Grave
Eliyahu de Vidas - “Reishit Chochmah”
Grave of Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas - “Reishit Chochmah”
Burial place - Hebron;
A 16th-century Kabbalist and student of the great Kabbalist Rabbi Moshe Cordovero - the Ramak.
Rabbi Eliyahu is the author of a great work of mussar, “Reishit Chochmah,” which is very popular and has been reprinted many times. Rabbi Eliyahu and his Rebbe, the Ramak, were so close that Rabbi Chaim Vital declared that their souls came from the same root.In the year 5326 he was appointed chief rabbi and judge of Hebron.
He is the author of the wondrous and truly unique book “Reishit Chochmah” - (The Beginning of Wisdom) - ראשית חכמה.
This guide to Kabbalistic ethics aimed to turn the public toward a life imbued with holiness and aligned with Kabbalistic spiritual values. De Vidas' rather voluminous work was printed, abridged, translated, and widely disseminated. De Vidas drew on numerous Kabbalistic and ethical sources available in 16th-century Safed, not all of which have survived to our day. In this way, de Vidas likely saved certain precious passages from being lost or forgotten, serving as a bridge between the earlier layers of Kabbalistic writings and later readers of the book. By incorporating such excerpts into his book, de Vidas not only preserved them but also lent them an aura of authority.
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