WHAT IF I AM SUPPOSED TO BE REBORN AS AN ASH TREE?
Every time that I say Kaddish or El Maleh Rachamim, I think of them as prayers of praise for the divine and a petition for the maintenance of the cosmic order. A big part of that cosmic order is the proper transmigration of souls, which is the subject of the El Maleh Rachamim prayer. I’ve written more about this prayer here. https://www.earthbasedjudaism.org/indigenous-jewish-practices/the-shamanic-cosmology-of-el-maleh-rachamim-part-1?rq=el%20maleh and https://www.earthbasedjudaism.org/indigenous-jewish-practices/shamanic-cosmology-of-el-maleh-rachamim-part-2?rq=el%20maleh. I’ve even touched on the idea of reciting kaddish and El Maleh Rachamim for ash trees. https://www.earthbasedjudaism.org/indigenous-jewish-practices/grief-praise-petition?rq=el%20maleh
Today I want to talk about transmigration and ash trees. When I was growing up, I completely disbelieved in transmigration. Judaism, I was taught, is focused on this life compared to Christianity and Islam which are focused on the world to come. Later on I became agnostic about the possibility of transmigration. As I studied Buddhism, I recognized it as a core concept for Indian and Tibetan Buddhists, but the Japanese understood it far less and didn’t emphasize the whole ideas of Karma, Samsara and Moksha. The Japanese religious imagination is really different than the Indian. Somewhere along the path of growing older, I’ve come to believe in transmigration. Not as some kind of solace for the fact that I will die, but as an answer to what happens to the energy whose unique constellation is Jared—that energy has to go somewhere.
But unlike traditional Buddhist and Jewish ideas of transmigration, I see no problem with the idea that I could be reborn as a squirrel, a rock, a vulture or an ash tree. Both traditions believe that to be reborn as something like that is either impossible because you’ve already obtained human status or is a punishment for your sins. However, as a thoroughgoing Animist, I think the ontological status of an ash tree is the same as a human. So why couldn’t a human be reborn as an ash tree? I kind of would like to be reborn as an oak tree. I love the shape of the leaves, their ability to feed all kinds of beings, their majesty and long lives.
I think it is an utter mystery about what and why of our rebirths. I have no theories, no ideas. But here’s what I want to ponder. What if I am supposed to be reborn as an ash tree? Ash trees here in Pennsylvania and throughout North America are being killed by the ash borer, an import from Asia where it is harmless. An estimated 99% of all local ash trees are projected to be dead by 2050. Global trade has committed an ash tree genocide, just like global trade committed a genocide for elm trees and American chestnuts. So what happens if I am supposed to be reborn as an Ash tree? Do I get stuck in the kind of limbo whose avoidance is the whole purpose of the El Maleh Rachamim prayer? Do I just have a life cut short, akin to a child dying of cancer? Does my soul attach to some other kind of being instead of an ash tree and I don’t live out the true purpose of that life? I have no idea.
Climate change and globalization doesn’t only threaten the well being of this species or that. It threatens the very fabric of the divine order of the earth.
