Personal Reflections on Kabbalah

Back in May, I posted a blog essay that include a segment from my book, Psi Development Systems, on Prophecy and Kabbalah. At that time, however, I did not realize that this summer I would be teaching a graduate course on Kabbalah for the University of Philosophical Research. However, I was given the assignment when it was learned that the regular instructor, Daniel Matt, would be unavailable.

Now, I have been a student of Kabbalah since about 1970. My first exposure to it came through non-Jewish Kabbalistic traditions -- as exemplified in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life diagram shown above -- which was created by an organization known as the Builders of the Adytum. This organization embodies the use of Kabbalah as a system for unifying such diverse estoteric systems as astrology and tarot. It points to a particularly useful aspect of Kabbalah -- that of unification.

The Tree of Life is thought to represent the emanations of the godhead -- one might say the ten different personalities of god. As such it serves to unify Jewish monotheism with the rich, colorful, pagan pantheistic traditions. It also serves as a link between Jewish mysticism and the Greek Pythagorean tradition (including neo-Platonism). Another interesting doctrine introduced to Judaism through Kabbalah is that of reincarnation.

Today, thanks largely due to the association with pop diva, Madonna, Kabbalah is enjoying a renewed popularity. In face, this interest is somewhat extraordinary. Certainly, when I received my Jewish education in the 1950s, at a conservative synagogue in a small, Wisconsin town, the very word "Kabbalah" was never mentioned.

There is one question that I have about Kabbalah -- and perhaps one of my blog readers will be able to provide an answer. In the Wikipedia article on Kabbalah there is reference to an old idea (no longer held to in current times, apparently) that Jewish souls were somehow different than non-Jewish souls. The information presented there is very sketchy, and I have been unable to find any confirmation of this notions (which, according to Wikipedia, has been "repudiated" in modern times).

I do recall one of my very orthodox, Jewish cousins once told me he was taught that reincarnation does occur -- but Jews will always be reincarnated again into a Jewish family.

Of course, there is some interesting evidence suggesting that this is not so. In fact, one Rabbi, Yonassan Gershom, author of Beyond the Ashes, has documented cases in which it appears that holocaust era Germans have been reincarnated as Jews and Jewish holocaust victims have been reincarnated as non-Jews. Still, upon visiting Rabbi Gershom's website, I see that he, also, supports the basic idea that Jewish souls are unique in belonging to a Jewish soul group.

Here's what he writes (as a secular Jew, I think this is a fascinating idea):
    
What do you mean by "Jewish souls"

The idea of a"'Jewish soul" (yiddische neshamah) is probably the biggest difference between the Jewish and New Age philosophies about reincarnation. New Agers see Jewishness as something temporary, connected to the body only -- a mere fact of physical birth but nothing else. So, according to the New Agers, the soul is really generic, without any permanent ties to any culture or religion from one life to the next.

Jewish teachings, however, say that the Jews are a karmic soul group which is bound together by the covenant which God made with the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai. Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) teaches that all the souls of all the Jews who ever were or would be born -- incarnated at the time or not -- were present at Mt. Sinai when the Torah was given. This one-time cosmic event was for all eterninty, bonding these souls together as one body. This Covenant is -- in the words of the Torah -- l'dorotam l'vrit olam, "For all generations to be an eternal covenant."

As I explained in chapter 3 of my first book, Beyond the Ashes, in some contexts the Biblical phrase from generation to generation also means from incarnation to incarnation. Jewish mysticism teaches that we tend to come back in our own family lines. So, to be Jewish is a matter of both geneology and spirituality. Jewish souls chose to be born into Jewish families in order to remain connected to the sacred Covenant at Sinai. (Note: A convert to Judaism becomes grafted onto the family tree and returns as a Jew in future lives.) Some Jewish groups, such as the Lubovitcher Hasidim, believe that "once a Jew always a Jew" and that Jewish souls always come back as Jews. This doctrine is according to an answer given by the sixth Lubovitcher Rebbe (Rabbi Joseph I. Schneerson, died 1950) in response to a question posed to him right after World War II.

However, there are other Jewish teachers and texts which suggest that, under certain unusual circumstances, Jewish souls do sometimes get exiled from their own people and come back as non-Jews or even as animals, plants, or stones. (See Sharei ha-Gilgulim and Sefer Ha-Pliyah.) My theory is that so many Jews were killed at once during the Holocaust, that there simply were not enough Jewish women on earth to give birth to all of them as Jews again. There also seem to be cases of people who suffered so much as Jews during the Holocaust, that they came back as non-Jews hoping to have a life of relative safety.

It's ironic that I would take some comfort in these words, written by an observant, orthodox Jewish rabbi. Even though I have chosen, very carefully (I think), to live my life in a secular fashion, I'll admit I do feel a deep sense of connection with the Jewish people. In fact, I rather think that my secular lifestyle (with its universal spiritual orientation) is actually a contribution to Jewish culture -- and, to push the point, is a life lived in the spirit of the original Jewish patriarchs (prior to the laws of Moses).

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