Life
Isaac Luria (1534–1572), known as the Arizal, spent only a few years teaching in the mystical community of Safed before his early death, yet revolutionized Kabbalah. Preserved chiefly through his disciple Chaim Vital, his system — tzimtzum (God's self-contraction to make room for creation), the shattering of the vessels, and tikkun olam (the repair of the world through human deeds) — spread across the Jewish world and profoundly shaped later Kabbalah, Hasidism, and Jewish thought at large.