[44] That is, of course, the 17th century.—Trans.
[45] Baalshem is one who occupies himself with the practical Cabbalah, that is, with the conjuration of spirits and the writing of amulets, in which the names of God and of many sorts of spirits are employed.
[46] As I never attained the rank of a superior in this society, the exposition of their plan cannot be regarded as a fact verified by experience, but merely as an inference arrived at by reflection. How far this inference is well founded, can be determined merely by analogy according to the rules of probability.
[47] The ingenuity of this interpretation consists in the fact, that in Hebrew נגן may stand for the infinitive of play, as well as for a musical instrument, and that the prefix כ may be translated either as, in the sense of when, or as, in the sense of like. The superiors of this sect, who wrenched passages of the Holy Scriptures from their context, regarding themselves as merely vehicles of their teachings, selected accordingly that interpretation of this passage, which fitted best their principle of self-annihilation before God.
[48] Maimon in a footnote here refers, by way of a parallel, to the interpretation by a Catholic theologian of a passage in Ezekiel (xliv., 1-2) as an allegorical prophecy of the Virgin Mary; but most readers will probably prefer to leave the exposition of the allegory to the imagination of those who choose to follow it out.—Trans.
[49] A trait of these, as of all uncultivated men, is their contempt of the other sex.
[50] Of this class I became acquainted with one. He was a young man of twenty-two, of very weak bodily constitution, lean and pale. He travelled in Poland as a missionary. In his look there was something so terrible, so commanding, that he ruled men by means of it quite despotically. Wherever he came he inquired about the constitution of the congregation, rejected whatever displeased him, and made new regulations which were punctually followed. The elders of the congregation, for the most part old respectable men, who far excelled him in learning, trembled before his face. A great scholar, who would not believe the infallibility of this superior, was seized with such terror by his threatening look, that he fell into a violent fever of which he died. Such extraordinary courage and determination had this man attained merely through early exercises in Stoicism.
[51] Born 1720; died 1797. See Jost's Geschichte des Judenthums, Vol. iii., pp. 248-250.—Trans.
[52] Exodus, iii., 13, 14.
[53] These names are taken from Maimoniana, p. 108.—Trans.