Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala Part 51

Know thou that the 613 Precepts of the Law form a compact with the Holy One--blessed be He!--and with Israel, as it is often explained in the Zohar. It is written (Exod. iii. 15), "This is My name, and this is My memorial." "My name," in the Hebrew characters, together with "Yeho,"

amounts numerically to 365; "Vah," together with "My memorial," amounts to 248. Here we have the number 613 in the Holy One--blessed be He! The soul is a portion of G.o.d from above, and this is mystically intimated by the degrees of "breath, spirit, soul," the initial and final letters of which amount to 613, while the middle letters of these amount to the number of "Lord, Almighty, G.o.d." The soul of Moses our Rabbi--peace be on him!--embraced all the souls of Israel; as it is said, Moses was equivalent to all Israel. "Moses our Rabbi" amounts to 613; and "Lord G.o.d of Israel" also amounts to 613.

_Kitzur Sh'lu_, p. 2, col. 2.

Now let us ill.u.s.trate the subject of "fear and love." Fear proceedeth from love and love proceedeth from fear. And this you may demonstrate by writing their letters one over the other, and then dividing them by horizontal and perpendicular lines, thus Love perfecteth fear, and fear perfecteth love. This is to teach thee that both are united together.

Ibid., p. 4, col. 2.

The Holy One--blessed be He!--often brings affliction on the righteous though they have not sinned, in order that they may learn to keep aloof from the allurements of the world and eschew temptation to sin. From this it is plain that afflictions are good for man, and therefore our Rabbis, of blessed memory, have said, "As men bless with joy and a sincere heart for a benefit received, so likewise ought they joyfully to bless G.o.d when He afflicts them, as, though the special blessing be hidden from the children of men, such affliction is surely intended for good.... Or most souls being at present in a state of transmigration, G.o.d requites a man now for what his soul merited in a bypast time in another body, by having broken some of the 613 precepts."

_Kitzur Sh'lu_, p. 6, col. 1.

Thus we have the rule: No one is perfect unless he has thoroughly observed all the 613 precepts. If this be so, who is he and where is he that has observed all the 613 precepts? For even the lord of the prophets, Moses our Rabbi--peace be on him!--had not observed them all; for there are four obstacles which hinder one from observing all: (1.) There is the case of complete prevention, such as the law of the priesthood, the precepts of which only priests can observe, and yet these precepts are included in the 613. Besides, there are among the number precepts appertaining to the Levites which concern neither priests nor Israelites, and also others which are binding on Israelites with which priests and Levites have nothing whatever to do. (2.) Then there are impossible cases, as, for instance, when one cannot observe the precept which enforces circ.u.mcision, because he has not a son to circ.u.mcise. (3 and 4.) There are also conditional and exceptional cases, as in the case of precepts having reference to the Temple and to the land of Israel.

Ibid., p. 6, col. 2.

Therefore every Israelite is bound to observe only such of the 613 precepts as are possible to him; and such as he has not observed in consequence of hindrances arising from unpreventable causes will be reckoned to him as if actually performed.

Ibid.

The Yalkut s.h.i.+meoni, in true Rabbinical style, amplifies still farther the license conceded in the above quotations. Rabbi Eliezer says that the Israelites bewailed thus before G.o.d, exclaiming, "We would fain be occupied night and day in the law, but we have not the necessary leisure." Then the Holy One--blessed be He!--said, "Perform the commandment of the Phylacteries, and I will account it as if you were occupied night and day in the study of the law."

Anyhow, all the precepts are being observed by all Israel taken together, viz, the priests observe their part, the Levites theirs, and the Israelites theirs; thus the whole keep all. For the Holy One--blessed be He!--has written a law for His faithful servants, the nation of Israel, and as a nation they keep the whole law. It is as once when a king wrote to his subjects thus, "Behold, I command you to prepare for war against the enemy; raise the walls higher, collect arms, and store up victuals;" and those that were builders looked after the walls, the armorers after the weapons, the farmers after the stores of food, etc., etc. Each, according to his ability, did all that was required of him, and all unitedly fulfilled the king's command.

_Kitzur Sh'lu_, p. 6, col. 2.

He who neglects to observe any of the 613 precepts, such as were possible for him to observe, is doomed to undergo transmigration (once or more than once) till he has actually observed all he had neglected to do in a former state of being.

Ibid.

The sages of truth (the Kabbalists) remark that Adam contains the initial letters of Adam, David, and Messiah; for after Adam sinned his soul pa.s.sed into David, and the latter having also sinned, it pa.s.sed into the Messiah. The full text is, "They shall serve the Lord their G.o.d, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them" (Jer. x.x.x. 9); and it is written, "My servant David shall be their king forever" (Ezek.

x.x.xvii. 25); and thus "They shall seek the Lord their G.o.d, and David their king" (Hosea iii. 5).

_Nishmath Chaim_, fol. 152, col. 2.

Know thou that Cain's essential soul pa.s.sed into Jethro, but his spirit into Korah, and his animal soul into the Egyptian. This is what Scripture saith, "Cain shall be avenged sevenfold" (Gen. iv. 24), i.e., the initial letters of the Hebrew word rendered "shall be avenged," form the initials of Jethro, Korah, and Egyptian.... Samson the hero was possessed by the soul of j.a.phet, and Job by that of Terah.

_Yalkut Reubeni_, Nos. 9, 18, 24.

Cain had robbed the twin sister of Abel, and therefore his soul pa.s.sed into Jethro. Moses was possessed by the soul of Abel, and therefore Jethro gave his daughter to Moses.

