Slander and Libel

Slander and Libel Against the Greats of Israel

The Arizal and his students not only adopted grave worship in the Jewish people, but also imagined themselves the successors of the tannaim as their reincarnations, but really they degraded and insulted the great Torah scholars.

Come and see how Rabbi Chayyim Vital praises himself in his book Sha’ar HaGilgulim, Introduction, 38:

And [the Arizal] also told me that my soul was higher than some of the angels above, great in the highest level, and that I could rise through my soul, through my actions, higher than the heaven called aravot.

He continues further:

He also told me that when I was 13 years old, the soul of Rabbi Elazar ben Arach, the student of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, transmigrated into me; and afterwards when I was 20 years old, the soul of Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua, the student of Rabbi Akiva, transmigrated into me, since as he was one of the ten martyrs, his level was higher than Rabbi Elazar ben Arach; and that now in the year 5331 from Creation, while I am 29 years old, the spirit of Rabbi Akiva, peace be upon him, was in me, floating and levitating over me to transmigrate into me with the help of HaShem. Thus it seems that his soul is reincarnated in me with my soul.

He continues further:

Now my own soul, that of humble Chayyim, is of this aforementioned heel of the face of the left shoulder of Adam HaRishon.

In the books Shivchei HaAri and Sefer HaChezyonot, there are innumerable deceitful and exaggerated stories about the Arizal’s alleged greatness, which indeed have no verification or recognition. It is brought there that the Arizal announced himself to be the mashiach; we will speak about this in the next chapter. In one of the introductions to the book Etz Chayyim, Rabbi Chayyim Vital describes the Arizal in this way:

There was no one who attained this wisdom in its true meaning like him, for he knew many facets in peshat, remez, derash and sod for each and every thing in the Mishnah, Talmud, Aggadot and Midrashim, and ma’aseh bereshit and ma’aseh merkavah, the speech of birds, palm and other trees and grasses, in the secret of “For a stone shall shout from a wall” (Chavakkuk 2:11); and the flames of ashes and the speech of angels. And he would speak with spirits of reincarnation, both good and evil spirits. And he was familiar with the smell of clothing like that child in Parashat Devarim (Zohar 3:186a), and mute birds. And he would bring a person’s soul while he was still alive, and he would speak with it as far as needed and wanted, and then he would remove it. And he would see souls when they departed from the body, and in cemeteries, and when they ascended every Shabbat eve to the Garden of Eden. And he would speak with the souls of the righteous who were in the next world, and they would reveal to him secrets of Torah. And he also knew the science of physiognomy, and palm reading, and true interpretation of dreams, and old and new reincarnations. And he would recognize from a person’s forehead what he was thinking and what he had dreamed, and what verse he had read when his soul had ascended to the Garden of Eden at night, and he would learn the meaning of the root of his soul. And he would read on his forehead the merits and transgressions that he was thinking about. And he would give everyone a reparation in accordance with the special choice, or to the root of his soul that was attached in the root of Adam HaRishon. And he knew how many errors occurred in books. And he knew how to strike a person blind. And he knew everything that the companions learned. And he was full of piety and courtesy and humility, and fear of HaShem and love of HaShem, and fear of sinning to Him; and all good character traits and deeds were in him. And he knew all this all the time, at every hour and moment. And all these disciplines were always available to him. This I saw firsthand. And he achieved all this from his great piety and abstinence, after he studied many days old and new books about this discipline. And he added to them piety, abstinence, purity and holiness, and this brought him to ruach hakodesh, and Eliyahu would appear to him constantly.

What lies and deception! All the greats of the Torah – prophets, judges, kings, sages, and above them all Mosheh Rabbenu – appear infinitesimal compared to him!

