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Rabbi Hayyim ben Joseph Vital

Kabbalist; born at Safed in 1543; died at Damascus May 6, 1620. Hayyim Vital's teacher was rabbi Moshe Alshech. It is said that rabbi Joseph Caro also noticed him and that he met Lapidot Ashkenazi in 1557, and was influenced by him thereafter. Vital also studied Kabbalah with Rabbi Moshe Cordevero before he became the student of Rabbi Itzkhak Luria. Vital only studied under Luria, for two years from 1570 until Luria died in 1572, but he became known as his most prominent student. Luria left nothing in writing and Vital took it upon himself to write his teachings.

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This page is part of the glossary of the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought
        Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel