This is PART 3 of Yonassan Gershom's FAQ on reincarnation and the Holocaust. It contains Frequently Asked Questions regarding his work with people who believe that they died in the Holocaust during World War II and have been reincarnated.
(If you have already read this intro material in one of the other FAQ sections, you can skip to the list of Questions for Part 3. If are new to this FAQ, please read on...)
Part 3 (Which you are reading now) continues the discussion about karmic issues from Part 2, with answers to questions regarding the reactions of specific groups and individuals -- Jewish and non-Jewish -- to this work, some controversial Orthodox beliefs, the novel "Night of Broken Souls" by Monteleone, Barbro Karlen's claim to be Anne Frank returned, etc.
PART 2 discusses general issues of Jewish reincarnation beliefs about "karma," how they relate to Jewish mysticism and the Holocaust, who comes back as who, some thoughts on healing the karma of the Holocaust, forgiveness, etc.
PART 1 discusses issues directly related to the content of his two books Beyond the Ashes (1992) and From Ashes to Healing (1996) (which you can buy in our online bookstore.) This FAQ discusses which Jewish groups believe in reincarnation, some common misconceptions and media distortions about Reb Gershom's work, the concept of the Jewish soul, some controversies regarding this work, etc.
All answers in this FAQ are direct quotes by Yonassan Gershom and represent his current beliefs and opinions at the time of writing. This FAQ can be used as a news release: Copyright permission is hereby given to quote from it in reviews, articles, books, etc. (Journalists: Please read this FAQ before contacting Rabbi Gershom for an interview or reference question.) For use of the entire FAQ, please contact the author at gershom613@yahoo.com. This update replaces all previous versions of the FAQ.
More recently, one of the cases from his second book was featured on the BBC program, Science Mysteries(Discovery Channel, aired April 15, 1999), and footage from the Sightings program was used on UPN's Unexplained Mysteries (2005.) See also the list of articles, interviews, and book reviews on this site.
His latest book on reincarnation, Jewish Tales of Reincarnation, was published in November 1999 and was featured by the Jewish Book Club that month. This is not on the Holocaust per se. Rather, it is a collection of 70 Jewish teaching tales from both classical and modern texts and folklore sources, retold in user-friendly language for the general public, with notes, commentaries, bibliography, etc.
Rabbi Gershom is also on the Top Reviewers list on Amazon.com -- voted there
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Q-2: As an Orthodox Jew, do you yourself believe in this theory?
Q-3: But doesn't this theory also fall into
the category of the "blame the Jews" theories you condemn?
Q-6: What do you think of Barbro Karlen's
claim to be the reincarnation of Anne Frank?
I have heard and read various versions of it in many Jewish circles.
Most recently, it was in the news when Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef,
Chief Rabbi of the (right-wing religious) Shas Party in Israel, claimed
that Jewsi who died in the Holocaust were being punished for sins in
past lives. This statement created a fervor of angry backlash among
Holocaust survivors and others around the world. (Whether or not you
agree with this rabbi's opinion, it does illustrate that even the
"religious Right" among Israeli Jews can believe in reincarnation.
For an in-depth Torah study on the issues of sin, punishment,
repentance, spiritual growth, reincarnation, etc. see
Defending Torah Secrets and Reincarnation by Rabbi Ariel bar Tzadok of
Kosher Torah.com. NOTE: This document
is in PDF format -- you'll need Acrobat Reader to read it. It also assumes
you have a background in Jewish source texts and commentaries, terminology, etc.)
Jerome Mintz gives a brief explanation of it,
quoting Hasidim he interviewed for his study,
Legends of the Hasidim,(pp. 130-131) first published back in 1968.
Most of the Hasidim he was interviewing at that time were themselves
Holocaust survivors, so this was not an attempt to "blame
the victim." Rather, it was/is an attempt on the part of
some victims themselves to understand their own suffering within
a Jewish theological context. From there, it entered some circles
of Orthodox Jews, notably the Satmar Hasidim (and others.)
