Reincarnation, – the “journeys” made by the soul and how this affects our lives – a mystical, extensive and complex topic that requires many years of in-depth study. Both the Torah and the Talmud make allusions to reincarnation, but this subject is treated extensively in the works of Kabbalah. In this article we will cover some general ideas on the topic according to Judaism.
Reincarnation is a Jewish concept covered in depth in Kabbalah studies. King Solomon wrote Dor Holech, VeDor Ba - “A generation goes and a generation comes” (Ecclesiastes - Cohelet 1:4). Our Sages reveal that this phrase alludes to the concept of reincarnation: in the generation that goes and in the generation that comes, there is a return – a return of generations. That is, souls, as the mystical books teach, are not new.
In Hebrew, the word for reincarnation, guilgul, has the same root as the word galgal, which means wheel. There and back, ascent and descent are cycles that close in a person's life. In Hebrew, both the word guilgul like the word hessed (kindness, generosity) have the same numerical value of 72. This means that these two concepts are related. In fact, it is a Divine kindness that the soul can return to the world to complete and perfect its mission.
The concept of reincarnation is not fundamental to everyday life. However, knowing a little about the soul's return to the world helps us understand the essence of life in more depth. The concept of reincarnation raises many questions. Why does a soul reincarnate? How and when do you return to the world? And what is the purpose of this return? These are some questions we will address in this article.
The Neshama – the Soul
Before addressing some concepts about reincarnation, it is necessary to understand what it means neshama – soul. A neshama it is a spiritual energy that expresses itself through the body of a human being. The soul is the “true self”.
Judaism teaches that the body is sacred – it constitutes a precious asset that G-d gives to human beings. It is the instrument that allows the soul to express itself in the material world and carry out G-d's will. The principle of reincarnation is based on the fact that there are certain things that the soul can only accomplish in a body when it incarnates, but not in Heaven. It is, therefore, a commandment of Judaism – a mitzvah of the Torah – taking care of the body and health.
Unlike the body, the soul, as mentioned above, is made up of spiritual energy. When a human being passes away, this spiritual energy separates from the body and enters another spiritual dimension. But this energy can also, sooner or later, return to our physical world through reincarnation.
The human being is composed of an animal soul - Nefesh HaBehamit - the vital soul that is linked to the life of the body – and a Divine soul – Nefesh HaElokit – the soul responsible for our essence. When we talk about reincarnation, we are referring to the Divine soul, which comes and returns to the world, possibly multiple times, to fulfill its mission.
The Divine soul is divided into five levels – five spiritual parts. Three of these levels are present in us, in our daily lives. This is one of the reasons why, on weekdays, we pray three times – Shacharit, Mincha e Arvit. Each of these three prayers is associated with one of the three levels of the soul.
The fourth level of the soul reveals itself on Shabbat, in Rosh Chodesh (the new Jewish month) and the Jewish Feasts (Chaguim). It is for this reason that on such dates there is an additional prayer – Mussaf.
The fifth level of the soul – the highest and most spiritual, which is never separated from G-d – reveals itself once a year – in Yom Kippur, particularly during prayer Neilah. This day is the only day in the Jewish calendar on which there are five prayers – Shacharit, Mincha, Arvit, Mussaf e Neilah –because on that day the five levels of the soul reveal themselves. At certain crucial moments in our lives, this fifth level of the soul can also reveal itself.
The fact that there are five levels of the soul is the reason behind the custom Chassidic, based on Kabbalah teachings, of lighting, during the week of mourning, five candles for the soul of a deceased person.
There is, in the Jewish tradition – and this is stated in the Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish Law, the custom of visiting, on special days, the graves of loved ones. The question is: if souls reincarnate, what is the purpose of visiting graves? The answer is that the first level of the soul remains in the tomb. This part of the soul does not reincarnate: it remains linked to the body. This is the meaning of visiting the cemetery and placing the Matzevah – the tombstone. A Matzevah It is called the shelter of the soul. This visit, on these special days, brings tranquility and brings happiness to the soul of the deceased.
What our soul remembers
In Judaism there is no search for knowledge of what we were or did in past lives. Right Tzadikim – exceptional souls, in very rare cases, spoke out in this regard. Some of the great Sages were able to “see” the trajectories of souls – that is, they “saw” what certain people did in past lives. But, this is something that rarely happens.
