The Journey of the Soul: Gilgul Neshamot in Jewish Thought (Prologue)

The prologue of the Editor's full treatise on gilgul neshamot—the rationalist and mystical traditions of soul-transmigration in Judaism, with detailed engagement of DovBer Pinson's contemporary synthesis.

By Meir David Ben AvrahamDeeper

Foundations of Belief · 4 minute read

Summary

Gilgul neshamot, the reincarnation of souls, occupies different places in Jewish philosophy and mysticism. This prologue introduces the tension between rationalist critiques, exemplified by Saadia Gaon, and Kabbalistic teachings that connect returning souls with spiritual repair. It sets out questions about the soul, divine justice, and the history of the doctrine that the full treatise explores.

The Journey of the Soul—Gilgul Neshamot in Jewish Thought

A Treatise on the Rationalist and Mystical Traditions, with a Dive into DovBer Pinson's Reincarnation and Judaism

"Behold, all these things does God do, twice, three times, with a man."—Job 33:29

"Some of those who call themselves Jews, I found, declared that they believe in metempsychosis, which they call transmigration… They have arrived at this opinion in the manner of foolish persons."—Rabbi Saadia Gaon, Emunot v'De'ot VI:8

Prologue: The Puzzle

There are few doctrines in the history of Jewish thought that simultaneously occupy so central a place in one current of the tradition and so peripheral—even polemically rejected—a place in another as the doctrine of gilgul neshamot, the transmigration or reincarnation of souls. For the Kabbalist, gilgul is woven into the very fabric of creation: it is the mechanism by which the soul completes its mission, by which divine justice is finally reconciled with human suffering, by which the exiled sparks of holiness are gathered back to their Source. For the medieval rationalist, gilgul is, at best, an embarrassment imported from foreign philosophy and, at worst, a theological absurdity incompatible with a coherent account of the soul, the body, and the resurrection. That a single tradition, reading the same Torah, should produce Saadia Gaon calling reincarnation the opinion of "foolish persons" and, a few centuries later, Rabbi Isaac Luria—the Arizal—mapping in meticulous detail the transmigrations of biblical figures through successive generations of Jewish history, is one of the striking facts of Jewish intellectual history. It is that tension this treatise sets out to explore.

The puzzle is sharpened by the silence that surrounds the doctrine in its most ancient phase. The Chumash never mentions gilgul explicitly. The Talmud, that immense repository of halakhah and aggadah, contains no clear locus classicus on reincarnation, and its few ambiguous hints—the exegesis of the verse "one generation goes and another comes" (Kohelet 1:4), the narrative of Elijah's return in the person of the future herald (Malachi 3:23), the puzzle of Pinchas being identified with Elijah—receive their developed reincarnationist reading only in the Kabbalistic literature of the medieval period. The Geonim, when they encounter reincarnation, encounter it as a doctrine held by certain Karaites and, perhaps, by certain philosophically syncretistic Jews influenced by Islamic and Greek sources; they treat it as deviant. It is only with Sefer haBahir in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century that we possess an indisputably Jewish text teaching reincarnation on internal grounds, as Torah. From that point onward, the doctrine grows—tentatively in the Ramban's generation, powerfully in the Zohar, comprehensively in the school of Safed, and ubiquitously in Chasidut—until by the eighteenth century, to profess Judaism without gilgul is, in wide sectors of observant practice, to profess a Judaism its own mystics no longer recognize.

This treatise adopts the view that both sides of this dispute have argued in good faith, from within the Torah, and with intellectually respectable tools. It does not attempt to adjudicate between them. The rationalist tradition, from Saadia to Maimonides to Crescas to Albo to Leon of Modena, has a coherent and attractive account of the soul, the body, and divine justice, and that account does not require—indeed, has difficulty accommodating—gilgul. The mystical tradition, from the Bahir through the Zohar and Arizal to the Chasidic masters to Rabbi DovBer Pinson in our own day, has a coherent and attractive account of the soul's anatomy, its fall, its mission, and its ultimate reunification, and that account requires gilgul—it is, in a sense, the hinge on which the whole system turns. The two accounts are, on any fair reading, alternative construals of the Jewish spiritual universe rather than orthodoxy and heresy. It is one of the deeper features of Judaism that both have been allowed to live.

The full treatise continues in five parts: The Rationalist Tradition; The Mystical Tradition; DovBer Pinson’s Reincarnation and Judaism; Points of Contention; and Halachic and Dogmatic Status. A bibliography follows.

Where Denominations Diverge

The Editor's treatise treats both rationalist denial and mystical affirmation of gilgul as legitimate within authentic Judaism. The Shulchan Aruch does not require belief in gilgul; Albo treats it as non-foundational; thus a Jew may consistently reject gilgul without compromising membership in the community. The doctrine is dominant in Hasidic and Sephardic communities, prevalent in Mitnagdic via the Vilna Gaon's affirmation, and held with reservation in modern Orthodox rationalist circles. Reform and Reconstructionist communities generally treat gilgul as folk tradition rather than dogma. Renewal Judaism is strongly affirmative.

Sources Cited in the Article

(See the full treatise for the comprehensive source list, which includes: Saadia Gaon, Emunot v'De'ot VI:8; Rambam, Mishneh Torah and Moreh Nevuchim; Crescas, Or Hashem; Albo, Sefer ha-Ikkarim; Leon of Modena, Ari Nohem; Sefer haBahir; Ramban on Iyov and Devarim; Zohar (Saba de-Mishpatim, Idrot); Arizal, Sha'ar haGilgulim; Ramchal, Derech Hashem and Da'at Tevunot; Tanya; Likkutei Moharan; Vilna Gaon on Yonah; DovBer Pinson, Reincarnation and Judaism.)

Judaism and Reincarnation (Gilgul)—Chabad.org.

Reincarnation—Sefaria.

Ramban on Genesis 38:8—Sefaria.