Avodat HaKodesh author

Meir ben Ezekiel Ibn Gabbai was a Kabbalist and halakhic scholar active in Castile during the early sixteenth century. He lived during the turbulent period preceding the expulsion of Spanish Jewry in 1492, and likely continued his work in the Jewish communities of the Iberian peninsula or its diaspora. Ibn Gabbai is best known as the author of Avodat HaKodesh (The Service of Holiness), a systematic and influential work of Kabbalah that synthesizes earlier kabbalistic teaching with philosophical rigor. The work became a canonical text in Jewish mystical circles, admired for its clarity and comprehensive treatment of divine emanation, the sefirot, and the inner dimensions of Jewish practice. Ibn Gabbai's approach blended speculative mysticism with meticulous attention to halakhah and liturgy, making Kabbalah accessible to educated rabbinical scholars.