REINCARNATION

Now here is a topic with “jump the shark” written all over it. For many years I struggled with the concept of once around the block and done. How could we possibly learn all the lessons required to be fully realized spiritually in a mere 70, 80 or 90 years? In the Old Testament, life spans of hundreds of years are noted, but that was some time ago and even if we did live hundreds of years there are many lessons requiring a fresh perspective. How can one person, even if diligent from day one, learn the lessons having lived as a king and a beggar, of the courageous and the coward? How can one person be a criminal and a righteous man in the same life? Live a life devoid of sin and live in sin? To know the joy, and heartbreak of children and a life lived chaste? To learn all this and so much more, from both perspectives, male and female, in one lifetime? Any man who says he understands giving birth is a fool and any woman who stands in judgment of the bond between warriors is unwise. Eternity is a long time, really. What sense would it make to limit our schooling to a single life since we are children of the Creator: “Our Father, who art in Heaven…”as the Great Rabbi taught.

We are all born into different circumstances. The child born in the slums of Calcutta will never know the life or have the opportunities as the child born to working class parents in America. When you begin extrapolating all the possible permutations of just the circumstances of birth, location, adoption, single parent, resources etc it quickly becomes apparent that one lifetime could not possibly encompass every lesson.