Around the world, many people venture to talk about this subject as if it were commonplace – because it is something that fascinates and attracts people. Many pseudomystics, who speak with authority on the concept of reincarnation, describe other worlds and claim to have traveled from one world to another. In some cases, they even say they can see who this or that person was in past lives. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the information transmitted about reincarnation and past lives is false, and many of those who transmit it do not have the necessary skills or knowledge, others are nothing more than charlatans. This subject requires unusual spiritual abilities, much wisdom and many years of study. It is certainly not something that is within everyone's reach.
When dealing with spiritual matters, you should not be too careful – we should not easily believe in people who claim to have “supernatural powers”. As our Sages teach: “He who knows does not speak and he who speaks does not know”. Judaism advises that we distance ourselves from such practices and people. There were very few Tzadikim – true Sages and Kabbalists – who possessed the power to see beyond our physical world.
A frequently asked question is whether the soul keeps memories of past lives and whether these memories would be relevant to the current life. An answer to this question is found in the Talmud: during the gestation period, an angel teaches the Torah to the fetus, but when the baby is born, the angel touches its lips and the child forgets what he studied. Our Sages ask: why did the angel teach the Torah to the child while he was in the mother's womb if the baby forgets everything he learned as soon as he is born? They answer: because it is much easier to remember some forgotten teaching than to learn it for the first time. This same concept applies to reincarnation: even if we don't remember what happened in past lives, it is easier to follow the correct path if our soul carries with it the experiences and lessons from past lives. It is worth highlighting, however, that there are very special souls who are fully aware of who they were and what they experienced in past lives.
The question arises: why aren't we all given the power to remember what happened in past lives? The answer: because we don't need those memories. If we needed to, G-d would allow us to remember everything that occurred in our past lives. Knowledge of who we were and what we did in previous lives would limit our free will. The soul returns to this world for various reasons, including to rectify past mistakes, but if we knew clearly what needed to be rectified, our choices would be pre-defined.
This does not mean that we do not carry any memories from past lives. For example, there are people who have intuitive knowledge about certain ideas, languages or places. This could mean that such ideas or places had relevance in your past life and this became deeply embedded in your soul. In other words, even though most of us cannot access past life memories, some ideas or experiences remain in our souls.
It is important to emphasize that we Jews do not seek to access such memories. In Judaism, there is no search for what we were or did in past lives. The Torah teaches us that we should focus on the present – on what needs to be done today and now – and look to the future, not the past. What matters is not what we did in past lives, but what we will do in this life.
Knowing the past can explain the future
In certain circumstances, knowing what happened to us in other incarnations would help us understand certain situations that we are not yet able to understand.
Some stories about the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the movement Chassidic, who lived approximately 300 years ago, exemplify the concept of how knowledge about past lives helps to understand certain situations in current life.
A student once asked the Baal Shem Tov about the apparent lack of Divine Justice in the world. The Baal Shem Tov told the student the following story: a very rich person was traveling and left his money saved with a friend without resources. As he fully trusted his friend, he did not leave anything in writing to indicate that he was the owner of the money deposited with his friend. While the rich man was traveling, his friend died. The children of the latter, a poor man, found the money. They were surprised, as they had experienced difficulties throughout their lives, and they divided the money among themselves.
After a few months, the rich man came back and asked his friend's children where his money was. They asked him if he had anything showing that the money belonged to him. The man replied no, as he fully trusted their father.
The man took the case to his city's rabbi. According to Torah Law, you can only take something from someone – money or possessions – through a document or some other type of evidence. Since he had no documents proving that the money was his, even though the rabbi found his story convincing, he responded that there was nothing he could do. And so, the money remained with the deceased's children.
After telling this story, the Baal Shem Tov asked the student to go to a certain oasis – to climb a tree and remain there to witness an event. The student followed the Baal Shem Tov's instructions. Shortly afterwards, a man arrived at the oasis, drank water, lay down to rest and loosened the belt he was wearing, where he was carrying gold coins. After resting, this man got up and continued on his way, but forgot the belt with the coins. Shortly afterwards, another person arrived at the oasis and found the coins. As there was no one around, he took the gold coins and left. A third traveler arrived at the oasis, and also stopped to rest. Suddenly, the man who had forgotten his belt comes back looking for the coins. Not finding them, he began to argue with this third traveler, demanding that he return the coins. He even physically attacked him, until he was convinced that the third traveler had not found any money.
The Baal Shem Tov's student witnessed the incident and, when he returned to the Master, he explained what had happened. The first traveler was the reincarnation of the poor man whose children took his friend's money. He lost the coins because his children had taken money that did not belong to them in their previous life. The second was the reincarnation of the rich man: he recovered the money he had lost in the previous life. The third traveler had been the rabbi in the previous life, who allowed the poor man's children to keep money that did not actually belong to their father. He was physically attacked by the first traveler because, despite having followed the law of the Torah, he had caused suffering to the rich man.
