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Isaac ben Samuel of Acre (
fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
13th–14th century) (
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: יצחק בן שמואל דמן עכו, ''Yitzhak ben Shmuel d'min Akko'') was a Jewish kabbalist who fled to Spain. According to
Chaim Joseph David Azulai Haim Yosef David Azulai ben Yitzhak Zerachia (1724 – 1 March 1806) (), commonly known as the Hida (the acronym of his name, ), was a Jerusalem born rabbinical scholar, a noted bibliophile, and a pioneer in the publication of Jewish religious ...
, Isaac ben Samuel was a pupil of
Nachmanides Moses ben Nachman ( he, מֹשֶׁה בֶּן־נָחְמָן ''Mōše ben-Nāḥmān'', "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (; el, Ναχμανίδης ''Nakhmanídēs''), and also referred to by the acronym Ra ...
.


View of the Zohar

Isaac ben Samuel was at the Crusader-controlled town of
Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...
when town was taken by a
Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...
army led by
Al-Ashraf Khalil Al-Ashraf Salāh ad-Dīn Khalil ibn Qalawūn ( ar, الملك الأشرف صلاح الدين خليل بن قلاوون; c. 1260s – 14 December 1293) was the eighth Bahri Mamluk sultan, succeeding his father Qalawun. He served from 12 Novem ...
. He was arrested and thrown into prison with many other Jews, but escaped the massacre, and in 1305 went to
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
.
Abraham Zacuto Abraham Zacuto ( he, , translit=Avraham ben Shmuel Zacut, pt, Abraão ben Samuel Zacuto; 12 August 1452 – ) was a Castilian astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, rabbi and historian who served as Royal Astronomer to King John II of Portugal. ...
states in his ''Yuḥasin,'' that
Moses de Leon Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
discovered the
Zohar The ''Zohar'' ( he, , ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah (the five ...
in the time of Isaac of Acre. However, Isaac doubted the authenticity of the Zohar and made inquiries about it of Naḥmanides' pupils, without, however, any satisfactory result. When Isaac met Moses of Leon at
Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...
, the latter took an oath that he had a copy of the Zohar written by Shimon bar Yochai himself in his house at
Ávila Ávila (, , ) is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila. It lies on the right bank of the Adaja river. Located more than 1,130 m ab ...
. However, de Leon died before he could return to Ávila, and Isaac, more than ever desirous of obtaining the truth, consulted at Ávila a man named David Dafan Korpo. Dafan told Isaac that Moses of Leon's wife and daughter had revealed to the wife of a certain Joseph of
Ávila Ávila (, , ) is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila. It lies on the right bank of the Adaja river. Located more than 1,130 m ab ...
that Moses of Leon had written the book himself, an anecdote accepted as historical by
Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (now Książ Wielko ...
, philosophy professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, and academic authorities on the Kabbalah such as Gershom Scholem and Berkeley professor
Daniel C. Matt Daniel Chanan Matt is a scholar of Kabbalah and a professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and taught at Stanford University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Matt is best known ...
, while Landauer claims it to be apocryphal and tries to demonstrate that the Zohar was discovered much later. Issac's testimony, which appeared in the first edition (1566) of Sefer Yuchasin, was censored from the second edition (1580) and remained absent from all editions thereafter until its restoration nearly 300 years later in the 1857 edition. The Yuchasin's copy of Isaac's account does not include any final conclusion. However, in Isaac's ''Otzar HaHayim'' he assumes that the Zohar was written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.