But the Arizal and his student Rabbi Chayyim Vital degraded and insulted the true greats of the Torah as they wished. Here is a small number of examples:

1. Rabbi Mosheh Cordovero and Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas

In the books Sha’ar HaPesukim, Parashat Chayyei Sarah and Likkutei Torah, Parashat Chayyei Sarah, Rabbi Chayyim Vital writes about Rabbi Mosheh Cordovero and his student Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas: “The Ramak and Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas were of the root of Eliezer, the slave of Avraham (the Canaanite slave).”

And in the Sefer HaChezyonot, it is recounted of Rabbi Mosheh Cordovero that he allegedly appeared before the Arizal after his death and admitted that he was studying his teachings:

Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, three months after my teacher of blessed memory passed away, I saw the Ramak of blessed memory in a dream at the door to the study group of Tzefat, and I had him swear to tell me the truth about the way of studying kabbalah in the world of the souls, whether it is according to his way or according to the way of my teacher of blessed memory.

And he said to me, “Both ways are true. However, my way is the simple way for beginners in the discipline of kabbalah, and your teacher’s method is the internal and primary. And I too up here learn only in your teacher’s method.”

I said to him, “If so, why did he pass away?”

And he said to me, “Because he didn’t find even one righteous person as perfect as he wanted. But if he had found one righteous person as perfect as he wanted, he would not have passed away.”

Let us remind you that Rabbi Mosheh Cordovero was the greatest of the kabbalists in the world and one of the great rabbis of Tzefat, the student of our master Rabbi Yosef Karo, the author of the Shulchan Aruch.

All the aforementioned things recounted of him are lies and deception, and there are two proofs of this: First, because in that generation, there were such great and amazing righteous and pious people that they wanted to renew semichah in Israel, yet they opposed what the Arizal said. Second, the Ramak wrote the exact opposite about the Arizal’s followers and his teachings in his book Or Yakar on the Tikkunim, volume 3, page 204:

It is forbidden to reveal the secrets of the Torah to a non-Jew … God forbid, so as not to bring an image into the inner chamber, so as not to contaminate the chamber and pour libations to idolatry, as the foxes destroyed the vineyard of HaShem Tzevaot, HaShem’s covenant right now in the land of Italy … And HaShem’s Ark of the Covenant, wisdom itself, concealed itself. And blessed is He Who gave us the merit that neither they nor the nations know the difference between their right and left any more than speechless animals, because in the end they only enter into the midst of it as chirping birds.

Let us remind you that Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas was one of the great kabbalists and rabbis of Tzefat, appointed in the year 5326 as the head of the rabbis of Chevron, and author of the amazing book Reshit Chochmah.

In lying about the spiritual association of the Ramak and Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas to a Canaanite slave, Rabbi Chayyim Vital meant to degrade and insult the giants who disturbed him greatly for their immense knowledge in the hidden and revealed Torah.

2. Rabbi Ya’akov Abulafia

In the book Shivchei HaAri, the story is told of Rabbi Ya’akov Abulafia:

And [Rabbi Ya’akov] saw that the plower turned into an ox and the ox turned into a man, and it yoked him and began to whip him, and they acted in this way. And the sage was shocked and had no way to flee, for he didn’t know the way, and he was in great pain, for his plan hadn’t been fulfilled. And when the sun set, all three of them became men, and they began to weep, and they spoke with him.

And they said to him, “Welcome. Is your honor from Tzefat?”

He said, “Yes.”

They said, “Does Rabbi Ashkenazi dwell in Tzefat?”

He said, “Yes.”

Then they fell before his feet and wept, and the sage also wept with them.

And they said to him, “Did your honor see our pain?”

And he said, “Yes.”

They said to him, “For God’s sake, have mercy on us, for we are of the Children of Israel. And when you go to Tzefat, go immediately to the rabbi [the Arizal] and fall before him for him to repair us, for we are no longer able to withstand the suffering.”

And the sage said, “So I will do.” And they had him swear a strict oath to do whichever tikkun the rabbi would tell him to do. Then they took him and put him in a caravan in the blink of an eye, and his spirit came back to him.

