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| Copyright (c) 1987 by De'risha Ve'hakira |
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Aquarian Age Yiddishkeit
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Aricle #62
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Reincarnation in the Kabbalah
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> Love your articles on mystical Judaism. I'm very
> curious... I've read in many places that in mystical forms
> of Judaism, such as the Kabbalistic schools of thought, the
> doctorine of metepsychosis, or transmigration of souls
> (reincarnation), is acknowledged. Is it true? I'd love to
> learn more about it!
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Yes, According to the Kabbalah, souls reincarnate. There are many
texts dealing with this. To try to cover as much ground as
possible in less than a gigabyte of data, we are presenting "The
Tractate of Reincarnation of Souls" found in "the Law of the
Pious" by Rabbi Immanuel Chay Riki. If there is continued
interest in the subject, we will translate material from the
master himself, the Ari, zal, from his teachings in "the Gate of
Reincarnations" written by a disciple of the Ari, Rabbi Chaim
Vital, zal, G-d willing.

Chapter I
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Paragraph 1: If a soul could have learned more Torah but refrained
from doing so, or if it could have done a good deed and
refrained from doing so, or if it committed a sin and if these
sins of comission or omission cannot be rectified by the soul
entering the body of another person - then the soul must
reincarnate.

Paragraph 2: Here is how it works. The sinning soul enters the
body of a new born baby and suffers whatever suffering that
body undergoes and cannot separate itself from that body until
it dies.

Paragraph 3: Therefore, if a person knows that his soul is a
reincarnated soul and he knows for which sin his soul has been
reincarnated, he should strive strongly to rectify the sin,
even though the rectification of that sin will cause his
death, since there will be no longer any reason for him to
live.

Paragraph 4: Still, he should carry out all the good deeds that
come his way, even if he already did those good deeds in his
first body and so has no need of rectification concerning
them. But he does not have to exert himself to do them where
as the good deed that he neglected to do in his first body he
must exert himself to do since it is for this purpose that the
soul reincarnated. Those good deeds that a Jew must do, i.e.
those that one is commanded to do at certain specific times
(eating unleavened bread on Passover, etc.) - he must do. If
he neglects to do them, he will have to reincarnate because of
them.

Paragraph 5: Still the punishment for good deeds that were
neglected and not done is different for each soul, depending
on its root in heaven.

Paragraph 6: Every high soul that already has its place in
Paradise, still when it's time for it to rise to still a
higher place, it is judged and the soul is punished for even
the most seemingly insignificant of its omissions.

Paragraph 7: This process goes on forever. The higher a soul
travels, the more is expected of it.


Chapter II
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Paragraph 1: The rules of reincarnation are as follows: The soul
can reincarnate three times, beside the first time it was in
this world. If the soul did not succeed to rectify anything
in those three times, this is proof that the soul contains
more evil than good. The good that it contains is therefore
given to the son of the person or to another person whose soul
root is the same as his.

Paragraph 2: Therefore, righteou people who involve themselves
with the wicked people, seeking to help them spiritually - if
the wicked refuse to repent, then the good that is in them
will go to the righteous and the bad that is in the righteous
will go to the wicked so that the righteous are left with all
the good and the wicked are left with all the bad. The soul
of the wicked is then completely destroyed. This is what our
sages meant when they said: "If one merits he takes another's
portion in Paradise and the other person takes his portion in
hell."

Paragraph 3: If on the other hand, in the three reincarnations the
soul did at least begin to rectify its shortcomings, then it
can reincarnate even a thousand times until it reaches the
final repair.

Paragraph 4: Therefore, the righteous much prefer to reincarnate
than endure the fires of hell, which is avoided if in each
reincarnation they accomplish something.

Paragraph 5: But for the wicked, its better after three
reincarnations that they are sent to hell. They only stand to
lose by having more reincarnations.

