Meir ben Ezekiel ibn Gabbai

Meir ben Ezekiel ibn Gabbai (Hebrew: מאיר בן יחזקאל אבן גבאי‎) was a Kabbalist born in Spain toward the end of 1480, and living probably in the East.

He complained in his twenty-seventh year that he had to work hard to support himself and his family (see end of Tola'at Ya'aḳob). He was an enthusiastic cabalist, noted for thorough mastery of the whole cabalistic lore, the most important points of which he, as far as can be judged now, was the first of his generation to treat systematically. He must be regarded, therefore, as the precursor of Moshe Cordovero and Isaac Luria. His first work, completed in 1507 and held in high regard, was Tola'at Ya'aḳob, a cabalistic exposition of the prayer ritual. His chief work, which he finished December 22, 1531, after having spent eight years on it, was Avodat Hakodesh, in which he expounds in detail his cabalistic system, making a close study of Maimonides in order the better to refute him. In 1539 he wrote an exposition and defense of the Sefirot under the title Derek Emunah, in answer to his pupil Joseph ha-Levi, who had questioned him in regard to his doctrine of the Sefirot, Gabbai basing his work on Azriel of Gerona's Perush 'Eser Sefirot.

Gabbai regarded the Zohar as the canonical book of the Kabbala. His system is tinged with panentheism. God Himself, as the first cause of all causes, can neither be conceived nor cognized, and can not even be mentioned; the name "En Sof" (Infinite) is a mere makeshift. Even the Keter Elyon, the first Sefirah, can not be conceived or imagined; it is coeternal with the En Sof, although only its effect; it is what is called in Scripture "His Name." By means of it the other sefirot emanated from God, being the various manifestations through which the Godhead makes Himself cognizable. To them the prayers are addressed, and they are intended in the different designations of God, whose relation to them is the same as that of the soul to the body.

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