1. Introduction

Soul transmigration was already understood by the great Kabbalah researcher Gershom Shalom (1897–1982) as one of the central elements of Kabbalah literature.¹ One of the principles of Kabbalistic soul mechanics is that the more righteous the soul, the further up in the sefirot it can climb and the less righteous, the further down it will move.² This Kabbalistic interest in the soul and its mechanics led to new discussions regarding not only the Jewish soul, but also the gentile soul. As the Kabbalistic quandary in these topics could not receive any answers from the canonized text as they were read up until then, a new way of reading and understanding the texts developed. This innovative reception of the biblical texts is evident in the Zohar, which is mostly made up of Midrashim about the biblical texts which explore new, more esoteric, topics.

In the Zohar we find several developments in the ideas regarding converts and their souls. These are a part of a longer tradition dealing with biblical texts and their reception. This article will follow these developments and the way they use the older texts to support existing ideas and create new ideas about converts and their souls. In the center of the Zoharic discourse are those texts from the Torah which deal with the genesis of Jewish identity, such as narratives about Abraham (the first monotheist) the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, and the encounter of the emerging People of Israel with their new homeland. The Zohar also uses other texts from the Hebrew Bible which deal with joining the Jewish nation, such as the story of Ruth and verses from the Book of Proverbs. The reception of these texts is sometimes very innovative and goes in quite different directions than the reception tradition before it.

One must remember that the concepts of conversion to Judaism, the Jewish soul, and soul transmigration in general cannot be explicitly found in the Hebrew Bible’s text. As these ideas emerged and developed, they interacted with the canonized texts and changed the way these texts were read, understood and received. Indeed, these concepts had emerged before the Zohar itself, creating a potential conflict between the accepted practice of conversion to Judaism (giur) and the idea that the Jewish soul is somehow distinct from the non-Jewish soul. In other words, how is it possible to become a Jew, if being a Jew is dependent on having such a seemingly unchangeable character as having a unique type of soul? The Zohar deals with this issue in a few places and gives several answers to this possible paradox.

The drastic change in the development of ideas dealing with souls and converts can be exemplified by the reception of Genesis 12:5. The non-esoteric tradition of commentary to Genesis 12:5, which started in the first centuries BCE, was predicated upon the assumption that humans cannot create life and living creatures:

והלא אם מתכנסין כל באי העולם לברות יתוש אחד ולהכניס בו נשמה - אינן יכולין

And even if all the people of the world convened to create one mosquito and put a soul in him, they cannot. (GenR 39:14).

This basic assumption has been central to all the moral, legal and theological commentary before the Kabbalistic tradition emerged. The esoteric tradition which will be surveyed in this paper sometimes continues the trends of the commentary before it, but it also breaks with this tradition and contradicts its basic assumption. They may use some of the same expressions and ideas as the non-esoteric tradition but view them in a very different context and through a world view which is sometimes in complete contradiction to the non-esoteric one. Since this contextual shift is very deep, I feel that I must elaborate on the background to these new ideas.

2. Kabbalah and the Zohar

Kabbalah can be defined as a worldview encompassing all life and existence, which seeks to use a religious, esoteric approach to find solutions to the world’s mysteries and life’s upheavals. At its heart lies the secret of knowing the divine reality, or the system in which the divine manages our human reality. Kabbalah deals with the hidden areas of the divine life, with humans as individuals and with the relationship between them.³ Some of the most important ideas in the hermeneutics of Kabbalah are emanations, soul transmigration, and divine sparks as links to the upper worlds, their symbols, letters and names.⁴

The Kabbalah tradition can be seen as an answer to the philosophical quandaries that occupied Jewish thought at the end of the first millennium and the beginning of the second.⁵ These quandaries caused a new genre of rabbinic literature to emerge, thus creating the last of the four major forms of reading in the pardes (פרדס). Pardes is an acronym for peshat, remez, drash and sod (פשט, רמז, דרש, סוד).⁶ Sod, secret, is the esoteric understanding of biblical texts, the one that was received via Kabbalah, literally reception. The Kabbalah tradition grew to be very influential, and some of the most prominent figures in Jewish thought and law are kabbalists who are at least well versed if not immersed in Kabbalah thought and practice.⁷ The main Kabbalistic work or volume is the Zohar. According to the Jewish tradition, The Zohar (זוהר), also known as the Holy Zohar (הזוהר הקדוש, Hazohar Haqodesh), was attributed to the Tannah Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who lived in the second century CE.

