The Connection Between Neoplatonism & Kabbalah

Plato is a foundational figure in Western civilization. His theory of the Forms inspired much philosophy, theology, literature and art. His vision of reality was hierarchical: the Good gives rise to the pure forms in the realm of Ideas, the physical world being a reflection of these forms, inferior to them. The person devoted to truth through contemplation will move from the physical world to the purer forms, ultimately to the Good.

One school of Plato’s thought, Neoplatonism, started by Plotinus in the third century CE, viewed reality as a series of cascading emanations, from the One to the Many, from the Spiritual to the Material. The aim of the philosophical life, again, was to ascend from the lower domains to the higher, ultimately to the One, through contemplative practice.

Neoplatonism became important to spiritual seekers among pagans, Jews, Christians, and Muslims over the centuries. The greatest of the Jewish Neoplatonists was the medieval poet-philosopher, Solomon ibn Gabirol.

The Kabbalah, and in particular, the version found in the 12th century Zohar (Book of Splendor) has much in common with Neoplatonists. The Zohar holds that the Eyn Sof (the Infinite) reaches down into the world through a hierarchy of spheres (the sepherot) before entering our world. The vocation of the mystic is prayerful meditation, moving up through the spheres, and so from the dark, evil, and physical to the light, good, and spiritual, gradually ascending to union with G-d (the Infinite).

In the 15th century, in Renaissance Florence, Lorenzo de Medici wanted to beautify his city, inspired by the ideas of the ancients, especially Plato.  During the late Middle Ages, Plato had been eclipsed by his student, Aristotle. So, by creating a Platonic Academy in Florence, Lorenzo hoped to spark something new, through a return to the teachings of Aristotle.

One of these Platonists was an extraordinary young scholar, Pico della Mirandola. He became fascinated with both Neoplatonism and Kabbalah, among many other subjects. The idea of spiritual ascent found in both systems would, he felt, liberate the human spirit. He thought that a study of Jewish mystical texts could serve as a basis for a revitalized Christianity. Tragically, Pico died very young in the mid-1490s.

One of his northern contemporaries was the German, Johannes Reuchlin. Inspired by Pico, he came to believe that the study of Hebrew language was key to being a good Christian. Reuchlin wrote a grammar and dictionary of Hebrew — a landmark of the Renaissance. He also was drawn to the Kabbalah and other ancient texts in his search for esoteric knowledge.

Both Mirandola and Reuchlin were Christian humanists. Both got in trouble with the Christian authorities for their particular interest in Jewish and other non-Christian texts. Both gave birth to something new — the Christian cabala.

Christian cabala lasted a few centuries before merging with Hermeticism and other mystical practices. However, the legacies of Pico della Mirandola and Johannes Reuchlin can be found in Christian scholarship, and in particular, their devotion to Hebrew (and Aramaic) texts, as well as to the study of the languages themselves.

We owe to them both a rich tradition of Christian scholarship of Jewish religious texts, and to a devotion to the Hebrew language itself. Some of the finest Biblical lexicons and Hebrew grammars were written by Christian scholars.