Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

January 24, 2022

A Letter, Hidden in a Bookbinding for Centuries, Provides a Rare Glimpse at the Life of Judaism’s Greatest Mystic

A message to Isaac Luria.

Born in Jerusalem and educated in Egypt, Isaac Luria (1534–1572), also known as the Arizal, was one of the foremost rabbinic thinkers of his day, and his kabbalistic theories formed the basis for virtually also subsequent Jewish mysticism. Yet he left behind no written works, and his teachings are known solely through the writings of his disciples. Any contemporary documents connected to him are therefore precious to historians, as Hanan Greenwood explains:

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