Not all the versions of this theory are directed specifically at
Reform Judaism, which did not emerge as a movement until the mid-1800's.
The assimilation and secularism referred to in this theory as the
"Enlightenment" (Aufklaerung) began with the false
messiah Shabbetai Zevi in the 1660's. Shabbetai Zevi taught
that the mitzvot were no longer binding, and that it was actually
a mitzvah to sin, heaven forbid. This led to a breakdown of
Jewish observance in the 1700's which led, in turn, to the
assimilationism of the 1800's. Reform Judaism was only a
small part of a much larger movement focused on assimilating Jews
(and other minorities) into mainstream European culture. Long before
the Holocaust, there were already traditionalists who opposed the
"Enlightenment" movement.
To suggest that the Holocaust might have been caused by Jews failing
to observe the mitzvot properly is loaded with the potential for
misunderstanding and misuse. Some Orthodox Jews use it to try to
discredit the Reform Jews, and some Reform Jews angrily cite it to
accuse the Hasidim of intolerance. Plus many Middle Eastern and
Sephardic Jews simply see the Holocaust as the karma of the
assimilated European Jews, and not at all related to themselves.
But beyond all the politics (which we shall ignore here), the idea
itself has its roots in a much older, mystical concept regarding
the cosmic function of Jewish prayers and ceremonies in the universe.
This worldview was primarily developed by Rabbi Isaac Luria's school
of kabbalah in the mid-1500's (during the time of the Spanish
Inquisition, which martyred many Jews), and continues today among
some Hasidim and other kabbalists.
Before I explain it here, please keep in mind that there are many
different types of Jews, and not all of them would agree with this
theory. In fact, individuals within the same branch of Judaism
would probably disagree with each other on this point. This is
only one of the many, many perspectives on the Holocaust which are
discussed among Jews, and is not any sort of official dogma.
Having said that, here is the theory as I understand it. According to
kabbalah and certain Hasidic teachings, the function of evil in the world
was intended by God to remain contained within the forces of nature in
the physical world, i.e., things live and die, animals hunt each other,
storms happen and volcanoes erupt, etc. In this capacity, evil was
created as a natural part of the physical universe and is necessary for
its very existence.
However, there is another type of evil which is introduced into the world
through the misuse of human free will. When a person commits a sin,
heaven forbid, it feeds energy into this type of evil. Each individual
sin thus feeds the collective energy of evil. If the evil becomes
strong enough through many people sinning, it can then manifest as
human-made evils such as wars, persecutions, etc.
Also according to kabbalah, the mitzvot (commandments in the Torah)
are not merely "laws" but are also a very precise theurgical
vehicle for keeping evil in its proper place. Every time a person
does a mitzvah, it tips the scales of the universe toward the side of
good, and strengthens the boundaries which prevent evil from spilling
over it's intended function. But, conversely, every time a person sins,
heaven forbid, it tips the scales toward the side of evil. Thus
the sins of one person can affect the well-being of the whole world,
not just the individual sinner.
Now, there are some Jews (not all of them Orthodox!) who see a
connection between this mystical teaching and the secularization of
the 19th-century "Enlightenment" movements in Europe, because
these movements led large numbers of Jews to stop doing the mitzvot
and, in some cases, to consciously violate the laws of the Torah
and publicly desecrate the name of G-d (Chillul HaShem.)
As for example, holding "Yom Kippur feasts," in order
to publicly mock and desecrate a holy day on which Jews normally
fast and repent of their sins. We are not talking here about individuals
who simply fell away from religious observance for personal reasons.
Rather, we are talking about an active movement to destroy the
Torah way of life -- often backed by various European governments.
