View source for Isaac Luria

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Short description|Rabbi and Kabbalist (c.1534–1572)}}
{{redirect|Itzhak Luria|the Israeli swimmer|Itzhak Luria (swimmer)}}
{{For-text|a character in The X-Files episode|[[Kaddish (The X-Files)]]}}
{{Infobox Jewish leader
| honorific-prefix = Rabbi
| name = Isaac Luria
| title = Ha'ari<br /> Ha'ari Hakadosh<br /> Arizal
| image = File:רבי משה.JPG
| caption = The grave of Isaac Luria in Safed
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| birth_date = 1534
| birth_place = [[Jerusalem]], [[Damascus Eyalet]], [[Ottoman Syria]], [[Ottoman Empire]]
| death_date = July 25, {{death year and age|1572|1534}} (5 [[Av (month)|Av]] 5332 [[Anno Mundi|AM]])
| death_place = [[Safed]], Damascus Eyalet, Ottoman Syria, Ottoman Empire
| buried = Old Cemetery of Safed
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| signature = Isaac Luria signature.svg
}}
'''Isaac ben Solomon Ashkenazi Luria''' ({{langx|he|יִצְחָק בן שלמה לוּרְיָא אשכנזי}}; {{circa|1534}}<ref name="FINE_2003_pp24">[[#FINE_2003|Fine 2003]], p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=B2o8vqvrQOcC&pg=PA24 24]</ref>{{spaced endash}}July 25, 1572<ref name=haaretz/>), commonly known in Jewish religious circles as '''Ha'ari''',{{efn|[[Hebrew]]: האר״י, meaning "the Lion"; derived from the acronym for "Elohi Rabbi Itzhak" (the Godly Rabbi Isaac) or "Adoneinu Rabbeinu Isaac" (our master, our rabbi, Isaac). Sometimes known as '''the Ari''' in English.'''<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Falcon |first1=Ted |title=Judaism for Dummies |last2=Blatner |first2=David |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|John Wiley & Sons, Inc.]] |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-119-64307-4 |edition=2nd |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |pages=76 |oclc=1120116712 |author-link2=David Blatner}}</ref>'''}} '''Ha'ari Hakadosh'''{{efn|[[Hebrew]]: האר״י הקדוש, meaning "the Holy Lion"}} or '''Arizal''',{{efn|[[Hebrew]]: אר״י ז״ל, meaning "the Lion of [[Zikhrono Livrakha|Blessed Memory]]"<ref name="safed-kabbalah.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.safed-kabbalah.com/Arizal/Biography.htm |title=Rabbi Yitzchak Luria Ashkenazi |publisher=Ascent of Safed |access-date=January 2, 2009 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108032153/http://www.safed-kabbalah.com/Arizal/Biography.htm |archive-date=January 8, 2009 }}</ref>}} was a leading [[rabbi]] and [[Jewish mysticism|Jewish mystic]] in the community of [[Safed]] in the [[Galilee]] region of [[Ottoman Syria]], now Israel. He is considered the father of contemporary [[Kabbalah]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Eisen |first=Yosef |title=Miraculous Journey: A Complete History of the Jewish People from Creation to the Present |year=2004 |publisher=Targum Press |location=Southfield, Mich. |isbn=1568713231 |page=213 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7lsVajEtaQ0C |access-date=December 2, 2018 |edition=Rev.}}</ref> his teachings being referred to as [[Lurianic Kabbalah]].

