''Etz Chaim'' (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: עץ חיים, "Tree of Life") is a

literary work Literary work is a generic term for works of literature, i.e. texts such as fiction and non-fiction books, essays, screenplays''.'' In the philosophy of art and the field of aesthetics there is some debate about what that means, precisely. What a ...

that deals with the

Kabbalah Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...

, written in 1573. It is a summary of the teachings of the

Rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

Isaac Luria Isaac ben Solomon Ashkenazi Luria (; #FINE_2003, Fine 2003, p24/ref>July 25, 1572), commonly known in Jewish religious circles as Ha'ari, Ha'ari Hakadosh or Arizal, was a leading rabbi and Jewish mysticism, Jewish mystic in the community of Saf ...

, the ''Arizal'' (1534-1572), a rabbi and a kabbalist who led a study group on Kabbalah in the city of

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

, in Ottoman

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. Luria did not publish any works of his own. ''Etz Chaim'' was compiled by his student and disciple, Rabbi

Chaim Vital Hayyim ben Joseph Vital (; Safed, October 23, 1542 (Julian calendar) / October 11, 1542 (Gregorian Calendar) – Damascus, 23 April 1620) was a rabbi in Safed and the foremost disciple of Isaac Luria. He recorded much of his master's teachi ...

, who wrote down the lessons taught by Luria to his study group on Kabbalah. The book talks about the divine order and the existence of things, and deals with

revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...

and the perception of

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

by human beings. The first fragment of the book makes reference to the

tree of life The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythology, mythological, religion, religious, and philosophy, philosophical traditions. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree.Giovino, Mariana (2007). ''The ...

, which gives the book its name: "You know, before the beginning of the Creation there was only the highest and fullest light. The description of the creation process starts from that point, especially." The book marks the beginning of the school of thought known as the

Lurianic Kabbalah Lurianic Kabbalah is a school of Kabbalah named after Isaac Luria (1534–1572), the Jewish rabbi who developed it. Lurianic Kabbalah gave a seminal new account of Kabbalistic thought that its followers synthesised with, and read into, the earli ...

. Before Luria, Kabbalists revealed the development of reality from its origin to our world (from the understandable light). According to Rabbi Chaim Vital, Luria discovered a method to better understand this reality.

English translations

*''The Tree of Life: Chayyim Vital's Introduction to the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria - The Palace of Adam Kadmon'' (1999,

Jason Aronson Jason Aronson was an American publisher of books in the field of psychotherapy. Topics dealt with in these books include child therapy, family therapy, couple therapy, object relations therapy, play therapy, depression, eating disorders, per ...

) Translated by Donald Wilder Menzi and Zwe Padeh **2nd Edition (2008, Arizal Publications) ::This is a translation of the first volume of Etz Chaim. *''The Tree of Life'' (

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform On-Demand Publishing, LLC, doing business as CreateSpace, was a self-publishing service owned by Amazon. The company was founded in 2000 in South Carolina as BookSurge and was acquired by Amazon in 2005. CreateSpace published books containing ...

) Translated by E. Colle and H. Colle **Volume One: The Palace of Adam Kadmon (2015) **Volume Two: The Palace of Points (2016) **Volume Three: The Palace of Crowns and The Palace of Abba and Imma (2017) **Volume Four: The Palace of Zeir Anpin - Part One (2020) *''Etz Chayim: The Tree of Life'' (2016, David Smith) Translated by Baal Even **Tome 1 of 12 **Tome 2 of 12 **Tome 3 of 12 **Tome 4 of 12 **Tome 5 of 12 **Tome 6 of 12 **Tome 7 of 12 **Tome 8 of 12 **Tome 9 of 12 **Tome 10 of 12 **Tome 11 of 12 **Tome 12 of 12

References

Kabbalah texts 1573 books {{Judaism-book-stub