Toldoth HaAR”I

Possibly the First Hagiography of the Life of Isaac Luria. Isaac Luria, known by the acronym Ar”i z”l, was the foremost Kabbalist of his time. His mystical teachings were spread by his disciples, especially R. Chaim Vital. In addition, a wealth of legend accumulated around his personality with historical facts as well as visionary pronouncements. The details surrounding his striking personality are featured in two important works, the “Shivchei H”AR”I” and “Toldoth H”AR”I”, whose sequence of writing is a matter of controversy. Shivchei HaAR”I is actually the letters of Shlomo of Dresnitz, Moravia, son-in-law of the AR”I’s disciple Rabbi Yisrael Seruk. These letters were written in Safed between 1602-1609 and first published in Ta’alumot Chochmo, by Yosef Shlomo Delmegido (1629). The Toldoth HaAR”I version appeared in Sefer HaKavanoth (Constantinople, 1720). Meir Benayahu published a critical editon of this version in 1967 and argues that the latter served as the source for the Dresnitz letters and was likely compiled between 1590 and 1600 by one of the scholars of Safed. It later circulated in the Orient and Italy. On the Shivchei H’AR”I and Toldoth H’AR”I see M. Benayahu, Sefer Toldoth H’AR”I, Jerusalem, 1967, and his article in Aresheth, Vol. 3, 1961, Shivchei H’AR”I, 144-165.