Rabbi Yitzhak Luria, Ha'Ari HaKadosh

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," 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. 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. [see more below]

רבי יצחק לוריא - האר"י הקדוש

האר״י

אתקינו סעודתא

על האר"י וכתביו

ספר שערי קדושה

תהלת השם עפ"י נוסח האר"י ז"ל

ספר לקוטי ש"ס, כולל שבחי האר"י ז"ל

דרך אמת

הנהגות ישרות מהאר"י הקדוש

ספר הכוונות כמוהר"ר יצחק לוריא זצוק"ל

ספר הגדה וספירת העומר עם כוונת האר"י זללה"ה

ספר הקדוש "עץ החיים" מהאר"י ז"ל

שלחן ערוך האר"י

שלחן ערוך של רבינו יצחק לוריא ז"ל

ספר תיקוני תשובה מהאר"י זצ"ל

Isaac Luria.

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 Lurianic thought, seen by its followers as harmonious with, and successively more advanced than Cordoveran, mostly superseded it, and became the mystical dimension of most Orthodox theology until today, with the later Hasidic and Mitnagdic movements differing in their interpretations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.

Jewish Dynasties

רבי יצחק לוריא בן שלמה (1534 - 1572) כונה האר"י הקדוש (ראשי תיבות של: אשכנזי רבי יצחק, האלקי רבי יצחק, האדון רבי יצחק, אדוננו רבי יצחק) - גדול מקובלי צפת במאה ה-16 והוגה שיטה חדשה בקבלה. השפעתו על המיסטיקה היהודית היא עצומה, וממנו ואילך זכתה הקבלה שלו, הקבלה הלוריאנית, להשפעה רבה בכל רחבי העולם היהודי. תלמידיו נקראו אחריו גורי האר"י