Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It's re-incarnated man!

Human beings re-incarnated as animals are becoming so fashionable in some haredi circles it seems they're popping up everywhere.

First we had the talking fish in New York which predicted the end of the world; then we had the re-incarnated dog in Meah Shearim, which wouldn't budge from "his" former home until a well-known rabbi said kaddish on "his" grave. Now (is it my imagination or are these stories becoming progressively less exciting?), prepare for... the dove, rumoured to be the re-incarnation of a man, which landed on the seat of Rav Ovadiah Yosef, spiritual leader of the sephardi Shas party, in his Jerusalem study hall.

According to none less than Eli Yishai, head of Shas (!!!) -- a party with 12 members of knesset, I should add -- the dove insisted on returning to the very same seat no matter how many times it was shooed out of the room. Apparently this astonishing sight attracted quite some audience, and the episode only ended when Rav Yosef, alerted to the situation, held and stroked the dove and whispered to it sweet nothings a series of verses concerning doves.

"When [Rav Yosef] finished saying all the verses he asked us, 'where is she, where's the dove,'" said Yishai. "And she wasn't there any more. Because while the rabbi was concentrating on saying the verses, in front a wide-eyed crowd, the dove flew off by itself and didn't return."

Wonder of wonders! Truly a modern day miracle.

This post was written by Miriam Shaviv

Comments

[harvey benton]

are there any talmudic sources for such re-incarnation?? HB