This flagrant mocking and abandonment of the Torah way of life -- and
the spiritual power of those ceremonies -- weakened the mystical barrier
which kept evil in its proper place as merely a force in nature. At the
same time, the sins themselves were feeding more energy into that
pool of evil. The evil continued to grow until, three centuries after
this process had begun (with Shabbtai Tzvi in the 1600's), it erupted
into World War II and fueled the Holocaust.
So goes the theory.
Of course, we should be very clear here that it was not only Jews who
were feeding into the human-made pool of evil. Many other religious
groups also point to the 19th century as a time of decadence and moral
decay within their own circles. The 19th century saw a widespread
rise of Communism, materialism, atheism, secularism, etc. There were
also many movements in Europe which preached antisemitism, racism and
other hatreds, and these also bear their own karmic responsibility for
enabling that evil to grow and spread. So it would be wrong to see
this kabbalistic teaching as "blaming the Jews" for the
Holocaust. Nor does it let the rest of the world off the hook.
Instead, it simply adds a mystical dimension to the well-known moral
statement that "All it takes for evil to flourish is for good
people to do nothing."
Go to PART 1 of this FAQ
Q-1: I have heard that some Orthodox Jews blame the karma of the
Holocaust on the Reform movement. Is this true?
A-1: Not exactly. This is a simplistic, politically-charged and garbled
version of a rather complicated kabbalistic teaching regarding the
function and responsibility of Jews to do the mitzvot (commandments in
the Torah.)
Q-2: As an Orthodox Jew, do you yourself believe in this
theory?
A-2: Do I personally believe that assimilation caused the Holocaust?
Well, yes and no. I think it is simplistic to say that because
secular Jews ate ham on Yom Kippur in the 1800's, there was a
Holocaust in the 1940's. The mitzvot do not work in such a
tit-for-tat way, and neither does the G-d who commanded them.
But on the other hand, I do believe that prayer has real power, that sin also has genuine, tangible effects in the world, and that our actions really do have an effect on the universe. So it is possible that the collective sins of humanity, along with mass complacency, somehow fed and enabled this evil to grow into such enormous proportions.
Am I saying the G-d punished the Jews with a Holocaust because they failed to be orthodox enough? No, emphatically NO!!!
Am I saying that each and every Jew in the Holocaust died because he or she wasn't orthodox enough? No, emphatically NO!!!
The Talmud says that "Once the sword is let loose in the land, it does not distinguish between the innocent and the guilty." I understand this to mean that in times of war, it is possible for innocent victims to get caught up in events that are not their own fault. The Angel of Death, it is said, wields his sword indiscriminately on the battlefield. Again I stress: only G-d really knows an individual's "karma."
We can also look at this issue of assimilation in a more sociological sense. Whenever a minority people -- any people, not just the Jews -- begins to develop a self-hating attitude toward its own religion and culture, and then tries to ape the dominant culture in order to "pass", this creates an opening for domination by that other culture. I have been told by many Native American (Indian) people that the point at which they began to lose the battle against the European invaders was when they gave up their own religion and culture and converted to Christianity. By this they mean that as long as the circle of their own people was strong, they were not conquerable in their hearts, even if they lost the military battles. But when they ceased being proud to be Indians, and were no longer believing in or practicing their own ceremonies, they lost their spiritual power and became vulnerable to moral, cultural, and spiritual domination by others.
In this sense, I would say that the assimilated Jews in 19th-century Europe had invested a lot of energy into assimilating, into wanting to be accepted by the dominant culture in Germany. They had come to think of themselves as Germans and not Jews. This created a false sense of security which lulled them into thinking they were safe from future persecutions. But the reality was, their gentile neighbors still thought of them as Jews, whether or not they practiced Judaism. And there was still prejudice against Jews in Europe, which the Nazis played upon. The majority of the non-Jews, in turn, did not actively oppose the rise of Nazism, thus allowing the human-made evil to grow to hideous proportions.
