Chapter 7

Like Déjà Vu All Over Again: Reincarnation in Kabbalah

In This Chapter

Getting to the root of reincarnation

Taking a different view of birth and death

Realizing the daily significance of reincarnation for Kabbalists

It may (or may not) come as a surprise to you to find that Kabbalists believe in reincarnation. And not only do they believe in it, but they take it pretty seriously, too. To a Kabbalist, reincarnation explains why people are born, why they die, and how they should live their lives while they’re here on earth.

Many people claim that reincarnation isn’t a part of Jewish tradition. For example, if you were to ask a number of rabbis whether Jews believe in reincarnation, you’d get all kinds of answers, including the frequent responses of “No, we don’t” and “A few sages did believe in this, but it isn’t a central teaching of Jewish tradition.” These answers are wrong, pure and simple. Scholars have documented that the greatest of the Jewish sages believed, wrote, and taught about reincarnation. The works left by the formative minds behind Kabbalah expressly teach a belief in reincarnation Even the revered and authoritative author of the standard Code of Jewish Law, Rabbi Joseph Karo, believed in reincarnation.

The first time I met my teacher, I asked him why ideas I have encountered in my dabbling in Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism seem so similar to ideas in Kabbalah. Not that all the details are the same, but the Eastern and Kabbalistic sources on reincarnation generally describe the same concept and process. When I said to my Teacher, “The ideas are so similar; how can it be?” he said, “It would be stranger if it were otherwise.” In other words, it would be unusual if the various world religions were different in many of their basic teachings. After all, truth is truth, and nobody has a monopoly on it.

In this chapter, I explain the concept of reincarnation as it relates to Kabbalistic teachings, the purpose of reincarnation, how Kabbalists view life and death, and the significance of reincarnation in a Kabbalist’s daily life.

What Is Reincarnation?

The Hebrew term for reincarnation, the term used by Kabbalists over the centuries, is Gilgul Ha-nefesh (gil -gool hah-neh -fesh). It’s made of two words: Ha-nefesh means “the soul,” and gilgul actually means “rolling” or “recycling.” Sometimes reincarnation is referred to in the plural, gilgul ha’ne’shamot (gil- gool hah-neh-sha-mote; the reincarnation of souls).

Following are basic steps in the process of reincarnation:

1. God creates your soul.

2. Your soul exists before your particular body.

3. The soul enters your body 40 days after conception.

4. Your soul tries to figure out what its job is here on earth.

5. The soul, with the help of your body, tries to complete its task and to help repair the world. At the same time, the soul, in its connection with the physical world through your body also experiences the exhilaration of life itself, and enjoys and savors it. (The opportunity to enjoy life and the ability to savor it are seen by Kabbalists as divine gifts.)

6. If you haven’t finished the curriculum, which consists of the trials God gives you to solve, your soul comes back for more — it’s reincarnated.

Life with a purpose

In the eyes of a Kabbalist, reincarnation is an important part of the understanding of who we humans are and what we’re doing here. Kabbalah teaches that a human being isn’t just the result of sex between a mother and father. As the sages have taught, the mother and father provide parts of the physical body, and God provides the life force, the soul (also known as consciousness ). Kabbalists understand birth as a partnership of three: the mother, the father, and the Holy One. Each contributes something.

Kabbalah teaches that God’s dream of a world that perfects itself is the goal of creation. One of the reasons people are born is to participate in the repairing of the world (see Chapter 8). The good news is if your soul doesn’t finish its assignment, it comes back and continues its work. As it is written in the great Kabbalistic text, the Zohar, as long as a person is unsuccessful in his purpose in this world, the Holy One, blessed be He, uproots him and “replants” him over and over again. Eventually, after enough lives, enough incarnations, the soul fulfills its task and waits for the rest of the souls in the world to complete their tasks.

An ancient tale about the soul

A well-known story that has been told and retold by Kabbalists for almost 2,000 years involves Rabbi Meir, a student of Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest Kabbalists of all time. The story is that one Sabbath many centuries ago, Rabbi Meir asked his wife, an extraordinary woman named Beruria, if she had seen their two sons because he didn’t see them in the house of prayer. Beruria knew that their two sons had died but didn’t want to tell her husband until after the Sabbath, to allow him a few more hours of the delight brought by the gift of the Sabbath given by God each week. After the Sabbath was over, Rabbi Meir once again asked Beruria where their sons were. Before answering, Beruria said that she wanted to ask her husband a legal question. She asked, “If jewels are deposited with a person for safekeeping and one day the owner comes to retrieve his gems, is there an obligation to return them?” Rabbi Meir said, “Of course.” At that point, Beruria said to her husband, “He who gave us our two gems on deposit has come to retrieve them.”

