Isaac ben Solomon Ashkenazi Luria (Hebrew: יִצְחָק בן שלמה לוּרְיָא אשכנזי; c. 1534 [1] – July 25, 1572 [2]), commonly known in Jewish religious circles as Ha'ari, [a] Ha'ari Hakadosh [b] or Arizal, [c] was a leading rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Syria, now Israel.

Isaac ben Solomon Luria (born 1534, Jerusalem, Palestine, Ottoman Empire—died August 5, 1572, Safed, Syria [now Zefat, Israel]) was the eponymous founder of the Lurianic school of Kabbala (Jewish esoteric mysticism).

The 16th century Kabbalist, Rabbi Isaac Ben Solomon Luria revolutionized the study of Jewish mysticism through Kabbalah. Luria, also known as Isaac Ashkenazi, attracted a large number of followers who gave him the title of "HaAri," The Lion, because of the initials of the phrase "haeloki Rabbi Yitzhak" – the divine Rabbi Yitzhak.

And it was in Safed that the single most influential thinker in all of medieval Jewish mysticism emerged, Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572), also known by the acronym Ari (the Lion).

Rabbi Isaac Luria's personality inspired all the great men who had penetrated deeper than most mortals, into the world of Cabbala. The Ari died at the age of thirty-eight years, mourned by the entire Jewish people.

Isaac Luria (1534 – July 25 1572), also known as the "Ari" (Hebrew: The lion), was a Jewish mystic of Safed, one of the four major cities of Palestine.

The 16th Century brought forth the most influential kabbalist in history: Rav Isaac Luria. A brilliant scholar by age 13, he was called "The Ari," which means "The Holy Lion." The Ari had the gift of exploring the innermost depths of the Zohar, living as a hermit for 13 years to probe its mysteries.