Moses ben Jacob Cordovero

His birthplace is unknown, but the name Cordovero indicates that his family originated in Cordova, Spain and fled from there during the expulsion of 1492.

The Ramak lived in Safed, the city that was soon to become famed as a center of Kabbalah. At a young age, he already gained a reputation as an extraordinary genius. Besides his knowledge in Kabbalah, he was a Talmudic scholar and philosopher of the highest rank, and was widely respected in these fields. He was even one of the four to receive the special semicha - ordination from Rabbi Yaakov Beirav in 1538, along with Rabbi Yosef Karo (Cordoveros teacher in Halakha), Rabbi Moshe of Trani, Rabbi Yosef Sagis, and Rabbi Moses Alshich, all of whom were much older and better known than the young prodigy.

In 1542, at the age of twenty, the Ramak heard a heavenly voice urging him to study Kabbalah with his brother-in-law, Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz, composer of the mystical song Lecha Dodi. He was thus initiated into the mysteries of the Zohar. The young Ramak mastered the text completely. This failed to satisfy him, however, since its teachings are often vague, without discernible structure. In order to clarify them in his own mind, he began writing two books. The first was Ohr Yakar (The Precious Light), a 16 volume commentary on the Zohar. The second, Pardes Rimonim (Orchard of Pomegranates), completed in 1548, secured his reputation. The Pardes, as it is known, was a systemization of all Kabbalistic thought up to that time. Especially important was that in it the author attempted a reconciliation of many early schools with the Zohar's teachings, in order to demonstrate an essential unity and self-consistent philosophical basis of Kabbalah.

Three other books for which the Ramak is known are Tomer Devorah (The Palm Tree of Deborah), in which he utilizes the Kabbalistic concepts of the Sephirot (Divine attributes) to illuminate a system of morals and ethics, Ohr Neerav, a justification of and insistence upon the importance of Kabbalah study, and an introduction to its methods, and Elimah Rabbati, a treatise on kabbalistic problems.

Around 1550, the Ramak founded a Kabbalah academy in Safed, which he led for twenty or so years, until his death. It was reported that the prophet Elijah revealed himself to him. Among his disciples were many of the luminaries of Safed, including Rabbi Eliyahu di Vidas, author of Reshit Chochmah (Beginning of Wisdom), and Rabbi Chaim Vital, who later became the official recorder and disseminator of the teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria.

His books: