Renaissance magic
Isaac Luria
the Ari · Ha-Ari ha-Kadosh · Yitzhak ben Shlomo Luria
Taught in Safed for about two years, wrote almost nothing, and reorganised Kabbalah around withdrawal, catastrophe and repair — tzimtzum, the breaking of the vessels, and tikkun.
- Dates
- 1534 – 1572
- Dating
- documented dates
- Born
- Jerusalem
- Died
- Safed
The life
He arrived in Safed around 1570 and died of an epidemic in 1572, aged thirty-eight.
Place in the tradition
Lurianic Kabbalah is what most later Jewish mysticism means by Kabbalah, and the cosmic reading of exile and repair is its lasting contribution.
a note on the record
History and later legend
Nearly everything attributed to him was written by students after his death, chiefly Hayyim Vital, and the versions do not all agree.