The Arizal Exorcises the Spirit of Jesus from R. Hayyim Vital

Luria’s Spirit Is Angry with Hayyim Vital

R. Hayyim Vital (1542–1620) was the chief student of R. Isaac Luria (1534–1572)—known popularly as the Ari or Arizal, the originator of Lurianic kabbalah.^[1] In Sefer Hezyonot [Book of Visions], Vital’s mystical diary,^[2] he tells of how a maggid (friendly spirit)^[3] possessed the daughter of his friend Raphael Anav.^[4] The maggid was the spirit Ḥakham Piso (probably R. Isaac Israel de Piso, an exile from Spain) who had died about 30 years earlier; he had committed some small sin that was still hanging over him, so his soul was sent to Damascus in order to bring messages to Vital.^[5]

Frustrated that none of these messages came from his deceased teacher,—Vital asked Anav to inquire of the maggid why Luria was not responding to him. He reports in his entry for that day (each entry begins with a date as is the style of diaries):

^{ספר החזיונות} יום י׳ לאב. שאלתי לה ע״י אביה: למה נמנע הצדיק הנודע לי לדבר עמי ומה שמו ואם יש תקוה להחזירו.

^{Book of Visions} “The tenth of Ab. I asked her via her father: Why does the righteous one (tzaddiq) known to me (=Luria) refuse to speak to me? What is his (=the spirit’s) name, and is there any hope that he (Luria) will return?

Vital had assumed that he would be able to communicate with Luria after his death through the yiḥudim (unifications, a type of mystical meditation) that he had been taught by Luria. Yet he had not been able to communicate with Luria. Now somebody comes who is a heavenly messenger, but is not Luria. Vital is confused and asks who is this messenger that he did not know?

Vital writes in his next entry that the maggid responds that Luria is angry with Vital:

ותשיבני כי ליל י״א לאב לא ראתה למורי ז״ל ויאמר לה: אמרי לו משמי, שלא ישאל עוד שאלות אלו כ״כ פעמים ואיני יכול להשיב לו תשובה כי אם זאת, הלא הם ג׳ תיבות אלו: אשר״י מתי״ם בבית״ך והוא יבין מעצמו פירוש הדברים.

She responded that on the night of the eleventh of Ab she saw my teacher and he said to her: “Tell him in my name, that he should not ask these questions so many times. I cannot answer him, except for these three words: ‘Happy are the dead in your house.’^[6] He will understand the meaning of these words himself.”

Vital, however, does not understand what Luria is referring to, and Anav’s daughter explains this to Luria in her next dream:

ליל י״ב אב: ראתה בחלום למורי ז״ל במערה א׳ ויאמר לה: מה השיבך הר׳ חיים? ותאמר לו: אמר לי שלא הבין אותן הג׳ תיבות.

The night of the twelfth of Ab. In a dream, she saw my teacher z"l in a cave, and he said to her: “What did R. Hayyim reply to you?” She said to him: “He told me that he did not understand the three words.”

This response annoys Luria’s spirit, who speaks contemptuously of Vital’s perspicacity here:

ויאמר לה: וכי דבר נקל כזה. נאטם שכלו ולא הבין? ואיה החכמה שלמדתיו?!

He said to her: “Such an easy thing. Has his intellect become so dense that he did not understand? Where is the wisdom that I taught him?”

Luria’s spirit continues by having her remind Vital of an incident that took place years before:

וזכור יזכור אותו הרוח רעה שהוצאתי ממנו...

Remind him of the evil spirit [ruaḥ ha-raʿah] that I expelled from him.

Luria’s spirit continues with his criticism:

והנה ד׳ שנים שאינו אותי בחלום. ועתה חשבתי לחזור אליו וכיון שלא הבין דברי תשובתי, איני רוצה לחזור אליו.

It has been four years that he has not seen me in a dream. Now I planned to return to him, but since he does not understand my response. I do not want to return to him.

Though Vital never really understands what Luria wants from him, he does, at least, finally understand that his master is referring to the incident near Kfar Akhbara, on the road from Safed to Meron:

ונ[ראה] לע[ניות] ד[עתי] פי[רוש] ענין הרוח רעה הנז[כר], שהוא ענין תחיית המתים. שהחייני בלכתנו לכפר עכברא, מפני שהזיקני אותו הרוח שנקבר הגוי...