While his direct literary contribution to the Kabbalistic school of Safed was extremely minute (he wrote only a few poems), his spiritual fame led to their veneration and the acceptance of his authority. The works of his disciples compiled his oral teachings into writing. Every custom of Luria was scrutinized, and many were accepted, even against previous practice.<ref name="safed-kabbalah.com" />

Luria died at Safed on July 25, 1572, and is buried at the [[Safed Old Jewish Cemetery]].<ref name="safed-kabbalah.com"/><ref name=haaretz>{{cite news |last1=Green |first1=David B. |title=1572: Father of Lurian kabbala and confidant of Elijah dies |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-1572-father-of-lurian-kabbala-dies-1.5414884 |access-date=25 July 2021 |work=Haaretz |date=25 July 2016 |language=en}}</ref> The [[Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue]], also located in Safed, was built in memory of Luria during the late 16th century.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lJXA9TvyB8MC&pg=PA59 |page=59 |title=Bar and Bat Mitzvah in Israel: The Ultimate Family Sourcebook |first1=Judith |last1=Isaacson |first2=Deborah |last2=Rosenbloom |publisher=Israel Info-Access |year=1998 |isbn=9780966087703}}</ref>

== Early life ==
{{Kabbalah}}
[[File:Letter to 'The Holy Ari'.jpg|150px|thumb|alt=A letter sent to Luria while he lived in Egypt.|A letter sent to Luria while he lived in Egypt]]
Luria was born in 1534 in [[Jerusalem]]<ref name="FINE_2003_pp24"/> in what is now the [[Old Yishuv Courtyard]]<ref name="safed-kabbalah.com"/> to an [[Ashkenazi]] father, Solomon, and a [[Sephardic]] mother.<ref name="FINE_2003_pp29">[[#FINE_2003|Fine 2003]], {{cite book |last1=Fine |first1=Lawrence |title=Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and his Kabbalistic Fellowship |date=2003 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-4826-1 |page=29 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2o8vqvrQOcC&pg=PA29 |language=en}}</ref>

''Sefer HaKavanot U'Ma'aseh Nissim'' records that one day, Luria's father remained in the [[synagogue]] alone, studying, when the prophet [[Elijah]] appeared to him and said, "I have been sent to you by the Almighty to bring you tidings that your holy wife shall conceive and bear a child, and that you must call him Yitzchak. He shall begin to deliver the believers from the [[qlippoth]]. Through him, numerous souls will receive their [[Tohu and Tikkun|tikkun]]. He is also destined to reveal many hidden mysteries in the [[Torah]] and to expound on the ''[[Zohar]]''. His fame will spread throughout the world. Take care therefore that you not circumcise him before I come to be the [[Sandek|Sandak]] [who holds the child during the [[brit milah]] ceremony]."<ref name="safed-kabbalah.com"/>

While still a child, Luria lost his father and was raised by his rich maternal uncle Mordechai Frances, a [[Iltizam|mültazim]] (tax farmer) from [[Cairo]] in [[Ottoman Egypt]]. His uncle placed him under the best Jewish teachers, including the leading rabbinic scholar [[David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra]].<ref name="FINE_2003_pp29"/> Luria showed himself a diligent student of rabbinical literature and under the guidance of another uncle, [[Bezalel Ashkenazi]], best known as the author of the ''Gathered Method'' ({{langx|he|שיטה מקובצת}}), he became proficient in that branch of Jewish learning.<ref name="FINE_2003_pp31-32">[[#FINE_2003|Fine 2003]] {{cite book |last1=Fine |first1=Lawrence |title=Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and his Kabbalistic Fellowship |date=2003 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-4826-1 |pages=31–32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2o8vqvrQOcC&pg=PA31 |language=en}}</ref>

At the age of fifteen he married a cousin, the daughter of Mordechai Frances, and being amply provided for financially he was able to continue his studies. Around the age of twenty-two he became engrossed in the study of the ''Zohar'', a major work of the [[Kabbalah]] that had recently been printed for the first time, and adopted the life of a recluse. Retreating to the banks of the [[Nile]] for seven years, he secluded himself in an isolated cottage, giving himself up entirely to meditation. He visited his family only on [[Shabbat]]. But even at home, he would not utter a word, even to his wife. When it was necessary for him to say something, he would say it in the fewest words possible,<ref name="safed-kabbalah.com"/> and then, only in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.safed-kabbalah.com/Arizal/Biography.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108032153/http://www.safed-kabbalah.com/Arizal/Biography.htm | archive-date=January 8, 2009 | url-status=usurped | title=The Essence }}</ref>

==Teachings==
[[File:Safed BW 2.jpg|thumb|135px|right|Ark in the [[Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue]]. Luria was called ''Ha'ari'', "the Lion".]]

