For more information on Isaac ben Solomon Luria, visit Britannica.com.
Isaac Luria
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Isaac ben Solomon Luria |
| Encyclopedia of Judaism: Isaac Luria and Lurianic Kabbalah |
Isaac Luria (1534-1572 (known as the Ari, acronym of the Hebrew for "the Divine Rabbi Isaac," was the founder of Lurianic Kabbalah. Very little is known about his life before he went to Safed in 1570. He was raised in Egypt, and probably was a scholar and merchant. The Safed mystics later attributed to him many legends, and the first extensive Hebrew hagiographic cycle of stories was composed around his personality. In Safed he had a small group of disciples, the most prominent of whom was R. Ḥayyim Vital, who later wrote the main works of Lurianic Kabbalah. Luria and Vital tried to keep the new revelations a secret, having no intention of publishing them. After Luria's death, Vital collected the notes written by the other disciples and forbade them to write anything or to study this Kabbalah except in his presence. Two of them did not comply with this command, and so there are two other versions of Luria's teachings which can be compared with Vital's writings.
Legend has it that when Vital was ill his manuscripts were stolen from his home and copied, and that in this way Luria's ideas began to spread in the last decade of the 16th century. Luria himself wrote almost nothing; he explained this by saying that when he held a pen visions appeared before him like a great river and he could not channel this river through the slender pen in his hand. Luria's mysticism is based on vast, dynamic pictures which do not readily lend themselves to translation into formal sentences and paragraphs. The works of his disciples are, therefore, only remnants and glimpses of his mystical vision.
Luria was unique among Jewish mystics in that he did not rely on the traditions of a particular school of Kabbalah as did other kabbalists whose views were bolstered by the tradition received from their teachers. For his disciples, the truth of his revelations was attested by his personality and not by the reputation of his teacher or teacher's teacher. In this sense, Luria was the first charismatic kabbalistic visionary, to be followed later by Nathan of Gaza, the prophet of Shabbetai Tsevi, and by the Ba'Al Shem Tov, the founder of ḥasidism.
Luria's early death in a plague at the age of 38 presented a religious problem to his disciples: Judaism generally believed that early death was a Divine punishment for a very grave sin. Was Luria a sinner? One view suggested that Luria had indeed committed a sin by revealing to his students the great Divine secrets which should have remained only in his heart.
Luria and his circle should be regarded as being caught up in the intense messianic expectations which prevailed in Safed from the beginning of the 16th century. His contribution, however, was in his weaving these messianic elements into a vast cosmic mystical myth which encompassed the whole past, present, and future of the Divine and earthly realms.
Luria introduced into the Kabbalah three basic terms, which comprise the three main elements of the mythology presented by his mystical visions: tsimtsum (contraction), shevirah (breaking [of the vessels]), and tikkun (mending or correcting).
Early Kabbalah and the Zohar begin their account of the emergence of Divine and earthly existence with the appearance, within the eternal Godhead, of the first idea, or the will to create something outside Himself. Luria, however, starts his myth one step before this. He asks the seemingly logical question: how could God contemplate creation of something outside Himself when there was nothing, no place or space, outside Himself? Before such a wish could be contemplated, the Godhead had to create a certain space which is not filled with the pure Divine essence.
The process of the emergence of the empty space is called by Luria the tsimtsum, i.e., the contraction of the Godhead into Himself, contracting away from a certain space in His "middle." This term was used in ancient Midrash to denote the contraction of God into the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem, but Luria utilized it in the opposite sense: the Godhead contracted Himself away from the empty space into Himself. To some extent the process of tsimtsum can be regarded as an exile: the first act in the history of existence is God's exile.
After this stage, the process of emanation and Creation could progress: a narrow ray of Divine light emanated from God, the én-S0f, entering the primordial space, the tehiru, and began to take the form of the huge anthropomorphic figure of the Divine emanations, the Sefirot. Here, however, a catastrophe occurred: the attempt was not successful, the Divine emanated powers disintegrated, and destruction replaced creation. This catastrophe was called by Luria the shevirah (or shevirat ha-kelim), the breaking of the Divine vessels. The vessels, failing to contain within them the Divine light which flowed into them, broke apart, their fragments dispersing, and the Divine light inside rose back to the Godhead.
