Bamidbar Rabbah, chap. 75.

“And Solomon’s wisdom excelled” (1 Kings iv. 30).  Thou findest that when Solomon desired to build the Temple he sent to Pharaoh Necho a request to send him artisans on hire.  Pharaoh assembled his astrologers, who pointed out to him such artisans as were destined to die in the course of that year, and these he despatched to Solomon; but he, through the Holy Ghost, seeing the fate that impended, provided each of them with a shroud and sent them back to Pharaoh with the message, “Hast thou no shrouds in which to bury thine own dead?  Behold here I have provided them with them!” “For he was wiser than all men” (1 Kings iv. 31); “than all men,” even than the first man, Adam.

Yalkut Eliezer, fol. 65, col. 2, n. 36.

“Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God” (Isa. xliii. 12).  Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai expounds these words thus, “If ye are My witnesses, then I am God; but if ye are not My witnesses, then I am not God.”

Yalkut Jethro, n. 271.

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter” (Eccles. xii. 13).  Thou shalt ever hear the Law, even when thou dost not understand it.  “Fear God,” and give thy heart to Him.  “And keep His commandments,” for on account of the Law the whole world was created, that the world should study it.

Koheleth, as given in Tse-enah Ure-enah.

THE KABBALA

“The words of the wise and their dark sayings” (Prov. i. 6).

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The Hebrew word Kabbal means “to receive,” and its derivative, Kabbalah, signifies, “a thing received,” viz, “Tradition,” which, together with the written law, Moses received on Mount Sinai, and we are told in the Talmud, Rosh Hashanah, fol. 19, col. 1, i.e., “The words of the Kabbalah are just the same as the words of the law.”  In another part of this work we have seen that the Rabbis declare the Kabbalah to be above the law.

The Kabbalah is divided into two parts, viz, the symbolical and the real.

THE SYMBOLICAL KABBALAH

This teaches the secret of mystic sense of Scripture, and the thirteen rules by which the observance of the law is, not logically, but Kabbalistically expounded; viz, the rules of “Gematria,” of “Notricon,” of “Temurah,” etc.  To give some idea of this kind of exposition, we will explain each of these three rules in a manner which, though in the style of the Rabbis, will easily be understood by the Gentile reader.