Cabala, Cabal

( Script. ) A Hebrew word signifying the body of generally received tradition by which the Rabbis interpreted the canonical Scriptures. According to their belief, the unwritten tradition, or Masora, had been handed down in regular succe ion from Moses, who received it on Mount Sinai. To this tradition frequent reference is made in the teaching of Christ, as in the Sermon on the Mount, .; and on it the Pharisees rested their claim to authority as interpreters of Scripture. As the Masora gives the literal explanation of the language of Scripture, so the Cabala reveals the hidden truths of which it is the symbol. Every sentence, word, and letter of the inspired volume contains, according to these interpreters, a figurative as well as a direct sense. The former is not uncommonly manifold; and a word may be interpreted according to the arithmetical power of the letters which compose it, which species of C. is called gematria; or according to the meaning of each individual letter, the entire word thus constituting a sentence, which is called notaricon; or, finally, according to certain transpositions of the letters, which is denoted by the term themurah. The system seems to have been an invention of the philosophizing Jews of the latter centuries preceding our era, with the view of accommodating the speculations of the Gnostics to the religion of the Old Testament. Cab'alism, 17. The secret science of the cabalists. Cab'alist, n . One who is skilled in the cabala, or mysteries of Hebrew tradition.