The most important element in Lurianic Kabbalah is the explanation given to this catastrophe. It is unimaginable that the Godhead could not create vessels strong enough for their purpose. Why was the Divine plan confounded? The works of Vital and other disciples of Luria contain several explanations, but the true one seems to be that the vessels contained certain different, potentially evil powers which refused to take part in the positive process of Creation. The shevirah is thus the result of a rebellion which occurred within the Divine realm and caused the destruction of the attempt to emanate the Sefirot.
This rebellion provides the key to a new explanation for the previous stage, that of the tsimtsum. This was not just a technical stage which was intended to create an empty space in which Creation could proceed. It was a necessary Divine process of purification, for deep within the Godhead, before the tsimtsum began, there was not complete unity, but only some Divine elements which, potentially, were different from the others. The tsimtsum was intended to separate these two varieties of potential Divine essence. Lurianic Kabbalah describes this by depicting the tsimtsum as emptying a bucket of water: the walls of the bucket remain wet, some water clings to the sides. This "remnant" of Divine light after the tsimtsum is the "impression" which remained following the tsimtsum. The different Divine elements within the Godhead were separated and remained in the "impression." Thus, the tsimtsum achieved its purpose: the Godhead was now "clean" of the different elements, which were concentrated on the "walls" of the empty space.
The process which culminated in the shevirah was intended by the Godhead to achieve a more ambitious goal than the separation between the different elements within Him. It was an attempt to eliminate the difference, to make the two separate Divine essences work together toward a common goal, and thus to unite them into one entity.
In the Divine realm there can be no differentiation between essence and function: if two Divine powers fulfill the same function, they are one and the same. If the Godhead had succeeded in causing the powers now residing within the reshimu (an inchoate mixture that will provide the future universe with matter) to participate in the process of emanation of the world of the Sefirot, and later in the Creation of heaven and earth, then the differences would have been erased and the true unity of the Divine realm established.
From a theological point of view, the shevirah in Lurianic Kabbalah expresses the emergence of the inherent Dualism of good and evil, which existed potentially within the Godhead, into actual existence. Luria's mythological daring is revealed in this system, which does not hesitate to stipulate the existence of at least some sort of dualism within the Godhead before Creation or emanation ever began. The source of Evil is as Divine as the source of good; both existed within the eternal Godhead and came into actual being in the tsimtsum and the shevirah.
The most meaningful concept that Lurianic Kabbalah introduced into Jewish mysticism, and into Jewish culture as a whole, is that of the tikkun, the mending or correcting of the catastrophe of the shevirah. This concept revolutionized the Kabbalah not only because it contained all the elements of messianic Redemption, but more than that, because it turned the face of the Kabbalah toward historical activity and transformed kabbalistic mystical symbols into historical forces. This occurred because Lurianic Kabbalah was the first Jewish theology that maintained that true Divine unity cannot be found in the past, in the beginning; it will only emerge at the end, when the duality of existence is "mended," when the process of the tikkun is complete. Now the mystic could look only toward the future when searching for spiritual perfection. Looking into the future enables the mystic to participate in historical activity, to work towards the achievement of that desired unity.
According to the unfolding Lurianic myth, after the shevirah the Godhead again emanated a ray of light which gave shape to the world of the Divine powers, this time without the participation of the reshimu elements. The Divine world thus emanated was in conflict with the independent realm of evil which was below it. A struggle began in which the evil powers derived their strength from the many "sparks" of Divine light which fell together with them into the abyss in the shevirah. According to Lurianic Kabbalah (following ancient Neoplatonic concepts), existence is derived only from good Divine light; without its sustenance, nothing can exist for even a moment. Evil, therefore, does not have an independent source of being; it must rely on Divine light captured from the good powers. These captive "sparks" of Divine light, which crave to return to their original position within the realm of good, are the reason for the struggle between good and evil, and as long as they are kept in captivity by the forces of Satan, evil can exist and prosper.
