Gilgul (also Gilgul neshamot or Gilgulei HaNeshamot;
Heb. , Plural: ''Gilgulim'') is a concept of
reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (disambiguation), lifespan in a different physical ...
or "transmigration of
soul
The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...
s" in
Kabbalistic
Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ().
Jewi ...
esoteric mysticism. In
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
, the word ''gilgul'' means "cycle" or "wheel" and ''neshamot'' is the plural for "souls." Souls are seen to cycle through
lives
Lives may refer to:
* The plural form of a ''life''
* Lives, Iran, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran
* The number of lives in a video game
* ''Parallel Lives'', aka ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', a series of biographies of famous m ...
or incarnations, being attached to different human
bodies
Bodies may refer to:
Literature
* ''Bodies'' (comics), a 2014–2015 Vertigo Comics detective fiction series
* ''Bodies'' (novel), a 2002 novel by Jed Mercurio
* ''Bodies'', a 1977 play by James Saunders
* ''Bodies'', a 2009 book by Susie Orba ...
over time. Which body they associate with depends on their particular task in the physical world,
spiritual levels of the bodies of predecessors and so on. The concept relates to the wider processes of history in Kabbalah, involving cosmic
Tikkun (Messianic rectification), and the historical dynamic of ascending
Lights
Light is an electromagnetic radiation, part of which stimulates the sense of vision.
Light or Lights may also refer to:
Illumination
* Lighting
* Light bulb
* Traffic light
Arts and entertainment Music
* Lights (musician) (born 1987), Canadian s ...
and descending
Vessels
Vessel(s) or the Vessel may refer to:
Biology
*Blood vessel, a part of the circulatory system and function to transport blood throughout the body
*Lymphatic vessel, a thin walled, valved structure that carries lymph
*Vessel element, a narrow wat ...
from generation to generation.
The esoteric explanations of ''gilgul'' were articulated in
Jewish mysticism
Academic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941), draws distinctions between different forms of mysticism which were practiced in different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbal ...
by
Isaac Luria
Isaac ben Solomon Ashkenazi Luria (; #FINE_2003, Fine 2003, p24/ref>July 25, 1572), commonly known in Jewish religious circles as Ha'ari, Ha'ari Hakadosh or Arizal, was a leading rabbi and Jewish mysticism, Jewish mystic in the community of Saf ...
in the 16th century, as part of the
metaphysical
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...
purpose of Creation.
History in Jewish thought
Reincarnation is an esoteric belief within many streams of modern Judaism but is not an essential tenet of traditional Judaism. It is not mentioned in classical sources such as the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
. '' Mishnah
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...
and
Talmud
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
), or
Maimonides
Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...
'
13 principles of faith
The formulation of principles of faith, universally recognized across all branches of Judaism remains undefined. There is no central authority in Judaism in existence today although the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish religious court, would fulfill ...
. Kabbalah, however, teaches a belief in ''gilgul''; hence, the belief is universal in
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a Spirituality, spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most ...
, which regards the Kabbalah as sacred and authoritative.
Among well-known rabbis who rejected the idea of reincarnation are
Saadia Gaon
Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, Geonim, gaon, Jews, Jewish philosopher, and exegesis, exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate.
Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic ...
,
David Kimhi
''Cervera Bible'', David Kimhi's Grammar Treatise
David Kimhi (, also Kimchi or Qimḥi) (1160–1235), also known by the Hebrew acronym as the RaDaK () (Rabbi David Kimhi), was a medieval rabbi, biblical commentator, philosopher, and grammarian ...
,
Hasdai Crescas
Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas (; ; c. 1340 in Barcelona – 1410/11 in Zaragoza) was a Spanish-Jewish philosopher and a renowned halakhist (teacher of Jewish law). Along with Maimonides ("Rambam"), Gersonides ("Ralbag"), and Joseph Albo, he is k ...
,
Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi
Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi () () was a Jewish poet, physician, and philosopher; born at Béziers (hence his surname Bedersi). His Occitan name was En Bonet, which probably corresponds to the Hebrew name Tobiah;compare ''Oheb Nashim'' in the ''Zun ...
(early 14th century),
Joseph Albo
Joseph Albo (; ) was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who lived in Spain during the fifteenth century, known chiefly as the author of ''Sefer ha-Ikkarim'' ("Book of Principles"), the classic work on the fundamentals of Judaism.
Biography
Albo's bi ...