Whether or not the mystical part of this theory is true (and only God knows for sure), I would say that the way to prevent another Holocaust is for Jews to be strong and firm in their Judaism, and for the non-Jewish world to honor and respect that. I believe that when a soul incarnates as a Jew, it has come here for a specific purpose within the context of its Jewishness. Each mitzvah is connected to redeeming and raising up the Holy Sparks -- exiled bits of cosmic energy -- back to their proper places in the universe. In as much as we help such a Jewish soul to fulfill that purpose, then so much do we also help to heal the entire planet.
All of us -- Jews and non-Jews alike -- should consciously choose to be on the side of good in this process, by helping each other to fulfill the spiritual missions that we came to earth to do. This means, among other things, letting Jews be Jews, and seeing that Jewishness in a positive, beautiful, light-filled way.
And the Talmud, in the section Pirkei Avot, says:
The sword comes upon the world because of the delay of
justice and the perversion of justice, and because of those
who teach conclusions in the Torah that are at variance with the
definitive law (halachah)...Exile comes upon the world because
of idolatrous worship..." Pirkei Avot 5:5.7)
The Bible sees idolatry as the cause for the destruction of
the First Temple by the Babylonians, and the Talmud sees
sinat chinam (baseless hatred and bickering among ourselves)
as the reason for the destruction of the Second Temple by the
Romans. And, in the eyes of some Jews today, The Holocaust was a
Third Destruction (Churban Shlishi) with its roots in
assimilationism, which is also a form of idolatry.
Again, I stress that not all Jews would accept this theory, and
many vehemently oppose it. It is only one way of looking at a
very complicated set of historical events.
To those who are interested in pursuing this further, I recommend
the book
Hasidic Responses to the Holocaust in the light of Hasidic Thought
by Pesach Schindler.
Regarding the possible karma of the more fanatical sectors of the
Orthodox community, (for example, some of the Haredim in Mea Shearim
in Jerusalem, or the Gush Emunim settler movement on the West Bank),
it is my personal opinion (not to be taken dogmatically) that many
of them were secular Jews in their past lives, and are now trying
to make up for lost time by doing as much Torah learning and
observance as possible in this life. Others were born into secular
families in this life, and have now adopted the Orthodox way of
life and feel they are atoning for past sins.
In some cases (not all!) there is a tendency to do the mitzvot
(commandments) somewhat mechanically because they have not yet
mastered the deeper levels, which can take several incarnations.
However, we should also note that there are some very deeply
spiritual people among the Haredim, so one cannot make
generalized statements about "ultra-Orthodox karma."
For traditional Jewish teaching stories about repentence and
reincarnation, I refer you to my latest book,
Jewish Tales of Reincarnation.
In my old e-mail discussion group (now offline), the
reactions were mixed. Some people liked the book, while others were
seriously offended that a novelist would use the Holocaust in that
way. There seemed to be too much reliance on the atrocities in
the concentration camps for the "horror" aspects of the
story. On the other hand, the plot did have a lot of good twists
and turns, with a chilling surprise at the end.
So, in the end, I gave this book a reluctant thumbs-up for a lot
of good twists and turns, but a thumbs-down for lack of
authenticity and poor character development. Beyond that, I sure
hope they never make this into a movie.
Barbro Karlen, a well-known writer in Sweden, first made this
claim publicly on an Amsterdam TV program in 1995. The story
was later published in German in 1997 as Und die Wölfe
heulten, (And the Wolves howled), a novelized version of her
biography. Since then, the case has been hotly debated in the
Continental press.
I have read the book in German and, although I don't doubt
Ms. Karlen's sincerity, in my opinion the story reads more like
an archetypal identification with the story of Anne Frank's
suffering, rather than an actual reincarnation of Anne Frank's soul.
Plus, as I have already pointed out elsewhere, she was the sixth
person (but not the last!) to tell me she was Anne Frank returned.
And there have been numerous others whose past-life stories
resembled aspects of Anne's diary. Clearly, Anne Frank has
entered the collective consciousness of humanity as an archetype.
