiroth, or Emanations from the * For further information see Edersheim's ' History of the Jewish Nation.'

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. XV Unknowable, so Philo taught that there yvere ' Potencies ' and ' Words ' yvhich proceeded from God. ' " Potencies," yve imagine, when viewed Godwards ; " Words," as viewed creationwards. They were not emanations, but resembled Plato's ' archetypal ideas,' on the model of which all that exists was formed."* Other likenesses might be pointed out, but to do so would be to enter too much into detail. Whether Neo-Platonism learnt from the Kab balah, or the Kabbalah from it, is a question for scholars to decide. As time went on, Kabbalistic students began to devote themselves to the study of the Sohar to the exclusion of the other books of the Kabbalah, and therefore became known by the distinctive title of Soharites. The Practical Kabbalah, or the yvonder-working Kabbalah, the defence of which was so zealously taken up by Kircher, a learned Jesuit, is the poyver of divination gained by transposing the letters that spell the sundry Divine Names, and making a computation according to the numerical value of each by certain fixed rules only known to the initiated.

It is a further occult development of the science of numbers, and is used for magical, instead of metaphysical enquiry, to the intense horror of pious Kabbalists. It is not the use, but the misuse * See Edersheim's ' Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.'

PREFACE.

. XVI of their system. Last century, however, it gained a great influence over the imagination of many learned men, yvhether Jewish or Christian, and led to very strange, and often melancholy results. Beer, in his ' History of Jewish Sects,' gives many extraordinary instances of the aberations of the so called adepts of the Practical Kabbalah, some of which are referred to in ' The Mystic Numbers.' M. W. Macdowall.

Chapter I

An old clergyman's tale. — Bracebridge Hall. Gewichtiger, mein Sohn, als du es meinst Ist disser diinne Flor — fur deine Hand Zvar leicht, doch zentnerschwer fur dein gewissen. — Schiller. IT is for your sake, my son, that I am about to relate the story of my past life, and especially of certain incidents that are burnt into my memory yvith letters of fire. I begin my self-appointed task in fear and trembling. My heart is full of a holy awe yvhen I consider the unfathomable nature of God, and the inscrutable mysteries that surround Him. I reverence His infinite wisdom in setting a limit beyond which the human intellect may not soar, and His loving kindness in hiding a knowledge of the future from us, seeing that yve are too weak to bear the fulness of such light. Yet in our ignorant folly yve are often tempted to knock at the door yvhose opening would bring swift destruction upon us, and grow childishly angry with our Heavenly Father for refusing to grant the desire of our silly hearts.

We have all much need to pray for enlightenment, that yve may be enabled to recognise the wisdom and mercy of God's dealing with us, in hiding from us those things we ought not to knoyv, and in keeping us from playing with His Light, yvhich in our weak hands would become a consuming fire, the world's bane. Alas ! it is only too easy to stretch out a rash, sacrilegious hand to grasp the veil behind which the Divine is hidden from our eyes. And to do so is not impossible. But no mortal can endure to look upon the brightness of the glory of God ; such power was withheld even from the disciple at Sais. Hence it is that a noble-minded friend of our family, wise David Benasse, always says : ' To be arrogant is to tempt God — knowledge comes last of all — to see God is to die !' And for this same reason, the occult teaching, that has come down to us from antiquity, warns us in no ambiguous terms to beware lest we misuse the power it places in our hands.

And yet, one terrible night, I, sinful man that I am, dared to commit this sacrilege. I was tempted to use the holy and awful legacy entrusted to me by the old Rabbi for a wicked and foolhardy purpose. I desired to look behind the veil. How great is the long-suffering of God ! He had mercy upon me, and did not slay me in my madness ; but preserved me then and afterwards, giving me a life of much quiet happiness. I yvas not unlike you as a young man, my son ; for I was eager, enthusiastic, and impatient in the pursuit of knowledge. Nothing was more hateful to me than intellectual laziness, and want of sym pathy with, or interest in, whatever raises men above the comfortable and commonplace level of ordinary existence. My father was a clergyman in Thuringia, and yvas rather better off than many others of his cloth.

When I left school he determined to send me to the university of Halle to study divinity, that I might afterwards take Holy Orders. He spared no expense on my education, for his ambition, the dearest wish of his heart, was to make me a trained theologian, strong in the triple armour of doctrinal theology, polemics, and homiletics. He little regarded any other sort of knowledge, but con sented to my attending the physica sacra lectures as the utmost latitude I couid possibly desire. Such were the views held by orthodox people when he yvas young, and they still clung to them by choice, though not of necessity. But the dawn of a new day had already begun to glimmer in the gloomy, narrow, pious old town on the Saale, in the stronghold of Luther. mism. Semler, the father of modern theology, had taken up his residence there several years before the time of yvhich I write, and, after having himself escaped from the bonds of Pietism, had lighted the Rational istic torch in the very midst of the orthodox camp.

