A Pew Poll released on June 22, 2021 found that the proportion of respondents identifying as Jewish today, and say that they did not have a Jewish parent, and were not raised Jewish in any way. This group of formal or informal converts to Judaism makes up 8% of adult Conservative Jews, 7% of Reform Jews, 2% of Jews with no denominational affiliation at all, and 1% of Orthodox Jews.

Many non-Jews who have become Jewish have discovered that they have Jewish ancestors. A rather unusual form of evidence for reincarnation comes from the Jewish mystical tradition; the Kabbalah. Unlike Buddhism and Hinduism, Kabbalah does not teach that reincarnation (gilgul) occurs over the course of millions of years to millions of different sentient species.

According to Kabbalah, only the souls of self conscious moral creatures like human beings reincarnate; and they reincarnate only when they have not fulfilled the purpose of their creation. Since Judaism is an optimistic religion, most Kabbalists teach that most people can accomplish their life’s purpose in one or two lifetimes. A few souls may take 3-5 Gilgul-lifetimes or more.

The bright souls of great religious figures like Moses or Miriam can turn into dozens of sparks that can reincarnate several times. The tragic souls of Jews whose children have been cut off from the Jewish people, either through persecution or conversion to another religion, will recycle as one of their own no longer Jewish descendants. These recycled descendant souls will seek to return to the Jewish people.

A majority of people who end up converting (or reverting) to Judaism........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)