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First attempt at a comprehensive, scientific description of the beginnings and contents of the Kabbalah in popular form by Adolphe (Jacob) Franck. Originally written in French as La Kabbale ou philosophie religieuse des hebreux (Paris, 1843), it was translated into Hebrew by Mordecai ben Meir Robinson. In the last (third) part Franck examines the religious and philosophic doctrines with which the Kabbalah has some traits in common (Platonism, the Alexandrinian school, the teachings of Philo, Christianity, the religions of the Chaldeans and the Persians). Two discussions on the Hasidim and the Frankists are appended. Franck's premises and hypotheses (early date for the beginnings of the Kabbalah; authenticity of Sefer Yezirah; Persian influence) were strongly opposed (by Steinschneider, Jellinek, Jost, and Joel, among others). This is considered Franck’s most important work in the field of Jewish studies.
Adolphe (Jacob) Franck (1809–1893), French philosopher and writer. Franck, who was born at Liocourt, studied Talmud under Marchand Ennery, and later studied medicine and philosophy. He taught philosophy at several lycees (from 1840 in Paris) and lectured at the Sorbonne. In 1844 he was elected to the French Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, later being appointed to the CollIge de France as extraordinary professor of ancient philosophy (1849–52) and professor of natural and international law (1854–86). In 1850 he represented the Jewish faith on the Conseil Superieur de l'Instruction Publique. He was vice-president of the Consistoire Israelite and later president of the Alliance Israelite Universelle. Franck took part in the activities of the French society for the translation of the Bible and the Societe des Etudes Juives (whose chairman he became in 1888). In 1870 he interceded in Bucharest with Prince Carol in favor of the Rumanian Jews. Franck, who defended Judaism in several works, conceived it as an idealistic expression of monotheism and vigorously opposed pantheism, atheism, materialism, and communism. He established and managed the journal of the anti-atheistic league, La Paix Sociale, was coeditor of the Journal des Savants, and contributor to the Journal des Debats and the Archives Israelites. His works on general philosophy and the history of philosophy include: Esquisse d'une histoire de la logique (1838); Le communisme jugM par l'histoire (1848); Philosophie de droit penal (1864), in which Franck and others put the case against capital punishment; Philosophie du droit ecclesiastique (1864); La philosophie mystique en France B la fin du XVIIIe siIcle (1866); Philosophie et religion (1857); and Philosophes modernes (1879); he also edited the Dictionnaire des sciences philosophiques (6 vols., 1844–52; 1885).
Other works of Jewish scholarly content are: Sur les sectes juives avant le christianisme (1853); La religion et la science dans le judaisme (1882); and Le pantheisme oriental et le monotheisme hebreu (1889). His articles on Jewish subjects (all of which appeared in Archives Israelites) include: "De la Creation" (1845); "Le rZle des juives dans la civilisation" (1855); and "Le peche original et la femme" (1885).
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