Abulafia (flourished 1240 c.E.) and one of his students, Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla of Castile.

 

 

Mathematics of the Cabala

 

We turn now to a discussion of the mathematics of the Cabala. The ancient Hebrews

used anagrams, termed Temura, and Gematria, a system whereby each letter of the alpha-

bet was assigned a number or digit, creating secret codes and metaphors. Under Cabal-

ism, these codes and metaphors became very highly refined and were communicated

only to those initiated into the traditions. Similarly, within the Templar Order, the same

set of codes and metaphors was used and it was relayed only to initiates into the order.

To represent God, the Cabalists used, at various times, an Aleph ( N ), a Yod ( 1 ) or a

Shin ( Iff ); sometimes God would be represented by a point within a circle or a triangle.

Hence the intersecting triangles of the Star of David, standing for God’s heavenly and

earthly presence (above and below).

 

The Cabala also developed a series of images and calculations based on what is

termed “sacred geometry”: the principles of Pi ( tt ), Phi d (the base of natural log-

arithms), and i ( -1). It is very likely that the Jews of ancient Judea originally acquired

this knowledge from the Greeks when they were conquered by Alexander the Great in

the 4th century B.C.E., though some may have been acquired from the Egyptians. After

the Greek conquest and during the rule of the Antiochene successors to Alexander’s

empire, many Jews became Hellenized, even adopting Greek names, customs, language

and literary conventions (Biale 2002, pp. 77-134).

 

Also incorporated within the Cabala were Fibonacci numbers, the geometric pro-

gressions that govern the natural growth of populations, for instance, cell division. The

Cabala also featured geometric figures such as the pentagram, pentagon, and “golden”

isosceles triangles, which make use of phi mathematics. The decagon, or ten-sided fig-

ure, also adhered to the phi principle. Further, the Pythagorean theorem, the Golden Mean

and the Golden Right Triangle of Phi were well known by the Cabalists and favored in

their designs. From these were developed what are perhaps the most profound Cabalis-

tic symbols: the Pyramid/Tree of Fife and the Sephirotic Tree. These symbols were

enlarged to incorporate the Star of David equilateral triangles.

 

If you will refer to chapter 7 on Glasgow and environs and re-examine the images

in the photographs of Cowane’s Hospital and cemetery in Stirling, you will see that some

of this symbolism appears in them. In the next chapter we will find several more exam-

ples of Cabalistic emblems and designs, including the ceiling at Fyvie Castle outside

Aberdeen.

 

 

Chapter 9

 

 

The Judaic Colony at Aberdeen

 

 

It is now time for us to venture up to Aberdeen in the northeast corner of Scotland.

As seen on the accompanying map, Aberdeen is bordered by the North Sea and has direct

shipping channels to Norway, Sweden, France, Denmark, Russia, the Baltic Sea, Ger-

many and Poland. From the 1100s onward — and perhaps even before — Aberdeen was

trading with all of these countries and had established companies, even factories, in each.

By 1200 c.E., it was the third wealthiest city in Scotland, despite its northern location,

relative isolation from the rest of Scotland, and having only the eighth rank in popula-

tion. Why?

 

We propose that Aberdeen’s phenomenal growth as a trading center and financial

capital was due to the fact that it was a Crypto- Jewish burgh. It is very likely that all the

dominant families in the city, from 1100 to the 1800s, were of Jewish descent, originat-

ing early on from southern France, then from England after the 1290 expulsion, and

finally, 1492 onward, from the Iberian peninsula and shifting safe-havens of the Sephardic

Diaspora. The DNA results from prominent Aberdeen families discussed in chapter 2

already support this proposition, but we will now develop a different line of evidence,

one based on religious practices, marriage patterns and burial customs. This evidence,

we believe, will document conclusively that Aberdeen and its environs were solidly Judaic

in culture.

 

Let us begin with the mysterious “St. Machar, ” to whom not one, but two, parishes

were dedicated in the dawn of Aberdeen history (Morgan 2000). As Morgan cogently

observes, there is no written or archeological record of a saint named Machar, at least no

Roman Catholic St. Machar, ever setting foot in Aberdeen, or Scotland for that matter.

What does exist, however, is a church in Old Aberdeen dedicated to a “St. Machar”

around which prominent members of the citizenry have been buried since its founding,

this despite the fact that “we can never know exactly how, when or by whom St. Machar ’s

Cathedral was established” (p. 13). We can only make educated guesses.

 

The candidate we would like to examine is the Davidic-descended master teacher

of the Jewish community in Provence in southern France whose title was, in fact,

Machar (Benbassa 1999) and who was active there during the appropriate timeframe.

