ר׳ משה קורדובירו

ר׳ משה קורדובירו (1522–1570), universally known as הרמ״ק, was the foremost systematizer of pre-Lurianic Kabbalah in sixteenth-century Safed. His family name points to Iberian origins, but his birthplace is unknown and almost all secure biographical evidence concerns Safed. He studied Talmud and halakhah under ר׳ יוסף קארו, from whom he received semikhah, and began intensive kabbalistic study at age twenty with his brother-in-law ר׳ שלמה הלוי אלקבץ. He served Safed as a dayan and rosh yeshiva while gathering a major mystical school. His students included ר׳ אליהו די וידאש and, briefly at the end of his life, ר׳ יצחק לוריא. פרדס רימונים, completed by age twenty-seven, organized earlier Zoharic and kabbalistic traditions into a coherent speculative system. אילימה רבתי developed that synthesis further, while אור יקר offered a vast running interpretation of the Zohar. תומר דבורה translated his theology into an enduring programme of ethical imitation of the divine attributes. His system remained foundational even after Lurianic Kabbalah reshaped Safed’s mystical language. He died there on 25 June 1570.