Isaac Ashkenazi was a Kabbalist who founded a school of Jewish mysticism known as the Lurianic Kabbalah.
Background
He was born in Jerusalem, where his father had moved from Germany or Poland (hence, he was known as Isaac Ashkenazi). After his father’s death, his mother moved to Cairo, where Luria was raised in the home of his uncle, an affluent tax collector.
Education
He studied with eminent rabbis and became involved in the study of kabbalistic literature.
Career
Few specific details are known of his life, although he became the subject of many legends.
About 1570 he moved to Safed in Galilee, where he continued his mystical studies with Moses Cordovero. He himself soon became the center of a group of students, his chief disciple being Hayim Vital.
In the vicinity of Safcd, he “identified” many graves as those of the Talmudic rabbis and these became an object of pilgrimage that has continued to this day. He used to go with his disciples on Friday afternoons and prostrate himself on these graves to unite with the souls of the dead. After only two years in Safcd, he died in a plague epidemic.
Luria wrote almost nothing, explaining that when he held a pen, visions appeared before him like a great river and he could not channel this river through a mere pen. Both he and Vital tried to keep his teachings a secret, but his disciples took notes. These were collected by Vital, but two of Luria’s students refused to hand them over, although these too were eventually published. According to legend, those in Vital’s keeping were stolen from his possession while he was ill, copied, and distributed. Whatever the source, Luria’s ideas became widely known and influential from the latter part of the sixteenth century.
Views
Luria modified earlier Jewish mystical teaching (see Moses de Leon) and stressed the striving of the soul for redemption, which would be attained through mystical devotion involving prayer, observance of the commandments, ascetic practices, and good deeds. Every individual had a part to play in the messianic drama and every action had national and messianic significance.
He introduced three basic concepts: “contraction,” that is, God contracted within himself, thus creating space tor creation; “breaking of the vessels,” a cosmic catastrophe in which destruction replaced creation; and “mending” (Hebrew, tikkun). the process whereby the divine sparks scattered in the catastrophe could be recovered and divine light restored to the God head. Human beings, by correct practices, contribute to this mending process, while God’s own people serves as a special instrument.
Personality
Deeply revered and possessing strong charisma, he soon had the reputation of a saint enjoying divine inspiration, and it was even believed that he understood the language of animals.