LUZZATTO, MOSÈ HAJJIM. — Jewish poet and Kabbalist, b. in Padua in 1707, d. in Palestine in 1746. Even as a child he composed Hebrew poetry. Very young, he devoted himself to Kabbalistic studies. Some poems written in biblical style show a tendency toward Sabbatianism. Because of his intense mystical life, he became convinced that he held conversations with a celestial being or maggid ("narrator," "announcer"), with Adam, the Patriarchs, Moses, the prophet Elijah, and others. These "revelations" were included in his Kabbalistic writings. L. was head of a school Zohar (v.).
A letter written by one of his pupils, which spoke of his visions, accidentally reached Moses Chagis, head of the struggle against Sabbatianism, in Altona; the latter then turned in November 1729 to the rabbinate of Venice to oppose the Luzzattian circle. L. corresponded with Chagis. Dissatisfied with the replies, Chagis began to sound the alarm among Italian rabbis, who responded with great calm. Following a ban issued by Chagis, L. promised to renounce his Kabbalistic activity. After his commercial ventures failed, he returned to his beloved studies. Excommunicated by the rabbinate of Venice in 1735, he began to travel abroad, meeting with opposition; at the age of 40 he went to Palestine for his Kabbalistic studies.
L. is the author of occasional poems, allegorical dramas, 150 psalms imitating those of the Bible, a Poetics and Rhetoric, a Methodology of Talmudic study, a treatise on morals (Mésillath jésirim, "Path of the Righteous"), with a German translation by J. Wohlgemuth, Berlin 1906 and Frankfurt am Main 1925, and dialogues on philosophical, religious, and logical subjects, etc.