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Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia (Hebrew: אברהם בן שמואל אבולעפיה) was the founder of the school of "Prophetic Kabbalah". He was born in Zaragoza , Spain , in 1240, and is assumed to have died sometime after 1291 following a stay on the small and windswept island of Comino (the smallest of the three inhabited islands that make up ...
May 9, 2018 · Abraham Abulafia (1240-1291) is the most important figure in the prophetic Kabbalah, and among the most fascinating Kabbalists in our historical record. From what we know of his biography — based on his own accounts, and those of outside sources — he lived a very unusual life for a Kabbalist.
Jul 16, 2015 · Amidst the rich panoply of Jewish Kabbalah, Abraham Abulafia (1240-1291) resonates the most with modern, philosophically minded seekers of direct mystical experience. Abulafia was unique amongst Jewish mystics in providing precise instructions for personal spiritual practice.
Prophetic kabbalah, according to Abulafia, embraces two parts, kabbalat ha‑sefirot and kabbalat ha‑shemot; the former is primary in time, but the latter is primary in importance. Abulafia is harshly critical of the theosophic kabbalists who interpret the sefirot as potencies that make up the divine. By contrast, according to him, the ...
ABULAFIA, ABRAHAM BEN SAMUEL (1240–after 1291), founder of the prophetic Kabbalah. Born in Saragossa, Spain, Abulafia moved to Tudela in his childhood and studied with his father until the latter's death in 1258. In 1260 he left Spain for the Land of Israel in search for the legendary *Sambatyon river.
Abulafia was a member of one of medieval Spain’s most illustrious Jewish families, but his path in life diverged considerably from the court-politics of his cousins and relatives. He was from Zaragoza, born in 1240, in what was then Muslim-dominated Spain.
Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia, a 13th-century Spanish scholar, taught what he called “Prophetic Kabbalah” or “Kabbalah of Names,” the pursuit of prophetic enlightenment through meditation and manipulations of letters and divine names.
He was a son of Joseph ben Todros ben Judah ha-Levi Abulafia and a nephew of Meir ben Todros Abulafia. He was wealthy and influential and enjoyed the royal favor of King Sancho IV. of Castile (1284-95).
Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia was one of the earliest kabbalists. Born in Spain, a student of the writings of Moses Maimonides and of Hillel, from twenty years of age he began a life of ceaseless wandering. His first prophetic book Sefer ha-Yashar ( Book of the Righteous) was written in 1279.
This chapter focuses on Abraham Abulafia, the founder of the ecstatic trend of Kabbalah. In 1270, he began to study Kabbalah in Barcelona, perhaps as the result of a revelation. From 1271 to 1273 he was teaching his Kabbalah and his special, mystical understanding of Maimonides' Guide to some Kabbalists in Castile.