The scientific-critical research consensus however, does not consider late antiquity as the origin of the Zohar. Zoharic texts first appear at the end of the thirteenth century in Castile⁸ and major researchers, such as Heinrich Graetz and Gershom Scholem, have reasoned that Rabbi Moses de Leon in Spain⁹ was its sole creator. Later scholars have argued that the Zohar is a collaborative work of about three generations around Moses de Leon, and it may reflect a much larger circle rather than merely one person. Even though the book emerged at a specific time in the Middle Ages, it is possible that it is only a compilation of older traditions that have not reached us. This may be because of their esoteric nature and oral tradition in which they were preserved. Others claim that “the Zohar is not woven from fragments found here and there, but that it preserves the ancient warp and woof of a tradition more antique than Sifre and Midrash Tannaim.”¹⁰ Even if we accept that the Zohar has much older sources, we can still identify trends unique to the Zohar and its time, which manifest developments unique to the Middle Ages.

The Zohar is subdivided into three main parts: the Zohar on the Torah, Tikkunei Hazohar (lit. Repairs of the Zohar) and Zohar Hadash (New Zohar). The Zohar does not suppress the peshat (simple) meaning of the text, it simply gives it a different but still important role in understanding the scriptures.¹¹ The content of the Zohar’s first three books is arranged after the order of the weekly reading portion of the Pentateuch. The first two books are dedicated to Genesis and Exodus, and the third deals with the other three books of the Pentateuch. The Zohar also has a part called New Zohar, Zohar Hadash (חדש זוהר). Even though it is named new, it may include some of the earliest Zoharic material.¹² This part has more texts on the Pentateuch and also on Ruth,¹³ Lamentations and the Song of Songs.¹⁴

3. Afterlife and Soul Concepts before the Zohar

In order to appreciate its revolutionary role in the way souls are viewed in Kabbalistic tradition, we must first discuss the way souls were viewed before the Kabbalah. In the Hebrew Bible, one hardly finds the concept of a soul or an afterlife.¹⁵ The word nefesh (נפש) has many meanings, mostly to do with life force and the attributes of living people and beings. The notion of soul and nefesh as we now understand it, as an incorporeal part of the human being, has much to do with the notion of afterlife in that the human being continues to exist after the body perishes. That necessitates a concept of non-physical existence of human beings: therefore necessitating the idea of the soul.

In most of the Hebrew Bible when one dies, it is stated that he “gathers with his people/ancestors” as in Genesis 25:8.¹⁶ It is not clear what that means. Maybe it hints at the practice of family burial. The body or bones of the deceased is literally gathered with their ancestors. It is also possible that it hints at a different metaphysical reality.

In other places in the Hebrew Bible we find that people who die descend to she’ol (שאול) a mysterious place not really described: somewhere below where the dead go indiscriminately, independent of how they lived their lives—as king or slave, just or evil (Job 3: 11–19) whether Jew or gentile (Isaiah 14:9)—and they stay there for eternity (Job 7:9). They can still be summoned by the living (Samuel I 28:13–15). This shadowy she’ol is similar to the Greek Hades and the Mesopotamian world of the dead. It is dark (Psalms 88:7) and lies in the depths of the earth (Deuteronomy 32:22). At this point it is not clear if their existence in she’ol is totally incorporeal or if they retain their personality.

The conceptual differentiation of destinies in the afterlife (eternal life or eternal death) necessitates the connection between the personality and this destination in a way which implies the personality being tied up in the incorporeal side of the human being. That incorporeal element of the human is the soul. The belief that there are different destinies for different people in the afterlife can be found at the beginning of the First Book of Enoch (chapters 1, 2–9) dated to the third century BCE, and in the last chapter of the Book of Daniel,¹⁷ possibly written during or shortly before the Maccabean revolt. Josephus Flavius writes in the Jewish War that it was the belief of the Pharisees.¹⁸

Another belief not found in the Hebrew Bible holds that in the afterlife, good people go to a place which is all good (paradise-like) and evil people to a place which is all bad (hell-like). This position is found in the last parts of the Second Book of Enoch (44:1–6) which probably stems from the first century BCE. Josephus Flavius attributes these beliefs to the Essenes.¹⁹ This can still be understood as happening to the entire person without the clear differentiation between soul and body.

