Obligation of Procreation

The mitzvah of procreation has a special status and it is a category in itself.

The fifth category is one particular mitzvah, the mitzvah of procreation.

This is the mitzvah to father children, as it is written, "…Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:28).

It is a mitzvah that a person is obligated to run after it to fulfill it, and he is also capable of fulfilling it.

It may happen that a person marries, but the couple does not succeed in giving birth to children. According to Benei Aharon, the judgment described here applies to that person because most men are capable of fathering children. It also applies to men whose children have all died and they do not have any other surviving progeny in the world.

On the other hand, someone who does not marry at all is not included within this category, but his fate is worse, according to the Benei Aharon. He cites proof from the explanation of the Talmud (Berachot 10a) on the verse "In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death, and Isaiah the son of Amotz came to him and said, 'Thus said the Lord… you will die, and not live.'" (Isaiah 38:1)

The Talmud asks the following question. If he said to him that "you will die", why does he also say that he will "not live"? It answers that Isaiah said to him, "you will die" in this world and you will "not live" in the next world.

Hezekiah asks why his punishment is so severe.

Isaiah answers that it is because Hezekiah never married and never fulfilled the mitzvah of procreation, and although Hezekiah foresaw that his children would turn out bad, it was no excuse. "What have you to do with the secrets of G‑d? What you have been commanded, you need to do, and G‑d will do what pleases Him."

This one has stringency beyond all the other mitzvot, as will be explained. Gilgul does not satisfy the deficiency of someone who dies without children, and he did not fulfill it [the mitzvah].

Gilgul of one sort or another, or even ibur, does satisfy the need of someone who dies while he is missing any of the other mitzvot, as it was taught in the last section. This is not the case for "someone who dies without children, and he did not fulfill it."

The repeated phrase, "and he did not fulfill it", seems to exclude those who fulfilled the mitzvah in a previous gilgul, as we learned concerning Ben Azai in Gate of Reincarnations 5:8.

Concerning all the others that reincarnate because they are missing some mitzvah, each and every one of their bodies will arise and come back to life in the time of the Resurrection. The sparks of his soul that will enter within [each body at the time of Resurrection of the Dead] will correspond to the amount of mitzvot that were done in the lifetime of that body. However, the sparks of the soul of the one who dies without children will enter into the body of the second gilgul, and this is esoteric yibum.

In other words, the body will not gain any merit from any of the other mitzvot done in its lifetime. All the merit and rectified soul sparks will go to the body of the next gilgul.

Then he will fulfill the mitzvah of procreation. Concerning the first body that did not fulfill it, there will be nothing to enter into it except that first spirit that was left within his wife from their first intimate relationship when he married her.

There is a minor spirit that is transmitted from the man to the woman at the time of her first intimate relationship with her husband. This minor spirit is a derivation from the soul of the man. Some of its "adventures" have already been discussed in the introduction to Chapter Nine, in the subsection called "The Sabba Enters Into the Place of the 400 Questions." As we learned there also, at the time of Resurrection of the Dead it is only this minor spirit that is available to vitalize and enter the body of the person who did not fulfill the mitzvah of procreation. All the other soul sparks that may have been rectified in that gilgul go the body of the next gilgul that did fulfill the mitzvah.

[Commentary by Shabtai Teicher.]