17.  What does Judaism teach about reincarnation?

Summary:

•	Judaism focuses mainly on living a good life now, rather than on earning the afterlife as a reward.

•	The Hebrew Bible hints at resurrection, and although it does not specifically teach reincarnation—in Hebrew, called gilgul or גילגול —there are some Biblical passages that can be interpreted as implying reincarnation.

•	Some passages in the Hebrew Bible appear to contradict each other—for example, God punishing children for their parents’ sins, while elsewhere saying each person dies only for their own sin.  Jewish reincarnation theory offers a way to resolve this: the soul of the sinner reincarnates into later generations to face the consequences of past actions.

•	The Kabbalah and other books used by medieval Jewish mystics asset that souls reincarnate to grow spiritually and to correct past mistakes.  The Zohar, the Bahir, and the Shaar HaGilgulim describe reincarnation in detail.  

•	The Kabbalah teaches that a soul may need many lifetimes to fulfill all 613 commandments and achieve moral repair.

•	Reincarnation is considered a mystical belief, not a central teaching of Judaism.  Reincarnation remains a debated idea in Judaism, accepted by some Jews and rejected by others.

Jews call the Hebrew Bible the TaNaKh— תָּנָ״ךְ —which Christians call the Old Testament.  The name TaNaKh is an acronym of three Hebrew letters that stand for Torah (meaning “Instruction”), Nevi’im (“Prophets”), and Ketuvim (“Writings”).  The first five books of the TaNaKh are, as a group, called the Torah— תּוֹרָה —and are considered the most sacred of all Jewish scriptures.  The Christian names of those five books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  Jews refer to them by using the first word of each book.  For example, the Book of Genesis begins with the Hebrew word B’reishit— בְּרֵאשִׁית —sometimes translated as “In the beginning.”  It is also the Jewish (Hebrew) name of the book.

Judaism as a religion does not emphasize an afterlife.  Otherwise, Judaism would be a very different religion.  To sense how different, consider the religions of Christianity and Islam, both of which honor Judaism’s Hebrew Bible and both of which emphasize an afterlife.  Christianity and Islam eventually became the world’s largest religions because, historically, they actively recruited converts, many of them attracted by the prospect of an afterlife.  Now imagine if Christianity and Islam had offered rituals, teachings, a faith community, and hundreds of religious laws—but no afterlife.  Some denominations of Judaism are like that. 

Judaism emphasizes living in the world at present.  The reward of an afterlife is not the goal, much like good parents do not need the incentive of an afterlife to love their children.  Life in this world is a gift from God, and to live righteously pleases God and also praises God.  Converting to Judaism is much more difficult than converting to Christianity or to Islam because there is so much for a prospective Jew to learn, especially about Jewish ethics and traditions.

Some Jewish teachings do speak of an afterlife, sometimes called the World to Come— עוֹלָם הַבָּא —but those teachings are controversial, even among Jews.  Nevertheless, the TaNaKh does include hints of an afterlife.  For example, there are mentions of resurrection, the idea that God can restore a dead person to life even if the physical body was dead for a very long time.  Both Christianity and Islam have long taught the idea of resurrection, but they drew the idea from Judaism.  Hints about resurrection in the TaNaKh include these:

The Book of Ezekiel includes a lengthy story about resurrection.  The author, the Prophet Ezekiel, describes a mystical vision he received about a valley of dry bones.  The bones are the remains of dead Israelites.  God commands Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, a command he later recorded: “This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: ‘I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.  I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life.  Then you will know that I am the LORD.’…So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.”  (Ezekiel 37:5-6 and 10.)

Resurrection does not necessarily mean that the soul of a righteous person returns to God immediately after death.  According to an ancient interpretation, resurrection may not occur until the end of the world, whenever that is.  Meanwhile, as long as the body is dead, the soul may likewise remain in the grave until God resurrects the whole person, both body and soul.  Hundreds or thousands of years may pass before the World to Come arrives.  Thousands of years have already passed since the TaNaKh was written. 

Mentions of resurrection in the TaNaKh have persuaded many Jewish theologians, though not all, that an afterlife either does exist or someday will exist.  This idea has gradually gained support.  In the twelfth century CE, the acclaimed Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, more famously known as Maimonides, made a list of thirteen principles of Judaism.  He included resurrection on that list. 

Resurrection is not the same as reincarnation, however.  Resurrection is at least implied by some passages in the TaNaKh, but reincarnation is only surmised.  For example, some passages in the TaNaKh appear to logically contradict each other, but they could be reconciled if reincarnation exists.  Not until Europe’s medieval era, approximately five centuries ago, was a Jewish concept of reincarnation publicized.  Several prominent Jewish theologians have argued in favor of reincarnation, but several others have argued against it.  The TaNaKh does not state if any Israelites ever believed in reincarnation.  Another two centuries passed before the concept was embraced by a mystical branch of Judaism called Hasidic Judaism, a branch that is relatively small but very pious. 

According to Jewish tradition, the Prophet Moses is considered to be the author of the Torah’s five books (except for the passages of Deuteronomy 34, which describe the death of Moses and eulogize him).  Another traditional belief is that the Torah is without error, at least where the Torah quotes God, and therefore any apparent contradictions in the Torah are points where the text should be interpreted more carefully.  God can resolve any supposed contradictions, and Moses would have known this when he wrote the text.  Hasidic Jews believe the Torah also contains some hidden messages that are meant to be discovered by pondering the true intent of God.  The existence of reincarnation might be one of those messages.

