Isaac Luria

Isaac Luria (1534–August 5 1572) was a Jewish scholar and mystic who was secretly believed by some to be the messiah. In many ways he is the founder of Judaism's Kabbalah in its modern form; modern Jewish mysticism is often referred to as Lurianic Kabbalah.

Early life

He was born at Jerusalem in 1534 to an Ashkenazi father and a Sephardic mother; died at Safed, Israel August 5 1572. While still a child he lost his father, and was brought up by his rich uncle Mordecai Francis, tax-farmer at Cairo, Egypt, who placed him under the best Jewish teachers. Luria showed himself a diligent student of rabbinical literature; and, under the guidance of Rabbi Bezalel Ashkenazi (best known as the author of Shittah Mekubetzet), he, while quite young, became proficient in that branch of Jewish learning.

Related Topics:
Jerusalem - 1534 - Ashkenazi - Sephardic - Safed - August 5 - 1572 - Cairo - Egypt - Bezalel Ashkenazi - Shittah Mekubetzet

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At the age of fifteen he married his cousin, and, being amply provided for, was enabled to continue his studies. Though he initially may have pursued a career in business, he soon turned to asceticism and mysticism. About the age of twenty-two years old, he became engrossed in the study of the Zohar, a second-century work of Kabbalah which had recently been printed for the first time, and adopted the life of a recluse. He retreated to the banks of the Nile, and for seven years secluded himself in an isolated cottage, giving himself up entirely to meditation. He visited his family only on the Shabbat, speaking very seldom, and always in Hebrew. Such a mode of life could not fail to produce its effect on a man endowed by nature with a lively imagination. Luria became a visionary. Through this ascetic life he was able to have frequent interviews with the prophet Elijah, by whom he was initiated into sublime doctrines. He asserted that while asleep his soul ascended to heaven and conversed with the great teachers of the past.

Related Topics:
''Zohar'' - Kabbalah - Nile - Shabbat - Hebrew - Elijah

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