In the Mishnah (redacted around the beginning of the third century CE), we also find an uncompromising belief in the revival of the dead:

All of Israel have a part in the world to come … And those who do not have a part in the world to come are the ones who say that the revival of the dead is not mentioned in the Torah and that the Torah does not come from heaven … (m. San. 10:1)

Alongside a belief in heaven and hell. Another view from the Mishna is that the arrogant one is headed for Gehinnom and the blushing one for the Garden of Eden.²⁰ This fate can still be understood as happening to the entire person, without the differentiation between soul and body. In the Gemara (detailing Jewish Babylonian rabbinical discourse from the third to the fifth century) we find a more complex idea of the soul as accompanying the body²¹ and focusing more on the concept of resurrection.²² Although the soul is different from the body, again in this description the soul and the body make up one unit and cannot be judged separately. Rather, they have the same destiny. Rabbi Saadya Gaon (882–942) developed a neo-platonic philosophy which led him to conceptualize the soul as a divine emanation stowed away at death until the Messiah comes, at which point the dead rise, the good ones to paradise and the evil ones to she’ol. Rabbi Saadya Gaon, however, strongly opposed the idea of the soul transmigration, calling it illusions and confusions.²³

In the work which is considered the first Kabbalah book, Sefer Habahir (The Book of Brightness, first mentioned in late twelfth century), we find a further developed idea of the soul, its origin and destiny. There seems to be an idea of soul transmigration, independent of the body altogether. In Sefer Habahir, the delay in the coming of the anticipated messianic age is also explained through the transmigration of souls, a concept which is linked to the sins of Israel.²⁴ In this view, souls come from the divine and all of them must emanate before the Messiah comes; however, new souls are released into the world only when the old ones finish their transmigration cycles. This is explained by a parable of a king sending bread to feed his army; he will not send any new bread until the old bread is consumed.²⁵ As long as the people of Israel are sinful, their souls keep being reused. It is thus the sins of the people that prevent new souls from appearing and, therefore, also delay the coming of the Messiah. Only when all souls are new will the Messiah come.²⁶ The role of the individual is central here: one must study the Torah and keep away from sin not only to ensure one’s individual destiny in the afterlife, but also to play a major role in history and the future of the people. If people are good, their actions are actually bringing the Messiah. Sefer Habahir offers not only responsibility, but also hope. Even if we do know that the people are and will be sinful, the top limit seems to be a thousand transmigration cycles. This is explained by the parable of the vineyards.²⁷ The number of cycles of planting and ripping out of the vineyards is limited to one thousand. So, the infinite nature of the cycle (gilgul) is boxed by linear history, which ends with the coming of the Messiah. The details of soul transmigration in Bahir are used mainly as an explanation for other problems. Sefer Habahir is more occupied with the explaining power of the transmigration of souls, rather than the mechanics of the process —the why, not the how, of soul transmigration. Further details are added in later Kabbalah literature, eventually gaining a life of their own.

An example of the influence of Sefer Habahir can be found in the writings of Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (1194–1270). In his influential book Sha‛ar Hagemul (Gate of Reward),²⁸ he wrote that when one dies, he is judged by God. The righteous head to heaven, a place in this world where souls train for the world to come. Sinners head to hell, also a place in this world, where souls undergo suffering by fire. The duration of the stay depends on their sinfulness, where the worst sinners stay in hell for eternity.

The process of soul mechanics as presented by the Zohar is made possible by two previous developments: one is the idea expressed in Sefer Habahir that the soul (of the tsadik, the righteous person) originates in a divine reality. The other is the idea that gentiles possess a deep otherness from Jews, a different character. We find that this comes from a kind of “soul filth”²⁹ which was common to all humans. We find this idea in the Talmud:

“Rav Yosef taught” … why are idolaters lustful? “Because they did not stand at Mount Sinai. For when the serpent copulated with Eve, he injected her with zohama, slime. Israel, who stood at Mount Sinai their zohama ceased. Star-worshipers who did not stand at Mount Sinai- their zohama did not cease.” Rav Aha son of Aava asked Rav Ashi “what about proselytes?” … Rabbi Abba son of Kahana said, “until three generations the zohama did not disappear from our forefathers: Abraham begat Ishmael, Isaac begat Esau, (but) Jacob begat the twelve tribes in whom there was no taint whatsoever.” (b. Shab. 145b–146a)

We find that not only do gentiles differ from Israelites, but that also gerim are not fully Jewish, since it takes a few generations for them to discard their zohama, or slime. This zohama and the difficulty of its removal in converts is also dealt with in the Zohar.³⁰

