What motivated the smashing on April 23 of the main gate to Damascus’s historic Jewish cemetery and the digging of a pit disturbing the tomb of renowned mystic Rabbi Chaim ben Joseph Vital (1542–1620)?

The desecration can be understood as part of the history of Jewish and Muslim leaders battling on the metaphysical astral plane in parallel to the normative Israeli-Arab military conflict.

In 1570, the Safed-born Vital became the leading disciple of the visionary Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572). They were at the center of the Kabbalistic circle that flourished in the 16th century in the Galilee town. In the year following his master’s death, Vital recorded Luria’s oral teachings in Etz Chaim (The Tree of Life), which is considered the primary text of Lurianic Kabbalah. Luria, also known by t

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