 

This spiritual leader, Machar, would have been the central figure to persons practicing

Judaism in France in the time just before the migration by Jews to Britain with William

the Conqueror in 1060 C.E. To dedicate a religious center to this man would be very much

in keeping with contemporaneous Talmudic practice of naming religious sites after their

 

Arctic Circle

Iceland

Faroe Islands

Shetland Islands

Orkneys

Norway

 

founders. The sole remaining artifact from the original place of worship (ca. 1100) is a

section of stone from the top of a column carved in a “dog-tooth” pattern (Morgan 2000,

p. 16). This pattern is consistent with contemporaneous images found in Islamic and

Jewish manuscripts and mosaics.

 

 

Images of a Jewish Presence

 

We will next present a series of images found in and around Aberdeen and place

them in a context of Judaic/Islamic aesthetics. We believe a compelling case can be made

that Aberdeen did serve as a center of Jewish worship and culture during the time period

1100-1750 c.E., in other words, from Norman to Georgian times, when the status and num-

ber of Jews in the British Isles was first brought into the open and they began to be inte-

grated into a “desacralized” British state (Endelman 1979).

 

At the time the “Jew Bill” was debated in England around 1750, many Scottish

Crypto-Jews must have preferred to remain underground, especially as they already

enjoyed not only full rights as citizens, but an active engagement in politics and nation-

alism denied to their counterparts in other countries. Others undoubtedly lapsed or con-

verted, without ever becoming labeled “ex-Jews.” In Spain and Portugal, on the other

hand, Jewish origins had long become enshrined in the caste system. Jews were branded

as conversos or remembered as coming from “New Christian” families for more than 400

years.

 

 

Kings College Chapel

 

On page 85 of Morgan’s 2000 study is an illustration of a carving completed on the

north side of Kings College Chapel at Aberdeen University in 1506. The text labels this

as a “conservation cross, ” but it is in fact a Cabalistic image. Also within Kings College

Chapel a re other carvings on wooden panels in prominent Judaic and Islamic motifs

(Morgan 2000, pp. 93, 96). Similarly, the Findour Panel from the Great Hall at Kings Col-

lege (now in the Chapel) has an Islamic/Judaic motif, together with a Templar geomet-

ric symbol on the heraldic shield.

 

Within St. Machar’s Church nearby is a heraldic ceiling with geometric squares, tri-

angles and rectangles which is also Judaic and Islamic in inspiration. A patterned ceiling

closely resembling it was constructed by the same craftsman, believed to be from the

Netherlands, John Fendour or Ferdour, in St. Nicholas Kirk in Aberdeen around 1510.

Keith (1988, p. 53) reports that in 1740 the grave at St. Nicholas Kirk of a Sir Robert

Davidson, who died in 1411, was opened during construction “and his remains found,

with a small silk skull cap that had been on his head when he was buried. The cap, unfor-

 

 

Opposite top: “Dog-tooth” column fragment from St. Machar Cathedral, ca. 1100 c.E. Sketch by Eliz-

abeth Caldwell Hirschman. Bottom: Contemporaneous “dog tooth” mosaic patterns from the Moor-

ish Real Alcazar, Granada, Spain. Photograph by Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman.

 

Top: “Conservation Cross’VMoorish-Judaic motif, Aberdeen University, 1506. Sketch by Elizabeth

Caldwell Hirschman. Bottom: King’s College ceiling decor. Courtesy of Aberdeen University.

 

tunately, was given away.” The cap’s description corresponds to that of a kipah, the Jew-

ish male’s headgear worn in temple visits, during prayer and upon his death. The kirk

apparently was being used for Jewish burials.

 

 

Fyvie Castle

 

Fyvie Castle, just outside Aberdeen, was owned by the Gordon and Seaton families

dating from the 1300s. We found it to be a virtual trove of Judaic, Cabalistic and Islamic

imagery. Several Islamic crescents were carved or painted at prominent places in the cas-

tle, including on coats of arms, above stairways, and on wooden divider panels and screens.

The ceilings at Fyvie were also remarkable for their geometric and floral Islamic and Judaic

designs. But the most intriguing of the ceilings is in the entrance hall. Inside a set of inter-

locking equilateral triangles are clearly depicted symbols of the Cabalah Sephirotic Tree.

Compare these with the Cabalistic adaptation of the same image (chapter 6).

 

 

Top: Fyvie Castle wood panels with Islamic cres-

cents and 5 points of Islam flowers motif. Left:

Sephirotic Tree Cabalah image. Fyvie Castle

entrance hall. Both sketches by Elizabeth Cald-

well Hirschman.

 

Royal Images and Coins

 

Also suggestive of a Judaic or Cabal-

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