In my humble opinion, the meaning of the above-mentioned evil spirit (ruaḥ raʿah) concerns the resurrection of the dead. He revived me on our journey to Kfar Akhbara (“Mouse Village”) because of the injury done to me by a spirit who was in the grave, the gentile…^[7]

The story of how this evil spirit attacked Vital appears in a different work, the שער הגלגולים Shaʿar HaGilgulim “Gates of Transmigration.”^[8]

The Spirit of Jesus Possesses Hayyim Vital

Vital describes how he and Luria passed by the grave of an ancient goy (gentile) whose spirit saw that of Vital’s:

^{ויטאל שער הגלגולים לח} בשנת של״ב, יצאנו אל השדה, ועברנו על קבר גוי אחד קדמון יותר מאלף שנים. וראה נפשי על ציונו, ובקש להמיתני ולהזיני.

^{Vital, Shaʿar HaGilgulim §38} In the year 5332 [1572], we went out in the fields, and we passed the ancient grave of a gentile [goy] that was more than a thousand years old. He saw my spirit (nefesh) from his tombstone and he tried to harm me and kill me.

Who is this thousand-year-old spirit, powerful enough to overcome Hayyim Vital? While Vital calls him a goy, according to Vital’s own kabbalistic understanding of the soul, only a Jew has a spirit [ruaḥ] that can possess another Jew,^[9] which would imply that goy here is meant as a dismissive insult and not as an actual description of the person.

As first suggested by Pinchas Giller, the spirit seems to be none other than Jesus of Nazareth.^[10] In the previous section of Shaʿar HaGilgulim, where Vital describes how Luria wandered around the environs surrounding Safed with his disciples, “identifying” the graves of a wide variety of biblical, Talmudic, and Zoharic figures through mystical/kabbalistic means, one such grave was that of Jesus:

^{חיים ויטאל שער הגלגולים לז} לצפון צפת ת[בנה] ו[תכונן] ב[מהרה] ב[ימינו], בלכתך מצפת לצד צפון ללכת אל כפר עין זייתון, דרך אילן אחד של חרוב, שם קבור יש"ו הנוצרי.

^{Vital, Shaʿar HaGilgulim §37} To the north of Safed, may it be rebuilt and reestablished in our day,^[11] going from Safed in a northern direction to the village of Ein Zeitun [Spring of Olives], there is path to a carob tree, which is where Jesus the Nazarene is buried.^[12]

Kfar Akhbara is on the way from Safed to Ein Zeitun, so they would have passed this grave on the way.^[13]

Vital’s note that the grave is near a carob tree is likely related to the traditions concerning Judas Iscariot. The Gospel of Matthew (27:5) has Judas hang himself after betraying Jesus, and Christian folklore, going back at least to the 15^th century, says it was from a carob tree.^[14] Indeed, one species of carob tree is called “the Judas tree.”^[15] This “demonic” site was likely first understood as the burial place of Judas among local Christians, and then, with only a vague familiarity with Christianity and its characters, it morphed among local Jews to become the site where Jesus is buried. Given that Jews understood Jesus as the first Christian (rather than a first century Jew with heterodox beliefs), Vital calling Jesus a non-Jew is hardly surprising.

As the story continues, other Jewish spirits were present to defend Vital from this (Jesus’) spirit:

והיו מלאכים רבים, ונשמות צדיקים שלא ישוערו, מימיני ומשמאלי, ולא יכול לי.

There were many angels and innumerable souls [neshamot] of the righteous arrayed to my right and left and he was powerless to harm me.^[16]

Luria recommends Vital avoid that grave, but this does not help, since the spirit follows him:

ויצוני מורי ז״ל, שבחזרתי לא אחזור בדרך הזה עוד. ואח״כ הלך עמי נפש הגוי רחוקה ממני.

My teacher commanded me that when I return, I should not do so on that road. But afterwards, the spirit of that gentile followed me from a distance.

In a moment of spiritual weakness, when Vital succumbs to his anger in a fight with Rabbi Judah Mishan,^[17] the spirit is able to possess him:

ושם בשדה נכעסתי עם הרב יהודה משען, ותחל נפש הגוי להתחבר בי, ותחטאני עוד. ולא רציתי לשמוע דרשת מורי ז״ל.

There in the field I became angry with Rabbi Judah Mishan and the spirit (nefesh) of the gentile began to attach itself to me and cause me to sin^[18] even more and I did not want to listen to my teacher's z"l teachings.

Luria is distraught at Vital’s possession, worried that the spirit might kill him and thus end Luria’s quest to use Vital to bring the messiah, as Luria believed that he was the Messiah of Joseph and Vital might be the Messiah of David:^[19]

והתחיל לבכות ויאמר: "הנה כל הנשמות הצדיקים והמלאכים הלכו להם, ע״י הכעס. ולפיכך שלט בו הנפש ההיא. ומה אעשה, והלואי שיזקוהו ויניחוהו חי, כי אוכל לרפאתו. אבל ירא אני פן ימותוהו, ולא יתקיים כל מה שאני חושב שיתוקן העולם על ידו כנודע לי. ואיני יכול להגיד כי לא ניתן רשות להגיד, וכי לריק יגעתי, ונחרב העולם."