A new generation had grown up since his coming, yvho had taken firm foothold on the ground, which, ever since the days of Spener and Franke, had been left in the undisputed possession of the ' Stillen im Lande.' Another spirit had been awakened in men's minds, one directly opposed to that yvhich ruled in Franke's celebrated institu tion, the Halle Orphanage — a place built and endowed to provide for the due training of divinity students who yvere too poor to pay for their own education. I had been very carefully brought up in a pious household ; but when I yvent to the University my father was so kind as to let me lead an independent life, free from outward control. I took lodgings in the house of a good, religious couple, stocking weavers by trade. They were kindly souls ; but I was a great puzzle to them.

They could not understand how, being a divinity student, I yvas able to live without pecuniary assistance from Franke's Orphanage. One of the most curious chapters in the world's history is that containing the simple annals of German poverty, and the most touching examples of it are to be found in Saxony and Thuringia. It was always so in those parts. The road to learning yvas long and weary to many a poor student. The young patrician and the sons of well-to-do parents led a merry or studious life at the University, untroubled by sordid cares ; while many of the other undergraduates glided through the streets, their faces pale and haggard, and bearing in their whole appearance the unmistakable stamp of indigence. Those of them who came from the Orphanage often walked down to the University in long lines, totally unobservant of what yvas going on around them, yvrapped in their own thoughts, and wearing an expression of exaggerated humility, or of religious exaltation on their worn faces.

It is a sad thing to be a poor dependant ; but to have to raise your eyes to heaven for the sake of gaining your daily bread, to be obliged to fold your hands and play the hypocrite before God, that you may eat and be satisfied, is the saddest thing I know. My disposition was too cheerful and frank to allowme to bear patiently with a religiosity of this sort. I looked upon it as canting humbug, and saw7 no excuse for the poor fellows in their absolute penury, for many of the other students were apparently as needy as they, and yet did not become either sycophants or hypocrites. Amongst the ascetic pariahs of the place, my attention was especially drawn to a red-haired youth, whose freckled countenance was peculiar enough to have attracted the notice of a stranger, even if his look of exaggerated humility had failed to do so, surrounded as he was by so many others of the same type.

Calm astuteness and calculating sagacity yvere to be seen in the lines about his mouth, while his eyes betrayed a mixture of cunning and watchful ferocity that ill-accorded with the dove-like gentleness and humility yvhich he strove to impress upon the world as his most prominent characteristics. He was like nothing so much as a wolf in sheep's clothing. So / thought at least. But my landlord, the stocking-weaver, informed me that Ephraim Lebrecht was a true Christian, and that he yvas held in great reverence at all the prayer-meetings in the town, because of his eloquence and the consistency of his walk and conversation. To yvhich I answered that no one had a greater respect for really good people than I, but that such persons seldom made so much ado about religious phrases as Lebrecht and his fellows, yvho by their spiritual pride often caused the enemy to blaspheme.

My landlord looked at me yvith silent compassion, and yvent away. Two brothers had taken rooms in Miirker Street. They were twins, and came of a noble family in the North Country. As my lodgings yvere not far from theirs, I often used to see them ride past, their caps displaying the distinguishing colours of the corps to yvhich they belonged. They yvere very wild, like most of the other students of their rank, especially those yvho came from the Baltic Pro vinces, and yvere continually at war with the Council, or the Proctors. This was particularly the case yvith Count Leo, who was always engaged in some piece of wild mischief or adventure, and yvho thereby gained great kudos from his companions. Otherwise he was not so great a favourite as his brother Hermann, for he was not so frank, kind hearted, and chivalrous as the latter, whose only real fault was a very quick temper.

One day I yvas much astonished by seeing Ephraim Lebrecht's red head at the window of the brothers' sitting room. What they could possibly have in common with sanctimonious Ephraim was more than I could imagine. And yet, strange as it seemed, the matter was perfectly simple of explanation. The relatives of the two young scapegraces had heard somehow or other of the manner in which they had begun their academical career, so they sent the authorities full power to place the lads under the charge of some trustworthy mentor, and Ephraim Lebrecht yvas the person chosen to act in that capacity. I often saw him in the window after that first day, and it seemed to me that his office suited him, that he yvas growing fatter and more consequential looking. I was undoubtedly interested in the man ; probably because of the disagreeable impression he made upon me.

I had not been long at Halle, however, and was too conscious of my inexperience to have much confidence in my own powers of observation or instinct yvith regard to character. My landlord and his family were of one mind in praising Ephraim for his consistent life and real goodness, so that at last I began to blame myself for my pre judice and injustice, and to take myself to task for disliking any man because of the colour of his hair, and of something I had perhaps misread in his expression. Then came stories of the extraordinary influence he exercised over his pupils. And in truth, both young men seemed to have sobered down in the most marvellous way, and to have given up the wild and reckless behaviour that had before characterised them. Count Hermann did not therefore abandon his old friends; but Count Leo, the younger of the brothers, who had formerly been the ringleader in all their pranks, yvas changed in every respect.

He began to frequent prayer meetings in company yvith his tutor, and also to attend any of the University lectures that had the slightest bearing on religious subjects. As yvas only natural, every one in Halle was filled yvith astonishment at the sudden conversion of such an unmitigated scapegrace. It yvas more than a nine days' wonder. Count Hermann's actions yvere also a subject of interest to the gossips of the place. People noticed that he had grown much less wild than in the old days yvhen Leo had been his constant companion and instigator in mischief, for he now either remained quietly at home, or else rode out to call at a certain country-house in the neighbourhood of the town, where a poor but beautiful girl of his own rank w7as living yvith her parents. Soon afterwards another rumour got abroad to the effect that the two brothers, formerly so insep arable, were no longer on good terms.

