Isaac ben Solomon Luria

Isaac ben Solomon Luria (1534-72), called ha-Ari (“the lion,” also a Hebrew acronym for “the godly Rabbi Isaac”), rabbi and mystic, who founded an influential school of Kabbalistic thought, Lurianic Kabbalah (see Kabbalah).

Luria was born in Jerusalem and raised in Egypt, becoming adept in Jewish legal and mystical learning. In 1570 he moved to Safed in Galilee, which had become an important center of Kabbalistic activity. There he studied with the eminent Kabbalist Moses ben Jacob Cordovero. He also began to expound his own original system of thought. Luria's teaching activity was cut short, for he died in an epidemic on August 5, 1572. Because he left no expository writings from this period, his thought is known today from the writings of his disciples, notably those of Hayyim Vital. Luria held that God, as well as Israel, was in need of redemption from exile, and that humanity was assigned the critical role in the cosmic drama of redemption (tiqqun). By proper meditation and prayer and rigid observance of the commandments, humanity could redeem the sparks of divine light imprisoned in the world at creation, thus reunifying the Godhead. Luria's thought provided the basis for transforming the Kabbalah into a popular, messianic movement that infused the rabbinic tradition and affected all Jewry, paving the way for Sabbatian messianism (Sabbatai Zevi) in the 17th century and Hasidism in the 18th century.