In 1569, Luria moved back to the [[Jerusalem Sanjak]], and after a short sojourn there, where his new kabbalistic system seemed to have met with little success, he settled in the [[Safed Sanjak]]. [[Safed]] in the [[Galilee]] had become a center for kabbalistic studies over the previous decades, led by [[Moses ben Jacob Cordovero]].<ref name="FINE_2003_pp1">[[#FINE_2003|Fine 2003]], {{cite book |last1=Fine |first1=Lawrence |title=Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and his Kabbalistic Fellowship |date=2003 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-4826-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2o8vqvrQOcC&pg=PA1 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia">{{cite web |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10192-luria#anchor4 |title=Isaac ben Solomon Ashkenazi Luria (ARI) |publisher=JewishEncyclopedia.com |access-date=December 2, 2018}}</ref> There is evidence that Luria also regarded Cordovero as his teacher: [[Joseph ben Isaac Sambari|Joseph Sambari]] (1640–1703), an Egyptian chronicler, testified that Cordovero was "the Ari's teacher for a very short time".<ref>[[#SAMBARI_1673|Sambari 1673]], p. 64</ref> Luria probably arrived in early 1570, and Cordovero died on June 27 that year (the 23d day of Tammuz).<ref name="FINE_2003_pp80-81">[[#FINE_2003|Fine 2003]], pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=B2o8vqvrQOcC&pg=PA80 80-81]</ref> Bereft of their most prominent authority and teacher, the community looked for new guidance, and Luria helped fill Cordovero's former role.{{cn|date=July 2021}}

Soon Luria had two classes of disciples: novices, to whom he expounded elementary kabbalah, and initiates, who became the repositories of his secret teachings and the formulas and intentions of prayer. The most renowned of the initiates was [[Hayyim ben Joseph Vital]], who, according to his master, possessed a soul that Adam's sin had not soiled.<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia" /> With him, Luria visited the grave of [[Shimon bar Yochai]] and those of other eminent teachers; it is said that these graves were unmarked, but through the mystical guidance given by Elijah, each grave was recognized.

Luria's kabbalistic circle gradually widened and became a separate congregation in which his mystic doctrines were supreme, influencing all the religious ceremonies. On Shabbat, Luria dressed himself in white and wore a [[Tallit#Tallit katan|fourfold garment]] to signify the four letters of the [[Tetragrammaton]].{{cn|date=July 2021}}

Many Jews who had been exiled from Spain following the [[Expulsion of Jews from Spain]] believed they were in the time of trial that would precede the appearance of the [[Messiah]] in Galilee. Those who moved to [[Damascus Eyalet]] in anticipation of this event found a great deal of comfort in Luria's teachings due to his theme of [[galut|exile]]. Although he did not write down his teachings, they were published by his followers and by 1650 his ideas were known by Jews throughout Europe.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Karen Armstrong |last=Armstrong |first=Karen |title=[[The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism]] |publisher=[[Ballantine Books]] |year=2001 |pages=8–14}}</ref>

