Gilgul Converts Returning To Judaism

A rather unusual form of evidence for reincarnation comes from the Jewish mystical tradition; the Kabbalah. Unlike Buddhism and Hinduism, Kabbalah does not teach that reincarnation (gilgul) occurs over the course of millions of years to millions of different sentient species. According to Kabbalah, only the souls of self conscious moral creatures like human beings reincarnate; and they reincarnate only when they have not fulfilled the purpose of their creation.

Since Judaism is an optimistic religion, most Kabbalists teach that most people can accomplish their life’s purpose in one or two lifetimes. A few souls may take 3-5 lifetimes or more.

The bright souls of great religious figures like Moses or Miriam can turn into dozens of sparks that can reincarnate several times. The tragic souls of Jews whose children have been cut off from the Jewish people, either through persecution or conversion to another religion, will recycle as one of their own no longer Jewish descendants.

These recycled descendant souls will seek to return to the Jewish people. A majority of people who end up converting (or reverting) to Judaism and the Jewish people have Jewish souls from one of their own ancestors.

Every human on earth has 8 great grandparents and 16 great great grandparents. Each of these 24 individuals contributes an equal amount of genetic material to their descendants. Nevertheless, brothers or sisters who share the same 24 ancestors do not have identical genomes. Unless they are identical twins their physical, mental and personality traits always differ, sometimes greatly, from siblings who share the same physical genetic heritage. This difference is the result of the unique physical combination of genes that occurs at conception; and the unique soul that enters the body sometime during the second trimester.

Every year many hundreds of people find out that one or two of their 24 ancestors might have been Jewish. For most of them this discovery is an interesting fact of little significance. For many of them it might be an embarrassment to be ignored. But for some of them it becomes a life changing discovery. They feel drawn to Jewish people and seek to learn about Jewish music, food, literature, culture and religion. They feel more and more attached in some mysterious way to the Holocaust and the struggle of Israel to live in peace in the Middle East. Many of these people eventually are led to become Jewish either by formal conversion or by informal reversion within Reform synagogues.

According to a mystical 14th century Jewish Kabbalistic teaching found in Sefer HaPliyah, those people who do feel this powerful attraction to Jewish things and Jewish people, have Jewish souls that are reincarnations (gilgulim) of one of their own Jewish ancestors from 3-7 generations in the past. That explains why they react to the discovery of some Jewish heritage in such a unusual way. It also explains why some people who do not even know that they have Jewish ancestors follow a similar path; and only discover a Jewish ancestor years, or sometimes even generations, after they have returned to the Jewish people.

For example, Sparkle Confetti writes: My parents divorced when I was about 9 years old, and I did not speak to my father from age 12 until about my late 20s. I had joined the Evangelical movement at age 26 because I felt God there, but did not disclose to them that I could not get my mind around the Jesus god-man idea. I liked experiencing God, but I could not understand Jesus. I liked praying for people, I liked healing people.

Once while I was at a local Evangelical church, the pastor’s wife told me, “There is this black lady who is great at praying for people. You should ask her to pray for you.” I approached the lady and asked her to pray for me. She paused. I said, “Aren’t you going to pray for me?” She replied, “You are Jewish.” I then left, not really able to process or understand why someone would say this about me when I knew my grandparents were Yugoslavs.

Then a few days later I am walking in front of a sushi restaurant in Miami, and a woman stops me and says, excuse me, are you Jewish? Your husband is waiting for you, and you keep on dating gentiles. You need to light the shabbat candles. Candles, I thought. I respected her spirituality but did not understand why candles would be important. I then had a dream that a rabbi said to me; “Gut shabbos”.

The next morning an Israeli friend of mine told me that I needed to go to shabbat dinner to meet my husband. I laughed out loud at the idea because I had prayed so long for a husband that the idea was something I had perhaps given up on.

The only place that was holding Shabbat dinner close to me was Chabad. The rabbi asked me to light the shabbat candles. I didn’t know the blessing, so someone had to say it while I repeated it.

Sparkle Confetti said, I felt something so powerful that when I said the blessing that tears were streaming down my face. As for the person who sat next to me at the Shabbat table? My husband. The man who would marry me through the Reform movement.

The reform rabbis who were open and welcoming taught me faithfully and patiently, and were open minded about what I had to say. They believed in the sincerity and intent of my motives, and taught me ideas I had never heard of before:  A Jewish mother is required to teach her children to swim, and to give them self defense classes. Check an egg for blood spots before using the egg. Miracles don’t persuade us; many people can do miracles.

I feel that I am fulfilling the deep parts of my destiny that I knew were possible, and that I am confronting both the things within me, and on the outside of me that are required for peace in the world. I am doing the tikkun that I knew was possible, but that only a Jew can do. I am doing the necessary and required tikkun .

Muslims and Christians can heal people, and I am sure that Buddhists can as well, but only a Jew can do tikkun. It is one thing that a Jew can give the world. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, By being who we alone are, we give the world what we alone can give.

Sparkle Confetti says about her conversion: I wish I had been taught how to deal with people who doubted my conversion. I wish I had been taught to be more firm about the Reform movement. The Reform movement really matters, and is important, and indeed critical for worldwide Jewry. Reform Jews hold the levers of power within government. They work at hospitals, they serve on diplomatic positions, they work within the culture that surrounds us.

They are not insular, they are outgoing and are transforming people’s view of Jews. Reform Jews are fighting for peace with Arabs, and are saving many lives as a result of their efforts. Reform Jews need respect which they do not get among Ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Second, I wish I had been taught the movement is too important for every Reform Jew not to strive to have at least 5 children.

Third, I wish I had been told the importance of establishing and forming cost-effective Reform Jewish schools.

Finally, one thing I wish was included in my studies was the ongoing importance of the mikveh at the beach or a natural body of water for ongoing revelation, connection, and purity. This is the beauty of the Reform movement: mitzvot are done from the heart.

Finally, after I got married, I got back in touch with my Dad who came to visit and told me he thought it was so interesting that I had married a Jew. I asked why. He told me that my grand-parents were the children of Romanian Jews who had moved to the Balkans and converted to Catholicism.