History, according to Luria, is the story of the repeated attempts of the Godhead to bring about the tikkun and to free the captured sparks. The world was created and Adam placed in the
God then chose a people as his tool to bring about the tikkun---he chose Abraham and the people of Israel. After the Jews were delivered from the captivity in Egypt and assembled near Mount Sinai, a great opportunity to achieve the tikkun was reached; everything was ready, most of the sparks in evil captivity had been freed, and when the Torah was given to Moses the victory of the good powers was imminent. Then the Jews committed the sin of the Golden Calf and again a fierce shevirah occurred, many new sparks fell into the abyss, and the forces of evil increased their hold over the created world. In a similar way all history is interpreted by Lurianic Kabbalah as chapters and episodes in this constant mythological struggle.
The task of the tikkun has been given, since the creation of the world, to Man, and especially to the people of Israel. Lurianic Kabbalah is anthropocentric, giving Man a key role not only in deciding his own fate but at the same time in deciding the fate of the world, of the cosmos, and, indeed, of the Divine realm itself. The true unity of God can be achieved only by the works of Man; God, in this sense, is dependent on Man's deeds.
Religious life as a whole is the main tool or weapon in Man's struggle to bring about his own and God's redemption. Every commandment, every ethical deed, even every good thought or intention, is related to this struggle. When a Jew pronounces a blessing, or helps his poor brother, or prays with a pure heart, or eats a ceremonial meal, a spark is set free from the captivity of evil. The opposite is also true. When a man commits a sin, or transgresses one of the ritualistic or ethical commandments, or has an evil thought, another good spark (from his Divine soul) is captured by the evil powers, sustains them, and strengthens them. Every moment in Man's life is a part of this constant, unending struggle. No one and nothing can be neutral, because everything one does or does not do has a meaning in the framework of this mythical war. It does not matter whether a person is a mystic or not; what he does always counts and always influences the fate of the captured sparks and the future of the cosmos. One cannot resign from this task; a Jew is born into it, and even if he converts to another religion he is still a part of this struggle.
Lurianic Kabbalah thus places a very heavy burden on its believers. Luria and his disciples, like many others at that time, believed that redemption was imminent, and that the Messiah might appear in their lifetime. This meant that every single deed and thought could be the last decisive one in the history of the tikkun. One small sin of any individual could delay the redemption, while every ethical deed may be the last, freeing the last spark from captivity and bringing forth the complete tikkun. The resultant sense of responsibility is enormous. At every moment each Jew is responsible not only to himself, but to the people as a whole, the world, the cosmos, and even to God's fate. Evil. cannot be attributed to any external, ungovernable force; Man can and should overcome it by the power of religious adherence, and if it continues to exist, he alone is to blame. In this sense Luria's system is the first Jewish nationalistic ideology in early modern times. It gives the people of Israel a distinct, unique purpose, with the tool to carry it out, the Torah, and communal responsibility for achieving it.
Lurianic Kabbalah is clearly messianic, in the sense that it puts the redemption at the center of its message. Luria's disciples believed in the messianic role of Luria himself. However, in the Lurianic system there is no place for the individual Messiah; he has no specific role to play. The tikkun will be achieved by the combined efforts of all Jews, and the coming of the Messiah will be the result, not the cause, of this effort.
Luria's extreme mythological system was revolutionary in nature. It is, therefore, paradoxical that its main message to the Jewish people is a conservative, Orthodox one. The belief in Lurianic Kabbalah, when translated into everyday behavior, is anything but revolutionary. In order to participate successfully in the mythological struggle between good and evil and bring about the true unity within the Godhead a Jew has to follow the traditional laws of Jewish Halakhah and ethics. Luria and his disciples did innovate some customs and rituals and developed a whole system of mystical intentions during prayers that assist in the process of the tikkun. These innovated rituals are not normative; the tikkun can and will be achieved by following the traditional demands of the Torah and Talmud. In this sense Lurianic Kabbalah is revolutionary in its ideas and terminology but conservative in its actual, behavioral message. It does not preach a new way of life but gives renewed meaning and a novel sense of purpose to those continuing in the old way.
