Rabbi Israel Sarug

The Mystical Work and Kabbalistic Teaching of Rabbi Israel Sarug: The Axis of Transmission and Lurianic Cosmogony in Europe

The Historical Background and the Textual Enterprise of the Ris

Rabbi Israel Sarug (known by the acronym the Ris, and sometimes spelled Saruk), who was active at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, is considered the historical key figure who set in motion the beginning of the spread of Lurianic Kabbalah on the European continent.^[1] While the biography of the Ris has remained to a great extent shrouded in mist, varied historical sources indicate that he was born in Egypt and was active in the regions of the Ottoman Empire.^[1] Modern studies in Kabbalah, such as those of Prof. Ronit Meroz on the anchoring of Kabbalah in the East, emphasize the importance of the geographical and cultural space of the Middle East as a melting pot from which the central kabbalistic currents sprouted and afterward wandered to the West.^[2]

Valuable testimony about the Ris's textual enterprise and his professional devotion emerges from the letters of Rabbi Shlomo Shlumiel, the author of the famous work "Shivchei ha-Ari" ("Praises of the Ari"), who arrived in Safed in the first half of the seventeenth century.^[1] Rabbi Shlomo Shlumiel, who was connected by marriage with the family of the Ris and married his daughter, testifies that his father-in-law invested a great fortune and vast financial resources in collecting, concentrating and preserving all the available writings attributed to the Ari.^[1] This independent collecting enterprise places the Ris as an archivist and editor of decisive influence, who did not rely solely on oral traditions but established a rich kabbalistic library that served as a solid foundation for his journeys and his teaching activity throughout Europe.^[1]

Diagram of Dissemination and Influence: The European Network of Disciples

Unlike Rabbi Chaim Vital, who sought to maintain a textual and spiritual monopoly over the teaching of the Ari and restricted its dissemination in the East, the Ris acted as a wandering ambassador who opened the gates of Lurianic wisdom to students in Europe.^{[1, 3]} This work of his created a ramified network of disciples and profoundly influenced mystical thought in Ashkenaz, and in particular the later development of the Hasidic system.^[1] His influence reached its peak in three main European centers: Italy, Holland and Germany.^{[1, 4]}

The literary corpus identified with the school of the Ris also includes the book "Limmudei Atzilut," which is attributed to one of the disciples of the Ari and faithfully reflects the distinctive terminology of this group.^[5] The long-term influence of the school seeped into the Ashkenazi kabbalists and served as a direct inspiration for the theological formulations of Hasidism, which found in the writings of the Ris answers to complex cosmogonic questions.^{[1, 3]}

The Doctrine of the Preliminary Contractions and the Cosmogony of the World of the Garment

Rabbi Israel Sarug's most original and daring contribution to kabbalistic thought lies in the description of the metaphysical stages that preceded the first contraction.^[3] The doctrine of contraction (tzimtzum) as a whole deals with the process by which the Godhead cleared a place in order to create an empty, spiritual space within which the worlds could be created.^[7] However, while Rabbi Chaim Vital's institutional redaction in the book "Etz Chaim" opens with a dramatic description of the first contraction in the light of the Infinite (Ein Sof), the Kabbalah of the Ris presents a complex system of contractions and inner descents that took place within the light itself even before the space was created.^[3]

These preliminary contractions were intended to solve the philosophical problem of the transition from the absolute divine essence to a reality of distinct light.^[3] According to the Ris, the drawing forth of the light from the essence does not take place by way of creation ex nihilo – which characterizes the later physical creation – but by a chain of cause and effect that requires contraction and restraint of the source of the light.^[3] Because of the immense loftiness and the hiddenness of these concepts, Hasidic teaching discusses them only very rarely.^[3] This avoidance is based on the principle "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing," similar to the warning that appears in "Etz Chaim" that human beings have no permission to speak of the Malkhut of Ein Sof because of its exceeding loftiness.^[3]

The unfolding of the light in the stages preceding the first contraction consists of four inner cosmic stages:

