Rav Moshe ben Yaakov Cordovero (1522–1570) was a central figure in the historical development of Kabbalah and the leader of a Kabbalistic school in 16th-century Safed, Ottoman Syria. He is known by the acronym the Ramak (רמ״ק).
In the introduction to his sefer Pardes Rimonim, young Moshe writes that in 1542, at the age of twenty, he heard a "heavenly voice" urging him to study Kabbalah with his brother-in-law, Harav Shlomo Alkabetz, composer of the mystical song Lecha Dodi.
Thus, he was initiated into the mysteries of the Zohar. The young Moshe mastered the text and decided to organize the kabbalistic themes leading to his day and present them in an organized fashion. This led to the composition of his first book, Pardes Rimonim, "Orchard of Pomegranates," completed in 1548, and secured his reputation as a brilliant Kabbalist and a brilliant thinker.
His second work, a magnum opus titled Precious Light (אור יקר), was a 16-volume commentary on the Zoharic literature in its entirety, to which Ramak had devoted most of his life.
Another book for which he is known is the Tomer Devorah ("Palm Tree of Deborah") - a famous work of Mussar Literature based on kabbalistic principles.
Around 1550 he founded a Kabbalah academy in Tzfas, which he led for approximately twenty years until his death. He is buried in Old Cemetery of Tzfas.
His disciples included Rav Eliyahu de Vidas, author of the Reshis Chochmah "Beginning of Wisdom", and Rav Chaim Vital, who later became the official recorder and disseminator of the teachings of Arizal.
Ramak was survived by a wife, whose name remains unknown, and by his son Gedaliah (1562–1625). Gedaliah was the impetus behind the publication of some of his books in Venice.
According to tradition, Arizal arrived in Tzfas on the exact day of Harav Moshe Cordovero's funeral in 1570. When he joined the funeral procession, he realized that only he saw a pillar of fire following the Ramak's presence. The Zohar describes this spiritual revelation as a sign to the individual who sees it that he is meant to inherit the succession of leadership from the departed person.
Arizal lived only for two years after this, until 1572, but in those few months, he revolutionized the conceptual system of Kabbalah with his new doctrines and philosophical system.