In the Sefer HaChezyonot of Rabbi Chayyim Vital, there are a few parts where he describes Rabbi Ya’akov Abulafia as one of his great opponents, where he insults and degrades him in his stories. Among them: In the story of the “dibbuk who entered into a girl,” the spirit blames Rabbi Ya’akov for disparaging Chayyim Vital, “who makes fun of him and speaks vanities of his words,” and says that Rabbi Ya’akov and his family are guilty of transgressions. Rabbi Chayyim Vital also writes there further that the congregation’s prayer in the synagogue will not be accepted, because Rabbi Ya’akov was banned by heaven because of his evil opposition towards him. He also writes there further that Rabbi Ya’akov was allegedly guilty of closeness to the Muslim religion. He also writes there further that the great sages of Israel were complicit in this, among them Rabbi Ya’akov who was degraded by the Arizal, who dressed Rabbi Ya’akov in a short garment that reached his waist, which indicates this rabbi’s deficiency.

Let us remind you that Rabbi Ya’akov Abulafia was the rabbi and av beit din of Damascus, and when he immigrated to Israel, he became one of the great rabbis of Tzefat, and he was considered then one of the greatest rabbis in the world.

Thus, it is clear that all the things stated here are mere libel. There is a simple proof that the things stated in the book Shivchei HaAri and Sefer HaChezyonot are lies and deception, namely that Rabbi Ya’akov Abulafia didn’t believe in the miraculous stories about the Arizal, opposed and attacked sharply the Arizal’s teachings.

3. Rabbi Mosheh Galanti

In the book Shivchei HaAri, it is told of Rabbi Mosheh Galanti that he allegedly begged the Arizal to give him a tikkun for his soul:

“I come before you for you to give my soul a tikkun.”

The rabbi [the Arizal] said to him: “Who am I and what is my life worth, for me to give the great honorable scholar a tikkun? By my master’s life, leave me alone.”

He said to him: “Do I not know how to force you to swear by the ineffable name to tell me whatever you see on my forehead? So please, tell me before I get angry.”

Then the rabbi [the Arizal] looked at his face and said: “My master possesses a doubtfully stolen object.”

And when the honorable rabbi heard, he went home and took off his clothes, and wore sackcloth and ashes, and sat on the ground, and wept very loudly, saying, “Where shall I bring my disgrace, since I am a judge in Tzefat, yet I possess a doubtfully stolen object!” And he wept until he no longer had the strength to weep, and all his family saw and wondered, and then he asked for some water to return to his senses.

Let us remind you that Rabbi Mosheh ben Rabbi Mordechai Galanti was the chief rabbi of Tzefat, and he was one of the great teachers of that time, the student of Rabbi Yosef Karo.

Here we see clearly the disgraceful attempt to exalt, to make wondrous and to praise the Arizal on the one hand, and to insult and disgrace Rabbi Mosheh Galanti on the other hand, like the other great men of Israel who have been mentioned in part above. And this is for the reason that Rabbi Mosheh Galanti didn’t believe in the miracle stories that were told of the Arizal (and later, his grandson, Rabbi Mosheh ben Rabbi Yehonatan Galanti, who was the head of the rabbis of Jerusalem, attacked and banned the great follower of the Arizal’s teachings, the false messiah Shabbetai Tzevi).

4. Rabbi Mosheh Alshich

In the book Sha’ar HaGilgulim, Introduction 38, Rabbi Chayyim Vital brings a degrading and disgraceful story about Rabbi Mosheh Alshich, despite calling him his teacher:

One case of adultery came before my teacher, Maharam Alshich, and we were debating the case together, and I told him that my opinion leaned towards permitting her, and he said that his opinion also leaned the same way, and he permitted her. But since I hadn’t studied that case closely, I had erred in it. And he told me that that case had only come before me so as to repair that sin, and that if I had studied it, I would not have erred, and I would have repaired what had happened. And therefore, another similar case would come before me in the future, when one sage will ask me my opinion on that case, and I will tell him the truth, and that aforementioned sin will thereby be repaired, because the sin was not in deed but only in speech, and now too it will depend on speech to repair the defect of speech.

