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Question
Are there any sources about how cats wandering the streets in Eretz Yisrael may be Gilgulim of people?
Answer
The saintly Ari z"l in Sha'ar HaGilgulim (Reincarnation) elaborates on the possibility that a person doesn't complete their soul regarding certain particular mitzvot or midot and needs to "return" to this world for another try. Sometimes that soul has already returned several times and consistently chooses incorrectly, and G-d will sometimes do them a favor and return them in a way where they are more likely or even inevitably going to fix (in Hebrew: Tikkun) or complete that lacking. So for example, one who continuously returns in order to fix his Lashon HaRa (gossip, speech) may eventually return as a deaf person or animal in order to improve & complete that which he still lacks. For 2,000 years, even the greatest of our righteous did not live in the Land of Israel and were not even buried here, and over the past 2 generations, even when it is already feasible and relatively easier to make Aliya, many choose not to do this super-important Tikkun. Accordingly, even though most people can't understand who is a Gilgul for what reason, it's logical that some of the people who die young today in Israel already have fulfilled their Tikkun by living even a short life in the Holy Land, and l'havdil (millions of havdalot!), it's possible that cats or animals today Israel fulfill a similar kindness done to help them achieve that final Tikkun lacking to enable them to rise to the World to Come. Nevertheless, what should be preoccupying us is not the Next World, but in choosing the proper spiritual and national choices in this world, in this life, yet if a certain fear of needing to return again unnecessarily to this world can influence one to make proper choices (e.g. making Aliya, not speaking Lashon HaRah etc.), then Torat HaGilgul has fulfilled its role.
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