Ramchal — Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto הרמח"ל — רבי משה חיים לוצאטו
kabbalist, poet and author of «Mesillat Yesharim»
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto was born in Padua in 5467, received both a Jewish and a general education, wrote Hebrew verse, and at twenty gathered a circle of young kabbalists around him. He said that a «maggid», a heavenly instructor, dictated secrets to him.
The rabbis of Venice and Germany took fright: after Shabbetai Tzvi any messianic excitement looked lethal. He was forbidden to write on Kabbalah or to teach, and his manuscripts were demanded. He left for Amsterdam, earned his bread grinding lenses, and there — outside the ban — wrote his major works. In 5503 he went up to the Land of Israel, and three years later died of plague at Acre, aged thirty-nine.
«Mesillat Yesharim», the Path of the Upright, is built as a ladder following Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair: watchfulness, alacrity, cleanliness, separation, purity, humility, holiness. Each rung is analysed soberly: what obstructs it, how to test oneself, where to begin. The Vilna Gaon is said to have remarked that he would have walked to Italy to meet its author.