When Luria arrived in Safed, Moses ben Jacob Cordovero had been the principal figure in the kabbalistic community for numerous years.

Joseph ben Isaac Sambari (1640-1703), an Egyptian chronicler, testified that Cordovero was "the Ari's teacher for a very short time.

[6] Bereft of their most prominent authority and teacher, the kabbalists looked for new guidance, and Isaac Luria helped fill the vacuum left by Cordovero's passing.

In a study of Lurianic mysticism, Lawrence Fine writes: Vital provides us with the names of 38 individuals who according to him, made up Luria's discipleship...

The first and most important, was composed of 11 men, listed in this order: Hayyim Vital, Jonathan Sagis, Joseph Arzin, Isaac Kohen, Gedaliah ha-Levi, Samuel Uceda, Judah Mishan, Abraham Gavriel, Shabbatai Menashe, Joseph ibn Tabul, and Elijah Falko (or Falkon).

Hayyim Vital arrived in Egypt in 1577 but soon returned to Ottoman Syria, settling in the village of Ein Zeitim (near Safed) and later in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Moshe accordingly brought Yehoshua a large part of the manuscripts, and 100 copyists were immediately engaged: in just three days, they could reproduce more than 600 pages.

[10] In addition to a tribute to Luria, the work contains the assertion that it is one of God's greatest pleasures to witness the promotion of the teaching of the Kabbalah since this alone can assure the coming of the Messiah.