REINCARNATION AND THE KABBALAH

Judaic scholar Dr. David Sheinkin describes the kabbalah as "the secret, mystical part of Judaism . . . the basis for all the later Western (mystical) paths; all are in some sense derivative of it" (Sheinkin, 1986, pp. 8,9).

Writer Harold Bloom traces the origins of the kabbalah proper to 12th century Provence:

Scholem and others have traced its direct descent from the earliest Jewish esotericism, the apocalyptic writings of which the Book of Enoch is the most formidable. This earliest Jewish theosophy and mysticism centered about two Biblical texts, the first chapter of the prophet Ezekiel and the first chapter of Genesis (Bloom, 1975, p. 2).

Conversely, Judaic scholar Moshe Idel points out that despite the antiquity of the kabbalah origins, "no elaborate and detailed survey of the nature and history of this religious movement is known . . . until the period of the Renaissance" (Idel, 1988, p. 2).

Philosopher/theologian Steven T. Katz gives a telling description of the kabbal

. . .
ts and Manicheans, as well as in the Christian Church, which was at that time a young and unproven offshoot of Judaism. The concept of reincarnation also seeped into Judaism via contact with certain Islamic sects, reflecting the influence of Asia upon the region. Only in the kabbalah, however, in stark contrast to traditional Jewish philosophy and theology, is reincarnation truly prevalent. Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem describes how gilgul developed: The absence of any special apology for this doctrine, which is expounded by the (Safer ha-)Bahir in several parables, proves that the idea grew or developed in the circles of the early kabbalists without any affinity to the philosophic discussion of transmigration. Biblical verses . . . Talmudic aggadot and parables were explained in terms of transmigration (Scholem, 1974, p. 345). Unlike most texts on transmigration of souls, the Bahir mentions reincarnation only in terms of human bodies. Reincarnation is referred to in the Kabbalah by various names, in addition to transmigration and gilgul. In the 1200s, it was vaguely alluded to as an esoteric doctrine. In the 1300s, there were detailed and explicit writings about it. The term ha'atakah ("transference") was used in pl
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