Moshe Cordovero
Rabbi Moshe Cordovero was one of the greatest Kabbalists. He was born in 5282 in Ottoman Turkish Safed (Israel), the city that was soon to become famed as a center of Kabbalah. At a young age, he already gained a reputation as an extroardinary genius. Besides his knowledge in Kabbalah, he was a Talmudic scholar and philosopher of the highest rank, and was widely respected in these fields. He was even one of the four to receive the special semicha-ordination from Rabbi Yaakov Beirav in 1538 CE.
Rabbi Cordovero became one of the leading Kabbalists in Safed. His first book was Ohr Yakar (The Precious Light), a voluminous commentary on the Zohar. The second, Pardes Rimonim (Orchard of Pomengranates), was a systemization of all Kabbalistic thought up to that time. He died on the 23th Tammuz, 5330.
