The Circle of Gerona: the school of rebel mystics — the second most influential Kabbalistic circle after Tzfat (Safed, Israel).
The Circle of Gerona: The School of Rebel Mystics
Hidden in the winding streets of Gerona (or Girona in Catalan) lies one of Jewish mysticism’s greatest, least known treasures. Before the Zohar was written, and long before Tzfat became famous, it was here — in a small Catalonian town — that the kabbalistic school of Gerona was active. The Circle of Gerona. I’d argue the 2nd most important kabbalistic circle in the world.
Conceptualizing kabbala
The remarkable thing was that the fundamental concept in Jewish Mysticism as we know it today: the tree of life was conceptualised there in a form that we use today all over the world. The tree of life, in a nutshell, and thats not easy today shows how the world operates with different levels of reality and human powers/capabilities.
Led initally by Isaac the Blind, later bij Ariel of Gerona, the Circle of Gerona created the largest body of Kabbalistic work before the Zohar. They turned mystical fragments into a coherent system — giving names and structure to the ten sefirot, shaping a language that later mystics across the world would build on (Source: Joseph Dan, Early Kabbala and Dr. Justin Sledge).
In shaping the Tree of Life, the Gerona Kabbalists drew heavily on a single, powerful verse from the Hebrew Bible — one not cited in the earlier mystical work Bahir.
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head above all.”
לְךָ יְהוָה הַגְּדֻלָּה וְהַגְּבוּרָה וְהַתִּפְאֶרֶת וְהַנֵּצַח וְהַהוֹד כִּי כֹל בַּשָּׁמַיִם וּבָאָרֶץ לְךָ יְהוָה הַמַּמְלָכָה וְהַמִּתְנַשֵּׂא לְכֹל לְרֹאשׁ (I Chronicles 29:11)
From this verse, they named the seven lower sefirot:
- Gedulah (Greatness)
- Gevurah (Power)
- Tiferet (Beauty)
- Netzach (Endurance)
- Hod (Majesty)
- Yesod (Foundation)
- Malkhut (Kingship)
While we must be cautious — historical sources are never complete — the absence of this verse in earlier surviving texts suggests that Isaac the Blind and his circle were not merely transmitting received ideas. Rather, they were actively shaping a new, systematic vision that would profoundly influence the future of Kabbalah.
Even Moshe Cordovero (Ramak), one of the most important kabbalists in Tzfat, centuries later, developed a different system in Pardes Rimonim.
Yet, quietly, the Gerona form became the foundation recognized globally today.
Experiencing Kabbalah in Gerona
Walking through Gerona’s Call — its Jewish quarter, the best preserved in all of Spain, likely named from the Hebrew El Kahal (“the Assembly”) — visitors can still sense the presence that once filled these streets: something beyond rational understanding, almost tangible in the silence. Few medieval Jewish quarters in Europe remain so intact. Few places still carry this kind of quiet spiritual weight.
Disclosing kabbala
The Circle of Gerona made a bold choice.
Until then, Kabbalah remained peripheral — cloistered, secretive, hidden among a select few. That makes sense if we place kabbala, in essence jewish mysticism in the wider dogmas and religions of those times. But in Gerona, Rabbis Ezra, Azriel, and others began to write down the hidden teachings, sensing a deeper call to bring these ideas into the world.
Not everyone approved. Isaac the Blind himself warned:
“A book which is written cannot be hidden in a cupboard.”
He may have had many reasons for caution. We should remember: history often leaves us only fragments.
What is clear is that Isaac the Blind even sent envoys to Gerona to warn against making the secrets too public.
The Challenge of Our Time: Knowing Kabbalah vs. Living It
Gerona was not just a mystical center — it was a thriving Jewish community until the Expulsion of 1492: a place of scholars, poets, merchants, and families, where the spiritual and practical were deeply intertwined.
Today, visitors can explore the Museum of Jewish History and the Bonastruc ça Porta Center, housed in the former synagogue where scholars once studied these mysteries.
In a powerful gesture of renewal, Chabad Girona has reopened a beautiful new synagogue in the ancient Yeshiva of Isaac the Blind (Sagi Nahor), offering a place to reconnect with this untold legacy.
To visit Gerona is to walk where mysticism became structured thought, where secrecy met responsibility, and where a hidden force first began to shape the public soul of Judaism.
If you are ready to move beyond simply learning about Kabbala — and instead want to live it, experience it, and apply it in your leadership and life — we invite you to reach out.
That the force may be with you. The mystical capabilities are real, they have to be learned step by step, to integrate in our live, in our way(s) of being. It’s ‘best’ when people strive to be masters of both worlds. The spiritual and the material. Sometimes the (kabbalist) shoemaker can have more impact than the greatest scholar.
We offer pathways: part of serious leadership programs, where you explore the power of the Tree of Life, the Four Worlds, and the Sefirot — not just as knowledge, but as a way of being and creating.
Contact us if you would like to learn more.
About Circle of Gerona
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