Gateway
Who Was Rabbi Isaac Luria?
The Arizal — Visionary Teacher and Spiritual Mystic
Arrival in Safed
In 1570, a young rabbinic mystic called Rabbi Isaac Luria arrived in Safed (Tzfat), in northern Israel. In the brief two years that remained of his life, his impact on a select group of disciples — and through them on Judaism — reverberates to this day. Later referred to as Ari Hakadosh ('Holy Lion'), or Arizal, his comprehensive fusion of kabbalistic theology and practical Judaism was unique, and was eagerly and universally adopted.
Safed in the sixteenth century was the center of a remarkable spiritual revival. The city attracted some of the greatest Jewish minds of the age — Rabbi Joseph Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch; Rabbi Moses Cordovero; and a circle of mystics and scholars who were transforming Jewish law, prayer, and mystical thought simultaneously. Into this extraordinary environment came the young Luria, and within two years he had become its most influential figure.
His Legacy
The Arizal taught almost nothing in writing. His ideas were transmitted orally to his disciples — above all to Rabbi Chaim Vital, who recorded and systematized his teacher's teachings in the vast corpus known as the Kitvei Ari. Through Vital's writings, Lurianic Kabbalah became the dominant form of Jewish mysticism, shaping the prayer rites, customs, and spiritual vocabulary of Jewish communities from Safed to Eastern Europe to Yemen.
Rabbi Dunner's article on the Arizal explores the background behind this heady period of mystical reawakening: why Safed became the headquarters of this revival; who the key figures in the movement were; and what exactly the Arizal taught that made his influence so profound and so lasting.
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Read Rabbi Dunner's Article
A detailed exploration of the Arizal's life, the world of sixteenth-century Safed, and the legacy of Lurianic Kabbalah.