Jewish Perspective of the Soul
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The belief in the reincarnation of the soul has been a belief among orthodox Jews for thousands of years. Among Kabbalistic Jews, the Zohar is a primary authority, stating ôAll souls are subject to revolutionsö (De M 2002, 3). For many centuries in Jewish history and tradition, the concept of the soul has been linked with resurrection. During the Maccabeean era, the concept of hell, Gehenna, was construed as a place of extreme punishment and purification. In this line of Jewish thought, the soul must be purified after death, before it can continue on its journey. The length of the purification process is related to how the soul lived. One tradition in Jewish history believes that the soul needs eleven months for purification, which is why the kaddish, or memorial prayer, is recited for that period of time when a parent dies. Other Jewish sects and periods of history have exhibited different concepts on the soul. This analysis will discuss these and include information on the contemporary Jewish perspective of the soul. In contrast to the teachings of the Zohar, the Lurianic Kabbalah views the soul as being formed through a process of cosmic proportion. In Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem (1978) explains that ôJust as the supernal lights of the partzufum of Atzilut develop through conjunctions and couplings of the partzufum, so are the souls born through a corresponding processö (161). Souls in this view exhibit a potentiality to become actualized. I
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on in Adam. As Scholem (1978) describes it, ôThe soul of Adam was composed of all the worlds and was destined to uplift and reintegrate all the sparks of holinessàleft in the klippotàEach small roots, which was also referred to as a great soul, concealed within it 600,000 sparks or individual soulsö (162). These sparks were subject to further division, but the attraction between all of them derives from one common source. However, each spark forms a total structure or komah in itself.
The true soul remaining above the person and maintaining a link with it is a concept that is based on classical Neoplatonist ideas of the soul. In Kabbalah: New Perspectives, Moshe Idel (1990) highlights these connections to Jewish tradition and doctrine relating to the soul and Platonism. He argues that the Zohar and Kabbalah development can be traced to the concepts of Platonic tradition with respect to beliefs about the soul. As Idel (1990) writes, ôAs del Medigo stated that the affinities of Kabbalah to the æancient philosophersÆ and æPlatonistsÆ were the result of the elaboration by the Kabbalists of Platonic and ancient philosophic themes, then KabbalahÆs development must have been seen as occurring after the emergence of Neoplatonismö (5
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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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