Paragraph 6: The souls of women can enter the body of another
person, but they cannot reincarnate (enter the body of a new
born baby). The difference between the men and women is that
men are commanded to learn Torah, whereas women are not. The
Torah learning of the men makes it difficult for the fires of
hell to have any affect on the men. For this reason, the
souls of men need to reincarnate.

Paragraph 7: Now, there are five levels of the soul: soul, spirit,
breath of life, living force, only one. The rules of soul,
spirit and breath of life are identical. However, unlike
soul, spirit and breath of life cannot be rectified by hell,
they can only be rectified by reincarnation. Living force and
only one come from a very high world.

Paragraph 8: There's a concept of "the righteous who suffer and
the wicked who prosper." This is caused by soul
transmigration. The righteous suffer because of sins
committed in a previous incarnation. The wicked prosper
because of good deeds done in a previous incarnation.


Chapter III
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Paragraph 1: All souls that were once in this world and their
souls, spirits, and breaths of life were changed, when they
come a second time, they are called "reincarnations." This
applies even to those parts of Adam's soul which fell into the
hands of the forces of evil as a result of his sin. The rule
is, a reincarnated soul can never achieve its spirit. The
soul must reincarnate a third time to unite with its spirit.

Paragraph 2: Still, if the soul rectifies itself, it can be
certain mystical intentions redeem its spirit from out of the
hands of the forces of evil. Their redeemed spirit then
enters the body of another person, but it cannot enter the
same body with the soul.

Paragraph 3: The breath f life cannot be reached at all even to
place it in the body of another person until the body dies and
the soul reincarnates another time.

Paragraph 4: If however, the spirit and the breath of life were
not changed in the first incarnation, only the soul was
changed, then in its reincarnation the soul can merit to its
spirit and breath of life if it rectifies itself.

Paragraph 5: The changed soul that transmigrates with its spirit
and breath of life, if it sinned in the first incarnation, it
must reincarnate, but if it only neglected to do a good deed -
it can be repaired by entering the body of another person (not
being born into a new baby).

Paragraph 6: Sometimes the soul, spirit and breath of life
reincarnate simultaneously in three separate people. If the
soul sins, G-d forbid, then all three of them, soul, spirit
and breath of life go down into the hands of the forces of
evil to be reincarnated again in one person. But since only
the soul sinned in the previous incarnation, the body is
really "inhabited" only by the soul. The spirit and breath of
life merely tag along. They gain by the good deeds done by
the new body but do not lose by any sins committed.

Paragraph 7: Still, since the spirit and breath of life tagged
along, they must endure all the sufferings that the body goes
through including the pain of death.


Chapter IV
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Paragraph 1: Sometimes a soul of a man is punished for a certain
sin by being reincarnated in the body of a woman. That woman
cannot have children since she is "inhabited" by a male soul.
Unless a female soul will transmigrate and enter the woman in
mid-life (the rules of transmigration are explained in the
tractate immediately preceding this tractate). What happens
then is that the transmigrated female soul is reincarnated
into the baby that is born.

Paragraph 2: For this reason it is impossible for such a woman to
have a male child. Since only a female soul transmigrates and
enters the body of another living woman and then be born as
her child. Also, the woman cannot have another female child,
unless the first one dies.

Paragraph 3: Still, sometimes by great merit, another female soul
transmigrates and enters the woman's body and is born
reincarnated as the woman's baby.

Paragraph 4: Likewise, through great merit this woman with a man's
soul can have a male child. The baby comes from the female
which transmigrated into her body. But the female soul leaves
the baby as it's being born making room for a male soul to
enter the baby's body.

Paragraph 5: This joining of souls is only possible if there is a
root connection between them in the first place.

Paragraph 6: A person who died and his soul was judged that it
must reincarnate and his wife was pregnant, the baby born with
the soul of the deceased husband reincarnated.


