The Arizal was born about four hundred and fifty years ago [1534] in the Old City. His Brit Milah [circumcision] was in the old courtyard on Or HaChaim Street in the center of the Jewish Quarter. His mother and father had no children until a very late age. His father, Reb Shlomo Luria, was a very great Askenazi scholar and his mother was apparently Sephardic. He had a brother in Egypt. 

One day when he was praying in the Synagogue of the Or Hachaim, he received a revelation that he was to bear a child that would enlighten all of Israel.

He kept the revelation secret even from his wife. His wife became pregnant at a very late age and bore a child. 

On the eighth day Reb Shlomo Luria brought the child to the synagogue and then waited for the Sandek, but Eliyahu did not appear. Everyone told Reb Shlomo Luria to start because it was getting very late!  Reb Shlomo tried to stall them with all kinds of excuses. 

In the end Eliyahu did reveal himself. The father sat with the child, but it was really Eliyahu sitting with the child, but no one could see this except for Reb Shlomo.  At the circumcision, the child was given the name Yitzchok Ben Shlomo with the same initials as Shimon Bar Yochai (S.B.Y.) which signifies the verse [in Hebrew], Psalm 68:19 "You elevated to the sky and you took an imprisoned soul down"]. Who is this imprisoned soul?  This is the soul of Shimon Bar Yochai or Yitzchok Ben Shlomo the Arizal, (who both have the initials of the word Shevi, S.B.Y , shin-beis-yud). It really is the same soul.  This is the "prisoner" that was taken from the sky by Moshe.

At the age of eight the Arizal’s father passed away and his mother was left penniless. She tried various ways of supporting herself but she was unsuccessful. She then decided to leave the Holy Land, and go to her brother, Reb Mordechai in Egypt. She and her son joined a caravan to Egypt where they were warmly welcomed by her brother, who was a very wealthy and influential man in Cairo.                                    

Most of the years of the Arizal were spent in Egypt. Rav Natan Shapira mentions in his book Tuv Ha'Aretz [Venice, 1660] that there is no place in the world that is on such a low level of impurity as Egypt. The book also says that Egypt is four hundred parsangs [a Mishnaic measurement of area] by four hundred parsangs and his whole area of Egypt has the most klippot (husks) in the world.  

Arizal grew up in Cairo and there he also learned with various Tzadikim (Righteous Rabbis) all level's of Torah including the Kabbalah. He married the daughter of Reb Mordechai Frances. After a while, he started to learn in seclusion. He had a very small hut by the Nile and Eliyahu (the Prophet) revealed himself to him. There Eliyahu taught him the secrets of the Zohar and the Kabbalah, Thus he received an unbelievable understanding in depth of the inner meaning of the Zohar. 

All the great prophets that prophesized outside of the Land of Israel went to water sources. Water is the source of purity, so even outside of the Land of Israel, prophets could receive the word of G-d. Ezekiel prophesized on the Nahar Kevar (the river of Kevar), and Daniel prophesized on Yuval Ulay (the stream of Ulay) and Moshe on the Nile.

So the Arial would sit in this hut by the Nile six days a week and the secrets would be given to him on various passages in the Zohar through Eliyahu. This is very similar to Reb Shimon Bar Yochai who was in the cave for 13 years and secrets were also revealed to him through Eliyahu. 

The Arizal lived from 1534 to 1572. Reb Shimon Bar Yochai lived around the year 132 ACE. so even if there are 1400 years between them, it’s the same soul. 

This information was written, published and compiled by Atarah Gur and kabbalahtorah.com. Copyright © 2007Atarah C. Gur