Kabbalah and reincarnation???? Really???
Yeah, this Protestant refuses to "get" it, thank you very much. This does explain quite a bit about where you are coming from these many years. The Bible doesn't teach that reincarnation happens, but that a man lives once and then after wards faces judgment. The Messiah HAS already come as the suffering servant/the lamb of God of Isaiah and he WILL come again in glory as the triumphant King of Kings to set up his earthly kingdom.
For those interested in what ZC may be talking about, read http://www.tzfat-kabbalah.org/whatis.asp?p=699:
The Revelation
“From this day on, you must reveal yourself and tell the world what I have taught you” Achiya Shiloni told his student. Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov was in shock and deeply sorrowed. He was experienced in the practice of the hidden righteous and the kabbalists who acted in Europe in small groups, in great modesty. The concept of “revelation” was foreign to him and alien to the ways of the hidden kabbalists. Achiya HaShiloni revealed to his student that his soul was the reincarnation of the Jew who had lived in Tzfat in the late 16th century, whose soul had come back to earth for the purpose of revealing and being revealed. When the Baal Shem Tov heard about the origin of his soul and its special mission in the world, he accepted the task and began revealing and disseminating the teachings of Hassidism, which exposed and discovers the inner dimensions of the Kabbalah and the secrets of the Torah.
The Rise of the Soul
Thirteen years later, on the Eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Baal Shem Tov was granted a special rising of the soul, in which his soul reached the hall of the Messiah in the supreme worlds. Seeing great joy there, he asked the Messiah when he would come, the Messiah replied, “When your springs are disseminated, when your teachings and secrets are revealed to the entire world.” The story of the origin of the soul of the Baal Shem Tov in the Tzfat Jew of the 16th century and its reincarnation in the world, and the story of the rising of the soul, is told by the Baal Shem Tov himself in his letters, which were widely publicized and printed in several books
Yes. The Law of Double Reference.
Methuselah knew Adam, Shem was Methuselah's great-grandson, Jacob studied under Shem, Amram was born when Jacob was still alive, 'Achiyyah was born while Amram was still alive, 'Achiyyah lived hundreds of years and passed his prophetic mission on to Elijah, and Elijah has never died (he was taken to Heaven while still alive).
Is there something in this defense of the truth of the literal interpretation of the lifespans in the Torah that offends you? Perhaps you don't believe Methuselah actually lived 969 years, or that Elijah was translated while still alive? You must be a liberal.
As for "Protestants not getting it," I stand by that comment. Protestants think that J*sus predicted that the historical church would morph into a monstrosity and that "true chr*stianity" would have to be "restored" at a later date (by Luther, or Calvin, or Knox, or the Anabaptists, or the Baptists, or Wesley, or George Fox, or the Campbells, or Joseph Smith, or C.T. Russell, or George Went Hensley, or Zola Levitt, or . . .
This is all nonsense. Chr*stianity is a false religion and cannot be "restored." The ancient liturgical churches and the "restored" Protestant churches are all wrong.
When I mentioned the fact that Protestants don't get it either, what I specifically had in mind was the fact that Israel was in Egypt for a grand total of 210 years--not 400 or 430 years. The Torah says that Israel would live in a land "not theirs" for 400 years. This 400 year period began with the birth of Isaac in 2048. The 430 years began with the "covenant between the parts" in 2018.
Although I usually defend Protestants on this forum (for the simple reason that Fundamentalist Protestants realize that if G-d said something happened, then it happened), they are 100% wrong in believing that the Bible is self-interpreting. There is an authentic oral interpretive tradition--just not the one the liturgical chr*stians are always going on about.
The Written Torah consists only of a string of consonants. There are no vowels and no punctuation. The vowels and punctuation come from the authentic oral interpretive tradition, without which no translation of the Hebrew Bible would be possible. Every translation of the Hebrew Bible (including the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Peshitta', and the KJV) depends on the correctness of the Oral Tradition in preserving the vowels and punctuation.
Moreover, it is the Oral Torah which prescribes how the Written Torah is to be written down by Scribes so that it is an authentic reproduction of the letters dictated by G-d A-mighty to Moses over three thousand years ago. Without the rules and regulations of the Oral Torah the Written Torah would not have survived the decay of the first scrolls written by Moses.
I realize that Protestants feel they have to believe in the absolute clarity of scripture. However, this is a dogma with no foundation whatsoever. The Catholics are right in pointing out that Protestantism is a babel of multitudinous self-contradicting doctrines and Protestants (who supposedly believe in "Bible only" are both silly and inconsistent in appealing to the "holy spirit" as an explanation of how they can interpret it without recourse of an authentic oral interpretive tradition. Protestants feel they have to believe this because they think the Bible was addressed to all mankind so that the milkmaid of nine can read it and be "saved." But chr*stian "salvation" is not the purpose of the Hebrew Bible and it was not addressed to the world--it was addressed to Israel. It is their peculiar inheritance, their jewel and their glory. To see it as something written so nine year old milkmaids could read it and be "saved" is pure unadulterated anachronism, as well as fantasy.
Furthermore, Protestantism contains at its very core a contradiction: on the one hand, Protestants claim to believe that G-d wrote the Bible. On the other, they believe a translation is sufficient. If G-d wrote the Bible in Hebrew (and a few passages in Aramaic), then by definition it can never be adequately translated. Translations give only the general idea (and the surface at that), not the very letters and words which G-d dictated to Moses. Furthermore the sizes, shapes, numerical values, and names of the letters are completely lost in any translation, and these are all loaded with meaning.
To conclude, contrary to your silly assertion, boatbums, I wrote not one single solitary word about "reincarnation." I merely defended the inerrant factual accuracy of the TaNa"KH in its assertions that the early generations lived exactly as long as written and that Elijah was translated and is still alive today in Heaven--exactly as the TaNa"KH says.
However, I can't close this post without dealing with the issue of gilgul neshamot (what you call "reincarnation"). "Reincarnation" simply means the reinsertion of a soul into a body. This is what will happen at the Resurrection of the Dead. What you mean to condemn, I am sure, is the transmigration of souls.
Some sages have been opposed to a belief in gilgul neshamot (such as Saadia Gaon) while others, such as RaMBa"N and the 'AriZa"L have believed in it (generally it seems it is opposed by rationalists and believed in by mystics). I know of no body in Orthodox Judaism that is competent to excommunicate anyone for not believing in it and as far as I know, there is no formal absolute obligation to do so. However, most Orthodox Jews today (especially the more mystically minded, as opposed to the rationalists) do believe in it. I am not competent to judge either side. Please recall that your view of the afterlife comes from the "new testament," since the Hebrew Bible is silent on this topic (except at a very deep, esoteric level). Your worldview of individual souls in need of personal salvation will not allow you believe in gilgul neshamot. The Jewish worldview does not come from the "new testament" and therefore have no problem with it, provided it is correctly understood.
Although there is a very shallow similarity between gilgul haneshamot and various hindu, b*ddhist, and other eastern doctrines, the similarity is only apparent. The mixture of Torah with foreign religions (including eastern and "new age" beliefs) is a forbidden mixture. But the fact that some eastern religions have a distorted understanding of the concept doesn't negate it any more than chr*stianity's flawed understanding of G-d makes the concept of G-d un-kosher.
I know ahead of time that you won't accept any of this, but that's the way it is.