Great Leaders of our People

Rabbi Abraham Azulai
(1570- 1643)

Rabbi Abraham, the great-grandfather of the illustrious Rabbi Chaim Yosef Dovid Azulai, was born in Fez, Morocco. In the field of Kabballah he was greatly influenced by Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, and was born in the same year that Rabbi Moshe died. While in Fez he wrote many works. However, when he moved to Eretz Israel, his works were lost.

He wrote works on the Mishnah and a major work on Tanach, Baalei Bris Avraham. He wrote a number of works on Kabballah, including the popular Chesed L’Avraham and a three part commentary on the Zohar. The latter was based in large part on the commentary of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, which was not printed till recent years. The third part of his commentary Ohr Haganuz, the most mystical section was never published.

With all of his involvement in Kabballah, Rabbi Abraham was also deeply interested in philosophical questions and his previously mentioned commentary on Tanach, is more a philosophic than a Kabbalistic work. A recent work published in Israel is devoted to Rabbi Avraham’s theory of free will.

M.G.