Introduction
The following is an obscure tale from the notes of masonic history which I first found uncovered in the work of researcher Peter Lanchidi, from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. The story of David Rosenberg, Hungarian rabbi, artist, and freemason, appears to have long gone unnoticed, perhaps now to be finally appreciated.
Rosenberg was born in 1793 and received enough formal education in his youth to work as a rabbi (albeit at a time when standards for such training were not uniformly in place). After spending some time in London, he moved, at the age of twenty-one, to Germany. There he remained until 1827, when he relocated again; this time to the Netherlands.
In Germany, he had been, because of his religion, denied admission to Freemasonry—a discourtesy he would never forget. Dutch lodges, however, recognized no such prejudice and he was initiated into the fraternity right away. Rosenberg would continue to travel, next to Brussels and finally to Paris. In Paris, is where his story would really begin.
Arriving in Paris in the summer of 1830, he immediately affiliated with a masonic lodge, first joining the famous Loge des Trinosophes of Jean-Marie Ragon and later, the well heeled Les Chevaliers Croisés. In Masonry, his knowledge of Hebrew language and customs, particularly Kabbalah, was valued as an asset. He was esteemed among his brethren as both an artist and a learned rabbi.
His connections in Masonry likely secured his relatively comfortable employment at the Royal Library as a calligrapher. Rosenberg seemed to be enjoying the benefits of a fine reputation, both among freemasons and within the Jewish community.
Napoleon and “Regeneration”
By 1830 however, the high ideals of the French Revolution had still not been fully realized. The noble cause of equality for all citizens proved especially difficult to secure. For France’s considerable Jewish population, the situation was strange. Before the Revolution, they were not even counted as citizens. Jewish inequality became the subject of national debate. Some believed the only fair course was to unequivocally grant them equal rights as citizens. Some held the exact opposite position; that Jews were inherently “degenerate” and so incapable and unworthy of equal citizenship. Others struck a middle course. They believed Jews could, by spiritual, physical, and moral improvement, become worthy citizens. This idea came to be known as Jewish “regeneration.”
Following the Revolution’s overthrow of the king, French Jews were granted citizenship. However, the true equality of their citizenship was unclear. Under Napoleon, Jewish “regeneration” became an official state position. Citizenship for Jews was conditional; contingent on their fitness for French society.
They were discouraged from Jewish cultural practices that were strange to French norms. Laws were passed requiring Jews to intermarry with Christians. Within the Jewish community, a small but vocal reform movement often voiced extreme positions, advocating for radical changes to tradition and attacking any who disagreed. For many, it was a challenge to balance gratitude for the rights they gained with trepidation over the ones they appeared to be giving up in exchange. This is the social climate into which Rosenberg would introduce his most important work.
Rosenberg’s Lithograph
In 1841, responding to radical reformists, Rosenberg designed and produced a detailed and exquisite engraving, along with an explanatory text, Survey of the origin of the Hebrew religion. With the piece and its accompanying document, he hoped to show that Jewish tradition did not need to be changed. The socially progressive rabbi was, in matters concerning his own religion and the preservation of tradition, quite conservative. He offered Kabbalah as a key to understanding the symbolic meaning of the traditions. To the Jewish intelligentsia of the time however, Kabbalah had fallen out of favor and represented an embarrassing, obsolete view of the world. To Rosenberg’s great disappointment, his offering was not well received by the Jewish community.
So then why tell the story of a minor rabbi and talented but unheralded artist whose greatest work was rejected? Well, because the work wasn’t rejected; at least, not entirely. Though it was thoroughly unregarded by the Jewish community for whom it was originally intended, Rosenberg’s lithograph enjoyed a far better reception with another audience. One particular group received the work with great excitement. That group, you may have guessed, was Freemasonry.
Freemasonry and Kabbalah
After finding no audience with the Jewish leaders, Rosenberg turned his attention elsewhere. If his modest lineage as a rabbi failed to impress the cosmopolitan rabbis of Paris, it was of no concern to the mostly gentile freemasons, who received him as an expert on Hebrew culture.
He produced a new text to accompany the engraving, which he titled, Explanation of an Engraving on the Origin of the Jewish Religion, as Connected with the Mysteries of Freemasonry. In this second text, he explained the imagery of the same lithograph in masonic terms. He thoroughly relates the symbols of Kabbalah to the signs, offices, and symbols of Freemasonry. These interpretations, presented as original wisdom, are almost certainly of his own creation or personal collection. This should not be read as an indictment; in fact, it’s the point.
His explanations are–in line with contemporary thinking of the time–essentially deist interpretations, preaching the revelation of divinity in nature, and its observability through science. Rosenberg’s explicit reference to current issues and allusions to the diminished state of custom and ritual, make his work timely and topical.
What would explain a conservative defender of tradition like Rosenberg, knowingly and intentionally trying to introduce new ideas? Could it be that the redressing of old symbols with contemporary meaning is the richest tradition of all? In the same region of France where a young Napoleon won the decisive battle that launched his military and political ascent, the twelfth century rabbis of Provence, in response to a similar challenge six hundred years earlier, gave Kabbalah some of its earliest expression.