The Baal Shem Tov explained to the student that what he had witnessed in the oasis had been an answer to his question about Divine Justice. In other words, an injustice that occurred in one life was rectified in a later life. However, the truth is that we rarely get a glimpse of history as a whole.
The concept of reincarnation helps us understand that there is much we do not understand because we are not able to see the entire story of our life – the trajectory of our soul in past incarnations. But it is important that we know that all events in our lives have a present, past and future. There are credits and debts from the past and missions for the future. What cycles are closed and how they close constitutes a sphere of knowledge that is far beyond the reach of each of us. But the important thing is to understand that each soul has a special mission to bring rectification to the world.
A second story that conveys teachings about reincarnation: a very rich person went to visit the Baal Shem Tov. It was common for people to look to him for advice or blessings, but this man did not ask the Master for anything – he just wanted to meet him. The Baal Shem Tov received him and said that since he had come from far away, he would not allow him to leave empty-handed – he would tell him the following story:
In one town, there were two schoolmates. The two children were so good friends that, every day, one of them gave the other half of his lunch. The two grew up and got married. But, before getting married, they made a pact: they would be like brothers for the rest of their lives and would always support each other. The two went to live in different cities. One of them became very rich. The other, on the other hand, became impoverished. One day, the penniless friend told his wife that he would travel to visit his childhood friend and ask for help. Arriving at his rich friend's house, he received him with a smile on his face. The friend without resources said that he was going through a lot of difficulties. Upon hearing this, the other called his accountant and said: “When we were children, this friend of mine gave me half of his lunch every day. Please count everything I own and give half to him.” The friend expected help, but never such generosity. And he returned to his home having received half of his friend's possessions. As time went by, he even became richer than the other man who had given him half of everything he owned. Sadly, the friend who had been so generous lost money and found himself in a situation of penury. Now, he was the one who needed to ask his friend for help. He traveled to meet him to ask for help, certain that his generosity would be reciprocated. But when he finally managed to be seen by his friend, he said he didn't know him, that he didn't help anyone and sent him away. Out of so much heartbreak and sadness, the generous man, who had lost his wealth, passed away on the same day. Interestingly, the friend who had refused to help him also died on the same day.
The two souls went to Gan Eden, where the trial of both began. To the Heavenly Court, it was clear what the verdict would be. However, the generous friend interceded: he did not want his friend to suffer because of him. The Heavens decided that the two souls would return to the world in the same circumstances they found themselves in when they left it. The rich would remain rich and the poor would remain poor and, one day, both would meet again, but they would not remember what had happened in their previous life. In fact, one day, a poor man knocks on a rich man's door and asks him for help, as he was starving. The rich man welcomes him, refuses to help him, and embarrasses him. The poor man died of so much shame. A second chance had been given to the soul of the man who had refused to help his friend in a previous life – and he had wasted it.
The Baal Shem Tov finishes telling this story and notices that his visitor is pale. He tells the Master: “That's exactly what happened to me: a poor man asked me for help and I sent him away, empty-handed. Does this mean there is no more salvation for me?” The Baal Shem Tov answers him: “G-d sent you here so that you can be saved. You must do the following: find the family of the man you refused to help, and give them everything they need for the rest of their lives. The rest of the money you give to the poor – you yourself do not take advantage of this money. Thus, your soul will rectify the error of the past.”
This story conveys the idea that if human beings had memories of what happened in past lives, they would know exactly what to do to rectify mistakes made in previous incarnations. However, this would take away the person's free will. We need to live life without knowing what happened in previous incarnations so that we can make good decisions that, in themselves, rectify the mistakes of past lives. The Talmud teaches that, “the poor do more for the rich than the rich do for the poor.” In certain cases, a person who asks us for help may be giving us the opportunity to rectify mistakes made in past lives: it is possible that this person helped us in a past life and this is the opportunity to repay the debt.
The concept of reincarnation teaches us that we cannot see the entire cycle of our lives. So, we must see the life we are living differently – with more humility. We also need to see that in the Torah there is a commandment to both give and receive help, and that the soul comes to this world to fulfill all the commandments. Many people just like to give, not receive. But sometimes receiving help is also a mitzvah to be fulfilled.
