Israel Sarug

"Israel Ashkenazi" redirects here. For the rabbi and student of the Vilna Gaon, see Yisroel ben Shmuel of Shklov

Israel Sarug Ashkenazi (also Saruk or Srugo, fl. 1590–1610) was a pupil of Isaac Luria and devoted himself at the death of his master to the propagation of Lurianic Kabbalah, for which he gained many adherents in various parts of Italy. Among these the most prominent were Menahem Azariah da Fano, whom he persuaded to spend large sums of money in the acquisition of Luria's manuscripts, and Aaron Berechiah of Modena, author of the Ma'abar Yabboq (Ma'abar Yabboq, Qorban Ta'anit, i.). Sarug lectured also in various places in Germany and in Amsterdam. In the latter city one of his disciples was Abraham Cohen de Herrera.

Sarug was the author of:

• A Kabbalistic essay entitled Qabbalah, published in the Maṣref la-Ḥokhmah of Joseph Delmedigo (Basel, 1629)
• Hanhagot Yosher, or Tiqqun Qeri, or Qeri Miqra (Salonica, 1752), hodegetics to asceticism
• Qonṭres Ne'im Zemirot Yisrael, a Kabbalistic commentary on three of Luria's piyyutim for Shabbat

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Sarug (Saruk), Israel". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Its bibliography:
  • Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1173;
  • Grätz, Gesch. x. 420;
  • Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 700.

External links

• Notes on the Study of Later Kabbalah in English: The Safed Period & Lurianic Kabbalah
• "Which Lurianic Kabbalah?"