Ilan of Adam Kadmon

Completed in 1691 in Moravia by Nosen Neta “Hazen” ben Moses Naftali Hirsh Hammerschlag, this towering ilan represents one of the boldest visual expressions of Lurianic cosmology. The teachings of R. Isaac Luria (the Arizal) introduced an unprecedented level of complexity into kabbalistic thought, describing the structure and developmental dynamics of the Godhead with striking precision. Central to this system is Adam Kadmon, the primordial anthropic emanation — the first positive expression of creation and the luminous channel through which divine energy unfolds into lower realms.

Hammerschlag’s ilan is saturated with references to the writings of Hayyim Vital, Luria’s primary disciple and systematizer. Its unusually specific anthropomorphic rendering of Adam Kadmon, while not the first of its kind, stands out for its ambition, scale, and interpretive daring. Unlike classical ilanot, which rely on a single arboreal schema, this vast composition integrates multiple visual strategies, reflecting Hammerschlag’s determination to give form to Luria’s most esoteric teachings.

Hammerschlag himself understood the singularity of what he had created. Upon completing the work, he wrote: “That which has never been seen until this very generation — this tree, with its enlarged branches; happy is the eye that has seen its great power and grandeur!” His proclamation was no exaggeration: the ilan’s size, intricacy, and conceptual reach are unmatched in the history of the genre.

This ilan also belongs to the same lineage of works inspired by R. Meir Poppers, whose visionary diagrams helped shape the early visual vocabulary of Lurianic Kabbalah. Poppers’ influence appears not only here in Hammerschlag’s monumental rendering of Adam Kadmon, but also in the earliest aesthetic reinterpretations of his work (such as Perlhefter’s Poppers Ilan), giving modern viewers a rare glimpse into how scribes and mystics across generations engaged with, adapted, and elevated his kabbalistic models.

Large in both scale and ambition, Hammerschlag’s Ilan of Adam Kadmon offers a dazzling window into the visual imagination of early modern Kabbalah, bringing a complex theological vision into unusually vivid visual form, on a monumental scale.  

The complex story of this ilan is told in full in The Kabbalistic Tree. 

Courtesy of Bavarian State Library, Munich, Cod.hebr. 450