Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1992-09-17

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The Ohio Jewish Chronicle
Serving Columbus and the Central Ohio
Jewish Community since 1922
VOLUME 7p
NUMBER 38
SEPTEMBER 17, 1992
19 ELUL 5752
DEVOTED TO AMERICAN AND JEWISH IDEALS
wmmmmmmmmmammmmmmmsmmmum
Former Miss America to
Speak at Bonds reception
page 2
Spanish expulsion topic
of historical exhibit
. page 2
Rescuer of Jews honored
page 4
"Of Thee I Sing" is
crisp musical satire
page 4
Dennis Prager to speak
at Scholarship Dinner
page 6
NCJW to host media event
page 7
Prof. Ruth Wisse to speak
at 66th Annual Meeting
page 15
At The JCC 20, 21
Calendar  17
Community 6-11
Dateline Israel 4
» -deration - .,,,.-...i.....„,„...,............... 14, ,15.
Front Page  f. 2, 3.
Lifecycle  16, 17
' Marketplace  18 -
New Generation..  19
Synagogue*....  12
. • Viewpoint.,.....,.  4, S
Uliio Hist.Sdcief.y
198 _ Velma Ave. ,
Columbus, Ohio
•   CUMP
DEATH
COMMUNITY FEATURE
The Jewish soul and reincarnation
By Ina Horwitz
"I was standing on top of a
tower, one of those castle
towers made of stone. My
hands were tied behind my
back. Then 1 felt an excruciating pain in my back. I was
being lanced, I could feel the
lance in my back ..."
The woman recalling these
gruesome details was not telling of an experience in her
present life, but rather giving
the terrifying account of a
death in a past life. Her revelations came through hypnotic
regression therapy conducted
by noted Miami psychiatrist
and writer Brian L. Weiss.
Or. Weiss, a graduate of
Vale Medical School and the
author of two book- on past
life experiences, will be the
keynote speaker at the 1992
Beth Jacob Religious Emphasis Week program on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m..
The theme of this year's forum is "The Jewish Soul." The
belief in reincarnation of souls
is discussed extensively in the
Kabbalah, the body of Jewish
mysticism, which literally
means "handed down" or "the .
tradition," said Beth Jacob's
spiritual leader, Rabbi David
Stavsky.
The Kabbalah, believed to
be "handed down" the same
time as the Torah was to Moses, was dormant until it became a popular movement in
the 16th century. At that time,
in the northern Israeli city of
Tzat, the scholar Isaac Luria
and other serious Jewish mystics startedjo reveal its writings.
While Dr. Weiss, a man
with impeccable scientific credentials, is not an orthodox
Jew as are many who believe
in the Kabbalah's words, his
regression therapy studies and
those works in the Kabbalah's
• Zohar, taught by Luria, arrive
essentially at the same1 conclusion — that persons who have
departed this world can return
to earth for short periods of
time to correct or amend
something done or left undone
by their souls.
This is offered as an explanation to the age-old, often re
peated questions: "Why do
tragic things happen?" and/or
"Why is a person struck down
in the prime of life?"
Another featured guest
speaker at the program, Sheina
Konigsberg (a pseudonym that
she uses on the lecture curcuit)
from Brooklyn, N.Y., asked
herself similar questions almost 25 years ago when four
people she knew well were
killed in an automobile accident. Konigsberg, a wife,
mother, successful graphic artist and Hasidic Jew, traded an
upper class suburban lifestyle
for a Hasidic.one, when she
seriously began to study the
Jewish mystics and their concept of reincarnation.
Konigsberg was the subject
of Holy Days — The World of
the Hasidic Family, written by
Liz Harris, who spent more
than a year experiencing the
death of the Lubavitch Hasdic
life.
, "I needed answers to satisfy
me logically," Konigsberg said.
"I was astounded at first to
learn that reincarnation is <\,
part of Judaism. I think there
are many people today who
want serious answers and
don't realize Jewish mysticism
is a part of Jewish thought and
traditions."
Kabbalists say the righteous
suffer because they are carrying the souls of someone else.
Kabbalists also teach that
mourning excessively for the
dead is senseless because a
world exists beyond this one
where the soul of your deceased body lives on to meet
and see again the faces of your
children and the soul of your
loved ones.
Rabbi Stavsky noted that
the answers found in the Kabbalah are not for a skeptic but
for a true believer. Zofar (the
Books of Splendor) is the
codebook on the meaning of
life. It emphasizes mankind's
connection to God, and that
connection, according to Rabbi Stavsky, "can only be a spiritual unbilical cord (which is
defined as the soul)."
The works of the Kabbalah
did not, of course, depend on
hypnosis. Rather, revelation
see SOUL pg. 5