The Geometric Mechanics of the Light: Circle versus Square

To explain the dynamic of the influx of the light and its governance, the Ris presents a geometric-mystical system that distinguishes between two opposed and complementary spiritual movements: the "circle" and the "square."^[3] This distinction serves as a key to understanding the transitions between concealment and revelation, and it defines the character of the contractions:

• Contraction in the aspect of the circle: its essence is the withdrawal of the light, its total concealment and its distancing from the center.^[3] It is this movement that makes possible the creation of the empty space and lays the foundation for the separation of the created beings from the divine source.^{[3, 7]}
• Contraction in the aspect of the square: its purpose is the drawing forth of the light and its bringing out from its hidden inclusion in the source of light into a reality of "revealed light."^[3] Unlike the circle, which distances, the square restrains and defines the light so that it can shine in a controlled manner and in the measure suitable for the reception of the created beings.^[3]

This dynamic of the square contraction stands at the foundation of the doctrine of the "World of the Garment" (olam ha-malbush), which comes about after the contraction.^[3] The Ris shows that the contractions that preceded the first contraction constitute the direct cosmic root of the square contraction of the World of the Garment, and he thereby creates a theological continuity between the light before the contraction and the divine governance after it.^[3]

The Printing Controversy and the Opposition to Spreading the Secret

Despite the acceptance of the Kabbalah of the Ris in Europe, its coming to the printing press caused a great storm in the Jewish world.^[4] The central work through which this teaching was disseminated to the general public was "Emek ha-Melekh," composed by the German kabbalist Rabbi Naftali Hertz Bacharach, a student of the school of the Ris.^{[1, 4]} The book was printed in Amsterdam in 5408 (1648), and it became the first printed work to present the cosmological system of the Ari.^[4]

At the opening of the book Bacharach presents the cosmogonic mechanism according to the system of the Ris, according to which the creation of the worlds took place through the first contraction in the light of Ein Sof, which left an empty space and vacant place, and only afterward was the revelation of the "line" (kav) drawn into the space to illuminate the vessels and the worlds.^[6] This printing aroused fierce opposition among the kabbalists of the East.^[4] Rabbi Chaim ha-Kohen of Aleppo, the foremost disciple of Rabbi Chaim Vital, launched a sharp attack against the book and its printers, writing in fury: "And who permitted another to bring them up into print, for the uncircumcised of heart to abuse them?"^[4]

This controversy reflects a deep fundamental and ideological confrontation between two cultural and spiritual approaches:

• The closed approach (the school of Vital): saw the Kabbalah of the Ari as a hidden secret that must be kept in manuscripts only and in narrow circles of select individuals, for fear of the distortion of the spiritual concepts and their dissemination to those unworthy of them.^[4]
• The open approach (the school of Sarug): advocated wide dissemination, systematic formulation and the use of the printing press in order to prepare the world spiritually, while incorporating philosophical tools to explain the mystical terms.^{[1, 4]}

Synthesis and Theological-Historical Assessment

Rabbi Israel Sarug acted as a historic cultural and mystical crossroads, who changed beyond recognition the paths along which Kabbalah spread.^[1] The work of the Ris is not exhausted by his being an agent of culture and a geographical disseminator; rather, it represents an independent and original theological position that offers an alternative and complex cosmogony to that of Rabbi Chaim Vital.^{[1, 3]}

Through developing the doctrine of the preliminary contractions, defining the stages of the light's transition by way of cause and effect, and the geometric distinction between circle and square in the World of the Garment, the Ris succeeded in giving Lurianic Kabbalah a systematic-philosophical dimension.^[3] This system enabled philosophers who were also kabbalists, such as Abraham Cohen de Herrera, to bridge between the world of the secret and Neoplatonic philosophy, and it laid the conceptual foundation that the Hasidic movement would later adopt.^[1] The fact that the Kabbalah of the Ris is engraved on the tablet of Jewish thought, despite the fierce controversies that accompanied its printing, attests to its conceptual power and to the vitality of the tradition he bequeathed to the generations.^{[1, 4]}