This month’s hack − or inspiration − is not a concept or a technique to adopt in one’s life. Abulafia is a person − a mystic who spent the last days of his life in a cave in none other than Comino in the 13th century.

He was an eccentric being, with quite advanced ideologies about ways of reaching the Divine. And, as usually happens when someone comes up with new ideas, he often gets rejected and even treated as a heretic, thus risking death.

Abulafia’s philosophy was quite in tune with today’s attempts to find a way to integrate the Jewish, Christian and Islamic beliefs under one umbrella. Though he lived centuries ago, the issue is still deliberated in our times, with interfaith events held all over the world.

So, who exactly was Abulafia? 

Rabbi Abraham ben Shmuel Abulafia was a Kabbalist philosopher and writer who was born in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1240 and is assumed to have died sometime after 1291. He was the founder of the school of ‘Prophetic Kabbalah’. Wandering around a number of countries since he was 18 years old, he first headed to Israel where he found desolation and lawlessness in the Holy Land, stemming from the chaos following the last Crusades.

It is most important for human beings to rise to a sense of inclusiveness

He immersed himself in the study of philosophy but he was not quite satisfied with any branch of knowledge he acquired. He was highly articulate, able and eager to teach others.

Abraham Abulafia’s Light of the Intellect, 1285. Photo: Wikipedia.org

On his return to Spain, he became subject to visions, and at the age of 31, he received a revelation with messianic overtones in Barcelona. He wrote extensively on the fact that with the right understandings and particular meditative techniques, one can achieve a true knowledge of God. He was so immersed in his new Kabbalistic teachings that he went to Rome in 1280 in order to convert Pope Nicholas III to Judaism.  The pope was ready to burn him  at the stake as soon as he dared approach him. ‘Luckily’, the day Abulafia arrived in Rome, the pope had a stroke and Abulafia was only imprisoned by the Order of Friars Minor (who saw him as a heretic) and was liberated after four weeks’ detention.

He remained active in Messina for a decade, presenting himself as a prophet and messiah. He had several students and wrote extensively, but some of his writings have been lost over the years.

After being frequently banned or treated as a heretic by many religious entities that saw him as a threat to their conservative teachings, he exiled himself on the island of Comino from 1285 until his death in the 1290s. Here he compiled his Sefer ha Ot or ‘Book of the Sign’, as well as his last − the meditation manual Imrei Shefer or ‘Words of Beauty’.

He wrote several books, treatises on grammar and poems, but only about 30 of these works survived. More influential are his handbooks, which teach how to achieve the prophetic experience: Chayei ha-Olam ha-Ba (1280).

The kindled interest in his works influenced the arts and literature, such as Umberto Eco’s novel Foucault’s Pendulum and some of Dante’s writings.

So how is Abulafia’s philosophy still relevant today?

As it happens, the leader of the international Jewish community, the Admor, is based in Malta. Like Abulafia, he is interested in the unity of beliefs and even set up the The United Order of Light in February 2013 – “an international organisation made up of people of different religions who come from scientific, academic, economic and financial backgrounds from all over the world, with the mission to supersede religious boundaries and to sustain humanity for the common good, overcoming the restrictions of religion and race”. (See: http://admorofmalta.org/).

The Admor has a particular affinity with Abulafia, through their Malta base, their common love for Kabbalistic teachings and the fact that he is a descendant of Abulafia himself!

The ongoing attempts to see the barriers separating Judaism, Christianity and Islam broken down has been a long time coming. It is now high time to work on our differences, in any field, regardless of our beliefs. At the end of the day, we share a common divinity.

A better quality of life can be achieved by promoting such a universal spirituality. Today, more than ever, it is most important for human beings to rise to a sense of inclusiveness beyond gender, race, religion and nationhood.