'''Isaac ben Solomon Luria''', also known as Isaac Ashkenazi or ''Ha-Ari'' (the Lion, a [[Hebrew]] acronym of "the Divine [[Rabbi]] Isaac," or possibly "the Ashkenazi Rabbi Isaac"), was a sixteenth-century [[Judaism|Jewish]] scholar. Born in [[Jerusalem]] in [[1534]] to an [[Ashkenazi]] father and a [[Sephardic]] mother, Luria grew up in [[Egypt]]. He was trained in [[Talmud|Talmudic]] scholarship, but initially sought a career in business. He soon turned to asceticism and mysticism, and, according to legend, spent seven years living in seclusion on an island in the [[Nile]], contemplating the [[Zohar|''Zohar'']], a thirteenth-century work of [[Kabbalah]].
In [[1569]] Luria moved to [[Safed]] in [[Palestine]], where he studied with the renowned scholar [[Moses Cordovero]]. Luria died there in [[1572]].
Luria is most known for his contributions to Kabbalah, of which he is considered a central figure in the post-[[1492]] era. He claimed to have received insight from conversing with figures from Jewish antiquity, especially [[Elijah]], and was credited with the ability to read the signs of a one's sins on one's forehead.
Luria himself is not known to have left behind any writings, and his teachings are known primarily from the writings of his disciple, [[Chaim Vital]
