The kabbalist Abraham Abulafia journeyed to the Land of Israel at the age of 18, following the invasion of the Mongolians, risked his life attempting to meet the Pope, declared himself a prophet and Messiah, and was ultimately banned and isolated. Professor Moshe Idel's survey clarifies how even amongst self-declared messiahs, the 13th century Abulafia was a unique figure; his thought focused on individual rather than national redemption and his techniques integrated intellectual and physical elements, some of which recall Eastern schools of thought.   One of the most interesting kabbalists, from the inception of Kabbalah, is Abraham Abulafia, who established the kabbalistic stream that he termed "Prophetic Kabbalah." Abulafia, who was banned and isolated during his life, has become a focus of literary and intellectual interest in recent years, and his influence even outside the Jewish world is significant.   In the year 1240 (5,000 years from the creation of the world according to the Jewish count), Abulafia was born in Zaragosa, on the Navarre strip in Spain. In 1242 his family moved to Tudela, where he received his education from his father Samuel. Not long after his father's demise, in 1258, Abulafia began his quest for the Sambation river. Two years later, in 1260, he arrived, apparently through Greece, in Acco. We can assume that his search was connected to rumors of the arrival of the lost 10 tribes to the area, rumors that spread with the invasion of the Mongolian tribes into Syria and the Land of Israel.   Following the battle between the Mongols and the Mamluks in Ein Harod, and the defeat of the Mongols, Abulafia understood that these were not the lost tribes, and he returned the Europe. He settled for some years in the city Capua, dedicating himself to the study of Maimonides' Moreh Nevuchim – Guide to the Perplexed – with the philosopher Hillel of Verona. At the end of the 1260s Abulafia arrived in Barcelona, where he learned Kabbalah, particularly a line of philosophic, Ashkenazi and kabbalistic interpretations to the Sefer Yetzira – Book of Creation – as well as Nahmanides' fundamentals of Kabbalah, only learned in closed circles.   In 1270 or 1271, one of the most significant events of Abulafia's life occurred. He merited a vision, in which he was ordered to talk with the Pope, as he indeed would attempt to do in about a decade. For the following two years he wandered among the cities of Castille, and taught Moreh Nevuchim according to his unique kabbalistic method, based on the combinations between letters. In 1273 Abulafia left Spain, returning to Greece, where he remained for six years, teaching the Guide in the cities of Byzantium Europe. In 1279, he had another vision, and in its wake began composing prophetic books, including visions of a Messianic nature. In this year he also returned to Italy, through Trani back to Capua, where he taught Maimonides' text.  From Abraham Abulafia's "Light of the Intellect," 1285 (Wikipedia)   In the summer of 1280, 50-year-old Abulafia tried to realize the directive he received in his vision, to meet with Pope Nicholas III. To this end he followed the pope to his summer palace, and despite warnings that his attempts would bring him a certain death by burning, he succeeded in entering the palace, only to discover that the pope had suddenly died. In the following years Aublafia reached the city Messina in Sicily, where he remained for the greater part of the next decade. He attracted a number of students, whom he educated in his unique kabbalah, and continued with his messianic propaganda, including conversation with Christians. This kind of activity raised the ire of R. Shlomo Ben Avraham Aderet, The Rashba, against Abulafia; a debate lasting several years ensued between the two, with the Rashba apparently banning Abulafia. The final knowledge we have of Abulafia is connected to his last books in 1291, after which all traces of him are lost.   Abulafia saw himself not only as a certain kind of kabbalist, whose brand of Kabbalah was superior to that of others, but also as a prophet and a messiah. The opposition he provoked was the reason that his many writings remained as manuscripts and saw publication only in recent years. His Kabbalah, like his prophecy and messianism, declares its supremacy over the abstract theological and interpretative studies found in Jewish philosophy and other streams of Kabbalah. His uniqueness stands out in the centrality he devoted to the technique of combining letters – learned mainly from Ashkenazi writings – which served him in reaching the mystical experience he called prophecy. Abulafia suggests a synthesis between the intellectual character of prophecy, according to Maimonides, and other, perhaps "easier," techniques to reach the same experience, like combining letters, isolation in a special room, preserving a certain rate of breathing - the influence of Indian yoga - and the use of different body parts, apparently a Greek-Christian influence.   Because of the centrality of language in his work, and particularly the Divine names, Abulafia also called his brand of Kabbalah "the Kabbalah of Names." In a technique he developed, the details of which he described in several writings, he saw a path to personal redemption. His role, as a messiah in the world, so he believed, was to point the way to attaining spiritual redemption. Abulafia suggested a much more radical spiritual interpretation than the Jewish religious ideal of the notions of prophecy, the land of Israel, the messiah, and even Judaism. In these ideas he saw an expression of internal processes, resembling what the philosophers defined as intellectual activity. For him, this was the real meaning of religion - a complete departure from how the rabbinic world saw Judaism. In his writings he criticized rabbis who taught establishment and materialistic religion, as well as those who believed in magic. According to Abulafia, his technique was supposed to serve as a kind of replacement for the mitzvot as the ultimate way of reaching God, and even sometimes as leading to complete unification with God as pure intellect. This was an exceptional and open spiritual approach, which brought Abulafia into a clash with both Jews and Christians. His originality caused him to be banned by many kabbalists, particularly those who followed the Rashba. Nonetheless, his writings were preserved and were even translated into Latin and taught during the Italian renaissance by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.   The spiritual-individualist character of Abulafia's kabbalah has led to an increasing interest in it in recent years, both by Jewish kabbalists and in wider circles, even those outside the Jewish world. Some of Abulafia's books have been translated and published in English, and his teachings have had an influence on many poets in different languages, and even on Umberto Eco's novel Foucalt's Pendulum.   Moshe Idel is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Jewish Philosophy at Hebrew University and is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. His books, Abraham Abulafia and the Prophetic Kabbalah and Abraham Abulafia: An Ecstatic Kabbalist, were published by Magnes Books.