A report on Joseph Karo, Hayyim ben Joseph Vital and Semikhah

Joseph Karo is said to have paid special attention to Vital's early talents and in 1557 requested that Alshich take special care in his education as he was destined to succeed his teacher in the world of Torah study.

Berab exerted great influence upon him, and Karo became an enthusiastic supporter of Berab's plans for the reinstitution of semicha (rabbinical ordination) which had been in abeyance for over 11 centuries.

On 20 Elul 1590, Vital received rabbinical ordination from his teacher Moshe Alshich.

In Shaarei Kedusha, Rabbi Chaim Vital explains that visitation by a maggid is a form of Divine Inspiration (ruach hakodesh).

Berab then conferred semikhah through a laying on of hands to four rabbis, including Joseph Karo, who was later to become the author of the Shulchan Aruch, widely viewed as the most important code of Jewish law from the 17th century onwards.

In the 1590s, Alshich ordained Hayyim Vital, and between the years 1594 and 1599, Jacob Berab II ordained seven more scholars: Moses Galante, Elazar Azikri, Moses Berab (Jacob's brother), Abraham Gabriel, Yom Tov Tzahalon, Hiyya Rofe and Jacob Abulafia.