The soul’s tasks: To repair the world and itself

One of Kabbalah’s fundamental principles is that each of us has a unique task. My task isn’t your task, and your task isn’t mine. And even if you can do my task better than me, it still isn’t yours. For example, it’s my job to write a book about Kabbalah. Even if you can write a better book than I can, that may not be what you’re here for.

A person doesn’t need to be conscious of his task in life in order to fulfill it. He can go through his entire life totally unaware of all these Kabbalistic ideas and unaware that the task of life is to figure out his task. Many people just have an intuitive sense of what they should do in the world. Regardless of their motivation, by doing what they’re inclined to do, they’re actually in the process of completing their divine assignments.

There are a number of possibilities for each soul:

The soul enters the world, understands its assignment, and fulfills it.

The soul doesn’t complete its task and has to return to try to finish its work.

The soul doesn’t complete its task and does damage to the world.

The soul enters the world and is itself damaged during its life.

The first case, in which the soul understands and fulfills its assignment, is said to be quite rare. In most cases, the soul must come back and either finish its assignment, repair the part of the world that it damaged in the past, or repair itself.

One of the issues with no consensus among Kabbalists is just how many chances each soul gets. Many say three. One of my Kabbalah teachers echoes a view held by many Kabbalists in history: As long as you make progress in a lifetime, you get another chance even if you don’t finish God’s assignment.

Kabbalists believe that some souls make such terrible choices and do such extreme damage to the world that they’re beyond repair. The Zohar (see Chapter 13) states that those souls who are unworthy and don’t achieve their purposes ultimately will be regarded as though they never even existed. They will end up as “ashes under the feet of the righteous.”

In addition to its work in repairing the world, the soul also raises and purifies itself. According to Kabbalah, the soul’s work on the world and its work on itself aren’t two different activities — they happen simultaneously. For example, suppose you’re walking down the street and see a person in need asking for a coin. By giving that person some money, you’re helping to repair the world, but you’re also refining yourself. The inner process of deciding to feel compassion for a person in need, as well as the decision to actually do something concrete about it, help to create new habits and patterns of behavior. You may struggle with questions such as “Should I give money to this person?” “Shouldn’t the person get a job?” and “What if the person is faking it?” Ultimately, as the Kabbalistic sages have taught for centuries, it isn’t your business to judge the person; it’s your business to give when a seemingly needy person asks. This process of introspection and its result of giving charity is an example of the process of refining the soul, raising it up, and getting closer to the goal of the soul’s final destination: basking in the Light of God.

We’ve all been here before

Reincarnation, for the Kabbalist, provides the framework for understanding so much about life. In fact, Kabbalists believe that the trials and challenges that people face in their lives are a result of what they may have left unfinished or may even have damaged during a previous lifetime.

Sometimes, people can recall brief glimpses of their past incarnations. For example, many people have a sense that they’re reincarnations of people who were murdered during the Holocaust. Beyond the Ashes (A.R.E. Press) is an account of a contemporary rabbi’s personal encounters with hundreds of people from all walks of life who have visions, dreams, and flashbacks that seem to be coming from another life during the Holocaust.

Reincarnation isn’t a failure; most souls simply don’t complete the entire curriculum in one lifetime.

Many have asked why God puts the soul through so much. Why does the soul have to figure out its assignment? Why does God allow the soul to take the terrible risk of entering the world to possibly get damaged or do damage? God’s reason for the creation of the universe is to bestow pleasure on us. If all of the answers were just given to us, where would the pleasure be? But the soul descends in order to make an ascent to greater heights. It is only through work, risks, trials, and accomplishments that true joy occurs.

Birth and Death (Also known as Homecoming and Graduation)

Kabbalists believe that before a soul enters the world, it’s in Heaven, basking in God’s presence and learning divine wisdom. At a certain point (see the sidebar “When soul meets body” for details), God sends the soul into the world.

Most souls aren’t here for the first time and bear the legacy of previous existences. But some souls are new or young souls, sent by God into the world for some divine reason.

