written by: Sivan Kaplan
Reincarnation is the belief that after death, one's soul keeps existing and is reborn another person or animal. It keeps reborning until it redeems itself. Then it returns to the temple of god, which the Buddhists call "Nirvana" - eternal tranquillity. Two of the many ancient tribes who believed in reincarnation are the Greeks and the Egyptians.
Karma, the belief that our actions determine our future, is one of the foundations of reincarnation. For example, a person who lived a sinful life will return, after death, as an animal, as opposed to a person who lived an honest life, who will return as a person.
Despite the resistance of many Jewish leaders, reincarnation also played a role in Judaism due to the Kabala who developed this idea. Some Jewish philosophers even believed that a soul of a sinner can enter a live man's body and "posses" him. Special rituals were used in order to "cure" the man.
T. Gomertz, a famous philosopher, thought of three very good reasons why one should believe in reincarnation:
1. It is believed that dreams are attempts of the soul to live the body. If this is true, than the soul can leave the body and it does so when a person dies. This also means that a soul can exist without a body.
2. If we assume that the soul dies with the body it is connected to, than we will have to assume there is an endless number of souls which is improbable.
3. Matter is enduring and, therefore, so is the soul. If the soul exists after death, hens it had existed before birth.
Gomertz believes the origin of this belief is in India, where it was believed that every action had a hidden reaction, other than the obvious one. This reaction is obscure at first and is only later revealed, sometimes even in the next life.
Reincarnation in Different Cultures and Religions
Judaism: In this religion, it...