修補破碎世界的靈魂之旅——卡巴拉的靈魂觀初探   免費試閱

A Soul Journey to Repair the Broken World: An Overview of Kabbalah’s Concept of “Gilgul”

猶太教關於死後存在的信念多元紛雜，神祕主義卡巴拉的「靈魂轉生」教義是其中相當特殊的一種立場。針對此一獨特的信念，本文嘗試進行概括性的引介。為了準確理解卡巴拉的靈魂轉生觀念，本文從兩方面著手：一是猶太教靈魂觀的發展史，由此可看出卡巴拉靈魂觀與其他猶太傳統之靈魂教義的差異；另一是卡巴拉的世界觀，卡巴拉的所有概念都必須放在它所建構起來的獨特世界觀中才能被理解，本文將對此一世界觀做一番簡要的刻劃，並由此掌握卡巴拉靈魂觀的概略輪廓，最後依此描述「靈魂轉生」此一觀念的基本內涵和時代意義。

Judaism’s belief systems of “afterlife” have highly diversity, in which we can find that in the mystical tradition Kabbalah there is a special concept of “gilgul” (reincarnation, metempsychosis). This article attempts to answer what is meant by “gilgul” and provide a preliminary exploration. For this purpose, we will at first briefly outline the conceptual history of “soul” in Judaism, so that we can clarify the particularity of Kabbalah’s concept of soul. Second, we must place the Kabbalah’s concept of soul in the whole worldview of Kabbalah in order to understand its real meaning. Based on the previous steps, final we could describe the basic connotation and historical significance of gilgul.