Rabbi Chaim Vital (sometimes referred to as Rabbi Chaim Vital Calabrese, since his family was from Calabria, Italy) was born c. 5303 (1543 CE). Rabbi Chaim is renowned primarily as the recorder and editor of the teachings of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, although he himself was also an accomplished kabbalist and writer. Rabbi Chaim's father, Rabbi Yosef was famed as an expert scribe whose tefillin were much sought after, having been written in holiness and purity, and with special kabbalistic intentions. Rabbi Yosef Caro said in the name of his maggid (an angelic teacher) that half the world existed by virtue...