This strong element of Orthodoxy in Lurianic Kabbalah can explain the fact that even though Luria's terminology and mythological expressions were foreign to many Jews, no controversy arose around his teachings, and in the first half of the 17th century Lurianism spread rapidly throughout the Jewish world, reaching almost every community from Yemen to Amsterdam, from Poland to Morocco. The deep sense of exile which prevailed in 16th and 17th century Judaism, especially as a result of the tragedy of the expulsion from Spain, made doubly attractive and appealing a system which placed the exile of Divinity in its center and gave everyday life a new meaning as a struggle towards deliverance from that exile.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Isaac ben Solomon Luria |
Luria or Loria, Isaac ben Solomon (lʊr'ēə, lôr'-), 1534-72, Jewish kabbalist, surnamed Ashkenazi, called Ari [lion] by his followers, b. Jerusalem. In his 20s he spent seven years in seclusion, intensely studying the kabbalah. He settled (c.1570) at Safed, Palestine, where he became the teacher and leader of a large circle of students who formed an important school of mysticism. Combining messianism with reinterpreted kabbalistic doctrines from an earlier period, Luria sought to understand the nature and connection between earthly redemption and cosmic restoration. Man's deeds, linked to the secret processes of creation and thus an integral part of the cosmic drama, work toward man's redemption by aiding in the restoration of the cosmos to its original state. It is the Jewish people, through their adherence to God's halakah, who will effect this restoration and thereby bring forth the Messiah as the consummate act of earthly redemption. Luria's philosophy has come down to us through the numerous works of his chief disciple, Hayim Vital.
Bibliography
See G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (3d rev. ed. 1954, repr. 1967).
| Wikipedia: Isaac Luria |
Isaac Luria (1534 – July 25, 1572) (Hebrew: Yitzhak Lurya יִצְחַק לוּרְיָא), also called Yitzhak Ben Shlomo Ashkenazi and known as "The Ari", "Ari-Hakadosh", or "Arizal," meaning "The Lion,"[1][2] was a foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Palestine. He is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah.[3] He is known for the mysticism and interpretation of his teachings in Kabbalah known as Lurianic Kabbalah. While his direct literary contribution to the Kabbalistic school of Safed was extremely minute (he wrote only a few poems), his spiritual fame led to their veneration and the acceptance of his authority. The works of his disciples compiled his oral teachings into writing.
Lurianic Kabbalah gave a revolutionary new account of Kabbalistic thought that its followers synthesised with, and read into, the earlier Kabbalah of the Zohar that had disseminated in Medieval circles. Lurianic Kabbalah describes new doctrines of the origins of Creation, and their cosmic rectification, as well as a new descriptive paradigm of preceding Kabbalistic teaching. The main popularizer of Luria's ideas was Rabbi Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, who claimed to be the official interpreter of the Lurianic system, though this was disputed by some.
Previous interpretation of the Zohar had culminated in the first complete intellectual synthesis of Kabbalah, in the rational school of Moshe Cordovero in Safed, immediately before Isaac Luria. Both schools gave Kabbalah a philosophical depth of theology to rival earlier Medieval Jewish philosophy ("Hakira"). Under the influence of the esoteric mystical developments of Jewish thought in 16th-century Safed, Kabbalah replaced Hakira as the main Jewish theology, both in scholarly circles, and in the popular imagination. Lurianic thought, seen by its followers as harmonious with, and successively more advanced than Cordoveran, mostly superseded it, and became the mystical dimension of most Orthodox theology until today, with the later Hasidic and Mitnagdic movements differing in their interpretations of it. The Sabbatean mystical heresy would also derive its source from Lurianic messianism, but distort the Kabbalistic interdependance of mysticism with Halacha.
.jpg){kind=small}
Contents |
Early life
He was born in Jerusalem in 1534 to an Ashkenazi father and a Sephardic mother; died at Safed, Ottoman Empire controlled land of Israel (then known as Palestine) July 25, 1572 (5 Av 5332). While still a child he lost his father, and was brought up by his rich uncle Mordecai Francis, tax-farmer at Cairo, Egypt, who placed him under the best Jewish teachers. Luria showed himself a diligent student of rabbinical literature; and, under the guidance of his uncle, Rabbi Bezalel Ashkenazi (best known as the author of Shita Mikubetzet), he, while quite young, became proficient in that branch of Jewish learning.
