That [he] received [it] is the common opinion of the Hebrews. For at the beginning of the first chapter of the book Pirkei Avoth thus is read: “Moses received [קבל, qibbel] the Law from Sinai, and handed it down to Joshua. Joshua [handed it] to the elders, the elders to the prophets. The prophets handed it to the men of the Great Synagogue.” So also in the book Keter Malkhut. The same, but more copiously, at the beginning of their volumes — the Rabbot, and the Massekhet or Tractate Avot; and Elias [Levita] in [his] Tishbi; and Rabbenu Moses of Coucy [Makotsi], in the preface to the Great Book of Precepts [Semag]. “Moses,” he says, “received [קבל] the Law from the mouth of the very Lord of the world at Sinai, and handed it [מסר, masar] to Joshua — because thus it is written: ‘And Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, ministered to him; he removed not himself from the midst of the tabernacle.’ And Joshua handed it down to the 70 elders, for leading Israel after him in the right way — because this saying [is] thus: ‘And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders.’ The elders handed it to the [former] prophets; and the former Prophets handed it to the later prophets, who are Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. And these handed it to the men of the Great Congregation; and from these they received [קבלו, qibbelu] wisdom, generation after generation, from then even until now.”* He adds, indeed, [that] by those who were carried with Joachim [Jehoiachin] to Babylon — Daniel, Esdras [Ezra], Mardochaeus [Mordecai], and their associates — and, after [the people] had been cast out to Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, by Jeremiah, Baruch, and others — a seat of wisdom was raised up over the river Euphrates, or, as we today call [it], an Academy by the name of Nehardea, in which wise men ever afterward existed, from whom the Babylonian Talmud was compiled. But those who had returned from the captivity with Zerubbabel, and afterward with Esdras [Ezra], established — while that former [seat] remained — another seat of wisdom at Jerusalem, whence—
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—[whence] the sages of the Jerusalemites had compiled [their] Talmud, and indeed the earlier [one]. R. Abraham Levita, son of David [Ravad], in the Book of the Cabala: “Moses our teacher (peace be upon him) received the Law from GOD the Best and Greatest on Mount Sinai; and Joshua the son of Nun, upon whom [be] peace, had from him both law — that is, the written, and that received by mouth. For certainly Moses our lawgiver, presiding, adjudicated all the controversies of the Israelites from morning to evening. And if you should say [that] this is to be understood of the written law — this cannot be [so]. For that [law] does not embrace one out of a thousand cases which daily arise. But afterward he set over them tribunes, centurions, [and] captains of fifty, and among them he had these words: ‘Judge the affairs of your brethren, and what is just’ [Deut. 1:16]; but of himself, ‘And I commanded you at that time what you ought to do,’ etc. Which precept indeed is nothing other than the law handed down by mouth, καὶ ἄγραφος [and unwritten]. Moreover, about the business of immolation, and its laws or rites, it is written: ‘As I have commanded thee, thou shalt sacrifice and eat.’ By which [words] Moses openly teaches [that] there had been prescribed for him mandates about immolating victims which are not set down in the Law. But it is impossible [that] he did not declare these to [his] successor Joshua. And Joshua handed those [things] to the elders, and departed from this life into the everlasting [life] in the year of the world 2517. The elders who prolonged [their] age after Joshua then handed them to the prophets; and the prophets to one another mutually, the one to the other, according to the order of ages and generations, down to Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Again the prophets handed them to the men of the Great Synagogue — namely, to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, son of Jeconiah, and to those who returned with him from the Babylonian exile: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reeliah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. For these are the princes of the Great Synagogue.” Eldad the Danite, in his history — or rather fable — of the enclosed Jews, says: “They are most skilled in faith and religion, learned in the Mishnah, in the Talmud, in the Aggadah. The Talmud which they have is written in the holy and purely Hebrew tongue, and so they themselves read [it], just as our sages [do], as they received [it] from the mouth of Joshua son of Nun, whom Moses had taught, whom the oracle of the most-mighty GOD [had taught].” [And] a beit din [house of judgment/court, received it] from a beit din [another court]. So say also the Jerusalem Talmud and Rambam; and things like these R. Abraham Zacuto hands down often in the Yuḥasin, and R. David de’ Pomis in the Tzemaḥ, and likewise the Midrash on Psalm 105 (or, by the Hebrews’ reckoning, 106), f. 46. But Cabala and Cabalist are almost ill-reputed with everyone. In his Exercitation against Cardan 355, Julius Scaliger says: “the [Moors] of Mauritania [and] Tangier — the Magi — seem to use the science which by the Jews is called Cabala, [called] by themselves Zairagia; by whose prescriptions, answering most truly, they attain the highest reputation of prophets even among the wise. But [they do this] not from divine Names, but from a certain coordination, which is formed by the combining of letters — as it were a mixture of the Planets, [and] of the Moon’s mansions: they mark the position of the signs, the meetings of the motions, the solitudes, departures, discords, and agreements; and they announce both other [things] and the advantages and disadvantages of the whole year from the weather.
