Die Kabbala, oder die Religionsphilosophie der Hebräer.

by Adolphe Franck, Adolph Jellinek

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Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Mysticism, Judaism, Nonfiction

318 pages, Paperback

First published February 20, 2012

About the author

Destined for the rabbinate, at the age of fourteen he was committed to the care of Marchand Ennery; at the same time he obtained a secular education. Failing to win a rabbinical scholarship, he dallied awhile with medicine, and at length turned to philosophy, in which he found his proper field. In 1832 Franck became "agrégé" of philosophy, taking the first position on the list. He then taught successively at the colleges of Douai, Nancy, and Versailles, and in 1840 at the Collège Charlemagne at Paris, where among his pupils were Edmond About and Francisque Sarcey. The same year he began a complementary course of public lectures at the Sorbonne. In 1842 he was appointed assistant curator of the Bibliothèque Royale. After a visit to Italy (1843), necessitated by his health, he began his "Dictionnaire des Sciences Philosophiques," his principal work. In 1844 he was elected member of the Institut de France (Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques) in recognition of his Esquisse d'une Histoire de la Logique and his work on the Cabala, which latter became very popular and was translated into German by Adolf Jellinek (Leipsic, 1844).

In 1847 Franck again took up his work at the Sorbonne and started a course in social philosophy. After a few months he was asked by Barthélemy St. Hilaire, whom the revolution of 1848 had drawn into the political arena, to take his place at the Collège de France. Franck was himself affected by the political turmoil of the time, and in 1848 became candidate for the deputyship of the department of the Meurthe, but failed of election. In 1856 he became incumbent of the chair of natural and civillaw, a position which he held for thirty years. He became president of the Anti-Atheist League, and took deep interest in the work of the Society for the Translation of the Scriptures, which he joined at its inauguration in 1866. He founded and controlled the Paix Sociale, the organ of the Anti-Atheist League, wrote for the Journal des Débats, and was one of the editors of the Journal des Savants. An active defender of Judaism, his lecture at the Collège de France entitled Le Rôle des Juifs dans le Développement de la Civilisation was reprinted in the Archives Israêlites of 1855, to which journal he contributed for fifty years, and in which he published the two essays De la Création (1845) and Le Péché Original et la Femme (1885). He was a patron of the Société des Etudes Juives, and became its president in 1888. Chosen member of the Consistoire Central des Israélites de France for Nancy in 1844, he soon became its vice-president. Under the empire he was the representative of Judaism at the Conseil Supérieur de l'Instruction Publique, resigning in 1874 on a question of organization. He was also one of the founders and presidents of the Ligue de la Paix.

Franck's work met with speedy recognition. He became chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1844 officer in 1862, and commander in 1869. The revolution of 1870, however, prevented his reaching the Senate, a position to which the emperor had wished to elevate him. [1]

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work is a study by mid-19th century French philosopher Adolphe Franck on the origin of the Hebrew Kabbalah. It is an outstanding English translation, and unlike some works of French philosophers - whose run-on sentences often deter modern English readers - it is a fairly easy book to read. In the first section he introduces the reader to the two basic Kabbalistic texts, the Zohar and the Sefer Yetzirah and discusses the age and authorship of these texts. The second section of the book is devoted to describing the philosophy of the Kabbalah, and in the third section he examines the differing theories on the cultures and/or philosophers who may have inspired the creation of the Kabbalah.

The second section of the book has tremendous value to a reader trying to understand the basics of the Sefiroth, however it is not an in-depth teaching or study of Kabbalistic doctrine. The Merkaba is lightly discussed, but is not a focus point of this section of the book. In hindsight I see that the author devoted so much time to discussing the Sefiroth because the differing theories of the origin of Kabbalistic philosophy center around this facet of doctrine. Past thinkers have noted similarities between the nested trinities of the Sefiroth, and the philosophical/metaphysical ideas of other old world scholars and cultures. For the reader to better understand the reasons why the author hypothesizes the origin of Kabbalistic philosophy coming from a certain source and not from others, it is necessary to know what in particular of the Kabbalah is said to be a derivative of earlier works.

In the third section of the book, the author refutes the theories that the Kabbalah was inspired by Philo, Plato, Gnostic Christianity, Alexandrian Greek philosophy, and in the final chapter makes a convincing case that it came out of the era of the Jewish captivity by Persian/Chaldean culture. During the "Babylonian captivity" of the Hebrew people, they were supposedly defeated and deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar around 600 years BCE and remained through the Babylonian-Persian changeover under rulers Darius and Cyrus. They returned to Israel around a century or so later, and the author hypothesizes their culture was heavily influenced by the Persian culture and takes the reader through a critical analyses of Zoroastrianism and the Zend texts to see the striking parallels between it and the post-Babylonian Hebrew writings of the Talmud & Kabbalistic texts. There does seem to be a much heavier focus on demons and general mystic emphasis among the Hebrew culture that returned from Babylon than the culture that was deported to it, as readers of the biblical new testament and nag hammadi can observe. The author has piqued my interest in this era - of which I know very little - and I hope to learn a little more in the future on the subject.

