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 God 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, God." 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
God of Israel" also amounts to 613.
_Kitzur Sh'lu_, p. 2, col. 2.
Now let us illustrate 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 God 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,
God 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 circumcision, because he has not a son to
circumcise. (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 Shimeoni, in true Rabbinical style, amplifies still
farther the license conceded in the above quotations. Rabbi
Eliezer says that the Israelites bewailed thus before God,
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 passed into David, and the latter having also sinned, it passed
into the Messiah. The full text is, "They shall serve the Lord their
God, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them" (Jer. xxx. 9);
and it is written, "My servant David shall be their king forever" (Ezek.
xxxvii. 25); and thus "They shall seek the Lord their God, and David
their king" (Hosea iii. 5).
_Nishmath Chaim_, fol. 152, col. 2.
Know thou that Cain's essential soul passed 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 Japhet, and Job by that of Terah.
_Yalkut Reubeni_, Nos. 9, 18, 24.
Cain had robbed the twin sister of Abel, and therefore his soul passed
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 niggardly 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 pass 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 God, the God 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 pass
into the body of a mule; for others, it transmigrates into an ass, a
woman of Ashdod, a bat, a rabbit or a hare, a she-mule or a camel.
Ishmael transmigrated first into the she-ass of Balaam, and subsequently
into the ass of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair.
_Nishmath Chaim_, chap. 13, no. 14.
The last paragraph may be illustrated by the well-known story of
the ass of R. Pinchas, which persistently objected to feed on
untithed provender. This is also said of the ass 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. xxxvi. 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 passing 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 pass 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 xxxi. 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 pass 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 washing 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. cxxxiv. 2), "Lift ye up
your holy hands, and bless ye the Lord!"
Ibid.
The following are the usual blessings, "Blessed art Thou, O
Lord, our God! King of the universe! who has sanctified us with
His commandments, and has commanded us to wash the hands!"
"Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God! King of the universe! who
bringeth forth bread from the earth!"
By means of combining the letters of the ineffable names, as recorded in
"Book of Creation," Rava once created a man and sent him to Rav Zera.
The man being unable to reply when spoken to, the Rabbi said to him,
"Thou art a creation of the company (initiated in the mysteries of
necromancy); return to thy dust."
_Sanhedrin_, fol. 65, col. 2.
In the Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin, chap. 7, we read that, by
the means above mentioned, a Rabbi created pumpkins, melons, and
real deer and roes.
There is a living creature in heaven which by day has "Truth" upon its
forehead, by which the angels know it is day; but in the evening it has
"Faith" on its forehead, whereby the angels know that night is near.
Each time the living creature says, "Bless ye the blessed Lord," all the
hosts above respond, "Blessed be the blessed Lord forever."
_Kitzur Sh'lh_, fol. 42. col. 2.
Truth and faith are the essentials of religion, which are thirteen in
number:--
1. God exists, and there is no period to His existence. The philosophers
call it absolute existence, but the majority of Kabbalists term it
"endless," which, by Gematria, is "light"; and again, by Gematria, is
"Lord of the Universe." He is the cause of causes and the causing of
causings, and from or by His existence all beings, spiritual and
material, derive their existence.