Encyclopædia Britannica, First Edition/Cabbala
CABBALA, according to the Hebrew ſtyle, has a very diſtinct ſigniſication from that wherein we underſtand it in our language. The Hebrew cabbala ſignilies tradition; and the rabbins, who are called cabbaliſts, ſtudy principally the combination of particular words, letters, and numbers, and by this means pretend to diſcover what is to come, and to ſee clearly into the ſenſe of many difficult paſſages in ſcripture: There are no ſure principles of this knowledge, but it depends upon ſome particular traditions of the ancients; for which reaſon it is termed cabbala.
The cabbaliſts have abundance of names, which they call ſacred: Theſe they make uſe of in invoking of ſpirits, and imagine that they receive great light from them: They tell us, that the ſecrets of the cabbala were diſcovered to Moſes on mount Sinai; and that theſe have been delivered down to them from father to ſon, without interruption, and without any uſe of letters; for to write them down, is what they are by no means permitted to do. This is likewiſe termed the oral law, becauſe it paſſed from father to ſon, in order to diftinguiſh it from the written laws.
There is another Cabbala, called artificial, which conſiſts in ſearching for abtruſe and myſterious ſignifications of a word in ſcripture, from whence they borrow certain explanations, by combining the letters which compoſe it: this cabbala is divided into three kinds, the gematrie, the notaricon, and the temura or themurah. The firſt whereof conſiſts in taking the letters of a Hebrew word for ciphers or arithmetical numbers, and explaining every word by the arithmetical value of the letters whereof it is compoſed. The ſecond ſort of cabbala, called notaricon, conſiſts in taking every particular letter of a word for an entire diction; and the third, called themurah, i.e. change, conſiſts in making different tranſpoſitions or changes of letters, placing one for the other, or one before the other.
Among the Chriſtians likewiſe, a certain ſort of magic is, by miſtake, called cabbala, which conſiſts in uſing improperly certain paſſages of ſcripture for magic operations, or in forming magic characters or figures with ſtars and taliſmans.
Some viſionaries, among the Jews, believe, that Jeſus Chriſt wrought his miracles by virtue of the myſteries of the cabbala.