Person · 4920–4995 AM · 1160 CE — 1235 CE
Rabbi Isaac the Blind—Isaac Saggi Nehor רבי יצחק סגי נהור
"the father of Kabbalah": from him come the names of the ten sefirot
His byname is a turn of tact: saggi nehor means "full of light", the Aramaic way of naming a blind man without naming blindness.
His students were Ezra and Azriel of Gerona, and through them the Kabbalah of Provence passed into Catalonia and thence to the Ramban. A letter of his to Gerona survives, reproaching them: he was against teaching this openly. The commentary on Sefer Yetzirah is accepted as his by most scholars; the ascription to him of Sefer ha-Bahir was rejected by Gershom Scholem.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- The letter of Rabbi Isaac the Blind to Gerona — the reproach for spreading the Kabbalah openly
Scholarship
- The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) — the names of the sefirot, gilgul, the students and the words of Rabbeinu Bachya
Basis: documents and evidence.