He began to cry and said: “All the souls and angels have left him because of the anger and as a result that spirit (nefesh) rules over him. What shall I do? I wish that he would [merely] harm him and let him remain living; then I will be able to heal him. However, I fear that he will kill him and everything that I think will repair the world will not be accomplished by him, as is known to me. I could not tell, since I had not been given permission, whether I have struggled for nothing and the world would be destroyed.”

Luria’s concern is that, if Vital dies, it would put an end to his messianic mission to bring repentance and redemption to the Jews.

ולא אכל כל הלילה מרוב צערו ודאגתו.

He did not eat the whole night out of anguish and worry.

Possessed, Vital returns to the gravesite of the possessing spirit, where he is sent flying in the air^[20] until he reaches total exhaustion, only barely able to drag himself to Luria’s home afterwards:

והלכתי וחזרתי הדרך ההוא לבדי. וכשהגעתי על קברו, רוח נשאתני ממש, וראיתי עצמי רץ באויר גבוה עשרים קומה מעל גבי הקרקע, עד שהגעתי בעת צאת הכוכבים, והניחוני שם. והלכתי לישן בריא עד אור הבקר. ורציתי לקום, והיו איברי נחלשים אחד לאחד והרגישו בי, והוליכנו עד פתח מורי ז״ל לאט לאט.

I returned on that road alone. When I reached his grave, the wind (or “the spirit”) lifted me[21] and I saw myself in the air, running twenty stories above the ground until I reached (land again) at nightfall and was left there. I slept soundly until morning. I wanted to get up, but all of my limbs were very weak and painful, but they brought me slowly to the door of my teacher z”l.

Luckily, Luria is able to save Vital:

ובהגיע שם, לא נותרה בי נשמה כלל כענין יונה. והשכיבני מורי ז״ל על מטתו, וסגר הדלת, והתפלל. ואח״כ נכנס לאותו בית הוא לבד, והיה הולך בבית וחוזר על המטה, וגוהר עלי בה. וכה עשה עד חצי היום שהייתי מת לגמרי. ובחצי היום ראיתי בעצמי, כי חזרה נשמתי בי מעט מעט, עד שפתחתי עיני. וקמתי וברכתי ברכת מחיה המתים.

When I arrived, I was barely alive, like Jonah, and my teacher laid me on his bed, closed the door, and prayed. Afterwards, he entered the house alone, walked around the house, returned to the bed, and stretched himself over me.^[22] He did this until noon, when I was almost dead, and at noon I saw myself that my soul was slowly returning to me until I opened my eyes, got up, and recited the blessing “He who resurrects the dead.”^[23]

וכל זה אמת ויציב^[24] בלי שום ספק.

All this is absolutely and undoubtedly true.

The spirit’s tenacity in following Vital implies that the great kabbalist was purposefully targeted.

Inverting the Trope of Jesus as Exorcist

One irony in a story about Jesus as a possessing spirit is that, in Christian tradition, Jesus performs successful exorcisms. For example, the Gospel of Mark tells how Jesus travelled over the Sea of Galilee to the region of the Gerasenes, where he was met by a man possessed by a demon:

^{Mark 5:2} And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. ^5:3 He lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain, ^5:4 for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces, and no one had the strength to subdue him. ^5:5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. (NRSVue)

The demon, however, knows he cannot resist Jesus:

^{Mark 5:6} When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him, ^5:7 and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” ^5:8 For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ^5:9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” ^5:10 He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the region.

Jesus removes the demons from the man, but agrees to allow them to possess a local herd of pigs. The man himself, however, is cured, and return to his town to tell everyone of the miracle.^[25]

While Vital’s story concerns possession by an evil spirit (ruaḥ raʿah) rather than a demon,^[26] it is a polemical inversion of the gospel story. In Christianity, Jesus begins as a Jewish itinerant prophet from the Second Temple period, famous for his powers of removing demons, and eventually revealed to be the messiah, son of God. In contrast, these kabbalists present Jesus as a dangerous and powerful “gentile” spirit, who haunts local Jews by none other than demonic possession.

The spirit targets Vital, perhaps because of the pivotal role Vital plays in Luria’s plan to bring the messiah, a plan which undermines the Christian belief that Jesus, the messiah, has already come. And who could have enough spiritual power to exorcise a being as powerful as Jesus? None other than the great kabbalist, the Arizal, whose goal was to bring forward, through Vital, the “real” messianic age.