Rabbi Yitzhak Saggi Nehor רַבִּי יִצְחַק סַגִּי נְהוֹר, also known as Isaac the Blind, (c. 1160-1235, Provence, France) has the Aramaic epithet "Saggi Nehor" meaning "of Much Light" in the sense of having excellent eyesight, an ironic euphemism for being blind. He was a famous writer on Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). Historians suspect him to be the author of the Book of the Bahir, an important early text of Kabbalah. Events Eric IX of Sweden is succeeded by Karl Sverkersson. ... Events Anglo-Norman invasion of Connacht St. ... Provence is a former Roman province and is now a region of southeastern France, located on the Mediterranean Sea adjacent to Frances border with Italy. ... This article is about the overall Jewish mysticisms tradition. ... The Bahir (Hebrew for Illumination) is a pseudepigraphic mystical work attributed to Nehunya ben ha-Kanah, a first century rabbinic sage, and a contemporary of Johanan ben Zakkai (first century), because it begins with the words, R. Nehunya ben ha-Kanah said. It was first published in the 12th century...

He was the son of a famous talmudist Abraham ben David (Ravad) of Posquières. Abraham ben David was a Jewish, French commentator on the Talmud. ...

The Bahir first appeared in the middle ages, around 1200 CE in France. It discusses a number of ideas that became important for Kabbalah, and even though the origins of the anonymous work are obscure, there were important Kabbalists who were writing at the same time in France. The most influential of these was Isaac the Blind.

Isaac knew about the Bahir, but was strongly influenced by the philosophy of Neo-Platonism. Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is an ancient school of philosophy beginning in the 3rd century A.D. It was based on the teachings of Plato and Platonists; but it interpreted Plato in many new ways, such that Neoplatonism was quite different from what Plato taught, though not many Neoplatonists would...

Isaac the Blind's mystical concepts

He considered the sefirot as having their origins in a hidden and infinite level deep within the Ayn Sof, or Divine Being. Sephirah, also Sefirah (Hebrew language סְפִירָה Enumeration); plural Sephiroth or Sefiroth סְפִירוֹת. ... In the Jewish Kabbalah tradition, Ayn Sof (Ain Sof, Hebrew boundlessness or without end), also known referred to as Divine Being, is the name for God as he is unknown, or the mysterious and ultimate source of all existence. ...

He believed that from the Ayn Sof emanated Mahshavah (Divine Thought), which was the first supernatural quality. The rest of the sefirot emanated from the Divine Thought. Individual beings in the world are material manifestation of the sefirot, albeit on a lower level of reality. Mystic experience aids in reascending the levels of emanations to unite with Divine Thought. Emanationism is a component in the cosmology of certain religious or philosophical systems that argue a Supreme Being did not directly create the physical universe, but instead emanated into different spiritual powers that created the world. ... Sephirah, also Sefirah (Hebrew language סְפִירָה Enumeration); plural Sephiroth or Sefiroth סְפִירוֹת. ...

The most famous student of Isaac the Blind was Azriel. Azriel was one of the most important Jewish mystics in the Spanish town of Gerona (north of Barcelona) during the thirteenth century when it was an important center of the Kabbalah. ...

Cultural references

• Contemporary composer Osvaldo Golijov has a clarinet quintet called The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. It has been recorded by the Kronos quartet together with clarinet player David Krakauer of The Klezmatics.