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Isaac the Blind
 
 
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Rabbi Yitzhak Saggi Nehor ?????? ??????? ?????? ??????, also known as Isaac the Blind, (c. 1160-1235, Provence
Provence

Provence is a region of southeastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative regions of France of Provence-Alpes-C?te d'Azur....
, France) has the Aramaic epithet "Saggi Nehor" meaning "of Much Light" in the sense of having excellent eyesight, an ironic euphemism for being blind. He was a famous writer on Kabbalah
Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mysticism aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that are meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator deity with the finite and mortal universe of His creation....
 (Jewish mysticism). Some historians suspect him to be the author of the Book of the Bahir
Bahir

Bahir or Sefer Ha-Bahir ????? ????????? is an anonymous mystical work, attributed Pseudepigraphy to a first century Rabbi Nehunya ben ha-Kanah because it begins with the words, "R....
, an important early text of Kabbalah.






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Rabbi Yitzhak Saggi Nehor ?????? ??????? ?????? ??????, also known as Isaac the Blind, (c. 1160-1235, Provence
Provence

Provence is a region of southeastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative regions of France of Provence-Alpes-C?te d'Azur....
, France) has the Aramaic epithet "Saggi Nehor" meaning "of Much Light" in the sense of having excellent eyesight, an ironic euphemism for being blind. He was a famous writer on Kabbalah
Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mysticism aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that are meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator deity with the finite and mortal universe of His creation....
 (Jewish mysticism). Some historians suspect him to be the author of the Book of the Bahir
Bahir

Bahir or Sefer Ha-Bahir ????? ????????? is an anonymous mystical work, attributed Pseudepigraphy to a first century Rabbi Nehunya ben ha-Kanah because it begins with the words, "R....
, an important early text of Kabbalah. Others (especially Gershom Scholem
Gershom Scholem

Gershom Scholem , also known as Gerhard Scholem, was a Jewish philosopher and historian raised in Germany. He is widely regarded as the founder of the modern, academic study of Kabbalah, becoming the first Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
, see his Origins of the Kabbalah, p. 253) characterize this view as an "erroneous and totally unfounded hypothesis".

He was the son of a famous talmudist Abraham ben David of Posquières (Ravad).

The Bahir first appeared in the Middle Ages, around 1200 CE in France. It discusses a number of ideas that became important for Kabbalah, and even though the origins of the anonymous work are obscure, there were important Kabbalists who were writing at the same time in France. The most influential of these was Isaac the Blind.

Isaac knew about the Bahir, but was strongly influenced by the philosophy of Neo-Platonism.

Isaac the Blind's mystical concepts

He considered the sefirot as having their origins in a hidden and infinite level deep within the Ayn Sof, or Divine Being.

He believed that from the Ayn Sof emanated
Emanationism

Emanationism is Platonic monism, and an idea in the cosmology or cosmogony of certain religion or philosophy systems. Emanation from the Latin 'emanare' meaning "to flow from", is the mode by which all things are derived from the First Reality, or Principle....
 Mahshavah (Divine Thought), which was the first supernatural quality. The rest of the sefirot emanated from the Divine Thought. Individual beings in the world are material manifestation of the sefirot, albeit on a lower level of reality. Mystic experience aids in reascending the levels of emanations to unite with Divine Thought.

The most famous student of Isaac the Blind was Azriel
Azriel (Jewish mystic)

Azriel of Gerona, Azriel ben Menahem , , was one of the most important Judaism Mysticisms in the Catalonia town of Girona during the thirteenth century when it was an important center of the Kabbalah....
.

See also


  • Hachmei Provence
    Hachmei Provence

    Provence a province in southern France, was a great Torah center in the times of the Tosafists. The rabbis of Provence were separately classified as Hachmei Provence - the wise of Provence, or Proven?al rabbis....