CHAPTER XVII
The Zohar and Later Mysticism
Kabbala.—The Bahir—Abulafia—Moses of Leon.—The Zohar.—Isaac Lurya.—Isaiah Hurwitz.—Christian Kabbalists—The Chassidim.
Mysticism is the name given to the belief in direct, intuitive communion with God. All true religion has mystical elements, for all true religion holds that man can commune with God, soul with soul. In the Psalms, God is the Rock of the heart, the Portion of the cup, the Shepherd and Light, the Fountain of Life, an exceeding Joy. All this is, in a sense, mystical language. But mysticism has many dangers. It is apt to confuse vague emotionalism and even hysteria with communion with God, A further defect of mysticism is that, in its medieval forms, it tended to the multiplication of intermediate beings, or