According to Kabbalah, the process of birth causes the soul to forget the divine wisdom it has learned in Heaven. According to the Talmud, just before a baby is born, an angel taps the baby on the mouth to push it from one world to the next. The tap creates the philtrum (the little notch between the upper lip and nose) and also causes the soul to forget what it has learned. The message of this story is that, in life, education has more to do with remembering what one already knows rather than learning something new.

When soul meets body

Kabbalists explain that God connects the soul with its body on the 40th day after conception. This is a Kabbalistic belief that goes back over 2,000 years. Incidentally, the idea that the fetus does not have a soul until it is 40 days old has an important impact on Jewish legal opinions concerning abortion and the emerging field of stem cell research. Rabbinic authorities feel that there is a vast difference between an abortion before 40 days and after 40 days, due to the soul’s arrival at that time.

After death, the soul returns to God and once again basks in God’s divine light. Souls that need to return to finish their work go back into the world. Souls that have finished their work return to God and wait for the perfection of the world as a whole.

Welcome back, baby!

For a Kabbalist, a birth is really like a welcome home party. Kabbalists believe that your soul existed before the body you currently have. When a baby is born, its soul is returning to this world for another go at fulfilling its mission of completing or fixing something in the world or in itself.

When a baby boy is born, Kabbalists practice a custom known as Shalom Zachor (shah -lome zakh-hor; peace little boy). It’s a simple enough Kabbalistic practice that you can easily do. (In fact, if you have sons, you may have already done it without even knowing it!) A Shalom Zachor is essentially a celebration marked by a festive meal that’s held on the Friday night of the first Sabbath after the child’s birth.

To live the life of a Kabbalist, everything you do must be enhanced and made complete with kavanah (consciousness and attention). So when the baby is born, just as for most other significant moments in life, a ritual helps the participants focus their attention on what the life cycle event represents. The birth of a baby isn’t just a happy occasion or the answer to a couple’s prayers. Rather, it’s the moment that God sends another soul back into the world to do its work.

At a Shalom Zachor, family, friends, and neighbors celebrate the baby’s arrival. The occasion is called a Shalom Zachor because participants, by participating in the celebration, wish the baby luck by saying, “Shalom Zachor.” Kabbalists recognize that the soul of the baby has been thrust into the physical world, with its life of struggle and potential suffering. They hope that the soul navigates this life well and achieves its goals during this incarnation.

The question has often been asked: Why is there a Shalom Zachor for a baby boy and not a baby girl? One commentator points to a teaching in the Talmud stating that a woman is considered as if she is already circumcised. From birth she is considered complete. Females, according to Jewish tradition, are by definition on a higher spiritual level. The “Shalom Zachor” is for baby boys who need extra encouragement on the spiritual journey. In traditional Jewish circles today, an alternative celebration named Simchat Bat (sim- khaht bot; joy for a daughter) is a party or special spiritual gathering in honor of the birth of a girl. Even when not called a Simchat Bat, the birth of a girl is surely a cause for celebration among Kabbalists.

The Kabbalistic significance of birthdays

Perhaps the greatest teacher of Kabbalah in the past 100 years was Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known by millions of people around the world as the Rebbe (meaning great spiritual teacher) or the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Lubavitch is the town in Russia where his ancestors came from). The Rebbe encouraged the celebration of birthdays because a birthday is the anniversary of the soul’s reentry into the world. On his birthday, a person should remind himself that the soul reincarnates and gets additional chances to complete its task; he should feel as though the world was created just for him. In addition, a birthday is a time to look at one’s life with extra care and introspection and to resolve to work harder to fulfill one’s task in the world.

When death comes a-knockin’: A Kabbalist’s graduation day

Kabbalists believe that at a certain point in every person’s life, he or she gets a visit from the Angel of Death, known in Hebrew as the Malach HaMavet (mah -lakh hah-mah -vet), whose job it is to separate the body from the soul. The body is buried in the ground, and the soul continues on in its spiritual journey.

Because death is a graduation into another life, Kabbalists follow a strict custom of burying a body within 24 hours of death. (Jews follow this custom as much as possible to this day.) This practice is connected to the belief in reincarnation. The Talmud (see Chapter 13) teaches that keeping the body unburied after the soul leaves the body and the body remains without breath is forbidden. And the Zohar adds that perhaps God decrees that a person undergoes reincarnation on the day that he dies. As long as the body remains unburied, the soul can neither go into the presence of the Holy One nor be transferred into another body.

