Gilgul — The Turning of Souls, Reincarnation

The Lurianic doctrine that a soul may return to physical life across multiple lifetimes in order to complete unfinished spiritual repair or fulfill mitzvot it failed to perform.

Gilgul, from a root meaning 'to roll' or 'turn,' describes the transmigration of a soul into a new body, developed into an elaborate and systematic doctrine by Chaim Vital in his treatise Sha'ar HaGilgulim ('Gate of Reincarnations'), compiled from the teachings of his master Isaac Luria. Unlike some other traditions' concepts of reincarnation, gilgul in Lurianic Kabbalah is explicitly corrective rather than a neutral cycle: a soul returns specifically because it left unfinished tikkun from a prior life, whether an unperformed mitzvah, an unresolved relationship, or an uncorrected flaw in character. Vital's system got remarkably specific, tracing particular biblical and historical figures as gilgulim of earlier souls and even describing partial reincarnation, where only a fragment (nitzotz) of an earlier soul enters a new body alongside other soul-elements. Because gilgul ties every individual life back into the larger project of repairing the sparks scattered by Shevirat HaKelim, it functions in Lurianic Kabbalah less as a doctrine about the afterlife and more as an explanation for why a given person's specific struggles and gifts take the shape they do.

Chaim Vital's Sha'ar HaGilgulim is one of the most systematic treatments of reincarnation in any religious tradition, going well beyond the brief, scattered references to soul-transmigration found in the earlier Zohar.