as the author of the Gathered Method , he became proficient in that branch of Jewish learning.

At the age of fifteen, he married a cousin, the daughter of Mordechai Frances, and, being amply provided for financially, he was able to continue his studies. Around the age of twenty-two, he became engrossed in the study of the Zohar, a significant work of the Kabbalah that had recently been printed for the first time, and adopted the life of a recluse. Retreating to the banks of the Nile