Our Gemara on Amud Aleph quotes a central verse that discusses the liabilities of a person entrusted to safeguard an object of value, and the oaths he may incur (Shemos 22:6-8):
When any party gives money or goods to another for safekeeping, and they are stolen from that other party’s house: if caught, the thief shall pay double; if the thief is not caught, the owner of the house shall depose before God and deny laying hands on the other’s property. (In all charges of misappropriation—pertaining to an ox, an ass, a sheep, a garment, or any other loss, whereof one party alleges, “This is it”—the case of shall come before God: the one whom God declares guilty shall pay double to the other.)
The Arvei Nachal (Nitzavim 2) takes this series of verses about entrusted objects and interprets it as an allegory for the ultimate entrusted object, our souls, which are entrusted to us, by God, to our bodies. The allegory is expanded further to explain various states of reincarnation. While reincarnation seems like an absurdly irrelevant topic for day-to-day Judaism, I believe it is more relevant than one might think, as I shall explain later. First, let us understand the allegory:
The “money or goods” that are given for safeguarding is the soul. If the person sins, he may be subject to reincarnation in a lesser form, to redeem and work his way back up from the most unevolved form to the full human potential. That being: “In all charges of misappropriation — pertaining to an ox, an ass, a sheep, a garment, or any other loss.”
As an important aside, the level of regression is represented in the form of the object, the worst being an inanimate object such as a garment, and the highest form is a sheep. (If you ever saw real sheep and not cartoons, their facial features and expressions are uncannily human.)
Arvei Nachal states that this is why the forefathers were all shepherds, as they were tending to the process of elevating and evolving the world, humanity, and themselves. Yaakov tells Esav (Bereishis 32:6), “I have acquired cattle, asses, sheep, and male and female slaves,” the hidden meaning that I have elevated many souls and redeemed material matter while in exile.
While Arvei Nachal says reincarnation in a lesser form is agonizing to the soul, there is a way to avert it via repentance. This is alluded to in this passage: “the case of shall come before God: the one whom God declares guilty shall pay double to the other.” Meaning, if the person returns to God and confesses his guilt, he will be forgiven and even receive a double reward.
I do not know about the details of mysticism; however, as we have noted numerous times in these essays, patterns repeat throughout the physical, spiritual, and emotional world. This only makes sense because there is one Creator organizing everything according to a set of wisdom principles. Separate from the theory of evolution, clearly forms of life follow a pattern of progression from simple to more and more complex, yet using remarkably similar basic features from DNA to organs. Chimpanzees and humans share about 98% of the same DNA, and jellyfish 60%, so we are seeing a chain of living organisms that progress from the simplest to most complex, yet in someway clearly related to each other. In our own psychological development, there is an unconscious tendency to repeat and recreate disturbances and dysfunctions in our current relationships that correspond to past and primary relationships. This is known as the repetition compulsion, and it represents an unconscious effort to revisit and rectify past pains, although it often leads to people recreating their fathers in their bosses or siblings in their co-workers and problematic attachments in their romantic life. This is why the idea of reincarnation, whether actually true, metaphorically true, or both, is more relevant than one might think. In the end, we have an urge to revisit our failures until we can turn them into successes. (Note: Reincarnation is not a universally agreed-upon phenomenon in Judaism. For example, Sefer Ikkarim (4:29) and Rav Saadiah Emunos V’deos (6:8).)
Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation
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Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW-R, LMFT, DHL is a psychotherapist who works with high conflict couples and families. He can be reached via email at simchafeuerman@gmail.com