R' Chaim Vital's Father

We have heard of the well-known student of the Arizal, R' Chaim Vital. But who was his father?

It is well known how great R' Yosef Vital, the father of R' Chaim Vital was. He was an outstanding and expert sofer, scribe, of tefillin. R' Chaim Vital2 wrote that even R' Yosef Karo, through the Maggid who spoke with him, would say that half the world is sustained in the merit of R' Yosef Vital because of the magnificent tefillin he wrote.

R' Yosef Vital's grandson, R' Shmuel Vital3 records, in the name of the Arizal himself, that he said this concerning his father.

His stature and the quality of the tefillin he wrote were exceedingly renowned. As the Maharikash4 writes: R' Yosef Vital was considered the leading authority among the scribes of tefillin in his generation.

The Maharash Narvuni5 describes him as a complete scholar, a pious man, and an outstanding scribe who wrote tefillin with holy kavanos. More than a thousand pairs of tefillin had emerged from his hand and were sent to distant lands.

R' Yosef Sambari6 states that R' Yosef Vital was a great kabbalist as well as a rapid and accomplished scribe of tefillin. “Fortunate is the person who possessed even one pair of tefillin written by his hand; such tefillin is found in Egypt and are sold there for high prices and they call them 'the tefillin of Rabbi Calabris.'"7

R' Shmuel Vital wrote that the soul of R' Meir Baal Haneis was reincarnated in his grandfather R' Yosef Vital. Since R' Meir Baal Haneis had been a great scribe in his generation, R' Yosef Vital likewise became an outstanding scribe, an expert and unparalleled in his craft. R' Chaim Vital himself writes similarly in Sefer Hagilgulim8 as well as the Chida in Shem Hagedolim.10

R' Chaim Vital further writes that his father was fitting to become a great and incisive Torah scholar like R' Meir, were it not for a sin from a previous incarnation. He had heard a scholar being disgraced and did not protest. He adds that he does not remember whether the Arizal told him that the reason was connected to a trace of arrogance in wisdom.

R' Chaim Vital also records, in his list of reincarnations among the people of his generation,11 that within his father R' Yosef Vital was vested the soul of R' Yeshaivav Hasofer.12 For this reason he was an extraordinary expert in writing tefillin. The Chida likewise cites this.13

Footnotes

• 1 R' Chaim Vital (Likutim in Sefer Hagilgulim, Chapter 66) wrote that since his brother R' Moshe Vital had still unable to attain the same level of comprehension he was otherwise capable of attaining. Were it not for this, he would have been greater than R' Chaim Vital himself, since both their souls came from the same root, but his brother's root was greater than his own (Otzar Hagilgulim, Amoraim, p. 95).
• 2 In the beginning of Sefer Hachezyonos.
• 3 Shaar Hagilgulim, Hakdama 38. He was born to his father's (R' Chaim Vital) second wife. His father was 54 and his mother was 24 at the time of his birth.
• 4 Shu't Ahalei Yaakov, 113.
• 5 Cited in the Teshuvos of the Maharam Galanti, 124.
• 6 Divrei Yosef, 161.
• 7 This is what R' Yosef Vital was called because he came to Tzefas from Calabria which is in southern Italy.
• 8 Shaar Hagilgulim, Hakdama 38.
• 10 Erech R' Chaim Vital.
• 11 Printed in Sefer Hagilgulim in the Likutim to Chapter 65.
• 12 He was one of the asarah harugei malchus (the ten royal martyrs), which is mentioned in Mussaf of Yom Kippur in Eileh Ezkera.
• 13 Shem Hagedolim, Erech R' Chaim Vital. Otzar Hagilgulim, Volume 1, pp. 363-364.