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—and handed to posterity — [this] the more pious among the Hebrews call that kind [of law]: torah she-bikhtav [תורה שבכתב, the written Torah]; the latter, torah she-be’al peh [תורה שבעל פה, the oral Torah]. Thirdly. Besides those [things] which are written in the Pentateuch, that Moses knew divinely also very many others cannot be doubted. For he could not explain in so few pages, and set forth distinctly enough, those [things] which he knew from GOD; and in those [things] which he did write, he knew [that] many hidden mysteries lay stored, and perceived the same — [mysteries] which could be comprehended by later [men] only with another teaching. Let Philo be seen, and Nazianzen (book On the State of Bishops, and bk. 1 of [his] Theology). And so Rabanus, in [his] manuscript Commentaries on Paralipomenon [Chronicles], says [that] the exemplar of the law was shown by God on Mount Sinai, [and] handed by Moses himself to Joshua, by this [one] to the elders. Let Pico della Mirandola also be seen (at the beginning of the Apologia, and quest. 5); and my prior Rabbi [Moses of Coucy], ch. 13. Fourthly. Among those who had received that more hidden doctrine, and a richer and plainer understanding of those [things] which were written, were Eleazar, Phinees, [and] others; but easily the chief of all [was] Joshua, who κατ’ ἐξοχὴν [par excellence] is called his [Moses’s] minister and disciple.
Fifthly, from Joshua received the same [tradition] those who were to teach the people most, and who ought to be set over them as regards sacred things and judgments. And from these thereafter [received] others, as is handed down by the Hebrews. Sixthly, this [tradition], as much Cabala as Masora, is most excellent and most praiseworthy. For what would either God, or those holy men, hand down or receive, except the best and most praiseworthy? Seventhly, this Cabala has been variously augmented by the Jews’ Rabbis (as is clear from Josephus, bk. 13, ch. 18 [Greek]; [and] Gorionides bk. 4, ch. 6 of the Basel edition, ch. 29 of the Krakow [edition]); and at times depraved by certain trifles and errors. As is clear: first, from those [things] which they teach about miracles to be worked through certain characters, and voices, and letters (in Capnio [Reuchlin], bk. 3 On the Cabala, fol. 545 and following); secondly, from the 72 Angels feigned by them for this reason — because 50 are the “gates” [portions] of wisdom, as they say, and 22 the elements [letters] of the Hebrew alphabet, from whose conjunction 72 arise; thirdly, from other Angels likewise, who [they say] were the teachers of Adam and of others; fourthly, from the law written on a fiery globe, and its letters afterward variously confused and permuted; fifthly, [because] there survive books of this discipline, in which [are] many vain [things] of this kind. Of which sort are:
1. The book Yetzirah [Sefer Yetzirah], of which they fable Adam [to be] the author, but it is [by] Rabbi Abraham, or R. Akiva; on which have commented R. Jacob Cohen, Isaac “of the Holy Name,” and R. Joseph son of Uziel. 2. The Zohar of R. Simeon son of Yoḥai, [composed] when he had lain hidden 24 years in a dark cave — about whom [more] from Genebrard below. 3. [Bahir] [Habbochir]. 4. the Cabala of R. Abraham Abulafia [Alaphia]. 5. The Commentaries On the Mysteries of the Law of Rambam who [is] also of Gerona, son of Naḥman [= Nachmanides]. 6. Nevukhim, or the Perplexed of Rambam, or of the Egyptian Moses [= Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed]. 7. Sha’arei Tzedek of R. Joseph son of Carmitolis [Gikatilla]. 8. Sha’arei Orah of R. Joseph of Castile, citizen of Salerno — whose also is Ginnat Egoz, that is, “Garden of the Nut,” [in] 3 books: (1) on words [terms], (2) on letters, (3) on—