The great Kabbalistic sages teach that when the body and soul separate, the experience varies for different types of people:

For people who are basically good in their lives, the separation is as gentle as drawing a hair from milk.

For people who are wicked, the separation is like the whirling waters at the entrance to a canal. Some sages teach that the separation of the body and soul of a wicked person is like pulling a rope with a spiked ball out of the throat.

Reciting a death blessing

Just as there’s a Kabbalistic response to a birth, Kabbalists recite a blessing when they hear of a person’s death. The blessing, in Hebrew, is Baruch dayan emet (bah-rukh da-yahn eh- met; blessed is the true judge). In other words, when Kabbalists find out that God has sent the Angel of Death to do its job, they acknowledge and trust that even though they don’t know why it was that soul’s time to leave the world, God had a good reason.

One of my Kabbalah teachers taught me that death doesn’t frighten the pious Kabbalist because he or she has faith that death is simply a transition from one life into another.

Death isn’t a tragedy; it’s a graduation ceremony. With each incarnation, the soul learns more and continues to purify itself in order to reach its goal. Kabbalists believe that although the death of someone is a sad occasion for loved ones, God knows what He is doing.

Realizing death is not death, suffering is not suffering

When students of Kabbalah study anything, they always search for a deeper meaning and a more profound level of understanding. For example, Kabbalah asks us to believe that everything that happens in the world has a reason, and that from a Kabbalistic view, everything is for the best (see Chapter 5). So when Kabbalists hear news about a death, they first acknowledge that everything is in God’s hands. God knows everything and God knows best.

Some people are on such a high level of consciousness, understand things so deeply, and have such great faith that God knows why everything happens that they don’t even experience bad news as bad.

Kabbalistic tradition is, in many ways, a series of teachings designed to raise a person’s consciousness, and what this often means is to see beyond the surface of things (see Chapter 4). Both death and suffering are good examples of this process.

Death is generally considered “bad news.” From the point of view of family and friends of the deceased, the occasion of death can be a traumatic one. Death has acquired a sense of finality. Death, to many, means the end.

But not to a Kabbalist. Kabbalah stresses that death is a transition. It is hardly the end; it is not the end for the body, which merges into the earth, and it is not the end for the soul, which is eternal and continues on its path.

Suffering, perhaps even more than death, is thought to be a negative word. But, to a Kabbalist, everything has a purpose, everything contains God, and every descent is for the sake of ascension. Though it’s easy to simply react negatively to suffering, in Kabbalah, suffering can be seen as a divine gift.

Understanding the Significance of Reincarnation to Kabbalah

Awareness of the process of reincarnation changes the whole picture of life for the Kabbalist. In particular:

Reincarnation helps the Kabbalist see life as something other than a random event. In other words, life has meaning even though you may not see it.

Reincarnation includes the lesson that each life has a divine purpose.

Reincarnation gives hope and optimism to those whose lives fall short of their goals.

Reincarnation transforms death from a tragedy into another step along the path of the soul’s journey.

Reincarnation helps explain why siblings are often so different even though they’re raised in the same family by the same parents.

Reincarnation helps explain why sometimes you may feel as if you’ve known someone before (we probably have!).

In this section, I explain the Kabbalistic idea that life is like a classroom. The trials, assignments, and challenges of life are the very ways that the soul makes progress.

Tending God’s garden

The great Kabbalists teach that humankind must see itself as being in God’s garden and then treat the garden properly by helping to perfect the world. This message is the result of Kabbalists looking closely at the details, down to the individual words and letters, of the story of Creation in the book of Genesis in the Bible (see Chapter 16). One such detail is that Adam and Eve find themselves in a garden. Their fate, as the story goes, is to tend that garden. (You can view the huge body of Jewish law as a manual for the proper care of the world. After all, the word “Torah” comes from the Hebrew root that means instruction.)

Kabbalists believe that God wants people to enjoy the world and take pleasure from life. Thus, when a soul comes back to the world to try again to achieve its task, it isn’t being punished but rather is being given a great opportunity.

More to life and death than meets the eye: A reincarnation parable

When studying Kabbalah what you see is almost never what you get. Kabbalah teaches people to look beneath the surface of things. So birth isn’t really birth — it’s a chance to finish what you didn’t complete during your last life. And death isn’t really death — it’s a graduation.

