Hayyim ben Joseph Vital (;
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 ...
,
October 23, 1542 (
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...
) / October 11, 1542 (Gregorian Calendar) –
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, 23 April 1620) was a rabbi in
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 ...
and the foremost disciple of
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 ...
. He recorded much of his master's teachings. After Vital's death, his writings began to spread and led to a "powerful impact on various circles throughout the Jewish world."
[ Fine 2003, p]
2
/ref>
Early life
Born in Safed, as a young boy Hayyim Vital was educated by the scholar Moshe Alshich. Joseph Karo
Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro (; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 Nisan 5335 A.M.), was a prominent Sephardic Jewish rabbi renowned as the author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the ''Beit Yosef'', and its ...
is said to have paid special attention to Vital's early talents and in 1557 requested that Alshich take special care in his education as he was destined to succeed his teacher in the world of Torah study
Torah study is the study of the Torah, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature, and similar works, all of which are Judaism's Sifrei kodesh, religious texts. According to Rabbinic Judaism, the study is done for the purpose of the ''mi ...
. That same year, Vital first became acquainted with the kabbalist 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 ...
, who would have a lasting influence on him.
Vital apparently married at a young age. It was an unhappy marriage, and when he left his wife, the prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...
Elijah
Elijah ( ) or Elias was a prophet and miracle worker who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible.
In 1 Kings 18, Elijah defended the worsh ...
appeared to him in a dream and led him to a beautiful garden, where he saw the pious of all ages, in the form of birds, flying through the garden and studying the Mishnah
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...
. In the center of the garden was God
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
seated on a throne that was surrounded by the pious, resting on elaborate tapestries. Convinced by this vision that he was destined to become a kabbalist, Vital devoted the following two and a half years to the study of alchemy
Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...
. Upon completing his studies, Elijah appeared to him again in a vision and told him that he would succeed in his efforts and write a commentary on the ''Zohar
The ''Zohar'' (, ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material o ...
''.
Study with Cordovero
When Luria arrived in Safed, Moses ben Jacob Cordovero
Moses ben Jacob Cordovero ( ''Moshe Kordovero'' ; 1522–1570) was a central figure in the historical development of Kabbalah, leader of a mystical school in the Ottoman Empire in 16th-century Safed, located in the modern State of Israel. H ...
had been the principal figure in the kabbalistic community for numerous years. "Cordovero was the teacher of what appears to have been a relatively loose-knit circle of disciples. The most important were Eliyahu de Vidas
Eliyahu de Vidas (; 1518–1587, Hebron) was a 16th-century rabbi in Ottoman Palestine. He was primarily a disciple of Moses ben Jacob Cordovero and Isaac Luria. Fine 2003, pp81 "Cordovero was the teacher of what appears to have been a relative ...
, Abraham ben Mordecai Galante Abraham ben Mordecai Galante (died before 1589) was an Italian kabbalist born in Rome at the beginning of the 16th century. Abraham, like his father Mordecai and his brother Moses of Safed, is represented by his contemporaries as a man of high cha ...
, Moses Galante, Hayyim Vital, Abraham ben Eliezer Halevi
Rabbi Abraham ben Eliezer Halevi the Elder (Hebrew: רבי אברהם בן אליעזר הלוי הזקן; - after 1528) was a Sephardic rabbi and kabbalist known for his apocalyptic treatises on Kabbalah and his beliefs regarding messianism. He ...
, Elazar ben Moshe Azikri
Rabbi Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (; 1533–1600) was a Jewish kabbalist, poet and writer.
Biography
Azikri was born in Safed to a Sephardic family who had settled in Ottoman Syria after the expulsion of Jews from Spain. He studied Torah under Y ...
, Samuel Gallico, and an important kabbalist who studied with Cordovero for a short while in the 1560s, Mordechai Dato."[ Fine 2003, page 80-81]
Evidence suggests that Isaac Luria also regarded Moses Cordovero as his teacher. Joseph ben Isaac Sambari
Joseph ben Isaac Sambari (Hebrew: יוסף בן יצחק סמברי; – 1703) also known as Qātāya (Arabic: قاطية) was a 17th century Egyptian Jewish historian and chronicler whose works provide important details about the affairs and co ...
(1640-1703), an Egyptian chronicler, testified that Cordovero was "the Ari's teacher for a very short time." Luria probably arrived in early 1570, and Cordovero died on June 27 that year (the 23d day of Tammuz). Bereft of their most prominent authority and teacher, the kabbalists looked for new guidance, and Isaac Luria helped fill the vacuum left by Cordovero's passing.