As we saw in the stories of the Baal Shem Tov, a soul can return to the world to rectify a mistake from a past life. It is worth remembering that, in Yom Kippur, G-d forgives sins committed against Him, but not against human beings. It is up to the person to rectify the wrongs committed against other people. If errors are not rectified during one lifetime, there is a possibility that the same souls will reincarnate and go through a similar situation that allows the error from a previous life to be rectified. For the soul it constitutes a way of achieving Stick – the spiritual repair of a failure. This, however, is not the only way to achieve it.
How many times do we reincarnate
The soul has countless chances to reincarnate. We can return to rectify mistakes from past lives, but with each journey of the soul, it accumulates good deeds. The good we do throughout our lives – both current and past – accumulates. This applies both to the individual and to the world as a whole. With each generation, the world accumulates more and more positive energy. This is the phenomenon that will lead to the Messianic Era – the utopia so longed for by the Jewish People and humanity. By reincarnating several times, the soul receives countless opportunities to grow and develop. A neshama You can return to the world several times to complete different missions. Generally, women's souls do not need to reincarnate as many times as men's. The reason for this is that women's souls are more perfect – so they don't need rectification as much. Mystical books teach that many female souls return to the world not because they need some rectification, but rather to help their soulmate, their children or a family member.
Several souls in one body?
Is it possible for several souls to inhabit the same body? The answer is that this is a possibility. In Judaism there is the concept of dibuk – possession. It is not exactly the same phenomenon that is brought up in fiction books and films, but it is a reality recognized by Judaism. However, evoking spirits is strictly prohibited by the Torah, as it involves negative forces. Judaism prohibits people from engaging in such practices.
The second situation in which more than one soul can dwell within a single body is a phenomenon called ibur. O ibur neshamot (pregnancy of souls) occurs when one soul temporarily “couples” with another. O ibur occurs when the soul of a Tzaddik or a loved one “couples” to a body. For example, the Patriarch Avraham constitutes the symbol of goodness. If a person who has practiced kindness all his life encounters obstacles in his ability to further help others, a part of Avraham's soul can "couple" with that person to give him more impetus - to open up new horizons for him. continue to practice kindness. In this case, this person had the great merit of temporarily having with him part of the soul of Avraham Avinu, thanks to your acts of generosity
There are times when we feel like loved ones are by our side. We can feel the strength of our mother, father, grandfather or grandmother. This does not necessarily mean that such a person's soul is “coupled” with ours. However, there is such a possibility.
The second situation in which a soul “couples” with a person occurs when the soul fulfilled its mission, but was missing some detail that was not carried out – not through its fault, but for circumstantial reasons. In this case, the soul does not need to return to the world and live another life, but it needs to complete what it lacks. One example is the mitzvah do Pidion HaBen – the rescue of the firstborn. For a man to complete this mitzvah, there are a series of requirements, among them, that both the father and the mother are not Kohanim ou Levi'im and that the boy was born naturally.
A series of circumstances may result in a person being unable to fulfill the mitzvah do Pidion HaBen. In this case, the soul that never fulfilled this mitzvah it “couples” with the father who is performing the ceremony for his son and, thus, this soul is benefiting and reaching spiritual perfection. After participating in the Pidion HaBen, the soul leaves the world.
What is our mission?
We all have a special and unique mission – both individually and collectively. But the vast majority of us don't know exactly what our mission is. Our Sages teach that there are some indications.
Generally speaking, we came into the world to do good – to fulfill the 613 commandments of the Torah. But the Sages of the Talmud teach that our mission is associated with the commandments of the Torah that we do with more care and affection. At the same time, our mission can also be linked to a Torah commandment that we find very difficult to carry out. These difficulties may indicate mistakes from past lives that we need to correct in this life.
We conclude this essay on the fundamentals of reincarnation by highlighting that this is an extremely deep topic that requires a lot of study and that must be approached with great care. But knowing about the existence of past lives expands our panorama and our responsibility.
We all carry a genetic load from our parents and grandparents, but we also have a much deeper load from several past lives. It is up to us to decide what to do – how to continue Judaism and our spiritual heritage. We are the result of a story and it is up to each of us not to waste that story.
Every human being carries with them not only the ancient legacy of their ancestors, but also the acts they performed in previous incarnations. Every day of our lives we have the opportunity to grow spiritually, correcting mistakes from past lives and accumulating merits, and this leads us to both our own spiritual elevation and that of the entire world.
Rabbi Gabriel Aboutboul is rabbi of the Ipanema Synagogue in Rio de Janeiro and speaker
