Nachmanides or Moses ben Nachman (1194–1270 CE) was a Catalan rabbi, philosopher, scholar and physician who lived most of his life in Girona. Near the end of his life Christian persecution drove him to move to Palestine, where he helped to restore the Jewish community in Jerusalem after the destruction of the Crusades, and he founded a synagogue there that endures to this day.

From the very beginning,
     before times long past,
     I was stored among His hidden treasures.
He had brought me forth from Nothing, but at the end of time
I shall be summoned back before the King.

My life flowed
     out of the depth of the spheres
     which gave me form and order.
Divine forces shaped me
to be treasured in the chambers of the King.

Then He shined his light
     to bring me forth
     in hidden well-springs, on the left and on the right.
He made me descend the steps leading down from
the Pool of Shelah to the garden of the King.

Translation T. Carmi