[Avodah] 400 men

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 01:40:46PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
:>Does Bereishis Rabba (quoted by Rashi 33:16) mean that these 400 people
:>who slipped away 1 by 1 survived, became geirim, and joined David
:>haMelekh's camel forces?

: Presumably it refers to their gilgulim.

Does Bereishis Rabba mention Gilgulim?

If so, would you argue that it contains material R' Saadia Gaon never
saw? Remember, his firm rejection of ha'atakah was because he was sure
it's not mentioned anywhere by Chazal. Even if we don't "hold like him"
on this, that's historical evidence that the idea didn't appear in any
famous and widely available sefarim.

AFAIK, it's usually dated to some time between Talmud Y-mi and Shas. But
then it was subjection to accretion over time, so who knows?

We could use a dochaq teirutz that RSG's ha'ataqah isn't gilgul, because
it involves a reincarnation of the entire nara"n. I find this a dochaq
because it means that RSG came out strongly against one belief, didn't
distinguish it from a mutar belief that differs from it only in ways
that require some explanation, and RSG never even mentions the mutar
belief anywhere to boot.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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