View source for Religion:Ibbur

'''Ibbur''' ({{lang-he-n|עיבור}}, "[[Medicine:Pregnancy|pregnancy]]" or "impregnation" or "incubation"), is one of the transmigration forms of the soul and has similarities with Gilgul neshamot. ''Ibbur'' is always good or positive, while [[Unsolved:Dybbuk|dybbuk]] ({{lang-yi|{{Hebrew|דיבוק}}}}), is negative. ''Ibbur'' is the most positive form of possession, and the most complicated. It happens when a righteous soul decides to occupy a living person's body for a time, and joins, or spiritually "impregnates" the existing soul. Ibbur is always temporary, and the living person may or may not know that it has taken place. Often the living person has graciously given consent for the ''Ibbur''. The reason for ''Ibbur'' is always benevolent—the departed soul wishes to complete an important task, to fulfil a promise, or to perform a mitzvah (a religious duty) that can only be accomplished in the flesh. In Lurianic Kabbalah, ''ibbur'' occurs when an incomplete soul which cannot achieve tikun is completed by the addition of the soul of a [[Religion:Tzadik|tzadik]],<ref>"{{Hebrew|הנשמה}}" Lorena Stewart, Lenard Newport Press, 2009, p121</ref>  or spiritual master. Luria believed this to be possible even whilst the possessor was still alive.

==Fictional representations==
* Richard Zimler, ''The Warsaw Anagrams'', New York: The Overlook Press, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-59020-088-9}} (an historical novel set in the Warsaw Ghetto and narrated by an ''Ibbur'')

==Bibliography==
* [[Biography:Gershom Scholem|Gershom Scholem]] ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'', New York: Schocken, 1961.  {{ISBN|0-8052-0005-3}}
* [[Biography:Gershom Scholem|Gershom Scholem]] ''Kabbalah'', New York: Dorset Press, 1987.  {{ISBN|0-88029-205-9}}
* Howard Schwartz ''Lilith's Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural'', Oxford University Press, 1991.  {{ISBN|978-0-19-506726-2}}

==See also==
* Gilgul (Kabbalah)
* [[Unsolved:Dybbuk|Dybbuk]]

== References ==
<references/>

==External links==
* [http://www.elevated.fsnet.co.uk/index-page13.html Judaism and Reincarnation: ibbur and dybbuk]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070105205609/http://www.famousrabbis.com/gilgulim/birth.html Understanding Ibbur Neshoma עיבור נשמה from Sefer Gilgulim of Reb Chaim Vital]
* [http://iyyun.com/kabbalah/ibbur-impregnation-of-the-death-of-the-ten-sages Discussion of the Ibbur in relation to a story of the death of ten sages]

[[Category:Kabbalah]]

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