Musar su Salmi 49:21

We will explain part of the mystical dimension of the concept of reincarnation, in order to clarify the concepts זווג ראשון and זווג שני which are mentioned in Sotah 2a. Once we understand these concepts we will also understand the deeper meaning of the יבום and חליצה legislation. The Zohar, commenting on the reason why the corpse of a person hung after execution (21,23) [and the same applies to anyone who dies from natural causes Ed.] must be buried within less than 24 hours, writes as follows: Rabbi Yehudah derives from this law that if a body were allowed to remain unburied for a period of 24 hours this would cause a deterioration in the שאברי המרכבה. [I believe the term refers to man's distinction as compared to the animal to serve as the carrier of the entourage of the Divine Presence, שכינה. Ed.] Non-burial would reduce man to the level of the animals as per Psalms 49,13 that "man must not be allowed to remain unburied overnight, lest he be like an animal." All of this is connected to the fact that man was created in G–d's image and form. Were this deterioration to occur it would on occasion prevent G–d from assigning the soul of that body to transmigrate to another body He had singled out for it. The soul of the departed must appear before the Heavenly Tribunal before it can be transferred to another body. Until the body that this soul inhabited has come to burial, the soul does not appear before the Heavenly Tribunal. The Rekanati connects the subject of transmigration to the mystical dimension of man's creation and hence his burial. He writes that one must not imagine that G–d sets out to create a human being and has great plans for such a human being only in order to forsake it. The very reason that G–d ordered the prompt burial of a human being is so that He need not delay carrying out His decrees. Transmigration of the soul of the departed to another body is impossible as long as burial has not taken place. The matter is similar to a husband whose wife has died and who would not remarry until his first wife had been interred. The urgency of the burial is determined by the possibility that G–d has another body on hand waiting to receive the soul of the person recently departed. Rekanati finds support for his theory in the fact that immediately after the passage requiring the burial of the corpse of a legally executed sinner the Torah legislates the concern that must be shown for an animal that has lost its way home (22,1). The passage has an allegorical meaning above and beyond the immediate legislation. If G–d is concerned with restoring lost animals or objects to their owner, it follows that G–d is at least as concerned in providing an opportunity for even a sinner who had to be executed to "find" his way back and cleave to G–d and His commandments. This can be accomplished by גלגול נשמות. The aforementioned helps us to understand the expression נדחים, "outcast," which the Torah uses in our verse, in contradistinction to the end of the passage (verse 3) where the Torah simply refers to אבדה, "a lost object." Rekanati concludes by referring to his own comment in this vein on the סוד העבור on Ruth 4,7.

When that time comes, the תיקון, "repair work" will have been completed and the world will be as good as at the time it was created when both body and soul were on an equally elevated level. It was said of Adam in Psalms 49, 13: אדם ביקר בל ילין; נמשל כבהמות נדמו, "Man does not even spend a single night on his pedestal; he is like the beasts that perish." This was the Psalmist's description of Adam's spiritual descent to the level of the ox. Our sages have said that the ox that Adam sacrificed had his horns protruding in front of his legs (Avodah Zarah 8). Had Adam not sinned, he could have lived up to the ideal described in Leviticus 1, 2: אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן לשם, "when you Adam will offer yourself as an offering to G–d." Adam, endowed with everlasting life, would then have cleaved to G–d in the same manner as the righteous nowadays are described as doing after their death. We are told that the angel Michael, in his capacity as the High Priest in the Celestial Sanctuary, "sacrifices" the souls of the צדיקים. The repair-work was begun by the "ox" as an extension of Joseph whom the Torah describes as בכור שור, firstling ox (Deut. 33,19). The repair will be completed by the "lion," i.e. Yehudah. When that has been accomplished, Israel will be transported "on wings of eagles," in contrast to the time of the destruction, when the prophecy of Deut. 28,49: "G–d will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, etc.," was fulfilled. In the future the blessing of Deut. 32,11 in which G–d is described as taking Israel under His wing like an eagle, will come true. We observe that the different גלגולים, wanderings of the Jewish people, follow the pattern of the animals Ezekiel saw in his vision of the מעשה מרכבה, in Ezekiel 1, where the Chashmal is described as equipped with the features of man, ox, lion and eagle. At that time Israel will achieve an unparalleled degree of unity and not only the Lord will be One, but His name will be One. The last letters in the words אחד ושמו אחד combine to make the name דוד. When that has come to pass all the participants will have achieved ever-lasting life as had been intended by the Creator from the beginning.

The meaning behind this is that Adam was on a spiritual level that made him fit to wear garments of light, and even his heel radiated a light more brilliant than the sun. Had he not sinned, his facial skin would have radiated a blinding light. Light is also called קרן, as we know from Chabakuk 3,4: ונגה כאור תהיה, קרנים מידו לו, "It is a brilliant light which gives off rays on every side". When we look at the sun we observe that many lines emanate from it. These are what are called קרני החמה, the "horns," or rays, of the sun. Once Adam sinned and had to switch to leather garments, i.e. garments whose raw material came from the dust of the earth, he became clay, just like the clay in the hands of the potter. Adam's new status is best described in Lamentations 4,2, where the prophet Jeremiah speaks of המסולאים בפז, איכה נחשבו לנהבלי חרש מעשה ידי יוצר, "Those who used to be valued as fine gold are now accounted as earthen pots fashioned by a potter." Adam's decline is compared to the decline from being קרן-like, to becoming פך-like. The name אדם originally related to a superior kind of אדמה. Subsequently it related to the inferior material we know as אדמה, dust from the earth. From that latter material one constructs the cruses, clay פכים. As long as Adam was on his original spiritual level, he himself was the offering to G–d, as hinted in Leviticus 1,2, that in the first instance one should make an offering of oneself to G–d. At that time man was like the souls of the righteous; these are described as being offered to G–d by the angel Michael after they have departed this earth. When the Psalmist tells us that man did not even spend one single night in his original innocence and now has become likened to the beasts (Psalms 49,14), he thereby hints that man descended to the level of the ox. The deeper meaning of the Midrash which tells us that the ox sacrificed by Adam had only one קרן, horn, is proof that he retains a small vestige of the image of קרן, though on a much lower plane than before.