Early life The name Cordovero indicates that his family originated in
Córdoba, Spain, and perhaps fled from there during the expulsion of 1492 ensuing from the
Spanish Inquisition. His Hebrew signature, however (Cordoeiro), strongly suggests a long-lasting residence in Portugal. Moses was either born in or moved to Safed in the
Land of Israel, the city that was soon to become famed as a center of Kabbalah and mystical creativity. Although not involved in mystical studies until his twentieth year, he soon gained a reputation as an extraordinary genius and a prolific writer. Besides his knowledge in Kabbalah, he was a
Talmudic scholar and a man of commanding mastery in Jewish philosophy who was respected in these fields. Contrary to popular belief, however, he was not one of the rabbis who received the special
semikhah ('ordination') from
Jacob Berab in 1538, alongside
Joseph Karo, Cordovero's teacher of
Halakha,
Moses ben Joseph di Trani,
Yosef Sagis, and
Moshe Alshich. As a whole, Cordovero's contributions to posterity were in speculative and performative Kabbalah; however, during his lifetime, he was the renowned head of the
yeshiva for Portuguese immigrants in Safed.
Scholarship According to his testimony in the introduction to
Pardes Rimonim (Orchard of Pomegranates), in 1542, at the age of twenty, Moses heard a "heavenly voice" urging him to study Kabbalah with his brother-in-law,
Shlomo Alkabetz, composer of the mystical song "
Lecha Dodi". He was thus initiated into the mysteries of the
Zohar. The young Moses not only mastered the text but also decided to organize the kabbalistic themes leading to his day and present them in an organized fashion. This led to the composition of his first book,
Pardes Rimonim, which was completed in 1548 and secured his reputation as a brilliant kabbalist and a lucid thinker. The
Pardes, as it is known, was a systematization of kabbalistic thought up to that time and featured the author's attempt at reconciling early schools with the conceptual teachings of the Zohar to demonstrate an essential unity and self-consistent philosophical basis of Kabbalah. His second work, a
magnum opus entitled
Precious Light (), was a 16-volume commentary on the Zoharic literature in its entirety and a work to which the Ramak had devoted most of his life. Some other books for which he is known are the
Tomer Devorah (Palm Tree of Deborah), in which he utilizes the kabbalistic concepts of the
sefirot to illuminate a system of morals and ethics;
Ohr Neerav, a justification of and insistence upon the importance of Kabbalah study and an introduction to the methods explicated in
Pardes Rimonim;
Elimah Rabbati, a highly abstract treatise on kabbalistic concerns revolving around the
Godhead and its relationship to the
sefirot; and the
Sefer Gerushin, a short and intimate composition which features the highly devotional slant of Cordovero, as well as his
asceticism and religious piety. Certain parts of Cordovero's works are still manuscripts, whereas his existing writings suggest that he had many other compositions that he either intended to write or had written, but which were lost.
Disciples Around 1550, he founded a Kabbalah academy in Safed in the
Damascus Eyalet of Ottoman Palestine, which he led for approximately twenty years until his death. He is buried in the Old Cemetery of Safed. His disciples included
Eliyahu de Vidas, author of the
Reshit Chochmah (Beginning of Wisdom), and
Chaim Vital, who later became the official recorder and disseminator of the teachings of Isaac Luria. Cordovero was survived by a wife, the sister of Solomon Alkabetz, whose name remains unknown, and by his son Gedaliah (1562–1625). Gedaliah was the impetus behind the publication of some of Cordovero's books in Venice between 1584 and 1587. Gedaliah was buried in
Jerusalem in the Damascus Eyalet, where he had spent most of his adult life after returning from Venice. ==Succession of Kabbalistic interpretation after the Ramak==