Article in The Times of Israel by Andy Blumenthal: One of the great issues in dealing with life is what happens when we die. Is it “game over” and we are gone for good, or as Jews we believe that while our bodies die, our souls live on in eternity with Hashem. However, another scenario to deal with is if we still have imperfections that we need to work on, does G-d bring us back again through the reincarnation of our souls (“Gilgul Neshamot”) to continue the process of learning, growth, and perfecting ourselves?

1. 4/14/24, 7:18 AM Reincarnation: Try, Try Again | Andy Blumenthal | The Blogs
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/reincarnation-try-try-again/ 1/7
THE BLOGS
Andy Blumenthal
Leadership With Heart
Reincarnation: Try, Try
Again
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2. 4/14/24, 7:18 AM Reincarnation: Try, Try Again | Andy Blumenthal | The Blogs
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/reincarnation-try-try-again/ 2/7
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Life is not easy. Like building blocks, we try to build up a stable and secure
future for ourselves and our loved ones. And then, “life happens,” and those
building blocks can come tumbling down, and we are challenged to rebuild and
go on with our lives. Yet as challenging as having to rebuild when calamity
strikes, it can even be more so when you have to start a whole new life from
scratch again, like in reincarnation.
One of the great issues in dealing with life is what happens when we die. Is it
“game over” and we are gone for good, or as Jews we believe that while our
bodies die, our souls live on in eternity with Hashem. However, another scenario
to deal with is if we still have imperfections that we need to work on, does G-d
bring us back again through the reincarnation of our souls (“Gilgul Neshamot”)
to continue the process of learning, growth, and perfecting ourselves?
Recently, I was watching 90 Day Fiance, The Last Resort, about couples that go
on a retreat to have therapy and try to fix their troubled relationships. In the
end, they must decide whether to stay together or break up.

3. 4/14/24, 7:18 AM Reincarnation: Try, Try Again | Andy Blumenthal | The Blogs
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/reincarnation-try-try-again/ 3/7
In one scene, Ed Brown, who is short and stocky and in a troubled relationship
with someone much younger than himself, closes his eyes, and in a session of
past life regression, he sees himself from a prior life hundreds of years before, as
a leprechaun in the circus, always seemingly tormented and unloved, and his
challenge to overcome is whether in this life he can be in a real loving
relationship and attain the unconditional love that his soul has been looking for
over his many lifetimes.
Ed’s past life regression got me thinking more about the reality of this in our
own life journeys and the progression of the maturation of our souls. At its core,
reincarnation certainly has an element of poetic justice, where people are
compelled to come back to right the wrongs that they have done to others in
prior lives. For example, if you were born rich in one life but acted like a miser
and were not charitable or gave to others in need then you may come back in
another lifetime as a poor person to see what it means to be needy and to have
to ask for or rely on others for help. This is what it means to reincarnate, to work
on your soul’s imperfections, and to keep coming back in different lifetimes and
life forms until you finally learn and “get it right” in terms of what it means to
be a mensch!
In a sense, reincarnation can provide answers to many complex questions about
life. For example, we may think we see what looks like injustice in this world,
where good people may suffer and bad people may thrive, but with
reincarnation, because this lifetime is not the end of the story but just a chapter
in the journey of the soul over many lifetimes, there is ample opportunity for
the meting out of Divine justice. Beyond this, reincarnation of the soul provides
the context for a world of meaning and purpose for our very creation, where G-d
in His ultimate loving-kindness, gives us the ability to work on ourselves as long
as it takes under varying circumstances to correct our deficiencies and to work
to “perfect our souls.”

4. 4/14/24, 7:18 AM Reincarnation: Try, Try Again | Andy Blumenthal | The Blogs
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/reincarnation-try-try-again/ 4/7
On one hand, being able to come back reincarnated is an exciting prospect for
us as healthy human beings driven to “cling to life.” Moreover, with all the
beauty that G-d created for us in the world and the opportunity that life affords
us, it is a blessing to be able to partake of it, experience it, and enjoy it, as well
as, of course, learn and grow with each round of the soul coming back down for
another go at it!
On the other hand, it can be an overwhelming to contemplate “being forced” to
come back and “start all over again,” lifetime after lifetime, as if one life wasn’t
hard enough to get through. If you think for a moment, can you really imagine,
after working all your life to finish school, earn a living, deal with difficult
people, confront various health issues, and cope with the multitude of life’s
small and large challenges, that in the end, you basically lose everybody and
everything and have to start essentially from zero all over again (and maybe
again and again)?
Not to be flip, but it’s almost like in a game of Monopoly, where you’re merrily
running around the board picking up and building properties, only then to pick
up the card of Chance and have to “Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go and do not
collect $200.” Essentially, when you’re reincarnated, you’re yanked from the
board and sent to the jail of life to start again on the board, and you see what
transpires this next time around.
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5. 4/14/24, 7:18 AM Reincarnation: Try, Try Again | Andy Blumenthal | The Blogs
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/reincarnation-try-try-again/ 5/7
So stop for a moment and forget your current life, everyone in it, and everything
you’ve done and achieved, and here goes the next reincarnation:
Will you be born in a free and prosperous civilized country or a constrained,
third-world “banana republic”?
Will you have a healthy and loving family or a broken, dysfunctional, and
abusive one?
Will you be born Jewish or perhaps into another religious denomination?
Will you have good, positive friends and influences, or will you end up in a
“bad crowd?”
Will you have the choice and opportunity to pursue your dreams, or will you
be pigeonholed to even get a basic education, a humdrum career, and go
nowhere in your life pursuits?
Will you be blessed with good health and fortune, or will you have to deal
with illness, accidents, disability, or disasters?
Of course, the list goes on and on, and it is scary to know that we not only have
to face the challenges in our current lives but perhaps in many other variations
of life to come.
Sure, we can’t know the future, and we shouldn’t get bogged down worrying
about it, but like Sisyphus having to roll the rock up the hill simply for it to roll
back down and have to start pushing it up all over again, reincarnation is a
challenging concept even when we believe that “everything is ultimately for our
best.”

6. 4/14/24, 7:18 AM Reincarnation: Try, Try Again | Andy Blumenthal | The Blogs
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/reincarnation-try-try-again/ 6/7
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andy Blumenthal is a dynamic, award-winning leader who writes frequently about Jewish life,
culture, and security. All opinions are his own.
In the end, reincarnation is not meaningless like Sisyphus, nor is it a
threatening last resort for our relationships and souls, but is an opportunity
given to us by G-d to try again to improve our character by experiencing the
error of our ways up close and personal so that we can become holy and whole
souls.
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7. 4/14/24, 7:18 AM Reincarnation: Try, Try Again | Andy Blumenthal | The Blogs
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/reincarnation-try-try-again/ 7/7
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