,
Abraham ibn Daud
Abraham ibn Daud (; ) was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer, historian and philosopher; born in Córdoba, Spain about 1110; who was said to have been killed for his religious beliefs in Toledo, Spain, about 1180. He is sometimes known by the abbrevia ...
, and
Leon of Modena
Leon of Modena (, 1571–1648) was a Jewish scholar born in Venice to a family whose ancestors migrated to Italy after an expulsion of Jews from France.
Life
He was an intelligent child and a respected rabbi in Venice. However, his reputation wi ...
. Among the
Geonim
''Geonim'' (; ; also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Talmudic Academies in Babylonia, Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura Academy , Sura and Pumbedita Academy , Pumbedita, in t ...
,
Hai ben Sherira
Hai ben Sherira (), better known as Hai Gaon (), was a medieval Jewish theologian, rabbi and scholar who served as Gaon of the Talmudic academy of Pumbedita during the early 11th century. He was born in 939 and died on March 28, 1038. He receive ...
argued with
Saadia Gaon
Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, Geonim, gaon, Jews, Jewish philosopher, and exegesis, exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate.
Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic ...
in favour of ''gilgulim''.
Rabbis who believed in the idea of reincarnation include, from Medieval times, the mystical leaders
Nahmanides
Moses ben Nachman ( ''Mōše ben-Nāḥmān'', "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (; ''Nakhmanídēs''), and also referred to by the acronym Ramban (; ) and by the contemporary nickname Bonastruc ça Porta (; l ...
and
Bahya ben Asher
Bahya ben Asher ibn Halawa (, 1255–1340) was a rabbi and scholar of Judaism, best known as a commentator on the Hebrew Bible.
He is one of two scholars now referred to as Rabbeinu Behaye, the other being philosopher Bahya ibn Paquda.
Biograp ...
; from the 16th-century
Levi ibn Habib
Levi ibn Habib (; c. 1480 – c. 1545), also known by the acronym HaRaLBaCh, was Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem from 1525 until his death.
Under King Manuel of Portugal, and when about seventeen, he was compelled to submit to baptism, but at the fir ...
, and from the mystical school of
Safed
Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel.
Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...
,
Solomon Alkabetz
Solomon ha-Levi Alkabetz (; – 1584) was a rabbi, kabbalist and poet. He is perhaps best known for his composition of the song ''Lekha Dodi''.
Biography
Solomon Alkabetz was likely born around 1505 into a Sephardic family in the Ottoman ci ...
,
Isaac Luria
Isaac ben Solomon Ashkenazi Luria (; #FINE_2003, Fine 2003, p24/ref>July 25, 1572), commonly known in Jewish religious circles as Ha'ari, Ha'ari Hakadosh or Arizal, was a leading rabbi and Jewish mysticism, Jewish mystic in the community of Saf ...
, and his exponent
Hayyim ben Joseph Vital
Hayyim ben Joseph Vital (; Safed, October 23, 1542 (Julian calendar) / October 11, 1542 (Gregorian Calendar) – Damascus, 23 April 1620) was a rabbi in Safed and the foremost disciple of Isaac Luria. He recorded much of his master's teachi ...
; and from the 18th-century: the founder of
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a Spirituality, spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most ...
, the
Baal Shem Tov
Israel ben Eliezer (According to a forged document from the "Kherson Geniza", accepted only by Chabad, he was born in October 1698. Some Hasidic traditions place his birth as early as 1690, while Simon Dubnow and other modern scholars argue f ...
, later Hasidic Masters, and the
Lithuanian Jewish Orthodox
{{Infobox ethnic group
, group = Litvaks
, image =
, caption =
, poptime =
, region1 = {{flag, Lithuania
, pop1 = 2,800
, region2 =
{{flag, South Africa
, pop2 = 6 ...
leader and Kabbalist the
Vilna Gaon
Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, ( ''Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman''), also known as the Vilna Gaon ( ''Der Vilner Goen''; ; or Elijah of Vilna, or by his Hebrew acronym Gr"a ("Gaon Rabbenu Eliyahu": "Our great teacher Elijah"; Sialiec, April 23, 172 ...
; and - amongst others - from the 19th/20th-century:
Yosef Hayyim
Yosef Hayim (1 September 1835 – 30 August 1909) ( Iraqi Hebrew: Yoseph Ḥayyim; ; or Yosef Chaim) was a leading Baghdadi ''hakham'' ( Sephardi rabbi), authority on ''halakha'' (Jewish law), and Master Kabbalist. He is best known as author of ...