Chapter V
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Paragraph 1: If a person sins with his friend - then he will have
to reincarnate together with him to help him in his next
incarnation even if his soul root is different. If he is from
the same soul root, then even if he is completely righteous,
he must reincarnate to help his soul-mate.

Paragraph 2: If a soul reincarnates because it sinned in its first
incarnation - the odds are that it will sin again. If the
soul did not sin in its first incarnation, but merely
neglected to do a good deed - the soul has a better chance of
not sinning. If the soul is reincarnated in order to do a
good deed that it never had a chance to do in its first
incarnation - the odds that it will not sin. If the soul
reincarnates to help souls rectify themselves, it will
certainly not sin. It's also possible for such a soul to
achieve its spirit and breath of life even in its first
reincarnation.

Paragraph 3: The first three times around a soul can be
reincarnated and not have any soul-help. But after that, the
soul will have other souls helping it.


Chapter VI
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Paragraph 1: It is impossible for two old souls (souls that have
been in this world before) to transmigrate together in one
body. They can however reincarnate at birth in one body.
However, a new soul can have with it even three old souls.
The new soul holds the old souls together.

Paragraph 2: The souls appear in order of greatness, the smallest
first, then the bigger ones and so on.

Paragraph 3: There's a double reincarnation. This means that a
spirit and breath of life are reincarnated to join their soul
in a certain body. Yet for some reason, they instead go to a
different soul found in a different body since that soul is
also from their soul root.

Paragraph 4: A soul that inhabited a body that did not have any
children - that soul cannot reincarnate or transmigrate even
for the purpose of helping a soul mate unless it comes back
together with another soul that did have children. Therefore,
even if that soul is rectified, still it cannot unite with its
spirit and breath of life unless the soul that it comes back
together with is also rectified.

Paragraph 5: A person who only had one soul, spirit and breath of
life incarnated in him and he damaged only the soul, still he
must do a repair as if he had damaged the spirit and the
breath of life, since they were incarnated in him at the time
that he damaged his soul.


Chapter VII
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Paragraph 1: There are some souls that due to their past
reincarnated in mineral, vegetable and animal. Their time of
reconstitution is fixed. Those reincarnated in mineral can
only rise to the level of vegetable in the mddle four Hebrew
months of the year - Av, Elul, Tishrey and Chesvon. If the
decree against them was not exhausted in those four months,
even if it was exhausted the next month, they have to wait
until the next year for those months to come around again.

Paragraph 2: Those reincarnated in vegetable can only rise to the
level of animal in the first four Hebrew months of the year -
Nisan, Iyar, Sivan and Tamuz. Those incarnated in animal can
only rise to the level of men in the last four Hebrew months
of the year - Kislev, Tayves, Shvat and Adar.

Paragraph 3: When the mineral enters the vegetable - the soul
rises to the level of vegetable. When the vegetable enters
the animal - the soul rises to the level of animal. When the
animal enters the man - the souls rises to the level of man.

Paragraph 4: There are two possibilities when a reincarnated soul
in an animal enters a man when he eats the animal meat. The
person can go crazy and act in an irrational manner or the
soul can act as a transmigrated soul which enters a body and
nobody is any the wiser, it is a hidden process.

Paragraph 5: Sometimes grades are skipped. For instance, an
animal can eat a mineral, a man can eat a vegetable or a man
can eat a mineral.

Paragraph 6: When grades are skipped, it's just harder to rectify
the soul: so that sometimes the sinning soul wins out and
causes its eater to sin.

Paragraph 7: The rule is that any Torah scholar even if he is
ignorant in the secrets of the Torah can raise a soul from the
animal level to the human level. A Torah scholar who knows
the secrets of the Torah can raise the soul from the vegetable
level to the human level. A true mystic can raise the soul
from the mineral level to the human level.

Paragraph 8: However, the ignorant person cannot raise the soul
even from the animal level to the human level.

I hope this answers your question. If you are interested, we will
be more than happy to provide more information on this matter from
the classical sources of the Kabbalah.