Student of Isaac Luria
In 1570 Vital became a student of Isaac Luria, the foremost kabbalist of the day. In a study of Lurianic mysticism, Lawrence Fine writes:
It is broadly accepted that Hayyim Vital emerged as the leading student within a year, so when Luria died in 1572 at the age of 38, Vital succeeded him. Since Luria had left almost none of his teachings in writing, Vital began to write down everything he had learned from his master.
Exile and return
Hayyim Vital arrived in Egypt in 1577 but soon returned to Ottoman Syria
Ottoman Syria () is a historiographical term used to describe the group of divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of the Levant, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Ara ...
, settling in the village of Ein Zeitim
Ein Zeitim (, lit. ''Spring of Olives'') was an agricultural settlement about 2 km north of Safed first established in 1891.
History
Ein Zeitim was founded by members of the Dorshei Zion (Seekers of Zion) society, a Zionist pioneer gro ...
(near Safed) and later in Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
. After that, he went to live in Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, where he began writing his first work. Most of the book consists of an exposition on the conjuring of clouds and a discourse on the classical planet
A classical planet is an astronomical object that is visible to the naked eye and moves across the sky and its backdrop of fixed stars (the common stars which seem still in contrast to the planets), appearing as wandering stars. Visible to huma ...
s, the seven heavens
In ancient Near Eastern cosmology, the seven heavens refer to seven firmaments or physical layers located above the open sky. The concept can be found in ancient Mesopotamian religion, Judaism, and Islam. Some traditions complement the seven ...
, and their corresponding metals. Upon completing his book, Vital returned to Jerusalem, where his former teacher, Moshe Alshich, ordained him "in the 1590s."[ Fine 2003, p. 52] After a time, however, Vital left Jerusalem for Safed, where he fell sick and was bedridden for an entire year.
He also authored '' Shaar HaGilgulim'', a kabbalistic work on reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (disambiguation), lifespan in a different physical ...
, which became one of the ''Shemonah She'arim'' "Eight Gates."
''Etz Hayyim''
During this illness Joshua Ben-Nun, his closest follower, who had accompanied Vital on nearly every journey, managed to bribe Vital's younger brother, Moshe, with 50 gold coins to lend him Vital's writings, which were kept locked in a box. Moshe accordingly brought Joshua a large part of the manuscripts, and 100 copyists were immediately engaged and given 6 pages each: in just three days, they reproduced 600 pages. Although according to some reports Vital, upon learning of this, claimed that the papers which has been copied were not his writings, they were rapidly disseminated. The writings in question purported to contain the teachings of Luria rather than Vital's independent work.
The first printed edition was in eight volumes, known as the ''Shemonah She'arim'', and some Kabbalists still use this version in the Sephardi world. The best-known recension was published later under the title '' Etz Hayyim'' ("Tree of Life"), in which the topics were arranged in a more systematic order, and the parts on ritual (the ''Peri Etz Hayyim'') were kept separate from the parts on the underlying theology. In addition to a tribute to Luria, the work contains the assertion that it is one of God's greatest pleasures to witness the promotion of the teaching of the Kabbalah since this alone can assure the coming of the Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
.
However, Vital still highly esteemed the teachings of his former teacher, kabbalist Moses Cordovero. He maintained that Cordovero often appeared to him in dreams.
One of Vital's most prominent opponents was Menahem Lonzano
Menahem ben Judah ben Menahem de Lonzano (), often Menahem di Lonzano, was a rabbi, Masoretic scholar, lexicographer, and poet. He died after 1608 in Jerusalem.
Biography
His origin is unknown, but it has been supposed that he was born in Ital ...
, who publicly denounced him in his work ''Imrei Emet''.
Later life and death
On 20 Elul 1590, Vital received rabbinical ordination from his teacher Moshe Alshich. Four years later, in 1594, he settled permanently in Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, where he lectured every evening on the kabbalah. In 1604 Vital's sight began to fail; in 1620 he died while preparing to return to Safed. He was 77 years old when he died and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Damascus.
On April 26, 2025, Vital's grave was dug up and desecrated by vandals.
Notes
References
*
*
*Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, ''The Tree of Life: Chayyim Vital's Introduction to the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria - The Palace of Adam Kadmon.'' Translated and with an introduction by Donald Wilder Menzi and Zwe Padeh. Northvale, N.J. and Jerusalem: Jason Aronson, 1999. This is a translation of the first volume of Luria's "Etz Chaim"; the introduction by the translators gives a general overview of the Lurianic system.
*
External links
''Shaarei Kedushah'' - Gates of Holiness in English
Encyclopædia Britannica articles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vital, Hayyim
1542 births
1620 deaths
16th-century rabbis from the Ottoman Empire
17th-century rabbis from the Ottoman Empire
Jewish mysticism
Kabbalists
Isaac Luria
Rabbis in Safed
Rabbis in Ottoman Galilee
Sephardi rabbis from Ottoman Palestine