Yehudah Halevi (1075–1141) also sees the Jew as another type of creature, essentially different from his gentile counterpart. Yehudah Halevi finds it difficult to accept that a convert becomes fully Jewish, and claims that they only come closer to God but do not receive the uniquely Jewish ability to prophesize.³¹ The essential problem, as J. Katz expresses it, is that “the divinely revealed Torah seemed to be inconsistent in that it permitted a non-Jew to become a Jew, while at the same time regarding the Jewish people as being different from all the others.”³²

While some, like Maimonides, recognize the convert as a full Jew and reject the Kabbalistic ideas about the convert’s soul, the Zohar offers models and theories which make it possible to hold that full conversion to Judaism is possible while still holding that Jews are beings apart from Gentiles.

4. Creating Souls for Converts in the Zohar

The Zohar has several texts which give some details about how souls are created. One of these texts can be found in the part dealing with Parashat Terumah. Parashat Terumah is the seventh Torah reading portion in the Book of Exodus (25:1–27:19) and it deals with instructions on how to build the tabernacle. The Zohar reads this parasha as hinting at the structure of reality and this part of the Zohar it deals with the positive and negative sides of creation, called up or down,³³ or holy side (tsad haqedusha) and the other side. Within this reality, God shines a light:

Once that primordial light became sweetly steady, the blessed Holy One treasured it away. For whom did He hide it? For the righteous. And who are they? Righteous one and Righteousness, so as to generate through that primordial light fruit for the world, fruit destined to come into the world.³⁴ For Abraham and Sarah formed souls and fruit, as is written, and the souls they had made in Haran. Just as they made souls on the side of Holiness, so too they made souls on the Other Side. For without that arousal aroused by Abraham on the Other Side, there would be no converts in the world at all. (Zohar, Terumah 2:147b)³⁵

This text, by using Genesis 12:5, explains the existence of converts in the world and how they came to be. According to this text, converts are fruit made by the righteous using the divinely originated primordial light. Here, we see that the righteous are actually creating souls, and it is clear that this is not just an expression meaning teaching, educating or converting. The actions of Abraham and Sarah have multiple products in two separate sides of creation, the side of Holiness and the Other Side, and the products on the other side are necessary for the creation of converts.

Do we understand, therefore, that converts on the holiness side and the products on the other side are necessary balancing products? Or are the converts themselves actually the products on the other side, which eventually join the side of holiness when they convert?³⁶ In any case, the righteous are given extensive creative powers.

Another place in the Zohar which considers souls and their creation is the chapter dealing with Parashat Shelah Lekha from the Book of Numbers, which deals with the first mission in the land of Israel from the children of Israel after they left Egypt. In the Zoharic text we find a narrative surrounding the figure of Rav Metivta. Rav Metivta, head of the Academy/Yeshivah, is a narrative dealing with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his students’ travels in the Garden of Eden and what they learn from the head of the heavenly academy, mainly about the world to come. The text is incorporated into the text dealing with the weekly reading portion of Shelach Lecha which mainly deals with the sin of the Israelite spies who were reluctant to fight and settle the land of Canaan after they explored it.³⁷

While dealing with the various details from Genesis chapters 11 and 12, the Zohar compares soul creation and giving birth. This allows for the usage of Genesis 12:5 to further explain the scripture and develop the idea that converts gain Jewish souls:

The head of the Yeshiva said and it is written: “and Sarai is barren, she has no born child” (Gen 11) from that which is said “Sarai is barren,” don’t I know that “she has no born child.” What does “she has no born child” mean? But that is what the head of the Yeshiva said, she did not give birth to children, but she did give birth to souls. In the devequt (passion) of these two tsadiqim (righteous people) they gave birth to the souls of converts all the time they were in Haran, like the Zaddikim do in Heaven, as it is said “and the souls which they had made in Haran” so they must have made souls. (Zohar, Rav Metivta 3:168a)³⁸

In this text we find a verse intended to prove the distinction between “spiritual” soul making and “biological” people making. Sarah is then seen as bringing forth souls into the world and not bearing biological children. This power to make souls is given to all righteous people in heaven. Sarah and Abraham are unique in that they have this creative ability also while on earth.

