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Kabbala Sages of Safed |
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Rabbi Chaim Vital Rabbi Chaim Vital (sometimes referred to as Rabbi Chaim Vital Calabrese, since his family was from Calabria, Italy) was born c. 5303 (1543 CE). Rabbi Chaim is renowned primarily as the recorder and editor of the teachings of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, although he himself was also an accomplished kabbalist and writer. Rabbi
Chaim’s father, Rabbi Yosef was famed as an expert scribe whose tefillin
were much sought after, having been written in holiness and purity, and with
special kabbalistic intentions. Rabbi Yosef Caro said in the name of his maggid
(an angelic teacher) that half the world existed by virtue of Rabbi Yosef
Vital’s tefillin. Rabbi
Chaim studied the revealed aspects of Torah under Rabbi Moshe Alshich, one of
the foremost rabbis in Safed. Rabbi Yosef Caro, at the behest of his maggid,
advised Rabbi Alshich to invest as much effort in his young student as
possible, for he would be Rabbi Caro’s successor. Rabbi Chaim studied Kabbala
under the leading kabbalistic luminary in the world at that time, Rabbi Moshe
Cordovero (Ramak). One of the senior kabbalists living in Safed, Rabbi
Shabtai Lapidot, recognizing that Rabbi Chaim was destined for greatness, urged
the young man to extract himself from all worldly matters and devote himself to
the study of Kabbala, promising him that he would reach unimaginably lofty
levels. Indeed,
in the year 5329 (1569 CE), at the relatively young age of 26, Rabbi Chaim
began writing a commentary on Zohar, the primary text of Kabbala,
according to the teachings of Ramak. However, by the following year
Rabbi Chaim’s life took a completely different direction. In
the year 5330 (1570 CE) Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (the Arizal) came to Safed
from Egypt. Initially Rabbi Chaim was not attracted to the Arizal, but
after the passing of his teacher, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, he became attached to
the Arizal, quickly becoming his chief disciple. He tells that Ramak
appeared to him in a dream a few months after his passing, and when Rabbi Chaim
adjured him to tell him the truth – whether they studied Kabbala according to
his system or according to the Arizal’s in the Heavenly Academy – his
former teacher replied. “Both approaches are true. However, my approach is the
simple one, suitable for beginners in the wisdom of Kabbala, whereas the
teachings of your teacher [the Arizal] are deeper and are the primary
approach. I, too, in the Heavenly Academy, study only according to the approach
of your master.”[1] Rabbi
Chaim describes his initiation into the Arizal’s new approach to Kabbala
as follows: “When I [first] came to my teacher of saintly memory [the Arizal]
to study this wisdom under him, he was about to leave for Tiberius. He took me with
him. We boarded a boat, and as we were sailing [across the Kinneret] at a point
opposite the arches of the Old Synagogue of Tiberius, my teacher dipped a cup
into the water and gave it to me to drink. He told me that now I would be able
to grasp this wisdom [the teachings of Kabbala] for I had just drunk water from
the well of Miriam [which is buried in the Kinneret]. From that time on I began
to enter the depth of this wisdom.”[2] Rabbi
Chaim remarked[3] that the
works of earlier kabbalists, from after the Ramban [Nachmanides,
4955-5030 (1195-1270 CE)] until the Arizal, were built on mortal intellect,
whereas the teachings of his master, the Arizal, were revelations
received by the Arizal through Divine inspiration (ruach HaKodesh). Within
a year of his initiation into the Arizal’s teachings, Rabbi Chaim had
become famous throughout Israel and the Diaspora as one of the great
kabbalists. When the Arizal passed on in 5332 (1572 CE), a mere two
years after Rabbi Chaim had begun studying with him, Rabbi Chaim was almost
universally regarded as his successor. The
Arizal was not accustomed to record his teachings in writing. Many of
his disciples, however, recorded his oral teachings, despite the Arizal’s
explicit prohibition to do so. He had given only Rabbi Chaim permission to
record his teachings. After the Arizal’s passing, Rabbi Chaim gathered
all their manuscripts and began editing and organizing them. He began teaching
the kabbalistic insights he had received from his master to his many disciples
and thus he became the revered leader of a significant group of kabbalists. He
also gained a reputation as a miracle worker, a healer and a master of
practical kabbala. He was able to discern the nature and history of the souls
of men. In
5347 (1587 CE) Rabbi Chaim was appointed a leading judge in the rabbinical
courts in Jerusalem by his teacher, Rabbi Moshe Alshich. He remained there for
several years and then returned to Safed. He moved to Damascus in 5354 (1594)
where he passed away in 5380 (1620 CE) at the age of seventy-seven.[4] |
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