Gilgul

2025-04-02T04:31:49Z

93.38.67.72: /* History in Jewish thought */

{{short description|Reincarnation in Kabbalah}}
{{distinguish|Gilgal}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2007}}
{{Kabbalah}}
'''Gilgul''' (also '''Gilgul neshamot''' or '''Gilgulei HaNeshamot'''; [[Hebrew language|Heb.]] {{Script/Hebrew|גלגול הנשמות}}, Plural: {{Script/Hebrew|גלגולים}} ''Gilgulim'') is a concept of [[reincarnation]] or "transmigration of [[soul]]s"<ref>{{cite book|last=Trachtenberg|first=Joshua|author-link=Joshua Trachtenberg|orig-date=Originally published 1939|chapter=Glossary of Hebrew Terms|title=Jewish Magic and Superstition|date=13 February 2004 |publication-place=Philadelphia|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]]|publication-date=2004|page=333|isbn=9780812218626}}</ref> in [[Kabbalah|Kabbalistic]] esoteric mysticism. In [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], the word ''gilgul'' means "cycle" or "wheel" and ''neshamot'' is the plural for "souls." Souls are seen to cycle through [[Life|lives]] or incarnations, being attached to different human [[Human body|bodies]] over time. Which body they associate with depends on their particular task in the physical world, [[spirituality|spiritual]] levels of the bodies of predecessors and so on. The concept relates to the wider processes of history in Kabbalah, involving cosmic [[Tohu and Tikkun|Tikkun]] (Messianic rectification), and the historical dynamic of ascending [[Ohr|Lights]] and descending [[Ohr|Vessels]] from generation to generation.

The esoteric explanations of ''gilgul'' were articulated in [[Jewish mysticism]] by [[Isaac Luria]] in the 16th century, as part of the [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]] 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 classical rabbinic works ([[Mishnah]] and [[Talmud]]), or [[Maimonides]]' [[Jewish principles of faith#Maimonides' 13 principles of faith|13 principles of faith]]. Kabbalah, however, teaches a belief in ''gilgul''; hence, the belief is universal in [[Hasidic Judaism]], which regards the Kabbalah as sacred and authoritative.

Among well-known rabbis who rejected the idea of reincarnation are [[Saadia Gaon]], [[David Kimhi]], [[Hasdai Crescas]], [[Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi]] (early 14th century), [[Joseph Albo]], [[Abraham ibn Daud]], and [[Leon of Modena]]. Among the [[Geonim]], [[Hai ben Sherira]] argued with [[Saadia Gaon]] in favour of ''gilgulim''.

Rabbis who believed in the idea of reincarnation include, from Medieval times, the mystical leaders [[Nahmanides]] and [[Bahya ben Asher]]; from the 16th-century [[Levi ibn Habib]], and from the mystical school of [[Safed]], [[Solomon Alkabetz]], [[Isaac Luria]], and his exponent [[Hayyim ben Joseph Vital]]; and from the 18th-century: the founder of [[Hasidic Judaism]], the [[Baal Shem Tov]], later Hasidic Masters, and the [[Lithuanian Jewish Orthodox]] leader and Kabbalist the [[Vilna Gaon]]; and - amongst others - from the 19th/20th-century: [[Yosef Hayyim]], author of the ''Ben Ish Hai''.

{{quote|I have written down the dream letter for letter, word for word, as found in [my father’s] handwriting in his prayerbook: a recollection that in Jerusalem, the holy city, in the year 5500, I dreamt in the month of Av or Elul – I do not remember exactly which – one night that I and another person would be killed as martyrs to God. Later that very year, on the eve of the Sabbath Niẓavim-Vayelekh, they told me in a dream that the soul of my son Moshe Ḥayyim is the soul of a Tanna…. I asked him who I was. I was of a mind to ask whether I was Simon or Yoḥai. I was too embarrassed to allow the question to cross my lips. Before I could ask it, they told me, “You are Judah b. Bava.”<ref>Arie Morgenstern. “The Gaon of Vilna and His Messianic Vision” Gefen Publishing House 2014 (p.18-19)</ref>| [[Immanuel Hai Ricchi]]}}

The 16th century mystical renaissance in communal [[Safed]] marked an important development in Kabbalistic thought, with a significant impact on mystical circles and Jewish spirituality.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Horwitz |first=Daniel M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JPTNCwAAQBAJ |title=A Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism Reader |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-8276-1286-0 |pages=223 |language=en |quote=Throughout most of the sixteenth century, this community attracted a very impressive array of kabbalistic thinkers, whose scholarship abounded in virtually every aspect of Jewish life. Among them were Moses Cordovero, Elijah de Vidas, Eliezer Azikri, and above all Isaac Luria (1534–72), whose ideas formed the basis for a whole new kabbalistic school of thought (although, as we will see, some of his ideas have roots in earlier Jewish tradition)}}</ref> It was also the time when Kabbalah was most widely disseminated.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Karp |first1=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MXQ6DwAAQBAJ |title=The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 7, The Early Modern World, 1500–1815 |last2=Sutcliffe |first2=Adam |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-108-13906-9 |pages=465 |language=en |quote=The most important influences upon mystical speculation and practice in eastern Europe, however, emanated from the two prominent "schools" that had flourished in sixteenth-century Safed, those of Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria. It is hard to overstate the influence that these two original kabbalistic figures had upon the subsequent history of Kabbalah. By the end of the seventeenth century, various combinations and configurations of their teachings became firmly rooted in eastern Europe, and began to transform its spiritual landscape.}}</ref> 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]]''.

''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]]im can reincarnate as a fish, because "fish do not have to be ritually slaughtered before being rectified via eating". [[David Roskies]] 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 [[hazzan|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.<ref name=Deutsch>{{cite book |last1=Deutsch |first1=Nathaniel |author1-link=Nathaniel Deutsch |title=The Jewish Dark Continent: Life and Death in the Russian Pale of Settlement |date=2011 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass |isbn=978-0674047280}}</ref>

Historian [[Nathaniel Deutsch]] 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]]. 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."<ref name=Deutsch/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Kilgannon |first1=Corey |title=Miracle? Dream? Prank? Fish Talks, Town Buzzes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/15/nyregion/miracle-dream-prank-fish-talks-town-buzzes.html |website=The New York Times |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200419144240/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/15/nyregion/miracle-dream-prank-fish-talks-town-buzzes.html |archive-date=19 April 2020 |date=15 March 2003}}</ref>

==See also==
In Judaism:
* [[Lurianic Kabbalah]]
* [[Ibbur]]
* [[Dybbuk]]
* [[Shaar HaGilgulim]]

For comparison with other religions:
* [[Reincarnation]]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
* [http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword.asp?scope=6198&kid=6569 Jewish view of reincarnation]
* [http://www.aish.com/atr/128131983.html Ask the Rabbi - aish.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201002/http://www.aish.com/atr/128131983.html |date=2016-03-04 }}
* [http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Phil%20281b/Philosophy%20of%20Magic/Arcana/Kabbalah/souls.html "Gilgul Neshamot - Reincarnation of Souls"], essay on gilgul by Rav Avraham Brandwein
* [http://cf.uba.uva.nl/en/collections/rosenthaliana/menasseh/19f7/index.html Sefer Nishmath Hayyim by Menasseh Ben Israel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100221163152/http://cf.uba.uva.nl/en/collections/rosenthaliana/menasseh/19f7/index.html |date=2010-02-21 }}

[[Category:Jewish mysticism]]
[[Category:Kabbalah]]
[[Category:Reincarnation]]
[[Category:Kabbalistic words and phrases]]

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Gilgul