Isaac of Acre

Isaac ben Samuel lived in Acre (Acco) but left following the war between the city’s Christian rulers and the Mamluk invaders during which many Jews were killed. He reached Spain, where he seems to have become an itinerant mystic. Hearing that Moses de Léon had “discovered” the Zohar, allegedly composed by Simeon bar Yoḥai, Isaac set out to investigate the veracity of its origins. Four works by him, all kabbalistic in nature, have reached us: a supercommentary on Moses Naḥmanides’ commentary to the Torah, a mystical diary of visions and revelations, a commentary on the first chapter of Sefer yetsirah (Book of Creation), and a translation of Judah Ibn Malka’s Judeo-Arabic commentary on Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer (The Chapters of R. Eliezer). Another work, Sefer ha-yamim (The Book of Days), has not survived.