Sin death and beyond

SIN, DEATH AND BEYOND: M.M.NINAN
interpreted as referring to reincarnation are actually texts revealing the stages of meditation in
the mystics practice of prayer.
In Judaism there are different levels to the soul called nefesh, ruach, neshamah and coverings
of the soul chayah and yechidah. The nefesh is the soul we are born with- or the vessel of the
soul. The concept of Gilgul refers especially to the level of neshamah and Gilgul is also called
Gilgul Neshamot. The four higher levels according to some are states the soul merits or attains
to. It is also connected to the universal soul of Adam (Adam Klalit) in which all mankind shared
but with Adam's sin it broke into many individual neshamot. So we see the idea of the soul as
Neshamah is not what most of us think about when we use the term soul. Just as John the
Baptist and Elisha shared in the spirit/soul of Elijah in some mystical way- this does not mean
reincarnation in the sense of the person/nefesh of Elijah being reincarnated. We see that
Elisha received the double portion of the spirit of Elijah and Elisha was alive at the same time
as Elijah. This concept reminds one of the Catholic idea of entering into the charism of certain
saints and founders of spirtitual works. The concept of Gilgal and rounds is alluded to in the life
of Samuel the Prophet: "And he went every year and made rounds of Beit El, Gilgal and
Mitzpeh"(1 Samuel 7:16)
Rav Avraham Brandwein writes: "There is another kind of gilgul that can take place while a
person is still alive. The Ari calls this form of reincarnation, Ibur. It is usually thought that gilgul
takes place after a person passes from this world, after the death of the body, at which time or
soon after the soul transmigrates into another body. Ibur does not work like this. It involves
receiving a new (higher) soul sometime during one's lifetime. That is, a new soul comes into a
person's heart while he is still alive. The reason this is called Ibur, gestation or pregnancy, is
because this person becomes "pregnant" with this new soul while he is still alive. This
phenomenon is the deeper explanation behind certain people going through drastic changes in
their lives. They either undergo a change of mind about certain things or change their lifestyle,
and thereby ascend to the next spiritual level. This is also included under the general heading
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