Researcher and Kabbalist

"Hawker Mekubal" ("Researcher and Kabbalist"). The book is devoted to the general ideas of the Kabbalah and its importance for the religious life. Written in the form of a dialogue between a philosopher and Kabbalist, responding to criticism of Kabbalah rationalists among Italian Jewry. 

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Yaakov Bar-Hai Lutsatto one of the greatest experts in the Secret Doctrine, was born in the Italian city of Padua in 5467/1707 / year. He received a broad education, along with the holy language of the Torah and the Aramaic language, on which the Talmud and Zohar, spoke Greek and Latin, as well as spoken languages: French and Italian.

In his early youth began to study Kabbalah and by the age of fourteen understood and knew by heart many books p. Chaim Vital, reflecting teaching p. Isaac Luria (Arizal). In the month of Sivan 5487/1727 /, when Ramchal (abbreviated name r. Moshe Chaim Lutsatto) was only twenty years old, he first opened Malach ha-magid (angel-messenger), who taught him the secrets of the Torah.

At the age of thirty-six p. Moshe Chaim Lutsatto with his wife and son went to the Land of Israel. He visited Jerusalem, but has chosen to dwell in the port city of Acre, where several centuries before the French are famous yeshiva tosafistov and Ramban. Ramchal died during an epidemic of plague that hit Acre in 5507/1747 / year. He was buried in Tiberias, next to the grave p. Akivy.Za its short and full of dramatic events of the life of p. Moshe Chaim Lutsatto written dozens of books critical of Judaism. In subsequent generations, the name has become a spiritual banner Ramchal a number of areas in the Jewish tradition, including those that are strongly opposed to each other.

Hasidic leaders saw him as one of his greatest forerunners. The famous Franz Kafka, the closest disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and his spiritual heir, claimed that the "generation Ramchal was unable to assess his great righteousness, but if Ramchal born in the next generation, he became the head of a nation."

At the same time in the district. Moshe Chaim Lutsatto saw the spiritual leader and misnagdim (opponents of Hasidism). There is evidence that when the Vilna Gaon read the book "Mesilat Yesharim" ("righteous path"), he began to search for the author to become his disciple, but, to his great dismay, it turned out that the author had already left this world.

The founder of the Mussar movement p. Israel Salanter, and oppose the Hasidim, and orthodox followers of the Vilna Gaon, as seen in its greatest Ramchal predecessor and thought his book "Mesilat Yesharim" a masterpiece of Jewish thought.

Four decades after the death of his have been published Ramchal Kabbalistic writings. For example, in 5545/1785 / in the Ukrainian town typography Koretz, one of the capitals of Hasidism, was printed treatise "Klah pitha Fun" ("138 Gates of Wisdom"), which explains the many complex mystical phenomena reflected in the teachings of Arizal. In the same 5545/1785> in the Belarusian town of Shklov, one of the centers of Lithuanian Jewry, published the book "Hawker Mekubal y" ("The researcher and the Kabbalist"), in the form of dialogue in it compares two approaches to the knowledge of the wisdom of the Torah : the path of intellectual research and direct path of spiritual attainment, peculiar Cabala. Today we present this book to Russian readers in translation p. Leib Alexander Savrasov.