Luria delivered his lectures spontaneously, without ever writing down his ideas (with a few exceptions, including kabbalistic poems in rabbinical [[Aramaic]] for the Shabbat table). The foremost advocate of his kabbalistic system was Vital, who collected all the disciples' lecture notes. Numerous works were produced from these notes, the most important of which was the ''[[Etz Chaim (book)|Etz Chaim]]'', "Tree of Life", in eight volumes (see below). Originally, it circulated only in manuscript copies. Each of Luria's disciples had to pledge—under pain of excommunication—not to allow any copy be made for a foreign country, so that for a time all the manuscripts remained in Ottoman Syria. Eventually, one was brought to Europe and was published at [[Zolkiev]] in 1772 by [[Isaac Satanow]].<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia" /> In this work, both the theoretical and the [[Jewish meditation#Kabbalah|devotional-meditative]] teachings of [[Lurianic Kabbalah]], based on the [[Zohar]], are elaborated upon.{{cn|date=July 2021}}

[[Tzimtzum]] was one of Luria's most important ideas that he stressed in his lectures.<ref name=":0" />

== Disciples ==
* [[Hayyim ben Joseph Vital]]
* [[Israel Sarug]]
* [[Samuel ben Isaac de Uçeda]]
* {{Ill|Joseph Ibn Tabul|fr}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== Citations ==
{{reflist|35em}}

== References ==
* {{cite book |title=Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: ''Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship'' |last=Fine |first=Lawrence |year=2003 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford, CA |isbn=0-8047-4826-8 |pages=480 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2o8vqvrQOcC |access-date=December 2, 2018 |ref=FINE_2003}}
* {{cite book |first=Eliahu |last=Klein |title=Kabbalah of Creation: The Mysticism of Isaac Luria, Founder of Modern Kabbalah |location=Berkeley |publisher=North Atlantic Books |year=2005 |isbn=1-55643-542-8}}
* {{cite book |first=Yosef |last=Avivi |title=Kabbala Luriana |volume=3 |location=Jerusalem |publisher=Ben Zvi Institute |year=2008 |isbn=978-965-235-118-0 |language=he}}
* {{cite book |title=Sefer Divrei Yosef |author=Joseph ben Isaac Sambari |orig-year=1-23-1673| year=1994 |publisher=Ben Zvi Institute |location=Jerusalem |ref=SAMBARI_1673}}
* {{cite book |title=Window of the Soul. The Kabbalah of Rabbi Isaac Luria |first=James David |last=Dunn |year=2008 |publisher=WeiserBooks |location=San Francisco, CA/Newburyport, MA |isbn=978-1-57863-428-6}}

== External links ==
{{Commonscat}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190910154215/http://truekabbalah.com/ ''Shaarei Kedushah'' - Gates of Holiness in English]
* [https://www.ou.org/judaism-101/bios/leaders-in-the-diaspora/rabbi-yitzchak-luria-the-ari/ Orthodox Union page on Rabbi Isaac Luria – The Ari]
* [https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111878/jewish/Rabbi-Isaac-Luria-The-Ari-Hakodosh.htm Short biography of Rabbi Isaac Luria – The Ari Hakodosh]
* [https://jewishhistorylectures.org/2014/01/09/rabbi-isaac-luria-the-arizal-jewish-biographies-lecture/ Video lecture on Rabbi Isaac Luria] by [[Henry Abramson|Dr. Henry Abramson]]
* [https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-MOSSERI-III-00232/1 Letter, written and signed by Isaac Luria, from the Cairo Genizah]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160308094956/http://hibba.org/node/399 Traditional Sphardi Singing of Luria's Yom Zeh L'Yisrael]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111213180611/http://www.kabbalah-arizal.nl/eng.html Centre for Lurian Kabbalah]
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Luria, Isaac ben Solomon}}

{{Authority control}}{{Acharonim}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Luria, Isaac}}
[[Category:Isaac Luria| ]]
[[Category:1534 births]]
[[Category:1572 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century rabbis from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:16th-century Jewish theologians]]
[[Category:Ashkenazi Jews from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Kabbalists]]
[[Category:Rabbis in Ottoman Galilee]]
[[Category:Rabbis in Safed]]
[[Category:Burials at the Old Jewish Cemetery, Safed]]
[[Category:Sephardi Jews from the Ottoman Empire]]