_Yalkut Chadash_, fol. 127, col. 3.

If a man be n.i.g.g.ardly either in a financial or a spiritual regard, giving nothing of his money to the poor or not imparting of his knowledge to the ignorant, he shall be punished by transmigration into a woman.... Know thou that Sarah, Hannah, the Shunammite (2 Kings iv. 8), and the widow of Zarepta were each in turn possessed by the soul of Eve.... The soul of Rahab transmigrated into Heber the Kenite, and afterward into Hannah; and this is the mystery of her words, "I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit" (1 Sam. i. 15), for there still lingered in her soul a sorrowful sense of inherited defilement.... Eli possessed the soul of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite.... Sometimes the souls of pious Jews pa.s.s by metempsychosis into Gentiles, in order that they may plead on behalf of Israel and treat them kindly. For this reason have our Rabbis of blessed memory said, "The pious of the nations of the world have a portion in the world to come."

_Yalkut Reubeni_, Nos. 1, 8, 61, 63.

We have it by tradition that when Moses our Rabbi--peace be unto him!--said in the law, "O G.o.d, the G.o.d of the spirits of all flesh"

(Num. xvi. 22), he meant mystically to intimate that metempsychosis takes place in all flesh, in beasts, reptiles, and fowls. "Of all flesh"

is, as it were, "in all flesh."

_Avodath Hakodesh_, fol. 49, col. 3.

It is also needful that thou shouldst know that the Kabbalists believe in metempsychosis from the body of one species into the body of another species. Thou hast already been informed of the mystery of clean and unclean animals; and some of the later sages of the Kabbalah say that the soul of an unclean person will transmigrate into an unclean animal, or into abominable creeping things or reptiles. For one form of uncleanness the soul will be invested with the body of a Gentile, who will (eventually) become a proselyte; for another, the soul will pa.s.s into the body of a mule; for others, it transmigrates into an a.s.s, a woman of Ashdod, a bat, a rabbit or a hare, a she-mule or a camel.

Ishmael transmigrated first into the she-a.s.s of Balaam, and subsequently into the a.s.s of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair.

_Nishmath Chaim_, chap. 13, no. 14.

The last paragraph may be ill.u.s.trated by the well-known story of the a.s.s of R. Pinchas, which persistently objected to feed on unt.i.thed provender. This is also said of the a.s.s of Rabbi Chanina ben Dossa. See Avoth d'Rab. Nathan, chap. 8.

Sometimes the soul of a righteous man may be found in the body of a clean animal or fowl.

_Caphtor Upherach_, fol. 51, col. 2.

It sometimes happens that one sacrifices an animal with a human soul in it. And this is the mystic meaning of (Ps. x.x.xvi. 6), "O Lord, thou preservest man and beast." It is for this reason that we are commanded to have our slaughtering-knife without defect, for who knows if there be not a transmigrated soul in the animal? ... Therefore the slaughter must needs be delicately done and the mode critically examined, on account of that which is written (Lev. xix. 18), "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

_Nishmath Chaim_, chap. 13, no. 4.

At each of the three meals of the Sabbath one should eat fish, for into them the souls of the righteous are transmigrated. And in relation to them it is written (Num. xi. 22), "All the fish of the sea shall be gathered together for them."

_Yalkut Chadash_, fol. 20, col. 4, no. 9.

The soul of a slanderer is transmigrated into a silent stone.

_Emeh Hamelech_, fol. 153, col. 2.

Rabbi Isaac Luria was once pa.s.sing the great academy of Rabbi Yochanan in Tiberias, where he showed his disciples a stone in the wall, remarking, "In this stone there is a transmigrated soul, and it cries that I should pray on its behalf. And this is the mystic meaning of (Hab. ii. 11), 'The stone shall cry out of the wall.'"

Ibid., fol. 11, col. 2.

The murderer is transmigrated into water. The mystical sign of this is indicated in (Deut. xii. 16), "Ye shall pour it upon the earth as water;" and the meaning is, he is continually rolling on and on without any rest. Therefore let no man drink (direct) from a running tap or spout, but from the hollow of his hands, lest a soul pa.s.s into him, and that the soul of a wicked sinner.

Ibid., fol. 153, cols. 1, 2.

One who sins with a married woman is, after undergoing the penalty of wandering about as a fugitive and vagabond, transmigrated, together with his accomplice, into the millstone of a water-mill, according to the mystery of (Job x.x.xi. 10), "Let my wife grind unto another."

_Emeh Hamelech_, fol. 153, cols. 1, 2.

A butcher who kills an animal with a defective knife will die of the plague, and his soul will pa.s.s into a dog, whom he thus deprives of what belongs to him; for it is said (Exod. xxii. 31), "Ye shall cast it to the dogs."

_Kitzur Sh'lh_, fol. 17, col. 2.

An animal slaughtered with an improper knife is considered as if it had been "torn of beasts in the field," and the flesh of it, according to the law, belongs to the dogs. A careless butcher, selling the meat as food for man, deprives the dog of his due.

The sages of truth have written, "He who does not wash his hands before eating, as the Rabbis of blessed memory have ordained, will be transmigrated into a cataract, where he will have no rest, even as a murderer, who is also transmigrated into water."

Ibid., fol. 21, col. 2.

After was.h.i.+ng his hands before a meal, he is to stretch out his fingers and turn the palms of his hands upward, as if in the act of receiving something from a friend, and then repeat (Ps. cx.x.xiv. 2), "Lift ye up your holy hands, and bless ye the Lord!"