(For an excellent discussion of the archetypal phenomenon in
reincarnation cases, see "Will the real Mark Twain please stand up?"
in Brad Steiger's book,
Returning from the Light.)
My pre-publication review copy of the British edition includes a
special Afterword written by Thomas Meyer, Karlen's publisher,
addressing some of the reactions since the German release of the book
in 1997. He notes, among other things, that some reviewers found
serious discrepancies between Karlen's past-life memories and the
documented details of Anne Frank's life. Meyer writes:
...Some argued, for example, that the description of the arrest
at the beginning of this book contradicts certain historical facts.
Thus the main protagonist of the arrest in the Frank family
(Silberhauer) could not possibly have reincarnated in the nineteen
fifties or sixties in Sweden -- as the main protagonist of the
corresponding scene in the book did -- since he was still alive at
that time. Furthermore, Sara [Karlen] describes her previous death
as one of being burnt alive, whereas it is considered an established
fact that Anne Frank and her sister Margot died of a typhoid epidemic
in Bergen-Belsen. (And the Wolves Howled, pp.242-43.)
So -- how does Meyer deal with these glaring discrepancies? He blows
them off as mere "symptoms" (his word), which, he says, are
based on a limited perspective that he likens to being trapped inside
a materialistic house without doors. Genuine proof, he claims, can only
come through using "spiritual science" (also his words.) Meyer
then goes on to ask, and I quote: "But is there no possibility
that some of the historical facts may have been incompletely or
inaccurately investigated? Or can it perhaps be taken for granted
that the reincarnation memory -- if it exists -- might be more reliable
than the physical memory?" (page 243)
HELLO??? Did I read that right? Is Mr. Meyer actually trying to
claim that a past-life memory which contradicts known historical
facts is more reliable than the recorded facts themselves?
Is he advocating that we simply ignore recorded history if the
facts don't fit the results channeled through "spiritual
science?" Apparently he is. In more than one place, he
implies that if the past-life memories don't match the facts,
then the facts are not reliable anyway because they might not
be thoroughly researched enough.
Sorry, but I don't buy it. While it is certainly possible that
historical records can be wrong, this excuse cannot be used to
dismiss these errors unless you can prove the records are
wrong. Simply implying they might be wrong is mere inuendo.
And we are not talking about insignificant details here, either.
We are talking about very basic questions: Who arrested
Anne Frank, and how did she die?
So, whom do we trust? The eye-witnesses to the actual events,
or somebody's psychical impressions half a century later?
To give him credit, Mr. Meyer does suggest a second alternative,
namely, that Barbro Karlen may be Anne Frank, but that she is
remembering some of the incidents wrongly. OK, that is
possible. But it is equally possible -- and this is the direction
I lean toward -- that she is not really Anne Frank, but is
remembering a different person's past life, someone who
also died in the Holocaust, and these memories have become
linked in her mind to the story of Anne Frank. Perhaps she knew
Anne Frank in that life, or lived in the same area, which would
account for her familiarity with Amsterdam, while, at the same
time, also accounting for the discrepancies between her memories
details of Anne's arrest and her death, etc.
Mr. Meyer also makes direct reference to my feature article,
Anne Frank Returned? that I referred
to at the beginning of this article. He correctly notes that,
after summarizing the case and analyzing its pros and cons, I
stated that, in my opinion, the jury is still out. To which Mr.
Meyer replies in his Afterword to the book:
Excellent! But if this jury is not only to judge the validity of
spiritual experience by reading symptoms, but by actually proving
(or disproving) their inner reality, it must be composed of
individuals who are able to leave the house of ordinary consciousness.
Otherwise their verdict will be of no avail. (page 248)
I wonder... am I qualified to be on that jury, according to Mr. Meyer?
