Sefer ha-ḥezyonot (The Book of Visions): On the Afterlife

A prominent kabbalist of the Safed circle and the most important disciple of Isaac Luria, Ḥayim ben Joseph Vital lived in Safed (where Moses Alsheikh and Moses Cordovero were among his teachers), in Jerusalem, and in Damascus, where he died. His ‘Ets ḥayim (Tree of Life) was a vast compendium of the collected writings of Luria—whose sole authoritative guardian Vital claimed to be. A second major work, Sefer ‘ets ha-da‘at (Book of the Tree of Knowledge), which appears to have included biblical commentary, is only partially extant. Ḥayim Vital also wrote commentaries to the Zohar as well as an autobiographical work, Sefer ḥezyonot (Book of Visions).