Weekly MMM - Reincarnation

Mystical Musical Meditations in Jerusalem

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Here's my section published in the 7/5/19 Jerusalem Post article by Ariel Dominique Hendelman:

"RABBI YITZCHAK SCHWARTZ, a kabbalist and teacher, references The Gate of Reincarnations, written in the 16th century by Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, aka the Ari, as the main Jewish sourcebook on the topic of reincarnation.

Based on that and associated commentary, Schwartz co-authored with Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Lugasi Gilgulei Yisrael, a compendium of questions and answers on soul reincarnation. According to this, the idea of reincarnation is that we are all old souls; we’ve all been here before many times and we will come back again.

Returning is in order to reach a place of perfection, where we will have fixed all that needed fixing. As a result, our experiences in this life are ones of taking care of unfinished business. 

This means that whatever we are driven to take care of is what we have not finished in previous times. We will encounter people and situations that help us, which is God assisting us in finishing what hasn’t yet been finished. 

What has been finished in previous lives goes into a kind of spiritual savings account. 'It’s what I would call the smoothness factor,' Schwartz says. 'If what you run into in life is something that feels smooth and effortless, that’s not really what you’re here to take care of. 

'Unless it’s something that no one else can do, then you are meant to do that. But if it is not so smooth, that means you’ve run into blocks from previous lifetimes and that is meant to be taken care of in this lifetime. When you put on your reincarnation glasses, basically everything is some kind of a manifestation of a previous lifetime. 

'The people we run into who we feel more connected to are most likely those who we have been connected to in previous times. We come here with a soul family. A good indication of who is a soul family member is the feeling that what’s good for them is good for me. Not because I’m being altruistic; what’s good for them actually raises me up in my soul level.' 

There is a metaphysical mechanism called a levush, which in terms of reincarnation is a type of garb that we share with parents, siblings, children, spouses, best friends and close teachers. We share this bonding mechanism that keeps us connected beyond even death. 

We therefore have a subconscious connection to these closest of relationships and can sense what’s going on with them, what it does mean is that the host soul is at the center stage and these others can be very helpful. It speaks to the complexity of a human being. A big part of what reincarnation is meant to do is to tip us off to what our calling is – that’s super important because we do have one.”