Case file · Folklore / legend
Isaac Luria among the souls
Hagiographies of Isaac Luria, the 'Ari', who taught in Safed from 1570 to 1572, say he could read souls in faces, understand birds and trees, and identified graves of ancient sages in Galilee by vision.
1570 CE · 32.96, 35.49 · status: legend
The account
His disciple Hayyim Vital and later 'Praises of the Ari' tell these stories; his teaching on gilgul (reincarnation) and tikkun shaped later Jewish mysticism. Luria died in the 1572 epidemic, aged 38.
The sceptical view
The wonder stories were collected after his death by followers.