One day, loud and angry voices w7ere heard in their rooms, and a few minutes later the neighbours saw Ephraim Lebrecht's red head come crashing through the window, like a glowing shell from a mortar. It stuck fast in the window-frame, wedged in by the broken glass ; but was at last drawn back by a pair of strong arms. The story w7as soon in every mouth. Some people were of opinion that Dr. Faustus, instigated by the Prince of Darkness, had suddenly arrived on the scene, had seized Ephraim by the collar, and had tried to fling him out into the street ; but that the young man's goodness had given him such supernatural strength that his assailant had been obliged to beat a hasty retreat. The rest of the world, however, maintained that Count Hermann had himself been the aggressor. I was afterwards told that yvhen the latter was questioned by some of his comrades as to the truth of the story, he had looked so stern and unapproachable that no one had ventured to pursue the subject.

This event took place shortly before the end of the term, when the Seerieds and their tutor left Halle for the North, and I saw no more of any of them for a long time ; one, I never met again.

Chapter II

' I do not deny that most [of the Alchemists] were imposters ; but we should have to cast aside all belief in historical evidences were we to deny that there have been men at various times who possessed the secret of making gold.' —Jitstis Chemistry. THE times of which I write yvere strange and exciting. The last quarter of the eighteenth century had begun. All things were in a state of transition, and great strides were being made in every sphere of intellectual activity. Klopstock's poems had an immense influence on everyone ; his odes set the spirits of men on fire. Many eager students of nature threw themselves heart and soul into the search after the great secret, the corner stone of knowledge, the ' Philosopher's Stone.' Light, was the watch-word that resounded on every side, and yet men wandered dim-eyed through the mist, thinking they saw, and blessed in that belief.

They steeped themselves in Ossian, whose writings had come to them from the other side of the North Sea. Him, they specially wor shipped. In spite of all this, Freethinking had never been possessed of sharper lances, nor had better known how to use them. It yvas an age of contrasts. While soft-heartedness and sensibility, qualities inherited from the Pietism of their immediate pre decessors, held sway over the educated classes throughout the land, and found practical ex pression in the ' Werther ' published by young Goethe, Lessing had given a sharp point to his critical pen, had called attention to the works of Shakespeare, and had yvritten ' Emilia Galotti.' Then ' Goctz von Berlichingen ' appeared upon the stage with the clang and clash of armour, and stirred the minds of the nation. The ' storm and stress ' period was rapidly approaching, and Bur ger's ' Leonore ' was taking her ghostly ride over the length and breadth of Germany.

Every one, whether in town or country, wept over the sorrows of Werther. Country squires and nobles sympa thised with Goetz. Clergymen's daughters in rural districts read and re-read Holty's tender spring songs, wandered yvith the creatures of his imagination in the moonlight to yvhere the weeping willows grew, and shivered with terror at the thought of ghostly church-yards, and the fate of Burger's Lenore. The greater part of Saxony regarded the ' magician ' Schropfer with superstitious awe — he it was yvho afterwards shot himself at Rosenthal, near Leipzig, after a spiritual seance of great notoriety. Strange rumours yvere everywhere afloat concerning mysterious brotherhoods, the revival of the esoteric teaching of the Rosicrucians, and the doings of certain Illuminati. And all this in the days when Lessing was writing against the errors of superstition !

We, in Halle, yvere, so to speak, at the central point of the movement, and, as may readily be supposed, yve yvere not, and could not remain, unin fluenced by the general excitement of public opinion. Professor Semler was then at the height of his fame, and was undoubtedly the greatest man at the University. It yy7as not yvithout a long and bitter struggle against adverse fortune that he had risen to such a position, for he had first come to Halle as a poor student maintained by the help given him at Franke's Orphanage. Pietism had therefore of necessity wrapped him for years in its folds. But at length he set himself free. As a teacher, he followed in the footsteps of his former benefactor, Baumgarten, lectured on Church His tory, dogmatic Theology, and Hermeneutics. In addition to his professorship, he was afterwards appointed Director of the Theological Schools.

Hundreds crowded to hear him — his lively, pleasant lectures, together yvith the novelty and bold ness of his views, yvhich yvere utterly opposed to sentimental religion and cant of every sort, yvere very attractive to us young men. In addition to this, our admiration yvas awakened by his spotless character, and by the unfeigned piety that yvas the motive power of his life. We also loved him for his personal amiability. Rationalism found in him one of its staunchest supporters. Yet he was not without a strong natural bent towards mysticism, and a love of dabbling with the inexplicable yvas such a marked feature in the man as to have roused a feeling of astonishment, had he not been so entirely a child of his times as to be one of its fittest representatives. But as years went on, the century changed faster than he, so that this ap parent contradiction in his character aftcryvards brought him into conflict with it, and embittered his latter days.