Clues to the possible existence of reincarnation begins with these passages:

According to these passages in Exodus, God will punish three or four generations for the sins of the first generation.  In other words, God will punish sinful parents, and their children, and their grandchildren, and perhaps also their great-grandchildren, all for the sins of the original parents.  Yet, this Divine intent to punish multiple generations for the sins of the first generation is morally contrary to the Divine love that these passages also express.  This same intent also contradicts the Torah’s Book of Deuteronomy, in particular this reassurance from God:

Later in the TaNaKh, this Divine reassurance is repeated in the Book of Ezekiel:

If God is all-loving and if the Torah is without error, then the reincarnation of Jewish souls would resolve these contradictions.  A sinner in the first generation would face the consequences of one’s sins by being reincarnated into the second, third, or fourth generations.  

Proponents of Jewish reincarnation have surmised that if a soul must atone for an especially sinful life, then that soul might need to reincarnate two or three times.  They further surmise that if the soul still fails to improve, then God may use a different Divine method to cleanse that soul.

If, in ancient times, there were any Jewish theologians who discussed such theories about reincarnation, we have no definitive evidence that they did.  Centuries later in medieval Europe, however, the mystical tradition of Judaism became increasingly accessible in the form of Jewish mystical texts.  And some of those texts describe reincarnation.

The mystical tradition of Judaism is called the Kabbalah— קַבָּלָה —pronounced kah-BAH-lah, the Hebrew word for “tradition.”  The Kabbalah teaches that every Divine commandment and every story in the Hebrew Bible contains deeper meanings.  It teaches that the entire world is interconnected in ways both obvious and hidden, that those ways are all connected to God, and that every action matters.  And while the Torah only implies the possibility of reincarnation, the Kabbalah treats reincarnation as a religious certainty. 

The Torah contains 613 commandments from God, including the famous Ten Commandments.  According to the Kabbalah, the soul of a Jew must fulfill each and every one of the 613 commandments in thought, speech, and action, as well as correct past misdeeds.  To accomplish that, God gives the soul multiple opportunities across multiple lifetimes.  The Hebrew word for reincarnation is gilgul— גילגול —which means “spinning” because the soul spins onward through many bodies, using each lifetime to strive for greater moral perfection.  Through gilgul (reincarnation), the soul can also experience a much greater variety of situations than a single lifetime can provide.  Furthermore, the experiences of a single lifetime can be extremely unfair, but gilgul (reincarnation) helps to balance those joys and sorrows across several different lifetimes.

One of the most important books in the Kabbalah is the Zohar— זוהר —pronounced ZOH-harr, which means “splendor” or “radiance.”  The Zohar is a collection of writings that interpret the Torah, seeking deeper meanings.  The Zohar contains discussions about God, the Universe, the nature of souls, gilgul (reincarnation), redemption, and various other subjects.  The origin of the Zohar is controversial: it emerged in Spain in the late thirteenth century CE, but its teachings might date to ancient times.  Whatever its origin, many readers of the Zohar believe that its insights are profound.

Another important book in the Kabbalah is theSefer HaBahir— סֵפֶר הַבָּהִיר —or simply the Bahir, which in Hebrew means “Book of Clarity” or “Book of Illumination.”  Its origin is also controversial.  The Bahir emerged in southern France as a nearly complete book in the late twelfth century CE, although portions may have existed long before as parts of secret manuscripts.  Its teachings may have existed in the oral tradition (remembered, but not written) since the first century CE.  Among the book’s references to gilgul (reincarnation), the Bahir includes a parable about a farmer and his vineyard.  When the grapes of his vineyard prove to be sour, the farmer clears the vineyard and plants a new crop.  But the new grapes also prove to be sour.  Again, the farmer clears the vineyard and plants a new crop.  The Bahir asks, how many times must the farmer do this?  The answer is—up to a thousand generations.  The progress of the soul is symbolically similar, requiring multiple lifetimes. 

Another important book in the Kabbalah is the Shaar HaGilgulim— שער הגלגולים —whose title means Gate of Reincarnations.  The book discusses gilgul in considerable detail, including about a soul’s spiritual development across multiple lifetimes and how they relate to tikkun— תיקון —pronounced tee-KOON, meaning “rectification” or helping to mend the world.  The book also teaches that even great souls may reincarnate to assist other souls on their spiritual journey or to rectify some past wrong.  In the Torah’s Book of Genesis, two sons of Adam and Eve were Cain and Abel.  Cain was the older brother.  When Cain became jealous of Abel, Cain murdered him.  According to the Shaar HaGilgulim, the soul of Abel later reincarnated as the Prophet Moses, while the soul of Cain later reincarnated as Jethro, who became Moses’ father-in-law.  The love and respect between Moses and Jethro described in the Torah’s Book of Exodus rectified their violent past as Abel and Cain, bringing about a repair, a tikkun, in their relationship and in the world. 

Despite the Kabbalah, the importance of reincarnation in Judaism should not be exaggerated.  Judaism does not emphasize an afterlife.  Even among devout Jews, a number of them do not believe in any afterlife.  Even among Orthodox Jews, gilgul (reincarnation) is a controversial idea.  Reincarnation might exist in addition to resurrection: perhaps each gilgul represents another step of the soul preparing for the end of days and the World to Come.  Or perhaps reincarnation exists as a form of resurrection.  This possibility would interpret the traditional idea of resurrection very differently from what many people have long imagined, but it is conceivable.  Or perhaps reincarnation does not exist at all. 

Whatever the answer is, gilgul (reincarnation) is not a new idea.  It has been pondered and written about by Jewish theologians for many centuries.  And because the idea has been considered for centuries, its possible existence has become a traditional mystical belief within the religion of Judaism which, while a controversial belief, has become a respectable idea among many Jews.