Early Kabbalah

We did a stretch through this foggy era of mystical texts in early medieval times. The main point was that it was mystical, but not quite the particular mysticism we encounter from the 12th-13th centuries onwards, broadly called Kabbalah.

It is Kabbalah that we are referring to from now on as 'mystical' traditions of texts and ideas and practices, that become more publicly known, relatively, that is, still foggy, from the 12th-13th centuries onwards.

Another important point as we make the transition into Kabbalah, is that the previous mysticism, and Jewish mysticism at large, indeed is not inherently messianic. Nor was messianism essentially mystical. So, as we approach Kabbalah now, we are observing the points at which messianism enters into, or meshes with, the new kabbalistic traditions.

Initial Inklings

An important early Kabblistic book Sefer Yetzirah, literally the book of creation, we first encounter the term of sefirot, spheres, or emanations. The book presents combinations of letters that form words and sentences.

The book is alluding to the craft of joining and separating and pronouncing vowels, letters, and words in an esoteric theurgical form. Sounds like the concept of the works of creation / ma'ase be'reshit. But no messianism at all there.

In another important early Kabbalistic book Sefer ha’Bahir, literally the book of brightness, we find more hints to the concept of sefirot, the spheres. Also here we do not have much messianism essentially.

But there is a reference to a Talmudic homily that is important to remember (because it will come up again): 

The words “The Son of David will not come until all the souls of the body are completed…” What does this mean? The book reads (184) “We say that this refers to all the souls in the body of a man. New ones will be worthy of emerging. The Son of David will then come. He will be able to be born, since his soul will emerge among the other new souls…” 

[The text continues from there to a rather long parable of a King giving bread to his people and they neglect it and it is spoiled. The moral of the story is that the bread is the word of the LORD, as man does not live on bread alone but by every word that goes out from the mouth of the LORD (Deuteronomy 8).]

The context of this passage was like in the Talmud where we had the notion that Messiah will come when the people of Israel are righteous, or the opposite. This passage deals with the coming of Messiah and the concept of souls emerging.

That is it. Sefer ha’Bahir doesn't delve deep into the messianic, but touches an existing concept - the world of souls, and some dynamic in there. Moral of the story, encourage the people to act in righteousness.

A Chain to be Broken

Who wrote nor who published this document?! Some theorize that it was the school of the Ra’abad, the pioneer Kabbalist, who lived in Provence in the south of France in the 12th century, who did not do writing. 

His son, Rabbi Yitchak Sagi-Nahor, which means in Aramaic that he was blind, attributed the Kabbalah to his father (Ra'abad), and he himself dealt Kabbalistic writings in his own name - not anonymously (the first ever to do so). What did he write? A commentary to Sefer Yetzirah. 

The blind pioneer Kabbalist writer had pupils, among them the brothers Azriel of Girona (in the north east of Spain not far from Provence), who wrote in the beginning of the 13th century a document explaining the 10 Sefirot. 

We also know that the great and famous Ramban, aka. Nachmanides, who traveled between Girona and Barcelona, learned Kabbalah from the brothers. He wrote extensively! But not about Kabbalah, execept in suggestive fashion...

Also in Barcelona was one Rashba, a pupil of Nachmanides, who was also, like his teacher, conservative when writing Kabbalah. It SEEMS they all belonged to an elite circle of sorts, of famous rabbis, influential and important authorities of religious law, engaged in theosophical interpretations of the Sefirot.

Well, at the same time lived nearby in Saragosa in Spain, west of Barcelona, a man who was also a Kabbalist. However, he was not from that esoteric circle, nor was he an authority of religious law.

Independent as he was, he traveled and wrote and spread his mystical ideas. He was essentially persecuted by the famous Rashba. His name, Abraham Abulafiya.