ר׳ יצחק לוריא אשכנזי

ר׳ יצחק לוריא אשכנזי (1534–1572), the האר״י הקדוש or אריז״ל, was the formative teacher of Lurianic Kabbalah. Born in Jerusalem to an Ashkenazi father and Sephardi mother, he lost his father while young and was raised in Cairo by his maternal uncle Mordecai Frances. He studied rabbinic law with leading Egyptian scholars, including ר׳ בצלאל אשכנזי, while undertaking extended solitary study of the Zohar near the Nile. After returning to the Land of Israel in 1569, he settled in Safed, where ר׳ משה קורדובירו briefly influenced him before the latter’s death. During only about two years of public teaching, he gathered a circle known as the גורי האר״י, with ר׳ חיים ויטאל as principal recorder. His oral system recast Kabbalah around צמצום, שבירת הכלים, תיקון, פרצופים, גלגול, and precise liturgical כוונות. He wrote very little himself; works commonly called “the writings of the Ari,” including עץ חיים and שער הכוונות, were arranged from the notes of ר׳ חיים ויטאל and later transmitters and must not be mistaken for autograph books. The system transformed Sephardi devotion, Jewish liturgy, messianism, and later Hasidism. He died in Safed during an epidemic on 5 Av 5332 and was buried in the city’s ancient cemetery.