I am grateful to the author for having presented the material in an unbiased manner, and never giving the impression he was pushing an agenda or trying to win converts to Kabbalistic mysticism. In fact, even after reading this book I'm unsure whether or not the author believes in the ideas which make up the Kabbalah. He presents the material and his own thoughts on the subject well enough to discuss it but remains respectful and humble towards the religions which birthed it. I think too often nowadays people keep a safe and fearful distance between themselves and philosophy, psychology, evolutionary science and religious ideas not their own. However, the mind is a strong organ and it grows when exposed to new ideas. All you can hope for is those who discuss or teach on a new subject try to do so free of bias, emotion, desire for vengeance against a religious system of their upbringing, or the need to strengthen their own beliefs by winning another convert. I know very little of the Kabbalah, but I feel lucky to have introduced to it through a book whose author was from a bygone era where the educated rung of societies still viewed philosophy as a science, a science governed by logic and tempered by the rational method for developing and proposing a hypothesis.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an English translation of a classic late 19th century work on kabbalah originally published in French. Unfortunately, this particular edition of the English translation has had its footnotes expunged limiting the untility of the work for scholarly research.

The book focuses on two primary kabbalistic texts, the Zohar and Sefer Yetsirah. The basic doctrines are explicated. There are occasional anachronisms with references to 16th and 17th century kabbalists juxtaposed with Zohar which is a late 13th century document.

Much of the information in the work is hopelessly outdated after the researches by Gershom Scholem and his students (i.e., Rachel Elior, Moshe Idel) in terms of kabbalah's development, its antiquity, its authenticity, authorship of the Zohar, and other historical questions. The third part of the book is useful in that the parallels between Zohar and Plotinus' Neoplatonic system and Philo are noted, however the conclusions are way off. Franck's assumption is that Zohar is a product of the Tannaim and because Philo nor Alexandrian Jews generally are not mentioned in Mishna nor Talmud, therefore, kabbalah is not imported Neoplatonism.

The final chapter is an interesting hypothesis that is untested by modern scholarship (most having gone with Scholem's theory). The idea is that kabbalah is influenced by Iranian religion. Franck notes parallels between the Avesta and Zohar.

I happen to agree that there is a lot of Persian influence in kabbalah and Rabbinic Judaism generally. I think that the mode of transmission probably was not what is expected and is significantly more complex. No study has been undertaken to prove it, but my hypothesis is that the Merkavah and Heikhalot mysticism (ecstatic mysticism) is very ancient and goes back to late antiquity in Palestine.

As to the philosophic trend in mysticism (doctrine of sefirot, etc.), that is decidedly Neoplatonic and Gnostic in origin and the is ultimately founded in Egypt. For example, Porphyry says that Plotinus' teacher fought in Alexander's army in Asia and learned secrets from the East. Plotinus' philosophy was available in medieval Spain in the form of various Arabic language paraphrases of his work. Furthermore, Gnosticism developed in Egypt under the influence of Persian religious doctrine. It passed into several forms of early Christianity. Furthermore, Persian religion generally was spread throughout the Roman empire by the Roman army (e.g., you find evidence of the cult of Mithras in England of all places). Therefore, there are at least two ways for Gnosticism to find its way into kabbalah. One is simple cultural contact in Roman times, the other is later transmission through Christians or Muslims, who had contact with Gnostic cults in Egypt in the Middle Ages, which in turn influenced Jewish theosophy in medieval Spain.

[Helene · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my resolutions this year was to read a book a month from my unread philosophy/religion/mythology bookcase. (Yes, it's just two shelves, but there it is.) So I am still on track, in fact a bit ahead.

Though I enjoy philosophy, I find it difficult to follow. If I had studied it systematically, I might have a better chance. So, needless to say, I did get lost in some of the philosophy and wished I had a broader background. I think I needed to know much more about Judaism than I do. That said, I did persist. The book is a very scholarly work with many references. I don't feel like I learned enough to even have an intelligent discussion with anyone about the Kabbalah but I do think I would be able to follow a lecture or discussion. I found the third section on the derivation of the work as the most easy to follow.

The author has an extensive knowledge and background and though I'm glad I've read it, I don't believe I will become a scholar.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quite interesting text on the history and beliefs of the Kabbalah. It wasn't as heavy going as I thought it would be and the style was ok to read, although the author occasionally presumed the reader had a more in depth knowledge of the subject. Those bits needed a bit of added back-up from Google! But on the whole a likeable read.

[Shozab Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this enquiry into the Kabbalah, their books, philosophy of unity, infinite intelligence of GOD, and their origin was very fascinating. Although no footnotes and no solid proven facts are there which might lead us to believe that it was not a borrowed philosophy in the medieval times rather than an old mystic doctrine of the elite of Jews which ante dates even the Greeks.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The section which focused on the similarities between the Kabbalah and Zoroastrianism was very interesting.

"... absolute originality is exceedingly rare and perhaps never to be found in metaphysics" (pg. 149).

[Keith · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Hebrew of this Kindle edition has been rendered entirely incomprehensible, apparently due to bad OCR. It is therefore one step above useless.

POSTED: 2016-06-07
EDITED: 2026-03-13 recategorized