Kabbalistic tradition contains countless parables that teach important ideas. One parable sheds a lot of light on the subject of reincarnation.

Imagine twins who are developing nicely and peacefully in their mother’s womb. The twins have it great: Things are serene, and they’re both fed through a tube and are well nourished. But as nice as it is, they feel themselves dropping lower and lower and begin to wonder what will happen to them when they move too far down and fall out of their world. One of the infants believes in the spiritual tradition that promises another existence after the current one. He has faith in his belief even though there’s no evidence for it. The other twin is a skeptic and doesn’t believe in anything without hard evidence. He doesn’t believe his brother’s stories about another existence; rather, he believes that mere imagination is proof of nothing.

The first brother says, “After our death here, there will be a new great world. We will eat through our mouths. Also, we will be able to see far distances with our eyes. We will stand up straight and tall.” The skeptical brother replies, “What you are saying is nonsense; it’s all your imagination. There is no foundation for this belief. It is an elaborate defense mechanism. There is only this world. There is no next world.” The first twin asks his nonbelieving brother what he thinks will happen to them. The second brother replies, “We will go with a bang. Our world will collapse, and we will sink into oblivion. A black void. An end to consciousness.”

Suddenly the water inside the womb bursts. The womb convulses with upheaval and turmoil. Everything lets loose, and the brothers move faster and faster, lower and lower. All of the sudden, the brother with faith falls out of the womb as his nonbelieving brother watches in horror. He cries, “Why did this happen?! Why did he fall into that terrible abyss? I knew that death is horrible.” While he’s so filled with sorrow, he hears a cry from his brother who has fallen out of the world and exclaims, “Oh no! What a horrible end! Just as I predicted!”

The nonbelieving brother mourns his “dead” brother, but things outside the womb are much different from what he thinks. The baby’s cry is a sign of health and vigor. The exit from the womb is the birth of the body; the exit from the body is the rebirth of the soul.

Viewing life as a classroom

The soul that has fulfilled its task and has done all that it’s supposed to do, creating or repairing some part of the world, can bask in God’s presence until the whole world is perfected. But many souls don’t do all the proper things, they misuse forces in the world, or they’re injured in some way. After the death of the body, these souls return to the world (entering another fetus at age 40 days) and try again to figure out their tasks and to do them successfully.

For a soul, learning how to do things properly isn’t easy. The fact that it’s a lifelong pursuit is the reason study is so important to the Kabbalist (see Chapter 13). Kabbalists study every day in an effort to do the following:

Understand the spiritual ideas that Kabbalah teaches

Apply these basic principles to improve behavior

Participate with the great sages in trying to figure out what to do in life

Using reincarnation as a guide for living

Each and every day, Kabbalists ask themselves the following questions:

What is my life’s work and divine assignment?

The question, “What should I do with my life?” is one that is asked by many. For some, it’s asked early in life and never revisited. For others, questioning the purpose of life is a daily occurrence. Kabbalists are encouraged to almost constantly evaluate and re-evaluate their paths to make sure that life doesn’t just slip away but rather is filled with the tasks that God put you here to do and learn (see Chapter 8).

Am I doing my assignment well?

For a Kabbalist, this question is a daily one. Every night, Kabbalists are urged to look at the day that has just passed with the hope that the actions performed and the thoughts that came to mind were healthy, appropriate, and productive. Particularly during the Days of Awe, between the holy days of Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, a Kabbalist asks himself and God for an evaluation and hopes for a good one (see Chapter 10).

Is my current suffering the result of deeds done in previous incarnations?

In Kabbalah, the advice given to a person who is suffering is to try to look at his deeds and wonder what failings have prompted the suffering. If you come up empty-handed after considering your deeds, your soul may be suffering due to misdeeds in a prior lifetime. In either case, the suffering person, according to Kabbalah, should avoid bitterness and cultivate trust that God will reveal the divine wisdom behind all events (see Chapter 9).

How can I live a life that insures the least amount of bad karma?

A Kabbalist’s life is a conscious life. Every moment a person needs to be awake and aware, and must try with the greatest efforts to integrate the wisdom that has been acquired into life’s activities, all in order to avoid the negative consequences that follow from misdeeds (see Chapter 9).