This reading possibly follows ideas similar to the human ability to create souls as expressed in the Book of Creation, where Abraham’s unique knowledge allowed him to create life. This text goes further to directly oppose the older Sifre assertion relating directly to Genesis 12:5 that no human is able to create souls. Here, it is not only Abraham with his unique abilities but also Sarah with her righteousness, and then it is all righteous people. We see a turn from the “workshop” creating of soul to a more “bedroom” method, that is souls are not created via the application of a craft but by the joining of the right males and females. Another striking change here is the move away from a Midrashic-metaphoric reading of the text to an attempt at a more literal reading. Making souls no longer means just a formative spiritual influence of one person on another, but the actual making of souls expressed in the text by adding the בוודאי (bevvaday, certainly, for sure) Now we are to understand that “they must have (actually) made souls.”

5. Dispensing the Converts’ Souls in the Zohar

Above, we explored texts about the souls of converts and their creation in heaven. The Zohar also contains text about how the souls are actually delivered to the converts. What is the process which takes place, whether on the soul’s side or that of the convert? These descriptions vary as to the time the soul is dispensed, what kind of soul is dispensed, and what kind of body receives the soul. Another difference concerns the main character in the narrative. That is, who has the agency during the conversion process? Who is seen as the responsible agent, the one with the authority and the power to perform the conversion process?

6. The End of a Converts Soul’s Cycle in the Zohar

Another option to reconcile the possibility of conversion with the uniqueness of the Jewish soul is to hold that the potential convert already had a Jewish soul (or a special soul) to begin with, thus making the conversion process and the eventual full Jewish status possible.

Sava Demishpatim, a text intricately connected to the weekly Torah portion of Mishpatim,⁴⁵ delves into profound mystical interpretations far beyond the practical laws outlined in Exodus. Its significance, emphasized by generations of Kabbalists, lies not only in its length and diverse themes but also in its unique style. Recent scholarly discourse has centered on gender-related motifs,⁴⁶ particularly the portrayal of the maiden,⁴⁷ symbolizing various aspects including the human soul, divine presence, and the Torah itself. The titular character, the enigmatic Sava, initially dismissed as eccentric, unfolds as a profound sage whose wisdom gradually emerges amidst hesitance and secrecy, akin to the hidden depths of the Torah. Encountering him, Rabbi Chai and Rabbi Yossi, disciples of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, are initially perplexed but ultimately recognize his profound insights, dubbing him the “superior lion.” The text oscillates between depicting him as a hesitant elder and a courageous navigator of divine knowledge, employing metaphors of a lost mariner navigating the vast seas of wisdom.

In Sava Demishpatim we find a strong link between “soul mechanics” (gerim), and the image of Abraham. The starting point for this link is Abraham.⁴⁸ That is established rather early when Abraham is mentioned as the first or primary of all converts:⁴⁹

If the daughter of a priest, supernal soul, daughter of our father Abraham, first of all converts, who draws the soul from a supernal place. (Zohar, Sava Demishpatim 95a)⁵⁰

This is a clear reference to Genesis 12:5 “the soul they have made.” This creation is further explained by the ability of Abraham, as a righteous man, to extract souls from where they reside. Here we see that the daughter of a priest is likened to the higher soul which Abraham pulls from a high place. The Ashlag interpretation does not give any importance to calling Abraham the first among gerim but, to me, it seems unique within the Jewish tradition to use this title, and it stresses the focus on the figure of the convert.⁵¹ Abraham is mentioned again when relating the story of Hagar and Ishmael.⁵²

The Zoharic exploration of the Sava gives us a few hints about converts and their souls. The connection between the ger and the soul is made with this verse:

Wretched is this holy soul, if she is married to an alien man, drawn upon the converted proselyte (ger), flying to him from the Garden of Eden by a concealed path, to a structure built from impure foreskin! This one belongs to an alien man. (Zohar, Sava de-Mishpatim 95b)⁵³

These verses may relate to the daughter as well as to the soul. Just as the maiden is unfortunate that she is given to a stranger, the (Jewish) soul is unfortunate if it ends up with a convert whose body and biological father is not circumcised and, thus, stems from impurity. Here we see the idea that a convert must accept a soul from paradise in the conversion process, even though we are not told how this process occurs. Alternatively, this idea relates to the pre-birth situation in which the embryo gains a Jewish soul.

