Etz Chayyim: The Tree of Life, Volume I: The Primordial Structure (Gates 1 to 8) - Softcover

Vital, Chayyim; Luria, Isaac

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798191152042

Publisher: Independently published, 2026

Synopsis

The first complete scholarly English translation of the foundational text of Lurianic Kabbalah. Volume I of five.

Etz Chayyim, the Tree of Life, is the master work of Rabbi Chayyim Vital (1543 to 1620), who recorded the oral teachings of his master, Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Ari, in sixteenth-century Safed. It is the most influential system of Jewish mystical thought since the Zohar. This edition sets the original Hebrew, a complete transliteration, and the English translation side by side, so the text can be followed at the level of the word, with a full commentary apparatus throughout.

Volume I opens the system at its root. It moves through the Tzimtzum, the self-withdrawal by which the Infinite made room for creation, the Reshimu, the residual impression left behind, and the Tehiru, the luminous void in which the worlds took shape. It sets out the descent of the divine light, the emergence of Adam Kadmon, Primordial Man, and the first vessels whose shattering and repair drive everything that follows.

Contains Gates 1 through 8, together with the Translator's Introduction to the whole work.

Translated from the Warsaw 1891 edition, a public-domain text. A Threshold Press edition. Every claim traced to the source.

Edition details

• Publisher: Independently published
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798191152042
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 164