Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia (born in Saragosa 1240- and d. sometime after 1290, Comino, Maltese archipelago) is the founder of a unique kabbalah (mystical tradition), known as "ecstatic kabbalah" or qabbalah nevu'it. Events Batu Khan and the Golden Horde sack the Ruthenian city of Kyiv Births Pope Benedict XI Deaths April 11 - Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, also known as Llywelyn The Great Prince of Gwynedd Monarchs/Presidents Aragon - James I King of Aragon and count of Barcelona (reigned from 1213 to 1276) Castile... For broader historical context, see 1290s and 13th century. ... Comino is an island of the Maltese archipelago between island of Malta and island of Gozo in the Mediterranean Sea. ... Kabbalah (Hebrew קַבָּלָה reception, Standard Hebrew Qabbala, Tiberian Hebrew Qabbālāh; also written variously as Cabala, Cabalah, Cabbala, Cabbalah, Kabala, Kabalah, Kabbala, Qabala, Qabalah, Kaballah) is an interpretation (exegesis, hermeneutic) key, soul of the Torah (Hebrew Bible), or the religious mystical system of Judaism claiming an insight into divine nature. ...

He was a student of the writings of Moses Maimonides and of Rabbi Hillel of Verona. Abulafia's writings include Sefer haYashar (The Book of the Righteous), Sefer ha-Ot (The Book of the Sign), and Imre Shefer (Words of Beauty), Get HaShmot, Gan Na'ul (commentary on Sefer Yetzirah), Otzar Eden Ganuz (also commentary on Sefer Yetzirah), and Sefer HaCheshek. Commonly used image indicating one artists conception of Maimonidess appearance Moshe ben Maimon (March 30, 1135–December 13, 1204) was a Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher. ... Sefer Hayashar ... Sefer Yetzirah (Hebrew, Book of Creation, ספר יצירה) is the title of two books on esoteric Jewish mysticism. ...

Abulafia is closely associated with gematria, the symbolic employment of letters as numerals. Gematria (גימטריה) is numerology of the Hebrew language and Hebrew alphabet. ...

Trivia

Abulafia is also the nick-name given by co-protagonist Jacopo Belbo to his home computer in Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. The machine was used not only for word processing, but also to attempt to extract meaningful snippets from random permutations of text in a fashion reminiscent of Abraham Abulafia's methods. Photo of Umberto Eco by Robert Birnbaum Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose and his many essays. ... Foucaults Pendulum (original title: Il pendolo di Foucault) is a novel by Italian novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco. ...

Paul Durham uses the word Abulafia as the escape code to call up a terminal in his virtual reality simulations in Greg Egan's Permutation City. This is again a reference to the permutation process, though it is unclear whether it is intended as an homage to the machine in Eco's work or to Abraham Abulafia himself. Greg Egan (August 20, 1961, Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian computer programmer and science fiction author. ... Permutation City is a science fiction novel (ISBN 1-85798-218-5) by Greg Egan which explores quantum ontology via the various philosophical aspects of artificial life and simulations of intelligence. ...

Abulafia is also the name of a famous bakery in Tel Aviv's Jaffa district. Tel-Aviv was founded on empty dunes north of the existing city of Jaffa. ... Jaffa (Hebrew יָפוֹ, Standard Hebrew Yafo, Tiberian Hebrew Yāp̄ô; Arabic يَافَا (help· info); also Japho, Joppa; also, ~1350 B.C.E. Amarna Letters, Yapu), is an ancient city located in Israel. ...

He is also mentioned in the book "The Bee Season" by Myla Goldberg

References

• JewishEncyclopedia.com article
• Portrait of Abulafia (PDF file)
• "Circles" - from Life of the World to Come