At the age of fifteen he married his cousin and, being amply provided for financially, was able to continue his studies. Though he initially may have pursued a career in business, he soon turned to asceticism and mysticism. About the age of twenty-two years old, he became engrossed in the study of the Zohar, a major work of the Kabbalah that had recently been printed for the first time, and adopted the life of a recluse. He retreated to the banks of the Nile, and for seven years secluded himself in an isolated cottage, giving himself up entirely to meditation. He visited his family only on the Shabbat, speaking very seldom, and always in Hebrew. Hassidism attributes to him that he had frequent interviews with the prophet Elijah through this ascetic life, by whom he was initiated into sublime doctrines.
Disciples
In 1569 Luria moved to the Ottoman Palestine; and after a short sojourn in Jerusalem, where his new kabalistic system seems to have met with little success, he settled in Safed. There he formed a circle of kabbalists to whom he imparted the doctrines by means of which he hoped to establish a new basis for the moral system of the world. To this circle belonged Rabbi Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz, Rabbi Joseph Caro, Rabbi Moses Alshech, Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas, Rabbi Joseph Hagiz, Rabbi Elisha Galadoa, and Rabbi Moses Bassola. They met every Friday, and each confessed to another his sins. Soon Luria had two classes of disciples: (1) novices, to whom he expounded the elementary Kabbalah, and (2) initiates, who became the depositaries of his secret teachings and his formulas of invocation and conjuration.
However, the most renowned of the initiates was Rabbi Chaim Vital of Calabria, who, according to his master, possessed a soul which had not been soiled by Adam's sin. In his company Luria visited the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and of other eminent teachers, it is said that these graves were unmarked—the identity of each grave was unknown—and through Elijah each grave was recognized. Luria's kabbalistic circle gradually widened and became a separate congregation, in which his mystic doctrines were supreme, influencing all the religious ceremonies. On Shabbat Luria dressed himself in white and wore a fourfold garment to signify the four letters of the Ineffable Name.
Many Jews who had been exiled from Spain following the Edict of Expulsion believed they were in the time of trial that would precede the appearance of the Messiah in Galilee. Those who moved to Palestine in anticipation of this event found a great deal of comfort in Luria’s teachings, due to his theme of exile. Although he did not write down his teachings, they were published by his followers and by 1650 his ideas were known by Jews throughout Europe.[4]
His teachings
Luria used to deliver his lectures extempore and, with the exception of several works and some kabbalistic poems in Aramaic for the Sabbath table did not write much. The real exponent of his kabbalistic system was Chaim Vital. He collected all the notes of the lectures which Luria's disciples had made; and from these notes were produced numerous works, the most important of which was the Etz Chayim, ("Tree of Life"), in eight volumes (see below). At first this circulated in manuscript copies; and each of Luria's disciples had to pledge himself, under pain of excommunication, not to allow a copy to be made for a foreign country; so that for a time all the manuscripts remained in Palestine. At last, however, one was brought to Europe and was published at Zolkiev in 1772 by Isaac Satanow. In this work are expounded both the theoretical and the devotional or meditative Kabbalah based on the Zohar.
Teachings about the Sefirot
The characteristic feature of Luria's system in the theoretical Kabbalah is his definition of the Sefiroth and his theory of the intermediary agents, which he calls partzufim. Before the creation of the world, he says, the Ein Sof ("Without Ending") filled the infinite space. When the Creation was decided upon, in order that God's attributes, which belong to other beings as well, should manifest themselves in their perfection, the Ein Sof retired into God's own nature, or, to use the kabbalistic term, God "concentrated" Himself (Tzimtzum). From this "concentration" proceeded the "infinite light". When in its turn the light "concentrated", there appeared in the center an empty space encompassed by ten circles or dynamic vessels (kelim) called Sefirot, ("Circled Numbers") by means of which the infinite realities, though forming an absolute unity, may appear in their diversity; for the finite has no real existence of itself.
However, the infinite light did not wholly desert the center; a thin conduit of light traversed the circles and penetrated into the center. But while the three outermost circles, being of a purer substance because of their nearness to the Ein Sof, were able to bear the light, the inner six were unable to do so, and burst. It was, therefore, necessary to remove them from the focus of the light. For this purpose the Sefirot were transformed into "figures" (parzufim, cf. Greek πρόσωπον = "face").
