In the book Sha'arei Kedushah ("Gates of Holiness")," Rabbi Chayim Vital, the student of the Arizal, writes: "Just as a tailor fits clothing to the shape of the body, so Hashem makes the body fit the soul exactly..."
The body is said to be comprised of 248 parts, and 365 sinews, reflecting the soul's composition - 248 spiritual parts and 365 spiritual connections. These correspond to the Torah's 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments. In other words, the body provides an exact covering for the soul. Furthermore, according to the Zohar (2:70- 78b), a person's face most reveals the essence of his soul, for the word "face" - panim in Hebrew - is related to the word p'nim - "inside." A person's face reflects his or her "inner" reality.
It is amazing, therefore, to discover that similarities in the faces of people who lived generations apart often correspond to remarkable similarities in their personalities and the events of their lives. There are those that claim that these parallels indicate that one individual may be a reincarnation of the other.
Contemporary researcher Joseph R. Myers, of the United States, has spent thirty-five years examining the body types, personality characteristics, and life activities of scores of people throughout the world, from many periods in history. Such research is now possible thanks to large databases of photographs. Myers' conclusions suggest that a soul will often take on a new incarnation with a body type, facial characteristics, personality traits, and talents similar to those of its previous life or lives. In many instances, souls will even "recycle" their previous accomplishments. Sometimes the soul even attempts to improve its past accomplishments or rectify its earlier mistakes. The soul may even attempt to forge a connection with individuals that were close to it in a previous life. (Kabbalistic masters already noted hundreds of years ago that some souls will continue or complete unfinished tasks in their reincarnated forms, while others will forge new spiritual paths, such as learning new and deeper levels of Torah previously not learned)."
Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Jim B. Tucker have provided further support for these ideas. Based on research at the University of Virginia, Dr. Stevenson produced a report on birthmarks and other unique bodily signs, which offered incontestable proof that a personal, historical, and behavioral connection exists between living people who bear these marks and deceased people with similar ones." Dr. Tucker studied 799 children that claimed to be reincarnations of other individuals, and discovered that in many cases, a similarity existed between the facial features of the children and those from whom they claimed to be reincarnated.
The following pictures include a number of compelling examples from Myers' research, representing only a fraction of his work. These examples include a number of additional facts, added to the original research. Obviously, it is important to focus on facial characteristics and to disregard differences in hairstyle, clothing, and the like, which alter in different periods."
Are Barack and Michelle Obama the reincarnation of Pharoah Akhenaton and Queen Nefertiti of Ancient Egypt? According to researcher Freeman, America's First Family could be, or at least bear some similarities to the ancient Pharoah of Egypt and other members of his family.
President Barack Obama looks amazingly like Akhenaten. Michelle Obama looks amazingly like Akhenaten's mother, Queen Tiye. Akhenaten had two daughters by Nefertiti They look amazingly like Malia and Sasha Obama. - Freeman.
You never know who came back as whom.
Many great Jewish figures have claimed to remember their previous incarnations, including particular details of past lives, and even the spiritual rectification (tikkun) for which they returned to this world. There have been those of great spiritual power who could even recognize the previous lives of others and what they needed to fix. (See, for example, the words of Arizal to R. Chayim Vital, in Sha'ar Ha-Gilgulim, Introduction 38).
In general, a person who wants to know the point he or she must fix in this present reincarnation should notice which of the Torah's commandments he feels most drawn to, and which prohibition he finds most challenging; for the soul is drawn to that commandment which offers it spiritual completion, whereas a person's evil inclination tries to prevent this rectification by causing a person to stumble in one particular sin. Although a person must obviously fulfill all of the Torah's commandments and avoid all its prohibitions, he should give special attention to these two areas, for they reflect the main arena of his self-perfection in this lifetime.
Michael Jackson was black, did you know that he had surgeries to make himself look like that? That doesn't prove it's reincarnation.
ReplyDeleteYou're possibly correct; it doesn't prove that this is his Gilgul.
DeleteOf course, I know about his surgery since I remember in 1964 when the Jackson Brothers, later called The Jackson 5, first came on the scene. But rest assure that Hashem also knew thousands of years ago about the surgery that Michael would someday have, making it possible that his previous life appeared like his after surgery results. There is no mystery about a statue resembling MJ after he changed appearance. Hashem works in mysterious ways and knows all. The fact that such a statue exists looking exactly like the revise MJ is probably a message from Hashem.