Hayyim Ben Joseph Vital - Student of The Arizal

Student of The Arizal

In 1570 Vital became a student of Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Arizal, the foremost kabbalist of the day. In a study of Lurianic mysticism, Lawrence Fine writes: "Vital provides us with the names of thirty-eight individuals who according to him, made up Luria's discipleship... According to him, the fellowship was divided into four, hierarchically ordered groups. The first and most important, was composed of eleven men, listed in this order: Hayyim Vital, Jonathan Sagis, Joseph Arzin, Isaac Kohen, Gedaliah ha-Levi, Samuel Uceda, Judah Mishan, Abraham Gavriel, Shabbatai Menashe, Joseph ibn Tabul, and Elijah Falko (or Falkon). It is largely accepted that within a year Hayyim Vital emerged as the leading student, so that when the Arizal died in 1572, at the age of thirty-eight, Vital succeeded him. Since the Arizal had left almost none of his teachings in writing, Vital began to write down everything he had learned from his master.