The first Sefirah, being Keter ("Crown"), was transformed into the potentially existing three heads of the Macroprosopon (Erech Anpin); the second Sefirah, being Chochmah ("Wisdom"), into the active masculine principle called "Father" (Abba); the third Sefirah, being Binah ("Understanding"), into the passive, feminine principle called "Mother" (Imma); the six broken Sefirot, into the "male child" (Ze'er), which is the product of the masculine active and the feminine passive principles; the tenth Sefirah, Malkut which is ("Kingship"), into the female child (Bath). This proceeding was absolutely necessary. Had God in the beginning created these figures instead of the Sefirot, there would have been no evil in the world, and consequently no reward and punishment; for the source of evil is in the broken Sefirot or vessels (Shvirat Keilim), while the light of the Ein Sof produces only that which is good. These five figures are found in each of the Four Worlds; namely, in the world of Emanation (atzilut), Creation (beri'ah), Formation (yetzirah), and in that of Action (asiyah), which represents the material world.
Luria's psychological system, upon which is based his devotional and meditational Kabbalah, is closely connected with his metaphysical doctrines. From the five figures, he says, emanated five souls, Nefesh ("Spirit"), Ru'ach ("Wind"), Neshamah ("Soul"), Chayah ("Life"), and Yechidah ("Singular"); the first of these being the lowest, and the last the highest. (Source: Etz Chayim). Man's soul is the connecting link between the infinite and the finite, and as such is of a manifold character. All the souls destined for the human race were created together with the various organs of Adam. As there are superior and inferior organs, so there are superior and inferior souls, according to the organs with which they are respectively coupled. Thus there are souls of the brain, souls of the eye, souls of the hand, etc. Each human soul is a spark (nitzotz) from Adam. The first sin of the first man caused confusion among the various classes of souls: the superior intermingled with the inferior; good with evil; so that even the purest soul received an admixture of evil, or, as Luria calls it, of the element of the "shells" (Kelipoth). From the lowest classes of souls proceeded the pagan world, while from the higher emanated the Israelitish world. But, in consequence of the confusion, the former are not wholly deprived of the original good, and the latter are not altogether free from sin. This state of confusion, which gives a continual impulse toward evil, will cease with the arrival of the Messiah, who will establish the moral system of the world upon a new basis. Until that time man's soul, because of its deficiencies, can not return to its source, and has to wander not only through the bodies of men and of animals, but even through inanimate things such as wood, rivers, and stones.
Return of the soul
To this doctrine of gilgulim (reincarnation of souls) Luria added the theory of the impregnation (ibbur) of souls; that is to say, if a purified soul has neglected some religious duties on earth, it must return to the earthly life, and, attaching itself to the soul of a living man, unite with it in order to make good such neglect.
Further, the departed soul of a man freed from sin appears again on earth to support a weak soul which feels unequal to its task. However, this union, which may extend to two souls at one time, can only take place between souls of homogeneous character; that is, between those which are sparks of the same Adamite organ. The dispersion of Israel has for its purpose the salvation of men's souls; as the purified souls of Israelites will fulfill the prophecy of becoming "A lamplight unto the nations," influencing the souls of men of other races in order to free them from demoniacal influences.
According to Luria, man bears on his forehead a mark by which one may learn the nature of his soul: to which degree and class it belongs; the relation existing between it and the superior world; the wanderings it has already accomplished; the means by which it can contribute to the establishment of the new moral system of the world; how it can be freed from demoniacal influences; and to which soul it should be united in order to become purified. This union can be effected by formulas of conjuration.
According to others, the sign is on the person shape likeness by which one may learn the nature of his/her soul to which value that person is to place it self on tikkun olam
More on - Shaar ha Gilgulim
Shabbetai Tzvi
Lurianic Kabbalah has been accused by some of being the cause of the spread of the false Messiah Shabbetai Tzvi. However, it remained the leading school of mysticism in Judaism, and is an important influence on Hasidism and Sefardic kabbalists. In fact, only a minority of today's Jewish mystics belong to other branches of thought in Zoharic mysticism. Some Jewish kabbalists have said that the followers of Shabbetai Tzvi strongly avoided teachings of Rabbi Luria because his system disproved their notions. On the other hand, the Shabbetians did use Rabbi Luria's concepts of nitzotzot trapped in kelippot and pure souls being mixed with the impure (see below) to justify some of their antinomian actions.
