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About This Text
Author: Moses Cordovero
Composed: Safed, 1548 CE
Pardes Rimmonim (Orchard of Pomegranates) is a primary text of Kabbalah composed by the Jewish mystic Moses ben Jacob Cordovero in Safed. It is composed of 13 gates or sections, each subdivided into chapters. He indicates in his introduction that the work is based upon notes he took during his study of the Zohar, a central work of Jewish mysticism, and was designed "in order not to become lost and confused in its [the Zohar's] depths". The work is an encyclopedic summary of Kabbalah, including an effort to "elucidate all the tenets of the Kabbalah, such as the doctrines of the sefirot, emanation, the divine names, the import and significance of the alphabet, etc." Pardes Rimmonim was the first comprehensive exposition of medieval Kabbalah, though its rationally influenced scheme was superseded by the thought of subsequent 16th-century Safed kabbalist Isaac Luria.