Yitzhak ben Solomon Luria
a.k.a. "Ha-Ari", "the Ari", or Isaac Ashkenazi

"If the soul was not purified entirely the first time, and it left this world, that soul must come back in a reincarnation, even a few times, until it is entirely purified."

Rabbi Isaac (Yitzhak) Luria (1534-1572) was a revolutionary teacher of Jewish mysticism,  who brought the study of the Zohar ("Book of Splendor") to the foreground of Kabbalistic studies. He founded the Lurianic school of Kabbalah. He taught that all of God's commandments in the Tanakh had a metaphorical meaning.

His students called him Ha-Ari, "The Lion," because of the initials of the phrase Haeloki Rabbi Yitzhak – "The divine Rabbi Yitzhak."

A saint of profound insight, he had many mystical encounters with great tzaddikim (teachers) of the past, including the prophet Elijah. He is said to have been able to see people's sins merely by looking at their forehead.