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3. on the [vowel-]points. — 9. Ha-Emunot [Emunot ve-De’ot] of R. Saadia. 10. Sod ha-Torah of R. Abraham ibn Ezra [Abenezra]. 11. the book of R. Ḥamai, son of Ḥamina — who [was] most eloquent. 12. Ḥayyon, of the same. 13. Perush Kedoshad of R. Azriel. 14. the book Shemot [Names]. 15. Sefer Perush [on] the alphabet, from R. Akiva. 16. Sha’ar ha-Razim, that is, “on the hidden things” [on Psalm 18], R. Ama. 17. ha-Yaḥid, which ibn Ezra mentions (On the Mystery of the Law, ch. 1). 18. Sod… 19. Abstruse Questions. 20. a booklet of the Cabala: R. Azriel — by others, Oriel — of Gerona. 21. Derekh ha-Emunah, and Derekh ha-… 22. the Book of Roots of R. Joseph Albo — who, however, [is] more [an] ethicist. 23. al-Kuzari, R. Judah Halevi [Levi]. 24. On the Ten Numerations [Sefirot], R. …adia Levi.
Concerning all which [see] R. Simeon the Jew, in Capnio [Reuchlin] bk. 1, fol. 452; and, at the end of the commentaries on Joshua, Andreas Masius. Then, from the opinion and brief arguments of the most learned Genebrard (bk. 2 Chronology, in these words, fol. 168): “R. Simeon ben Yoḥai [is] the author of the book Zohar. By which he laid the foundations of that foolish and vain Cabbalistic art, which languishes over the tips of letters, [over] numbers, transpositions, anagrammatisms, inversions of words, allusions, ambiguities, [and] homonymies. For the mysteries of that vanity consist chiefly of three [techniques], which are indicated by the word [Hebrew mnemonic]:
Namely, Gematria (so unskillfully did they confuse Geometry with Arithmetic) — when the number of a letter is reckoned. Notarikon — when a letter is put for a whole word; and it is so called, barbarously, from the ‘tips of notaries’ [shorthand]. Temurah, that is, permutation (of the elements [letters]) — when one letter is substituted for another. From the two first words [Gematria, Notarikon], of which one is Greek, the other half-Latin, you understand at what time so inept an art was devised, and [that] it is nothing less than [genuine] Cabala, i.e. a science received from the elders by hand [tradition]. Besides ineptitudes of this kind, it contains many impious [things], and [things] brewed from every bran of heresies. It sets up ten Sephiroth, or numerations, for its foundation; which — whether they establish [them] to be the [very] mind of GOD, or something else outside GOD’s essence — appear to have been impiously introduced, from the fact that they posit in GOD a real number and multitude. Such was the business — or rather the idleness — of Marcus and Colorbasus, disciples of Valentinus, who tried to prove all the mysteries of their religion from the letters of the Greek Alphabet (Irenaeus bk. 1, ch. 9 & 10). And that Reuchlin (Capnio) gave the world a taste of these trifles in three books, without refutation, and that Paulus Ricius and Pico della Mirandola set themselves up as their patron[s], I indeed marvel [at]. For that is not the Cabala praised by the learned Fathers — [the praised one] which is partly historical, partly is called תורה בעל פה [torah be’al peh], that is, the law received by mouth. For this [true one] is a pure interpreter of the written law, and contains the simple traditions, customs, [and] rites of the Synagogue, [and] the explanations of the elders, whose fragments the Talmud, [the] Midrashim, etc., sometimes supply.” [Serarius:] It could be regarded [favorably], were not other [things] in the way — [cf.] ch. 47 of Agrippa, On the