Influence on ritual
Luria introduced his mystic system into religious observance. Every commandment had for him a mystic meaning. The Sabbath with all its ceremonies was looked upon as the embodiment of the Divinity in temporal life; and every ceremony performed on that day was considered to have an influence upon the superior world. Every word, every syllable, of the prescribed prayers contain hidden names of God upon which one should meditate devoutly while reciting. New mystic ceremonies were ordained and codified under the name of Shulkhan Arukh heAri (The "Code of Law of the Ari") (compare Shulkhan Arukh by Rabbi Joseph Karo).
Influence on modern Judaism
Rabbi Luria's ideas enjoy wide recognition among Jews today. Orthodox as well Reform, Reconstructionist and other Progressive Jews frequently acknowledge a moral obligation to "repair the world" (tikkun olam). This idea draws upon Luria's teaching that shards of divinity remain contained in flawed material creation and that deeds by the righteous help to release this energy. The philosophies of the Ari do not exercise the same level of influence everywhere, however. Communities where Luria's thought holds less sway include many German, Litvish, and Modern Orthodox communities, groups carrying forward Spanish and Portuguese traditions, a sizable segment of Baladi Yemenite Jews (see Dor Daim), and other groups that follow a form of Torah Judaism based more on classical authorities like Maimonides and the Geonim.
Modern day descendants
Several members of the ultra-orthodox community in Safed and in Jerusalem claim they can trace their lineage back to Luria[citation needed].
The various Chassidic dynasties consider the teachings and practices of Luria as major influences on their own teachings and practices. Additionally, today's mekubalim mizra`him (oriental Kabbalists), following the tradition of R' Chayim Vital and the mystical legacy of the Rashash (Gilgul of the ARI), consider themselves legitimate heirs to and in continuity with Luria's teachings.
See also
References
- ^ Derived from the acronym for "Elohi Rabbi Itzhak, Z''L ("The Divine Rabbi Yitzhak, of blessed memory," in which the added "Hakadosh" means "Holy," and the added "zal" stands for "Zikhrono Livrakha." ("let the memory of him be for a blessing"
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=7lsVajEtaQ0C&lpg=PP1&dq=%22yosef%20eisen%22&pg=PA213#v=onepage&q=&f=false
- ^ Armstrong, Karen, The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism, Ballentine Books, 2001, p8-14
Bibliography
- Lawrence Fine: Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship: Stanford: Stanford University Press: 2003: ISBN 0-8047-4826-8
- Eliahu Klein: Kabbalah of Creation: The Mysticism of Isaac Luria, Founder of Modern Kabbalah: Berkeley: North Atlantic Books: 2005: ISBN 1-55643-542-8
External links
 |
Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
- Short biography of Rabbi Isaac Luria - The Ari Hakodosh
- OU page on the Ari
- The Kabbalah of the Ari za"l, according to the Ram`hal, synthesized 18 pages summary of the Etz `Hayim
- Center for Lurian Kabbalah
- Notes on the Study of Later Kabbalah in English: The Safed Period and Lurianic Kabbalah PDF file
"Luria, Isaac ben Solomon". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Learn More
 | Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (parapsychology) |
| Neshamah Yeterah |
| Ḥayyim Vital |
 | Who is isaac? Read answer... |
| When was Sir Isaac Isaacs knighted? Read answer... |
| Who is isaac jouges? Read answer... |
Help us answer these
 | What is Salvador Luria's Observation? |
| Who is Lew Luria NY Attorney? |
| What is tsimtsum according to Luria? |
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
 |
 | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Encyclopedia of Judaism. The New Encyclopedia of Judaism. Copyright © 1989, 2002 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Isaac Luria". Read more |
Related answers
- Difference between Luria agar and Luria broth?
- What is the use of luria bertani media?
- Is Luria's jewelry store still in business?
ADVERTISEMENT