, author of the ''Ben Ish Hai''.
The 16th century mystical renaissance in communal
Safed
Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel.
Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...
marked an important development in Kabbalistic thought, with a significant impact on mystical circles and Jewish spirituality. It was also the time when Kabbalah was most widely disseminated. In this context, Isaac Luria taught new explanations of the process of ''gilgul'' and identification of the reincarnations of historic Jewish figures, which Hayyim ben Joseph Vital compiled in his ''
Shaar HaGilgulim
''Sha'ar ha Gilgulim'' () or ''Gate of Reincarnations'' is a kabbalistic work on gilgul, the concept of reincarnation, assembled by Hayyim Vital, who recorded the teachings of his master Isaac Luria in the 16th century.
Authors
Based primaril ...
''.
''Shaar haGilgulim'' lists possible reincarnations: "One who has sexual relations with an animal is reincarnated as a bat, one who has relations with a menstruant non-Jewish woman, one who commits adultery is reincarnated as a donkey, with his mother as a she-ass, with a man as a rabbit or hare".
Tzaddik
Tzadik ( ''ṣaddīq'' , "righteous ne; also ''zadik'' or ''sadiq''; pl. ''tzadikim'' ''ṣadīqīm'') is a title in Judaism given to people considered righteous, such as biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the wor ...
im can reincarnate as a fish, because "fish do not have to be ritually slaughtered before being rectified via eating".
David Roskies
David G. Roskies (Yiddish: דוד ראָסקעס; born 1948, Montreal) is an internationally recognized Canadian literary scholar, cultural historian and author in the field of Yiddish literature and the culture of Ashkenazi Jews, Eastern European ...
in ''The Shtetl Book'' mentions the following beliefs: "The soul of a tsadek becomes the soul of a fish. The soul of a butcher who eats treyf meat becomes the soul of a black crow. The soul of a dishonest
khazn becomes the soul of a dog. Because his prayer was as pleasing to the Lord as a dog’s bark. The soul of an informer becomes that of parrot. Because he acted like a parrot: spoke the wrong things at the wrong time to the wrong people." According to ''Shaar haGilgulim'', a soul can even reincarnate in an inanimate object like a stone.
Historian
Nathaniel Deutsch
Nathaniel Deutsch is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he holds the Baumgarten Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies. He is also the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies and the Director of the Humanities Institute.
Ca ...
mentioned a widely reported anecdote as a modern example of the gilgul belief. In 2003, two fish cutters claimed to have encountered a talking carp at the New Square Fish Market in
Rockland County, New York
Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population is 338,329, making it the state' ...
. The incident occurred in a Hasidic community of about 7,000 members. "The story goes that a 20-pound carp about to be slaughtered and made into gefilte fish for Sabbath dinner began speaking in Hebrew, shouting apocalyptic warnings and claiming to be the troubled soul of a revered community elder who recently died."
See also
In Judaism:
* Lurianic Kabbalah
Lurianic Kabbalah is a school of Kabbalah named after Isaac Luria (1534–1572), the Jewish rabbi who developed it. Lurianic Kabbalah gave a seminal new account of Kabbalistic thought that its followers synthesised with, and read into, the earli ...
* Ibbur
Ibbur (), is one of the forms of transmigration of the soul and has similarities with gilgul neshamot "reincarnation of souls" in Rabbinic Judaism.
ʿIbbur is the most positive form of possession and the most complicated. In contrast, possessi ...
* Dybbuk
In Jewish mythology, a (; , from the Hebrew verb , meaning 'adhere' or 'cling') is a malicious possessing spirit believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person. It supposedly leaves the host body once it has accomplished its goal, some ...
* Shaar HaGilgulim
''Sha'ar ha Gilgulim'' () or ''Gate of Reincarnations'' is a kabbalistic work on gilgul, the concept of reincarnation, assembled by Hayyim Vital, who recorded the teachings of his master Isaac Luria in the 16th century.
Authors
Based primaril ...
For comparison with other religions:
* Reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (disambiguation), lifespan in a different physical ...
References
External links
Jewish view of reincarnation
essay on gilgul by Rav Avraham Brandwein
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100221163152/http://cf.uba.uva.nl/en/collections/rosenthaliana/menasseh/19f7/index.html , date=2010-02-21
Jewish mysticism
Kabbalah
Reincarnation
Kabbalistic words and phrases