A Tradition of Preserving Tradition
The philosopher Maimonides (1138-1204) would—centuries before French reformists—question the validity of many traditions in light of a rational worldview. The kabbalists, however, made it their duty to defend tradition. Rather than either agree to change materially, or stubbornly refuse to accept new ideas, they instead reimagined their old symbols and customs to represent those new ideas. This not only preserved tradition, but for many who had become disenchanted with outmoded thinking, it reinvigorated it. For some, the symbols had real meaning for the first time. Rosenberg seemed to be attempting to similarly reinvigorate Jewish tradition in nineteenth century France. In the prospectus for the his work, Rosenberg wrote, “our religion is paralysed” further explaining:
If you think deeply, [it seems] excusable, because the true purpose of many practices is incomprehensible. The priesthood has lost the primitive idea which animated it two thousand years ago; the ideas of past centuries, poorly understood, have become childish for many, and the crowd wanted to reject them.
If that sounds to you like a statement which could easily pertain to Freemasonry, Rosenberg certainly agreed. His presentation to a masonic audience was strikingly similar, where he wrote “the Royal Art [ie. Freemasonry] is paralyzed” and, changing only a few operative terms, proceeded with virtually the same language.
Progress and Tradition
What Rosenberg seemed to believe about both Kabbalah and Freemasonry was this: the tradition is the reinterpretation of tradition. This, at least, is not something he made up. Italian rabbi and kabbalist Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (1707-1746) explained:
[T]he essential [Kabbalistic] secrets were hinted to by our Sages with concepts brought from nature or science, using techniques taught by the contemporary scientists of those generations. However, the key [point] is not the nature or science, rather it is the secret that they wanted to hint at with it. Therefore the accuracy of the hinted concept is not added to or detracted from if the analogy it is presented with, is true or false. The objective was to present the secret within the context of what was well-known by the scholars of that generation. The concept could have been presented differently in the context of what is well-known in other generations, and the [kabbalist] would do so himself were he to express it in those generations.
Modern Freemasonry, with its “religion upon which all Men agree,” similarly looked to incorporate the progressive thinking of the time—natural philosophy, history, and science—into the prevailing religious and cultural symbols. The book Long Livers, written by an anonymous freemason and popular when first published in 1716, provides the following:
“…the Religion we profess, which is the best that ever was, or is, or can be; and whoever lives up to it can never perish eternally, for it is the Law of Nature, which is the Law of God, for God is Nature.”
Whether or not you appreciate Rosenberg’s art or agree with his interpretations of masonic symbols is not the point. He understood what the early kabbalists accomplished in the Middle Ages and saw its analog in the freemasons of Enlightenment Europe.
Symbolic Meaning
The symbols of Kabbalah and Freemasonry easily correspond to each other because, as Rosenberg realized, they explain the same phenomena. The phenomena of existence and living, of growth and development, of birth, life, and death. Our understanding of the world around us will continue to change but the reality behind it never will. The symbols of Kabbalah and Masonry are meant to portray the eternal, perfect truth, but we can only explain them with the best truth we know, which, though always improving, will always be temporary and incomplete.
As freemasons, we have a responsibility to care for the heritage entrusted to us. Our traditions are important, they connect us to each other—past, present, and future. We shouldn’t allow the symbols to become meaningless for current and future generations. The only way to ensure they are preserved and passed along is to ensure they are always relevant and valued.
Bibliography
- Ergas, Rabbi Yosef, and Avinoam Fraenkel. Shomer Emunim: The Introduction to Kabbalah, 2025.
- Lanchidi, Peter. “Between Judaism and Masonry: The Double Interpretation of the Kabbalistic Lithography of David Rosenberg, Survey of the Origin of the Hebrew Religion(1841).” Revista de Estudios Históricos de La Masonería Latinoamericana y Caribeña Plus , January 1, 2023.
“Kabbalah and Jewish Religious Reform in the Paris of the July Monarchy: Rabbi David Rosenberg’s Aperçu de l’origine Du Culte Hébraïque (1841).” Revue Des Etudes Juives, January 1, 2024. - Longeville, Harcouet De. Long Livers: A Curious History Of Such Persons Of Both Sexes Who Have Liv’d Several Ages And Grown Young Again: With The Secret Of Rejuvenescency Of Arnoldus De Villa Nova. Legare Street Press, 2022.
- Sepinwall, Alyssa Goldstein. “‘Napoleon, French Jews, and the Idea of Regeneration,’ in CCAR Journal 54 [Special Issue on Sanhedrin Bicentennial] (Winter 2007), 55 – 76.” Academia.edu, June 5, 2016. https://www.academia.edu/25899124/_Napoleon_French_Jews_and_the_Idea_of_Regeneration_in_CCAR_Journal_54_special_issue_on_Sanhedrin_Bicentennial_Winter_2007_55_76.
