I have described in an earlier series my unbounded admiration for Rabbi Issac Luria (1534-1572), generally known as the ARI (Holy Lion). He was a great Kabbalist, as well as an accomplished scholar in other areas. He would go into the deeper spiritual meanings of texts, as well as practices; sometimes ruling that one tradition's way in a particular mitzvah was the correct one, sometimes ruling that both were equally acceptable, and sometimes ruling that neither was correct, and recommending a different way. He was completely anonymous for the first thirty seven years of his life, only becoming widely recognized in his last year and a half.The writings of his students, especially his closest disciple, Rabbi Hayyim Vital, take up an entire shelf in my library. In many circles, he is seen almost as a prophet. Middle East Sepharadim accepted his teachings and practices completely, which accounts for many of the differences between those communities and the Spanish-Portuguese tradition. He greatly impacted Chassidic thought and practice, and is at least taken into consideration in most non-Chassidic Ashkenazi circles as well.
In the Scribal area, he made a daring pronouncement. ALL traditions were valid. Each contains great mysteries. The arguments of who was first, and which tradition had the better pedigree, he saw as irrelevant. However, he recommended certain shapes in the case of seven letters, specifically in Tefillin. For Sepharadim, this was not big news. All seven letters had several variations, and he was merely favoring one particular variation that was already well known and accepted. Therefore, when a Sepharadi says that he is writing Ktav ARI (ARI script), he is writing in a standard Sepharadic script, being careful in Tefillin only, to favor a particular shape of these letters.. The untrained eye would see no difference from standard Sepharadic script at all.
Although Rabbi Hayyim Vital carefully recorded his master's teachings, he was very reticent about distributing these to the public.Eventually, the writings did get out, and spread throughout the Middle East. Another scholar, Rabbi Israel Sarug, brought the ARI's teachings to Europe. But it is not known how, or if, he was actually a student of the ARI. His basic premises are identical to those taught by Rabbi Hayyim Vital. But his application to these premises are far more philosophical and psychological. He is often seen in this regard as a forerunner of Chassidism. When it comes to practice, however, he differed from Rabbi Vital in many ways. This is why we will often see a Chassid and a Sepharadi doing two different things, and ascribing both to "the custom of the ARI". Rabbi Vital's works only came to Europe a century and a half later, when Kabbalistic customs of the ARI, in accordance with the teachings of Rabbi Sarug were already well established. In his writings, Rabbi Sarug brings an almost identical list of the ARI's variations (with a few variations). European Kabbalists began writing Ashkenazi (Beit Yosef) writing, with the inclusion of these forms that had been unknown previously in the Ashkenazi world. Moreover, whereas ARI had stressed these shapes specifically for Tefillin, the Ashkenazi Kabbalists adopted them for all purposes.Many rabbis accepted these new forms, others objected that they violated the ancient Ashkenazi Mesorah. When Chassidism entered the stage of history in the mid eighteenth century, it used this script; Beit Yosef with seven (some say eight) letters written in accordance with the teachings of the ARI. This is known as Ktav ARI, and is used by nearly all Chassidim, albeit with minor variations from community to community. When Chassidism was opposed by certain rabbis, much of the criticism was leveled against the script. Nevertheless, most rabbis consider it valid.So, when someone talks about Ktav ARI, if he is a Sepharadi, he means an almost imperceptible variation in the classical Sepharadic script. When an Ashkenazi says Ktav ARI, he means an Ashkenazi script, with seven or eight fairly drastic changes, that are easily spotted by someone with even a layman's knowledge. The impetus to follow the ARI is out of a desire for depth beyond the ordinary. It is important to note that the ARI actually made no new script.
The Chabad Chassidim have their own script, instituted by their founder, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. It is a very intricate script, with letters formed in such a way as to be a compromise between the Beit Yosef and ARI scripts.It had been lost for about a century and a half, but was reintroduced when several manuscripts were discovered in the 1960's.
All this might seem like nit-picking. But these are the letters, the energies, used by G-d in creating Heaven and Earth.In this, as in all things, we want to "tune in" to the mysteries of creation; and of life.