Reincarnation and the Karaite Kabbalah

Mention Kabbalah, and you will be sure to get mixed reactions. The rationalists, whether secular or orthodox will trash it, whilst the traditionalists and the cultists will take it very seriously.

For the Rabbis, the kabbalah is the hidden part of the “oral law£ which was only revealed after the Talmud. For the skeptic or Karaite this is quite preposterous, it is not enough that they fabricate the oral law, but then some guy called Moses De Leon dreams up the Zohar, and it becomes the hidden book of splendor (much like the book of Mormon is in Christianity).

There is, however, the rub. One of the most central themes in Kabbalah – that of reincarnation (which is found nowhere in the Talmud) is also the most hotly disputed. Such was the novelty and absurdity of it, that no less a Rabbinical icon than Saadia Gaon, rejected this as being false!
http://www.mesora.org/SaadiaGaon-Reincarnation.htm


But the first mention of this idea came not from the Rabbis, but from Anan Ben David – one of the early Karaite leaders. For the rabbis, he was the quintessential founder of karaism, whilst for the Karaites, he was a great unifier, although not strictly a TNK only Jew. He was a great Phariseeic Rabbi and sage who left the Talmudic world, to start or accelerate a new movement, which eventually merged with karaism.

Anan introduced the idea of reincarnation to Judaism. This was before the Zohar, before the Arizal, and before Hassidism. It is not clear where he sourced the idea from, since Buddhism and Hinduism would have been known to him. Whether he had early rabbinic teachings or other sources is not known.

Later Karaites unanimously rejected this idea, whilst later Rabbanites embedded it in their “canon”. Today, holding a Saadian view in the orthodox world would be at best frowned upon, whilst holding an Ananite view in the karaite world would also be rejected.

Whether the source is Talmudic or Buddhist, it is still an interesting but unknowable claim. We have no memory of previous lives, and now knowledge of what happens to our minds after death. But, it is counter-intuitive to see how one of the most imaginative rabbinical doctrines was first written about by a proto- or pre- Karaite.