# Etz Chaim (book)

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Etz Chaim (Hebrew: עץ חיים, "Tree of Life") is a literary work that deals with the Kabbalah, written in 1573. It is a summary of the teachings of the Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Arizal (1534-1572), a rabbi and a kabbalist who led a study group on Kabbalah in the city of Safed, in Ottoman Palestine.
Luria did not publish any works of his own. Etz Chaim was compiled by his student and disciple, Rabbi Chaim Vital, who wrote down the lessons taught by Luria to his study group on Kabbalah.
The book talks about the divine order and the existence of things, and deals with revelation and the perception of reality by human beings. The first fragment of the book makes reference to the tree of life, which gives the book its name: "You know, before the beginning of the Creation there was only the highest and fullest light. The description of the creation process starts from that point, especially."
The book marks the beginning of the school of thought known as the Lurianic Kabbalah. Before Luria, Kabbalists revealed the development of reality from its origin to our world (from the understandable light). According to Rabbi Chaim Vital, Luria discovered a method to better understand this reality.