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vanity of the sciences; [and] also my prior Rabbi [Moses of Coucy], ch. 13 — where I also reject the “novelty” [alleged] by Duplessis [Mornay] and Forster concerning the Cabala. 8. Once the errors are removed from today’s Cabala — those, namely, which clash with GOD’s word, and with the Ecclesiastical canons and dogmas — the rest can be retained. For [these] are either true, or at least not hostile to the truth, and yet ancient, or pleasant and ingenious. Of [its] antiquity [it] seems to be attested: First. The fourth book of Esdras, ch. 14, vv. 45 & 46: “The Most High,” it says, “[said]: The former [books], which thou hast written, set forth openly, and let the worthy and the unworthy read [them]; but the last seventy thou shalt keep, that thou mayest deliver them to the wise of thy people. For in these is the vein of understanding, and the fount of wisdom, and the river of knowledge.” Which last [saying] is also thus reported in the Talmud: “Ein mosrin sitrei Torah ela le-yo’ets ve-ḥakham…” [אין מוסרים סתרי תורה אלא ליועץ וחכם], that is, “The hidden things of the Law are not handed over except to a counselor, and a wise Master of the young, and an understanding Sage.” Secondly. The “artificial” Cabala is wont to be divided: first, into that in which word is put for word — and this either through metathesis of letters, or through equal number; secondly, into that in which a letter [stands] for a whole word; thirdly, into that in which letter is set for letter, by a certain alphabetic revolution, which is wont to be called athbash [אתבש, Atbash]. And ancient examples of nearly all these divisions are at hand. Of the first — as to equality of numbers — [an example] is in the Apocalypse, ch. 13, v. 18: “He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man; and his number [is] six hundred sixty[-six].” Of the second [there is one] in the Hebrew Traditions on the third book of Kings, near the beginning (vol. 3 of St. Jerome), where thus: “Thou hast also with thee Shimei son of Gera, son of Gemini, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a most grievous [pessima] curse.” “Most grievous” is said in Hebrew nimretzet [נמרצת], which is enunciated by five letters — that is, נ, מ, ר, צ, ת: in [the] נ [read] no’ef, that is, adulterer; מ Moabite; ר rasha, that is, impious; צ tsara, leprous; ת to’evah, that is, abominated. Of the third [division], St. Jerome himself [treats], on Jeremiah 25, where Sheshach is read and Babylon is understood. “How,” he says, “Babylon — which in Hebrew is called בבל [Babel] — is understood [as] ששך [Sheshach], he will not greatly labor [to see] who has had even a little knowledge of the Hebrew tongue. Just as with us the Greek alphabet is read in order down to the last letter (that is, α, β, and the rest, down to ω), and again, for the memory of little ones, we are wont to reverse the reading-order and mix the last with the first — so that we say α, ω, β, ψ: so also with the Hebrews the first [letter] is א*, the second* ב*, the third* ג*, [and so] down to the twenty-second and last letter* ת*, whose penultimate is* ש [shin]. And so we read אתבש [Atbash]; and when we come to the middle, the letter ל meets כ*; and, that it may thus be read rightly, we read Babel — [but] thus, with the order interchanged, we read Sheshach. But the vowels between* ב and ב and ל*, according to the idiom of the Hebrew tongue, are not set down in this name.”* But that all these [things] are pleasant and ingenious, anyone will easily grant, who has seen with how many praises — even by good and learned men — the poets’ anagrammatisms and logogriphs are today extolled; and likewise those [plays] of old about the number 420, which both λοιμός [loimos, “plague”] gives, and Demagoras in the Greek Anthology, and, in Gillius, [also] D. Florimond de Raemond (On Antichrist, ch. 20), [and] Heliodorus (bk. 9) — who says the river Nile [Νεῖλος, by letter-value] is a year, that is, 365 days. Let the booklet of Julius Giraldi On Riddles be seen — for example, on the name Θ, η, ε, ι, υ, ς. And of similar [things]—
