Thursday, January 05, 2006

LIMBO IN THE KABBALAH? Limbo is in limbo right now for the Catholic Church, but Philologos tells us that it had a place in Jewish mystical literature too:
In later kabbalistic literature, however, as well as in the Hasidic circles that were heavily influenced by it, "the world of tohu," conceived as an intermediate stage between the ultimate good of pure spirit and the ultimate evil of pure matter, became a term for a nebulous domain — not unlike the Christian Limbo, in which souls admitted to neither heaven nor hell wandered. The reason for having to lead such an existence had nothing to do with the absence of a rite of initiation like baptism. Rather, the problem was an even balance between the dead man's sins and merits, which left his soul in a no-man's land.

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