Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (the Arizal)

Birth in Yerushalayim

Rabbi Yitzchak Luria was born in Yerushalayim in 5294 (1534). His father, Rabbi Shlomo, came from the distinguished Ashkenazi Luria family, which traced its descent to Rashi, while his mother came from the Sefardi Francis family. He later signed his name "Yitzchak Luria Ashkenazi," and his title "Ari" (lion) is usually explained as an acronym of "HaElokei Rabbi Yitzchak" or "Ashkenazi Rabbi Yitzchak." Chassidic tradition relates that Eliyahu HaNavi appeared to his father and told him that the son to be born would bring great light to the world, and that Eliyahu himself served as sandek at his bris.

When he was about eight, his father passed away. His mother, unwilling to live on charity, took him to Egypt, where her wealthy brother Rabbi Mordechai Francis took the family in.

Years of learning in Egypt

In Egypt the young Yitzchak showed extraordinary brilliance in Gemara and halacha. He learned under the Radbaz, the leading rabbi of Egyptian Jewry, and with Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi, author of the Shitah Mekubetzes, whose name "Ashkenazi" he is said to have kept out of respect. At around fifteen he married his uncle's daughter, and he supported himself in business; documents from the Cairo Genizah show him trading in pepper and grain.

In his early twenties he turned to the hidden Torah. According to the accounts of his disciples, he spent some six years studying the Zohar in seclusion, and then about two more years almost entirely alone in a hut on the banks of the Nile, returning home only for Shabbos and speaking little even then. It is told that during those years Eliyahu HaNavi revealed himself to him and taught him the secrets of the Torah.

To Tzfas

Around 5330 (1570), at Divine prompting according to tradition, he moved to Tzfas in the Galil, which had become the greatest center of Torah and Kabbalah in the world. Rabbi Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch, lived there, as did Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (the Ramak), the leading Kabbalist of the time. The Arizal joined the Ramak's circle quietly and studied with him for a few months. When the Ramak passed away later that year, it is told that the Arizal saw a pillar of fire before the bier, a sign known only to the one destined to succeed him, and the community recognized him as the new teacher.

Rabbi Chaim Vital and the Chevraya

Around him gathered a small group of disciples known as the "gurei HaAri," the lion's cubs. Chief among them was Rabbi Chaim Vital. Tradition holds that the Arizal told him he had come to Eretz Yisroel only in order to transmit his wisdom to him. The Arizal hardly wrote anything himself, saying that the flood of insight was too great to set down on paper. Rabbi Chaim Vital recorded the teachings, which were later arranged into the Kisvei HaArizal: Etz Chaim, Pri Etz Chaim, Sha'ar HaKavanos, Sha'ar HaGilgulim and others.

The Arizal was famed for ruach hakodesh. Tradition relates that he understood the speech of birds and trees, could read a person's past lives and sins in his forehead, and identified the forgotten resting places of many Tannaim and Amoraim around the Galil, establishing the map of kevarim that pilgrims follow to this day. He and his students would go out to the fields on Erev Shabbos to welcome the Shabbos Queen, a custom that shaped the Kabbalas Shabbos service recited in every shul.

A new language of the soul

The Arizal's teachings describe how Hashem "withdrew" His infinite light (tzimtzum) to make room for creation, how the vessels of an earlier world shattered (shevirah) and scattered holy sparks throughout existence, and how every Jew, through Torah, mitzvos and prayer, gathers and elevates those sparks toward the final tikkun. He taught detailed kavanos for every prayer and mitzvah, explained the chain of gilgulim (reincarnations), and gave each soul its particular mission. His siddur rite, Nusach HaArizal, became the basis of Nusach Sefard and of Nusach Ari used by Chabad, and the Baal Shem Tov's Chassidus is built entirely upon his foundations.

His influence reached far beyond the circle of Kabbalists. Many of his personal practices, recorded by his students, entered halachic literature: the Magen Avraham, the Be'er Heitiv and later the Mishnah Berurah cite his customs again and again. Familiar parts of Jewish life, such as the order of Kabbalas Shabbos, the Aramaic zemiros sung at the Shabbos meals, Tikkun Chatzos at midnight, the Tikkun Leil Shavuos and the arrangement of the Seder plate, owe their form to his teaching.

Passing in Menachem Av

Only about two years after arriving in Tzfas, an epidemic swept the city. The Arizal fell ill and passed away on 5 Menachem Av 5332 (1572), at about thirty-eight years old. His disciples recorded that he spoke to them of a heavenly reason for his early passing and urged them to remain united. He was laid to rest in the old cemetery of Tzfas, near the Ramak, and his kever, the nearby mikveh and the two shuls named after him remain among the most visited holy places in Eretz Yisroel.