Renaissance magic
Hayyim Vital
Chaim Vital · Hayyim ben Joseph Vital
Luria's principal student, and the reason there is a Lurianic literature at all. Almost everything the tradition knows of Luria's teaching passes through his writing.
- Dates
- 1542 – 1620
- Dating
- documented dates
- Born
- Safed
- Died
- Damascus
The life
He studied with Luria for under two years, spent decades writing the teaching up, and controlled access to it closely.
Place in the tradition
Pri Etz Chaim and Etz Chayim are the channel through which Safed reached the rest of the Jewish world, and eventually the Christian Hebraists.
a note on the record
History and later legend
He is an interested witness: the question of how much of the Lurianic system is Luria's and how much is Vital's is a real one and is not closed.
the written record
Principal works
-
compiled from Luria's teaching, c. 1573–1620; printed 1782
Pri Etz Chaim
פרי עץ חיים
Vital's arrangement of the Lurianic teaching on prayer and the commandments, and the source this site cites for the seven weeks of the Omer.
held in the source catalogue Read at sefaria.org ↗