Do Jews believe in reincarnation?

Jewish beliefsPending rabbinic review

Short answer

Many Jews do. Reincarnation (gilgul neshamot, “the rolling of souls”) is not in the Bible or the Talmud, but it is taught in the Zohar and the Kabbalah of the Ari, and is widely accepted in Hasidic and Sephardi tradition. Some medieval authorities, such as Saadia Gaon, rejected it. It is not one of the thirteen principles.

The sources

The Torah and the Talmud speak of the soul surviving death and of the resurrection of the dead, but do not explicitly mention reincarnation. The idea appears in the Bahir and the Zohar, and was developed in detail by Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Ari) in sixteenth-century Safed, as taught by his student Rabbi Chaim Vital in Sha’ar HaGilgulim.

The purpose

In the Kabbalistic view, a soul may return to the world to complete commandments it did not fulfil or to repair what it damaged. Reincarnation is therefore an expression of mercy – another opportunity – and not punishment. Some commentators, such as Nachmanides and the Zohar, read the levirate marriage of Deuteronomy 25 and parts of the Book of Job in this light.

Disagreement

Rabbi Saadia Gaon (tenth century) rejected reincarnation as a foreign idea (Emunot veDe’ot 6:8). Maimonides does not mention it. Since the Ari, however, it became part of mainstream Jewish thought, and the bedtime Shema includes a prayer forgiving anyone who wronged us “in this incarnation or in another”.

In practice

Belief in reincarnation does not change Jewish law. The focus remains on this life: “Today to do them” (Deuteronomy 7:11). Claims to know someone’s previous life should be treated with great caution.

Sources

In the Torah

וְשָׁמַרְתָּ אֶת־הַמִּצְוָה וְאֶת־הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת־הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם לַעֲשׂוֹתָם
Deuteronomy 7:11

Talmud and halacha

Rabbi Chaim Vital, Sha’ar HaGilgulim (Lurianic Kabbalah)
Rabbi Saadia Gaon, Emunot veDe’ot 6:8 – rejects reincarnation
Zohar, Mishpatim (Sava deMishpatim) – the passage on souls

Also asked as

What is gilgul neshamot?
Is reincarnation a Jewish belief?