I would like to say something
about the loftiness of the Ari, Rabbi Isaac, of blessed memory, although
what I say amounts to only a drop in the bucket. During his youth
he lived in Egypt although he was born in Jerusalem. After his birth,
Elijah of blessed memory appeared to his father, for he was very pious,
as was his mother too, and said to him: 'Take heed, now, on the day
of the circumcision not to circumcise this child until you see me
standing beside you in the synagogue.'
When he was still a young
boy, the Ari's father died. Because he was poor, he went down to Egypt
to the home of his uncle who was a very rich man. (This uncle Mordecai
Francis was a wealthy tax-collector.) Luria developed into a brilliant
student noted for his keen mind, his powers of argumentation and sound
reasoning. By the time he was fifteen years old, his understanding
of and his ability to debate Talmudic law surpassed that of all the
sages of Egypt. His uncle then gave the Ari his daughter to wife.
After the marriage, he studied alone with our honored teacher, Rabbi
Bewalel Ashkenazi (d. ca. 1591) for seven years, and afterwards continued
to study by himself for six years. In addition, he remained in seclusion
for two years in a certain house built along the Nile River and sanctified
himself by his remarkable piety. He was altogether alone and spoke
with no one. On the eve of Sabbath, just before it grew dark, he would
return to his home. But even here, he would talk to no one, not even
his wife, except when it was absolutely necessary, and then only in
Hebrew and very briefly.
After these two years of
extreme asceticism in Egypt, Elijah appeared to him. At the time,
Luria was only thirty-six years old. Two years later, when he was
thirty-eight , from here in Safed, may it be rebuilt and reestablished
speedily in our days, Luria was summoned to the Academy on High because
of our many sins. Elijah said to him, 'The time of your death is approaching.
Go up to Safed now and there you will find a certain scholar whose
name is Rabbi Hayyim Calabrese, may God guard and deliver him. Anoint
him in your stead. Lay your hands upon him and teach him all your
lore for he will take your place. The sole purpose of your coming
into the world has been to improve the soul of Rabbi Hayyim, for it
is a precious one. (Blemished souls can be improved through good deeds
and the help of saints.) Through you, he will merit wisdom, and a
great light shall shine forth from him upon all of Israel. I assure
you that I will reveal myself to you whenever you need me; I will
lay bare before you the secrets of the upper and the nether worlds,
and God too will pour out upon you his Holy Spirit a thousand times
more than you can acquire here in Egypt.
Luria knew all the deeds
and even the thoughts of men. He could read faces, look into the souls
of men, and recognize souls that migrated from body to body. He could
tell you about the souls of the wicked which had entered into trees,
stones, animals and birds; he could tell you what commandments a man
had fulfilled and what sins he had committed from his youth; he knew
wherein a sinful man had been punished by God and would prescribe
improvements to remove a moral blemish, and he also knew precisely
when such a moral defect had been corrected. He understood the chirping
of birds, and through their flight he divined strange things, as is
referred to in the verse of Ecclesiastes 10:20: 'For a bird of the
air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the
matter. All of this he acquired because of the piety, ascetism, purity
and holiness that he had exercised since his youth.'