Hayyim Ben Joseph Vital - Exile and Return

Exile and Return

Hayyim Vital arrived in Egypt in 1577, but soon returned to the Land of Israel, settling in the village of Ein Zeitim (near Safed), and later in Jerusalem. After that he went to live in Damascus, where he became the head of the Sicilian Jewish community.

A legend states that, when Vital was in Jerusalem, the Ottoman governor, Abu Saifia, requested that he use his powers to locate the aqueduct leading from the River Gihon to the city, which had been built in the days of King Hezekiah. Unwilling to fulfill this request, he fled to Damascus using the power of practical Kabbalah, where his master appeared to him and told him that he had had a chance to bring the final redemption by releasing the waters of Gihon, and now the chance was lost. This grieved Vital greatly.

In Damascus he began writing his first work of his own, on Abraham. The greater part of the book consists of an exposition on the conjuring of clouds and a discourse on the seven fixed stars (planets), the seven heavens, and their corresponding metals. Upon completing his book, Vital returned to Jerusalem, where his former teacher, Moshe Alshich, ordained him "in the 1590s." After a time, however, Vital left Jerusalem for Safed, where he fell sick and was obliged to keep his bed for an entire year.

He also authored Shaar HaGilgulim, a kabbalistic work on reincarnation, which became one of the Shemonah She'arim (see below).