He does not say. But let's give him the benefit of the doubt and
assume that he respects my opinion as a spiritual teacher as well as
a book reviewer. That being the case, what if I do leave my
"house of ordinary consciousness" and ascend to the
Heavenly Record Halls, only to return with a conclusion different
from his? How can we test either of our ESP results, if not by
comparing them to recorded history?
What Meyer is relying upon is not real science, it's a personal
faith statement about the accuracy of his own psychical abilities.
OK, I use my psychical abilities sometimes, too - but only as
supplementary to the verifiable facts, never as the final
determining factor for defining reality.
So, what this all boils down to is this: Thomas Meyer believes
Barbro Karlen to be the reincarnation of Anne Frank, based on her
account and his own ESP impressions, which he places above the validity
of the historical accounts. I am not convinced she is Anne
Frank, based on her account, the life of Anne Frank as recorded in
history, and my own ESP impressions.
Now, since our ESP impressions cancel each other out (Meyer for,
Gershom against), and there is no way to prove the validity of our
"spiritual impressions" other than by faith anyway, we are
left with those annoying little "symptoms" that just don't
fit the recorded facts. And I, for one, am not willing to
resort to revisionism in order to prove a case of reincarnation.
Ms. Karlen has stated repeatedly that it is not so important to her
to prove she was really Anne Frank. Rather, she told her story to
show how events from one incarnation can continue to affect the
next life, in the hope that it could help others. In that light,
her book demonstrates the same types of symptoms and healing that
I have encountered in hundreds of other Holocaust reincarnation
cases. Individuals who are struggling with similar flashbacks,
interpersonal problems, etc. will probably find the book to be a
useful tool. But is she really the reincarnation of Anne
Frank? I, for one, am not convinced.
See also Dennis Eisenberg's positive review from the Jerusalem Post,
The Swede who says she was Anne Frank, which has quite a
bit of interview material with Barbro Karlen.
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Q-3: But doesn't this theory also fall into the category
of "blame the Jews" theories that you condemn?
A-3: Not exactly. There's a big difference between self-examination
from within Judaism itself, and lectures by outsiders about what
our "bad karma" is. Within Jewish theology, there are
precedents for trying to understand the possible spiritual causes
of disasters. The Torah, in the Book of Deuteronomy, does mention
curses as well as blessings, as do the prophets of old.
Q-4: Do you think that the Haredim ("ultra-Orthodox")
Jews in Israel are so rigid because they are reincarnations of
Nazis?
A-4: No. When people ask this question, it is usually a political
statement regarding the oppression of Palestinians, etc. While
this is not the place to go into detail about Israeli politics,
suffice it to say that the Orthodox are not the sole cause of
problems there. Zionism was originally a secularist, not a
religious movement. 90% of Israeli Jews are not Orthodox, and
the problems between Israelis and Palestinians date to a time
long before the Orthodox parties gained any political power there.
Modern Israeli society is quite complex, and one simply cannot make
blanket statements about any one group's "karma." In
recent years it has become popular for secularists to blame
Israel's problems on the Orthodox, but that is scapegoating
and not historically correct.
Q-5: What did you think of Thomas F. Montelones's novel,
Night of Broken Souls, which seems to be based on you
and your work?
A-5: Well, sooner or later it had to happen. Once you become a
public figure, you're fair game for parody. I've already written
about my reaction to the buffoonish rabbi character and the Jewish
bloopers in the book (of which there are many!) in my review on the
Amazon.com site, so I won't hash it over again here. Except to
say that "Rabbi Klingerman's" bombastic personality is
nothing like mine.
Q-6:What do you think of Barbro Karlen's claim to be the
reincarnation of Anne Frank?
A-6. I wrote an extensive article exploring this issue called
Anne Frank Returned? which was
published in Life and Soul (London) in 1999 and re-printed in
Venture Inward (USA) in January 2000, and which you can now
read online. Since then, new
issues have come to light which I'll briefly mention here.
End of Reincarnation and the Holocaust FAQ Part 3
Go to part 1 of this FAQ