Multiple Incarnations and Resurrection
There is one outstanding issue with regard to reincarnation and Resurrection. As we will discuss in a subsequent chapter (Chapter 19), one of Judaism’s fundamental beliefs is that in the Messianic age the dead will be brought back to life. This belief known as Techiyat Hameitim is rooted in the Bible, discussed at great length in the Talmud and elaborated on extensively in Jewish philosophical and mystical literature.
The belief in a nutshell is that all of Israel (and the righteous non-Jews as well) will be brought back to life. The exceptions are far and between.
Now, if all bodies will be resurrected, what happens to a soul that was reincarnated. Which of the two (or three etc.) bodies will be brought back to life?
This question has been raised in the Zohar and by other Kabbalists. The most authoritative answer seems to be that all of the bodies will be resurrected. But, the question is how?
A soul is a divine force that gives life to a body. But a soul’s relationship with a body is far more complex than that. A human must exist on at least three levels.
A person has to use his mind. A person must emote. And a person has to function on a practical level. Particularly, from the Jewish perspective, a Jew’s life is incomplete if s/he doesn’t study Torah or use one’s mind to determine the right course of action in any given situation. A person, by the dictate of the Torah must use his/hr emotions. There are Mitzvot that require that we love G-d, our fellow human being etc. There are times that we must have feelings of fear, awe and reverence. But, the bulk of the divine imperatives in the Torah involve how we act in a physical way, towards G-d or our fellow human being.
Each one of these three basic areas of human expression requires a special component of the soul. The soul must possess the capacity to intellectualize, emote and act.
We also know that there are people whose soul functions primarily in one of the three areas, but not in al. For example there are those who can sit and study endlessly and rarely express emotions to anything and rarely act beyond the absolute minimum. Conversely, there are those whose emotions are powerful and who lack the other two dimensions of human expression, and there are those who are doers, but do not emote and intellectualize very much.
When we see these diverse individuals, their differences can be attributed to a predominance of one aspect of the soul.
Now, we are taught in Kabbalah that each soul possesses all three components. Each of these three components comprises elements of the other two as well as its own. For example the intellectual component of the soul also has the capacity to emote and act. These ancillary faculties, however, are extensions of the dominant trait of the intellect. The sheer force of logic can dictate that one has a certain emotion and acts in a prescribed fashion. Because I understand that a untamed lion is a dangerous thing, I fear the lion and distance myself from it. One does not have to be an emotional person or a very down-to-earth individual to follow that course of action.
When a person’s soul first comes into this world it is endowed with the capacity to function on each of the three basic levels of existence, intellectually, emotionally and practically. When such an individual fails to express the emotional and practical aspects of his/her personality, for example, their soul has not realized its full potential and must come down again. The second “trip” however, is different from the first one.
Whereas the first time down the soul was in need of its most pure and unadulterated intellectual faculties, the second time around they are not necessary. That aspect of the soul had already expressed itself. Now, the emotional and practical functions of the soul are in need of expression. In the second incarnation, only two parts of the soul will descend. The third part that had achieved its goal need not enter the world.
Similarly, when the soul, the second time around, excels in expressing emotion, but had a hard time translating that emotion in practical deeds, the soul must descend a third time. But in this instance, only the part of the soul that is focused on action has to descend. The other two parts can stay in their heavenly abode. And even though it is only the practical side of the soul that is now present in the body, the soul has a full complement of intellectual as well as emotional faculties. For as stated, each component of the soul is represents a full complement of intellectual, emotional and practical potential.
We can now understand the process of Techiyat Hameitimresurrection of the Dead as it pertains to multiple lives. Each dimension of the soul that had been dominant and most forcefully expressed within that life will animate that body that gave the soul its ability to express itself. So if Joe Schwarts was a brilliant scholar, the intellectual part of that general soul will be reintroduced into Joe Schwarts’ resurrected body. Now if Joe Schwarts’ soul then descended into Abe Cohen’s body to make up for the lack of emotional expression, that emotional compartment of the soul will animate Abe Cohen’s reconstructed body, and so on.
From the book Safe Kabbalah, Part Three: Journeys of the Soul by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