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—and of similar [things among] others, in Reusner, f. 78. Let it be permitted here to insert a fable, but one which agrees quite [well] with the design [at hand]. Xanthus, Aesop’s master, found a marble column in some ruins, on which [were] these seven letters: Α, Β, Δ, Ο, Σ, Θ, Χ. All wonder, and ponder among themselves what they mean. But Aesop pronounces this to be their meaning: Ἀποβὰς βήματα τέσσαρα, ὀρύξας εὑρήσεις θησαυρὸν χρυσίου [Apobàs bḗmata téssara, orýxas heurḗseis thēsauròn chrysíou], that is, “Withdrawing four paces, [and] digging, thou shalt find a treasure of gold.” The conjecture pleased — but more, [when] a copious [store of] gold was found. For (what ought not to be passed over) Xanthus gave the conjecturer nothing from that treasure. He, therefore, warns [that] another [message] also is contained in those [same] letters — namely, Ἀπελθόντες βαδίζοντες διελέσθαι ὃν εὕρετε θησαυρὸν χρυσίου [Apelthóntes badízontes dielésthai hòn heúrete thēsauròn chrysíou]: “Ye who take [it], as ye go away, divide the treasure of gold which ye have found.” But since the ungrateful Master would accept no share [even] of a grateful mind [i.e., not even gratitude], Aesop grew indignant, and [was] to say[?]: [that] there gleamed something of the letters [which] would comply with the command [given]. For that [message] was of this kind: Ἀπόδος βασιλεῖ Διονυσίῳ, ὃν εὗρες θησαυρὸν χρυσίου [Apódos basileî Dionysíōi, hòn heûres thēsauròn chrysíou]: “Restore to King Dionysius the treasure of gold which thou hast found.” Who would not praise this wit? Who would not marvel at so great a cleverness — and [at] sentences so varied and so apt being made now from few letters? Cicero too indeed praises [things] of this kind (in the second [book] On the Orator). Let there be, therefore, Cabala of this kind — not, indeed, sacred [or] certainly necessary, yet pretty, and full of wit and cleverness. Julius Scaliger, On Logogriphs:
Let not these be trifles to thee. For why does that inept [man] pride himself, and hand from hand to hand the empty name of a wise man? [He] by whose labyrinthine windings he turns all [things] about. Accept, then, both gladly — or leave both alone.
9. [All these things] are to be understood of the prior, purer, and more solid Cabala — [by] which they truly judged Joshua to have been instructed by Moses, [as] concerning divine [matters], through this [Cabala].
10. In that same Cabala, although [Joshua was] exceedingly excellent, yet he was less than Moses — not only because “a disciple is not above [his] Master,” but also, and much more, because [in] Deuteronomy, the last [chapter], v. 10, it is said: “And there arose not again a prophet in Israel, like Moses.” And this the Rabbis mean, when they say [that] Moses penetrated the gates of wisdom — whence fifty; but Joshua only forty-eight. And again, [that] Moses’s face shone like the sun, but Joshua’s like the moon (in Capnio [Reuchlin] bk. 3, ff. 510 & 545 — as I also touched on above, ch. 9, q. 40). But O thou, the true Joshua [Jesus], my Christ, teach me thy justifications. For thou saidst to thy heavenly Father (John 17, v. 14): “I have given them thy word. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And I have made known to them thy name, and will make [it] known, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Amen.”