Let us remind you that Rabbi Mosheh Alshich was one of the great rabbis of Tzefat, a kabbalist, commentator and author of famous sermons on the Torah, the student of Rabbi Yosef Karo.

Thus it is clear to anyone capable of thinking that this story is a mere lie and libel, since he was a true kabbalist. So in order to negate this, it is said in the book Shivchei HaAri:

One day Rabbi Mosheh Alshich also came before the rabbi [the Arizal] … and the rabbi said to him, “Have I not told the great honorable scholar that he has only come to this world in order to repair the peshat?”

Rabbi Chayyim Vital’s intention in writing these stories is clear – to neutralize the greatness and honor of the rabbis who know the truth about the maliciousness of the Arizal’s teachings in order to allow it to flourish and spread in the Jewish people undisturbed.

5. Our holy patriarchs, Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov

There are innumerable stories like these, but most degrading and hurtful of all, the act of calling our holy patriarchs up to the Torah, who allegedly appeared before the Arizal and had an aliyyah to the Torah at the synagogue in his honor, as is brought in the book Shivchei HaAri:

Once the rabbi aid to his students on the day of Shabbat, “If you accept not to speak anything in the synagogue in shacharit until leaving the synagogue, and none of you fill your mouths with laughter from everything you say, then I will lead the prayer with you and I will call the four shepherds to read from the Torah.”

And the students answered, “We accept upon ourselves gladly everything that our master commanded us.”

And he said to them, “I see with ruach hakodesh that one of you will be punished for being quiet.” But they persisted to beg him until he did their will. And they went to the synagogue, and he called Aharon as the kohen, and he came and read himself his section, said the blessings before and after, and so too Mosheh as the levi, and he read his section and went off, and so too Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov, and so too Yosef whom he called as the sixth, and for the seventh he called for David ben Yishai. And he showed himself dancing, laughing, turning and bouncing with all his might before HaShem’s Ark of the Covenant, while dressed in a vest and a linen coat on his loins.

The insolence, arrogance and conceitedness of the author of these stories, Rabbi Chayyim Vital, break all records! This is all totally without logic or sense.

6. The light of our eyes, Mosheh Rabbenu

And in order to finish the matter of slandering and libeling the greats of Israel, I will bring a final story about Mosheh Rabbenu’s body, as is brought in Sefer HaChezyonot:

And furthermore, on this day they would read VeZot HaBerachah, which mentions the passing away of Mosheh Rabbenu, peace be upon him, and they would bring his body to commemorate his passing away. And I saw that they brought the body of Mosheh Rabbenu, peace be upon him, to the synagogue, and his length was close to ten cubits, and they set up a long bench with many book, and they placed his body on it … and they put his head towards the south, which is parashat BeReshit, and his end towards the north, which is parashat VeZot HaBerachah. And the sage of the congregation was sitting by his head and I was by his end, and I said in my heart, “He did so out of arrogance, putting the head of the Torah by his place and its end by my place.” … For this indicates that I have an attachment and a connection between the soul of Mosheh Rabbenu, peace be upon him, and my soul.

See what disgrace and degradation Rabbi Chayyim Vital did to Mosheh Rabbenu, the teacher of all of Israel, in his fictional and insolent story! The Torah also says in the book of Devarim 34:6: “And no man knows his burial place to this very day.” And you, even if you had really seen this vision, would you have put it in writing and had no concern for Mosheh Rabbenu’s honor? Of course not!

Again and again, we encounter baseless sayings and baseless stories, as usual in all of the Arizal’s teachings, which is founded on them. Thus we have proven that the Arizal’s teachings slander and libel the greats of Israel.