“The soul of the just man does not die; it transforms to continue the work of the Tikkún.”

1) Life and historical context

• 1534: born in Jerusalem (father ashkenazi, mother's sephardic). Left fatherless and raised by his uncle in Cairo, where he studied with rabbinical authorities and is immersed in the Zohar.
• c. 1556-1569: retirement and life studies; tradition hagiográfica speaks from years of asceticism and meditation on the banks of the Nile (stories that are part of the myth, the biography of the Ari).
• 1570installs in Safed (Galilee), the central kabbalistic after 1492; there he studied briefly with Moshe Cordovero (Remak) and brings together a circle of their own.
• 1570-1572: taught orally to two groups (beginners and initiates). Never-published books; their doctrines the set his disciple Chaim (Ḥayyim Vital.
• July 25/August 5, 1572: died in Safed (today Zefat, Israel).

2) How we came to his teachings

Luria left no written work (except poems devotionals). Your corpus it is a literature discipleson the Chaim Vital (1542-1620), which were compiled and ordered the lessons of the master. Compilations nuclear are:

• ‘Etz Ḥayim (Tree of Life): systematic synthesis of the Kabbalah luriana (circulated in manuscript; modern editions and multiple translations).
• Shemoneh She'arim (Eight Doors), Sha'ar ha-Kavanot, Pri ‘Etz Ḥayim, Sha'ar ha-Gilgulim (on the transmigration of souls). Vital is the authority textual Luria; his biography and work are documented in an encyclopaedia of reference.

“God is concealed, so that the man could look it up.”
(Synthesis mystical concept of Tzimtzúm.)

3) Core doctrinal Kabbalah luriana

The innovation of Luria is a drama cosmogonic-teúrgico in three moments that reinterprets the Zohar and reorganizes the jewish mystic of the SIXTEENTH century:

1. Tzimtzúm (contraction)
   For the world to exist, the Infinity divine (Ein Sof) is “collapsing”, leaving a “hole” where can emerge otherness; it is a residue (reshimú) and a beam (kav) that re-enter to emanate the worlds. Does not imply a total absence of the divinebut concealment for what you have created.
2. Shevirat ha-kelim (breaking of the vessels)
   The Light overflows the “vessels” primordial (sephiroth in the unstable state) and break; sparks of light (nitzotzot) get caught up in “shells” (qelipot). This accident ontological explains the bad as disorder/concealment of the Light, not as an autonomous entity.
3. Tikkún (repair)
   The story is the process of gathering and raising those sparks by commandments, prayer with intention (kavaná), and acts of ethical, which restored harmony and accelerate the Redemption. The dimension teúrgica of the rite acquires centrality.

Architecture metaphysics

• Four worlds: Atzilut–Beriah–Yetzirá–Asiyá; deployment of the Light and of the order sefirótico.
• Partzufim (faces/divine personae): dynamic reconfiguration of the sefirot in Abba/Imma, Ze'go Anpín, Nukvá, etc, to stabilize the flow and allow the tikkún.
• Adam Kadmon: first order after the tzimtzúm, array of emanation.
• Dynamic Light-Vessel and Light Retornante: keys for understanding prayers and practices. (Synthesis supported in the compendia encyclopedic and reference manuals.)

“There is No act, however small, that does not release a spark of light.”

4) Anthropology mystical and devotional practices

• Souls and metempsícosis: gilgul (reincarnation) e ibur (impregnation) explain missions psychic, debts, spiritual and repair tasks to staff/community.
• Kavanot and Yijudim: “intentions” and unication of divine Names during the prayer, tied to the calendar, mitzvot, and rituals (especially Shabbat and holidays). The role of the tzadik/mystical as the operator teúrgico is decisive. (Systematic presentation in Etz Ḥayim doors and the like.)
• Customs of the Ari: its praxis liturgical and lowercase variants rituals were canonised by the disciples and widely disseminated.

5) School of Safed and transmission

Safed, after the expulsion of 1492, was a laboratory mystic where converged Cordovero, Yosef Karo, the Ari, Ḥayyim Vital and others. The school luriana is configured as circle of initiation with oral teachings and notebooks of students; Vital monopolized the notebooks of more systematic and ordered in corpus.

“When the man raises his intention, lift to the whole cosmos with her.”

6) historical Influence

• Impact on the jewish mystic later: the lurianismo redefines theology, praxis, ritual, and mysticism of the exile/redemption; influenced profoundly by the jasidismo of the EIGHTEENTH century, and in large sectors of judaism, sephardic and ashkenazi.
• Diffusion textual: compilations of Vital circulated in manuscript until the EIGHTEENTH century, and then printed; today there are critical editions and translations.

7) key Concepts (glossary operating)

• Ein Sof: Divine infinity.
• Tzimtzúm: “Contraction”/concealment initial to enable the space of what is created.
• Reshimú / Kav: footprint and ray of Light after the tzimtzúm.
• Shevirárupture of the vessels; the source of evil as a disorder.
• Nitzotzot / Qelipot: sparks of light captive / wraps impure.
• Tikkún: repair teúrgica-ethics of the cosmos.
• Partzufim: setting “staff” of the sefirot to stabilize the emanation.
• Kavanot / Yijudim: intentions and unifications mystical during the prayer and mitzvot.
• Gilgul / Ibur: transmigration and “pregnancy” of the soul, spiritual missions.

“The prayer is the art of repairing the world, from the interior of the soul.”

8) What no is Luria (useful clarifications)

• Not wrote the Etz Ḥayim: is Chaim Vital compiling the Ari.
• The Tzimtzúm it is not atheism “within the void”: is concealment; Divinity does not go away at all (reshimú).
• The “repair” (tikkún) it is not only an ethical-social modern: in its origin it is teúrgica and ritual (excluding ethics).

Conclusion

Isaac Luria reorders the Kabbalah with a drama theological —contraction, rupture and repair— which explains the bad as concealment/fragmentation and turns jewish life in mission teúrgica: every act, rite, and kavaná released sparks and repair the world. His school, which is transmitted by Chaim Vital, marked the later mysticism (including the jasidismo) and remains a interpretive framework central to read the experience, the time messianic and ritual practice jewish.

“The evil is not a power, but an imbalance of the Light.”

“The exile of the soul is forgetfulness of its origin; the Tikkún is to remember it.”