Quotations and works in Kabbalah

Isaac of Acre is frequently quoted by Elijah de Vidas in his ''Reshit Ḥokmah,'' and by R. Hayyim Vital in his ''Megillat Setarim.'' He was an expert in composing the sacred names ("ẓerufim"), by the power of which angels were forced to reveal to him the great mysteries (Azulai, l.c.). According to Azulai he wrote many kabbalistic works. Those that are known are: ''Meirat Enayim,'' a kabbalistic commentary on Naḥmanides' commentary to the
Pentateuch The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
; ''Sefer ha-Sodot,'' mentioned in the ''Nobelot Ḥokmah'' of
Joseph Solomon Delmedigo Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (or Del Medigo), also known as Yashar Mi-Qandia ( he, יש"ר מקנדיא) (16 June 1591 – 16 October 1655), was a rabbi, author, physician, mathematician, and music theorist. Born in Candia, Crete, a descendant o ...
; ''Ketem Paz,'' a kabbalistic work mentioned by
Moses Botarel Moses Botarel was a Spanish scholar who lived in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He was a pupil of Jacob Sefardi (the Spaniard), who instructed him in the Kabbala. Moses studied medicine and philosophy; the latter, he regarded as a div ...
in his commentary to the
Sefer Yezirah ''Sefer Yetzirah'' ( ''Sēp̄er Yəṣīrā'', ''Book of Formation'', or ''Book of Creation'') is the title of a book on Jewish mysticism, although some early commentators treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed ...
, and the author of which he calls "Isaac ben Samuel," identified by Michael (''Or ha-Ḥayyim,'' No. 1088) with Isaac ben Samuel of Acre; ''Liḳḳuṭe Shoshanim,'' possibly a compendium of the ''Sefer ha-Sodot.'' It appears from the ''Reshit Ḥokmah'' that Isaac of Acre wrote also a book on ethics. The ''Me'irat 'Enayim'' was published in a critical edition by Amos Goldreich in 1983. His "Otzar HaHayyim" was published in 2020 by Machon Hokhmei Yerushalayim.


Theory of age of the Universe

Isaac's words have been used by some to calculate the age of the universe as being 15,340,500,000 years old. Notably, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan arrived at this conclusion based on one view which holds that the author of
Sefer HaTemunah ''Sefer HaTemunah'' ( he, ספר התמונה ) (lit. "Book of the Figure", i.e. shape of the Hebrew letters) is a 13–14th century kabbalistic text. It is quoted in many ''Halakhic'' sources. Origins ''Sefer HaTemunah'' was probably written a ...
believed that there were 42,000 years prior to the biblical Adam, based on the idea that we would be in the seventh 7,000 year Shmitah cycle, in conjunction with the idea that according to Issac, years prior to Adam should be calculated as "divine years," which, based on a verse from
Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
stating, "A thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday" (Psalm 90:4), yields an equivalent of 365,250 solar years. Kaplan then multiplies these figures and arrives at the said number. According to Kaplan, "From calculations based on the expanding universe and other cosmological observations, modern science has concluded that the Big Bang occurred approximately 15 billion years ago. But here we see the same figure presented in a Torah source written over seven hundred years ago!" The scientific estimation places the occurrence of the
Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
at 13.799 ± 0.021 billion years ago. Kaplan's interpretation of Isaac's views has been contested. Rabbi Gil Student and Rabbi Ari Kahn describe some objections, citing sources which disagree, including the argument that the author of Sefer HaTemunah actually believed we were in the sixth, not seventh Shmitah, and that Isaac himself said that we were in the second, not seventh Shmitah, which would change the calculation dramatically, and bringing up the Arizal who was of the view that the matters discussed are spiritual and should not be applied to calculate physical years.


Notes


Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

* Grätz, Gesch. 3d ed., vii. 186, 211, 427–428; *
Abraham Zacuto Abraham Zacuto ( he, , translit=Avraham ben Shmuel Zacut, pt, Abraão ben Samuel Zacuto; 12 August 1452 – ) was a Castilian astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, rabbi and historian who served as Royal Astronomer to King John II of Portugal. ...
, Yuḥasin, ed. Filipowski, pp. 95, 96, London, 1857; * Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, p. 54; * Jellinek, Beiträge, ii., xiii.; * Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2523; * M. H. Landauer, in ''Litteraturblatt des Orients'', vi. 182, 224, 509 *
Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim Heimann (Hayyim) Michael (April 12, 1792 – June 10, 1846) was a Hebrew bibliographer born at Hamburg. He showed great acuteness of mind in early childhood, had a phenomenal memory, and was an indefatigable student. He studied Talmudics and rec ...
, p. 513, No. 1088. {{DEFAULTSORT:Isaac Ben Samuel Of Acre 14th-century Castilian rabbis Kabbalists People from Acre, Israel Rabbis of the Land of Israel Jewish refugees