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Offers a comprehensive and nuanced treatment on the topic of reincarnation in Judaism, covering a wide range of kabbalistic and philosophical sources.
The Life of the Soul surveys the wide-ranging theories Jewish mystics have offered to the vexing question – what precisely transpires after we die? A common element in their theories is that human life is a part of a larger ecosystem of being which also includes plants, animals, and inanimate things, like rocks. They further maintained that the soul does not perish with the demise of the body, but is rather renewed and recycled into new forms of embodied existence in the lower world. Each essay highlights how reincarnation, also known as metempsychosis or the transmigration of souls, is not a marginalized concept but is instead central to understanding a variety of perplexing issues in Judaism, including catastrophic events in Jewish history, theodicy, the rationale for biblical commandments, the complex identity of biblical figures, and the issues of sin, punishment, and redemption. Just as the concept of reincarnation is inherently about boundary crossing, its investigation similarly bridges diverse epistemic fields and disciplines-religion, philosophy, psychology, history, ritual, gender, and cultural studies. Weaving together kabbalistic speculations and Jewish philosophical ideas drawn from distinct geographical regions and historical periods, this book is poised to serve as a point of departure for future comparative investigations on the life of the soul in Judaism and Eastern religious traditions.
"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 … The editors and contributors deserve praise for balancing scholarly rigor with accessibility, making this volume invaluable for academics and interested lay readers alike … The Life of the Soul is a landmark contribution and resource to the study of Jewish mysticism." — The Jerusalem Report
"This volume offers the most comprehensive available treatment of Jewish views on reincarnation. It fills a significant gap in the field of Jewish mysticism, and the scholarship is top-notch." — Jonathan V. Dauber, Yeshiva University
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Andrea Gondos and Leore Sachs- Shmueli
Section I. Medieval App roaches to Reincarnat ion
1. The Secrets of Soul Impregnation (Ibbur) in Early Kabbalah and the Doctrine of Reincarnation
Moshe Idel
2. The Effaced Eagle- Man and Other Problems: Reincarnated Embodiment in Guf ha- Zohar
Ellen D. Haskell
3. The Emergence of the Concept Gilgul: The Sefer ha- Bahir and the Ba'al ha- Tikkunim
Pinchas Giller
4. "And the Next Day Her Belly Is Between Her Teeth": Feminine Symbolization in R. Joseph Angelet's Doctrine of Gilgul and Ibbur
Ruth Kara- Ivanov Kaniel
Section II. The Cosmic, Philosophical, and Temporal Dimensions of Reincarnat ion
5. Lives and Afterlives: Reincarnation, Cosmic Cycles, and the Medieval Jewish Present
Hartley Lachter
6. R. Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi's Cosmic Theory of Reincarnation, Din Bnei Halof
Jonnie Schnytzer
7. The Soul's Point of No Return: Jewish Philosophical Perspectives on Reincarnation
James A. Diamond
Section III. Reincarnat ion, Psy chology, and Lurianic Kabbala h: From Safed to East ern Europe to Bag hdad
8. Personal Identity and the Ontology of the Soul: Aspects of Reincarnation in Ḥayyim Vital's Shaʿar ha- Gilgulim
Eitan P. Fishbane
9. A Seething Cauldron of Infinite Soul- Sparks: Lurianizing Introjection/Psychoanalyzing Gilgul
Nathaniel Berman
10. Reincarnation (Gilgul) as Traversing Boundaries of Identity from Lurianic Kabbalah to Joel Teitelbaum of Satmar
Shaul Magid
11. The Dead Who Yearn to Die: Spirit- Possession and Soul- Healing in the Accounts of R. Hillel Ba'al Shem of Eastern Europe and R. Yehudah Fetaya of Baghdad
Andrea Gondos
Section IV. Has idic Teachings on Reincarnat ion: Between the Individual and the Community
12. Devotion Reborn: Gilgul and the Life of Praxis in Hasidism
Ariel Evan Mayse
13. Reincarnation in Hasidic Literature: Hagiography, Social Justice, and Halakhah
Roee Y. Goldschmidt
14. The Bratslav Hasidic Approach to Reincarnation into Animals: Morality, Society, and Financial Concerns
Leore Sachs- Shmueli
Contributor Biographies
Index