Israel Sarug Ashkenazi (Hebrew: ר׳ ישראל סרוג אשכנזי, also סרוקSaruk orSrugo, known also as רי״סthe Ris and מהר״י סרוגMahari Sarug,fl. 1590–1610) was a pupil ofIsaac Luria who devoted himself at the death of his master to the propagation ofLurianic Kabbalah, through which he gained many adherents in various parts ofItaly. Among these, the most prominent wereMenahem Azariah da Fano, whom he persuaded to spend large sums of money in the acquisition of Luria's manuscripts; andAaron Berechiah of Modena, author of theMa'avar Yabbok.[1][2] Sarug also lectured in various places inGermany and inAmsterdam. In the latter city one of his disciples wasAbraham Cohen de Herrera.
Sarug's school of Kabbalah has produced several major texts, of:
Sarug's influence on Kabbalah, while not as authoritative within mainstreamJewish mysticism as the system of his contemporaryHayyim Vital, has exerted significant influence on various thinkers throughout the development of Kabbalah andHasidism. In contrast to Vital's tradition of Luria's doctrine, the Sarugian system is often described as displaying a more rigid logical structure and is claimed to haveAristotelian andNeoplatonist influences, especially byGershom Scholem andMoshe Idel.[2][5] Menahem Azariah da Fano and Abraham Cohen de Herrera are considered his two most prominent students, and da Fano's influence on Kabbalah in general is historically immense.
Key concepts in the exposition of Sarugian Kabbalah revolve around theOlam HaMalbush, an earlyemanation of Creation betweenEin Sof andAdam Kadmon that provides the context and locale of all subsequent emanations.[6]
Opposition to Sarug's system came from the accepted school oftransmission of Luria's Kabbalah, whose chief expositor was Hayyim Vital. Today, while most students of Kabbalah learn the systems descended from Vital's authentic transmission of Luria's teachings, there remain certain schools, especially amongHasidic andSephardic traditions, that maintain asyncretic approach between Vital and Sarug's systems.[2] This is especially noticeable inChabad, and is made explicit in the thought ofYitzchak Meir Morgenstern.[6]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906)."Sarug (Saruk), Israel".The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Its bibliography:| International | |
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