Discovering the Torah

Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572) was undoubtedly the greatest Kabbalist in the history of Jewish Mysticism after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. His best friend and disciple, Rabbi Hayyim Vital (1542-1620) wrote down the preachings of Rabbi Luria.
As Rabbi Luria did not write a lot, but mainly preached, the disciples of Rabbi Luria entrusted Rabbi Vital to write down the teaching of Rabbi Isaac Luria. This is known as the kitve'i ha'Ari - "the Writings of the Ari". But the name is slightly misleading, as the Ari himself did not written them, and Rabbi Vital meticulously guarded them so that nobody could get access to them. Most probably, it was Rabbi Shmu'el Vital, the son of Rabbi Hayyim Vital who edited most of them.
Only very few of the writings of Rabbi Hayyim Vital were translated into English: these were two first part of the se'fer etz ha'hay'im - "The Tree of Life", the Magnum Opus of the Lurianic Kabbalah, and the book shaa'rei kdu'sha - "The Gates of Holiness". The book Discovering the Torah with Rabbi Luria and Rabbi Vital is partially translated from the oldest manuscript of the Torah - Commentary by Rabbi Vital, printed in Vilnius in the year 1879 based upon the Amsterdam edition which was printed in the year 1774, and partially on the classic modern edition of the book se'fer ha'likutim - Vital's Torah Commentary based upon the teaching of his Master, Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, the Ari - The Lion. This book is translation of part of the para'shat bere'shit - The First Torah Portion "In The Beginning".

Josef Blaha was born in Brno, Czech Republic in 1963, and is lecturer in Jewish Studies and specializes in Jewish Mysticism. He published fourteen books in Czech and in English dealing with Judaism and especially with Jewish Mysticism. Josef Blaha teaches the US students at the Charles University in Prague.