Q&A: Mysticism
Mysticism
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Is there any basis for the Zohar and the books of Kabbalah? The stories there about all the souls and reincarnations sound illogical to me, and by the way, is reincarnation even something that can be proven at all?
Answer
This is too general a question. There are many things there, not just reincarnations (which I don’t know whether they appear in the Zohar). It is definitely possible that there are incorrect things there. I don’t think this is a tradition from Sinai or any kind of prophecy. At least the details are mainly people’s spiritual intuitions.
What sounds logical to you or not has only limited standing. If it is reliable information, then your feelings do not really matter. And if not—then don’t accept it.
There are no proofs for anything. But it is not true that whatever cannot be proven is therefore false.
Reincarnation of souls appears in several places in the Zohar.
For example, in the portion Mishpatim:
http://www.toratemetfreeware.com/online/f_01777_part_7.html
For example:
The reincarnations that are alluded to in this verse—how great and exalted they are. For all souls enter into reincarnation, and people do not know the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He—how the scales stand, and how people are judged every day and at every time, and how souls enter judgment before they come into this world, and how they enter judgment after they leave this world.
Or:
How many reincarnations and how many hidden deeds the Holy One, blessed be He, performs with so many naked souls, and how many naked spirits go about in that world and do not enter the King’s curtain chamber, and through how many worlds they are overturned, and that world is turned through so many hidden wonders. But people do not know and do not pay attention. And how souls are slung like a stone in a sling, as it is said: “and the soul of your enemies He shall sling out within the hollow of a sling.” (And since we have begun to reveal,) now it should be revealed: all the souls emerge from the great and mighty tree, which is the river that flows out of Eden, and all the spirits emerge from another, smaller tree. The soul is from above and the spirit from below, and they join together as one, like male and female. And when they join together as one, then a supernal light shines, and by the union of the two of them it is called a lamp. “The lamp of the Lord is the soul of man.” What is la”mp? So”ul, spi”rit. And regarding the union of the two as one, it is called a lamp, as it is written in Proverbs: “The lamp of the Lord is the soul of man.”