'The Life of the Soul': A look at Judaism's view on 'gilgul' and reincarnation - review
With such erudite scholarship, The Life of the Soul is a landmark contribution and resource to the study of Jewish mysticism.
An illustrative image of a young woman by the beach holding hands with a transparent figure.(photo credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)ByRABBI REUVEN CHAIM KLEIN
The Life of the Soul is a rich and meticulously researched book that explores the development of Jewish conceptions related to reincarnation (gilgul neshamot) from medieval Kabbalah to Hassidic thought. Edited by Andrea Gondos and Leore Sachs-Shmueli, the book brings together contributions from leading scholars – such as Moshe Idel, James A. Diamond, Ariel Evan Mayse, and Shaul Magid – as well as emerging researchers, offering a comprehensive examination of how Jewish mystics grappled with the idea of the transmigration of souls.
It’s always difficult to review books with multiple contributors because each entry has its own voice, its own methodology, and its own point. The different contributions usually focus on a specific Kabbalist or Kabbalistic text’s view on the topic of reincarnation. Rather than focusing on individual essays, this review highlights the overarching themes that unify the book. The contributors trace the evolution of reincarnation doctrines across key Kabbalistic texts, from the Bahir and the Zohar to the works of Nachmanides (Rambam) and his disciples, later Lurianic Kabbalah, and Hassidic homilies. A recurring methodological strength is the careful mapping of how ideas were transmitted, adapted, and reinterpreted across generations, often with subtle but significant variations in terminology. In doing so, the scholars carefully trace the first instances of each idea discussed, and then often mapping out the genealogy of how various Kabbalistic sources were influenced by each other’s novelties.
One central discussion revolves around the relationship between gilgul (“transmigration”) and sod ha’ibbur (“the secret of impregnation”), two concepts frequently conflated in Kabbalistic literature. The book distinguishes between horizontal reincarnation (movement between beings on the same ontological level, such as human to human) and vertical reincarnation (movement up or down the chain of being, from human to animal or even plant). The latter notion, eerily resonant with modern scientific ideas like the conservation of mass, underscores the Kabbalistic view of a dynamic, interconnected cosmos.
What does Judaism say about reincarnation?
Several essays explore the intersection of reincarnation with halachic (Jewish legal) discourse. One striking example is the link between gilgul and the commandment of procreation: Some sources frame reincarnation as a mechanism for allowing the souls of those who died childless to have another opportunity to fulfill this special mitzvah. This is sometimes viewed as a way to “punish” those who failed to issue offspring, while others see it in a more positive light as a means of giving a person a second chance to achieve in another lifetime what he or she failed to achieve in a prior lifetime. Similarly, esoteric interpretations of yibbum (levirate marriage) suggest that the deceased brother’s soul may reincarnate in the child born to his widow. Even the laws of shechita (ritual slaughter) are imbued with mystical significance, as some Kabbalists viewed the act as a means of elevating the animal’s soul. An idea especially expanded upon in Hassidic treatments of gilgul focuses on how gilgul enables a person to fulfill more commandments than one was able to fulfill in a single lifetime.
The book also delves into the Zoharic portrayal of reincarnation – particularly in Saba d’Mishpatim – where unfavorable incarnation cycles are likened to enslavement, drawing a provocative parallel to the Torah’s laws concerning Hebrew bondsmen and slave girl. The cyclic nature of gilgul (literally “wheel”) aligns with broader Kabbalistic conceptions of time, such as the monthly lunar renewal, seven-year shmita cycles, and 50,000-year jubilee cycles (shmita hagadol). When coupled with the idea of reincarnation, this cyclic view of history can be quite inspiring in times of oppression, as it gives hope to the Jewish people that even if things are not going well right now, there will eventually be a positive upswing in the cycle.
An illustrative image of a tree shaped like a head growing out of a similarly shaped leafless section. (credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)
Comparisons with Eastern religions, particularly the concept of karma, are briefly addressed in several essays, though the focus remains on Judaism’s unique theological concerns. Some essays touch on how biblical and rabbinic figures were retroactively interpreted as reincarnations, such as Abraham being linked to Adam; Terach, to Job; Moses, to Abel; and Jethro, to Cain. As part of the genre, there is also a discussion of Nebuchadnezzar’s metamorphosis into an animal as foretold by Daniel.
An adjacent topic treated in this book is known in popular parlance as an ibbur or dybbuk. Those terms refer to the phenomenon of a living person’s body being possessed by the soul of the dead. In some ways, this is also a type of reincarnation. One chapter is devoted to discussion of how rabbinic exorcists would help remedy those people whose bodies had been possessed, specifically focusing on episodes from the memoirs of two such mystics, Rabbi Hillel Baal Shem (17–18th century) and Rabbi Yehuda Fetayah (19–20th century). These rabbis are presented as shamans who used their knowledge to not only chase away demonic or dead forces from the bodies of their victims but even to use those episodes of possession to their advantage to gain more knowledge of the spiritual underpinnings of the soul’s movements.
The Kabbalistic sources also discuss questions like: How many times can a single soul be reincarnated? Can a soul change species (from person to animal or even mineral, or vice versa) or gender (male to female, or vice versa)? How does the concept of gilgul jibe with earlier Jewish beliefs about resurrection of the dead (techiyat hameitim)? Into which of a given soul’s multiple bodies will a soul be reincarnated in the End of Days? With which spouse will one enter eternal rapture? Can a Jew be reincarnated as a non-Jew or vice versa?
Fascinatingly, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berdechiv presents three answers to the first question: One returns in one’s first body (Kabbalists); in one’s most recent body (philosophers); or the soul is embodied by the limbs that had been repaired through fulfilling mitzvot whatever incarnation that limb was rectified (his preferred answer) without favoring one entire body over another.
Additionally, the book does not shy away from the philosophical tensions raised by reincarnation. How does gilgul align with the doctrine of bodily resurrection? Can a soul change gender or species between lifetimes? How does reward and punishment function if deeds from past lives influence one’s current fate?
Some of the difficult questions about gilgul led Jewish philosophers who are less Kabbalistically inclined to outright reject the notion of reincarnation as a non-Jewish belief. Rabbi Saadia Gaon was famously the first Jewish philosopher to do so, as did Rabbi Jedaiah HaPenini Bedersi. Maimonides was reticent on the topic of reincarnation, and scholars have speculated that he too rejected the idea. However, other Jewish philosophers like Rabbi Chisdai Crescas and his student Rabbi Yosef Albo saw the doctrine of reincarnation as incompatible with their understanding of Jewish philosophy and how the soul works but nonetheless ultimately did not reject it simply because it had already become a well-accepted tradition that was understood to have come down through legitimate tradents.
The final three chapters of the book focus on how Hassidic masters invoked the concept of gilgulim in their sermons to add an esoteric dimension to offer hope and inspiration to ordinary Jews.
The editors and contributors deserve praise for balancing scholarly rigor with accessibility, making this volume invaluable for academics and interested lay readers alike. The endnotes to each essay are full of references to relevant primary and academic sources on the topics discussed (and sometimes tangential comments as well). Obviously, as with any scholarly work on Kabbalah, the specter of Gershon Scholem looms large in the endnotes, whether one agrees with him or disagrees with him.
With such erudite scholarship, The Life of the Soul is a landmark contribution and resource to the study of Jewish mysticism. It not only charts the historical development of reincarnation theology but also illuminates its enduring spiritual and existential power.■
The Life of the Soul: Jewish Perspectives on Reincarnation from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period