A more detailed description regarding the convert’s “soul mechanics” follows in these verses:⁵⁴

Souls of gerim (converts) all fly from the Garden of Eden by a concealed path. Departing from this world—their souls that they gained from the Garden of Eden, where do they return? We have learned: “whoever first seizes the possessions of a ger (convert), is entitled to them.” Those sacred, supernal souls that the blessed Holy One designated below, as we have said, all emerge at certain times in order to delight in the Garden of Eden. Encountering those souls of the gerim (converts), whichever one of these souls (ascending) grasps them is entitled to them, and they clothe themselves in them and ascend. (Zohar, Sava Demishpatim 98b)⁵⁵

In this text, we see the conclusion to the cycle of the soul of the ger (convert). The soul of the ger should finally return to the place where it originated, the Garden of Eden. The proof of that is taken from the scriptural writings and the halachic law regarding inheritance from a ger. The law⁵⁶ determines that in the absence of relatives, not counting his still not-Jewish biological relatives, the ger’s assets are taken by the first person who claims them. The law of inheritance here is applied beyond the grave to his very soul. The higher souls that have held onto the ger’s soul are now responsible for it—they “own” it, and when they ascend into heaven, they take it with them.

7. Conclusion

The change we see in the Kabbalistic tradition turns the entire previous hermeneutic tradition on its head. The driving force behind the reading of souls as converts in Sifre, the first Midrashic source about Genesis 12:5, is that humans cannot—under any circumstances and regardless of their prowess and wisdom—create life in the literal sense. As Sifre puts it: “even if all the men of the world gather, they cannot create even a gnat (mosquito).” However, in the Sefer Yetsirah we find the opposite view, that men like Abraham, with his keen wit and understanding of the underlying forces that control the universe, such as God, actually can create life, have power over the life force and can fabricate souls. The contradiction between the two views is stark and undeniable. The ability of the Jewish tradition to hold both views simultaneously is a testimony to the power of the multilayered mode of Jewish hermeneutics.

What we see in the Zoher is that these souls created by Abraham are then used for converts, we are witnessing an integration of the Sifre reading of Genesis 12:5, which relies on the impossibility of human life creation, with the Kabbalistic notion that allows for this creation. This synthesis has far-reaching implications for the understanding of conversion. Now, in parallel with the older explanations about Genesis 12:5 relating to education and giur, we find an esoteric tradition with a holistic story about the converts and their soul.

Sefer Habahir clearly shows us that souls can inhabit various bodies, meaning that it is conceivable for “Jewish souls” to enter non-Jewish bodies. Sefer Habahir also tells us that the souls of the righteous stem from a special place in spiritual space.

In the Zohar we find many accounts of soul making and converts. Midrash Ruth tells about the conversion of Ruth where Boaz the righteous man must go before the heavenly court and extract a soul for her. In Sava Demishpatim, we find Abraham also extracting souls from heaven to be used by gerim (proselytes). He is also said to create the souls. In Rav Metivta, we find Abraham and Sarah as examples for other righteous in heaven who are creating souls for gerim. We find two possibilities for a non-Jewish body to gain a Jewish soul. One is at the moment of conversion with the help of the righteous person who “makes” the soul. The other is in the womb, making the process of conversion a return to the “true” identity of the soul. A victory of the Jewish soul over the other elements of a person’s being. The official moment of conversion is recognition by the rabbinical authority and by society of the person’s real identity given in the womb.

Now the process of conversion gains a whole new dimension, beyond the halachic. A layer is added, one with clear soul mechanics. A soul is created in the heavens by the righteous, to be then extracted by righteous people to be “implanted” into gerim. Only then, can a person finally be considered a ger tsedeq, a full and righteous convert into Judaism. It is not the person’s affiliation to Jews or Judaism. It is not the person’s adherence to rules and regulations which govern Jewish life. Furthermore, it is not a person’s knowledge and studious learning of Jewish texts. All those may still be required, especially as proof of his already Jewish soul or his readiness to accept one, but the real component of a person’s legitimate Jewish identity lies in the person’s soul.

The change in the understanding of the converts’ soul in the Kabbalistic tradition may be said to be a “Copernican” shift of the Jewish soul. The Copernican shift replaced the earth with the sun at the center of the universe. Previously, the sun was thought to revolve around the earth but subsequently, the earth was thought to revolve around the sun. Similarly, before the interpretational shift, Jewishness was seen to be about the power of society (via special people like Abraham) to mold the personality of an individual. After the shift, the verse is about the individual’s soul and its origin in a world beyond. In many ways, this is the modern shift of identity: if before, Jewish identity was in the group outside the individual—between the individual and society—afterward, it is between the individual and the divine. It is something inherently individual, something linking the individual to the transcendental. This era’s reading centers the actual creation of souls, putting an emphasis on the individual’s soul and its link to the Almighty and the transcendental.